some new local blogs

Just like the economy, the creative destruction of the youngstown blogosphere continues to occur.

Some blogs wither.

Some blogs flourish.

Schumpeter would be proud. Here are some local ones catching my eye recently that have been added to In the Yo:

- - -

from the most recent post at Made in Youngstown covering "architecture, history, culture, minutia":

"As a copy editor at a daily newspaper, I had learned to quickly and efficiently process thousands of wire stories dealing with all sorts of human tragedy. But just when I think there are no new ways to be offended, it happens. And it happened in late March [2001] in The Vindicator.

In a front-page article, City Hall reporter Roger G. Smith wrote about a proposal to use downtown commercial properties for simulated riot exercises. According to the article, the board members of the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp. were seriously considering the proposal."

"In defense of the CIC, I’ll say that the board is rather large and I can only assume that there are individuals who may have been as uncomfortable with the supermax proposal as I was. But these same individuals must understand that the shameful opinions of a few – when not balanced by the contrasting views of more moderate board elements – leads the community to assume that those views are shared by the entire board."

"The CIC is supposed to be an advocacy organization, but just whose interests are they representing? Certainly not the merchants. I find it incomprehensible that the CIC would even entertain a proposal that so seriously undermines the idea that downtown Youngstown is a place worthy of conducting business.

The revitalization of the Central Business District is difficult enough, but when CIC board members publicly express amusement over the destruction of the downtown, it sends a powerfully negative message."

you can read the entire article in full context here:

from Elecpencil's most recent post:

"The Elecpencil did venture out this AM to attend an event celebrating King. I attended this event because it was not going to be a religious service honoring MLK. It was a think tank of area activists talking about how in King’s honor we might serve Youngstown in 2009."

"Like me not everyone in attendance was a Youngstown resident. That doesn’t mean that we care about Youngstown any less than those who live there. For those of us who don’t live in Youngstown it is a struggle getting our communities to understand why they should care about Youngstown."

"I’ve had people in different suburbs say if they have to go somewhere in Youngstown they don’t stop at red lights.

As someone who is frequently in Youngstown I take extra care when driving realizing the biggest danger to me is those suburbanites running red lights. "

From YSU's Center for Working Class Studies' Working-Class Perspectives, a recent blog calculates Youngstown's unemployment in the city limits to be currently above 25%.

(personal note: I am leaning towards believing those on disability and those in the prison population should not be included in the numbers, effectively lopping off 7-8% of their calculation. - feel free to debate this)

"Ever since the early 1980s, residents of the Youngstown area have always been skeptical of government’s official unemployment rate. In 1982, the official unemployment rate hit 24.9% but declined to around 12% in early 1984. The Ohio governor and city officials praised the dramatic decline, but local residents knew that rate failed to account for workers who had given up looking for work, were working part-time, or had been forced into early retirement. In a report commission by the State of Ohio, the YSU Urban Studies program found that “real” unemployment rate was over 18 percent or about 1.5 times higher than the official rate."

And finally, one of my favorite blogs is Gestures: Gardening, Cooking and Blogging in Youngstown.

The author is a incredibly talented chef and baker and chronicles step-by-step many of his creations.

From a particularly interesting recent post on our "clothespin cookies" which you see at every good cookie table at a Youngstown wedding:

"While going through my own cookbook I asked Brian if it was weird that some of my recipes have bits of ingredients stuck to them. I then told him that one day one of our children will get to inherit my cookbook and maybe they will feel the feeling that I get when I pull out Carol's old recipes and smile when I see that they are stained and worn from years of use.

I hope so..."

keep up the good work