last day to vote for $$$$ - need your response before midnight - Land Bank

Hey Global Youngstown...

Go here to this web page and vote for project H!

It takes 3 minutes (if that) and you have till midnight of Memorial Day!

Do it now, and if we win, we get $60,000 to set up a regional land bank.



Click. Vote. Win.

(please...)

- - -

In other opinionated news, I have to admit the names that are used for these city planning programs in Youngstown are very inventive and savvy.

For example:

"Grounds for Change" - the regional land bank project

"Lien Forward Ohio" - the regional entity making unproductive land productive

"Rollin' on the River" - the mahoning river corridor redevelopment project

"Lots of Green" - the YNDC lot remediation project

and this gem from the recent Regional Learning Network conference:
"Community Organizing: Going Wide and Going Deep"

the big question: which one to choose - wide or deep?

Amit has the answer.

after 2 years, 11 months, and 5 days - Warner Brothers historical marker back up on Federal Street

Almost three years ago in June 2007, a massive storm ripped through the Youngstown city limits.

The storm knocked out a few things, including the sign in front of the Golden Dawn, the largest and oldest tri-colored beech tree in Ohio, and the the Warner Brothers historical marker on Federal Street.

Sheared it in two.

pictures of the aftermath here.


Then this week - *boom* - the sign is back up.

It took a while (I wonder, why three whole years?) but the plaque telling the story of the Warner Brothers of Youngstown going to Hollywood is now back on display.




from the marker:

The Warner Brothers - Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack - were members of a Jewish immigrant family from Poland that settled in Youngstown in the mid-1890s.

The brothers attended local schools and worked in their father's shoe repair shop and meat market before entering the motion picture business.

They purchased a projector and opened the first of several theaters in the Mahoning Valley in 1903.

The brothers left Youngstown for New York and Hollywood as their company developed into an industry leader.

Warner Brothers Pictures, founded in 1923, released Don Juan in 1926, the first "talking picture" using Vitaphone technology.

On May 14, 1931, the family gathered in Youngstown to dedicate a luxurious new Warner Theater to the people of the city where it all started, and to memorialize Sam, who died in 1927.

Obama to Youngstown: "I’m going to keep fighting for a future that is brighter for this community."

Air Force One landed at the YNG airport today, bringing President Obama to the Brier Hill neighborhood in Youngstown.

He said the following:

"And as a result of that investment, V&M Star’s parent company has decided to invest $650 million of its own into building a new one million square-foot mill right here in Youngstown – the largest industrial plant built in the Mahoning Valley since GM built its plant over in Lordstown in the 1960s.

Right here, in the heart of the old steel corridor, where some never thought we’d see an investment like this again, they’re placing their bet on American manufacturing and on this community."

Rebirth.

It's the Youngstown story being repeated and retold.

But told in the right places.

Smarter investments. More strategic. More innovative.

From the President while in Youngstown this 18th of May:

"We step up. We face our challenges. We compete. And we win."

7th Ward Citizen Coalition of Youngstown shines - as well as their neighborhood signs

This morning, two signs identifying the distinct neighborhoods of Youngstown's 7th Ward were installed on the South Side.

With three more installations to add within the week, this quality signage will promote the following places as neighborhoods of choice:

Buckeye Plat
Brownlee Woods
Lansingville
Cochran Run
Boulevard Park



While it may look like simply a neighborhood project, the message behind the signs speaks to something greater...

From the 7th Ward Citizens Coalition:

"When the project started out it seemed "small" in terms of perspective in the grand scheme of things, but today, seeing the signs actually in place, one gets a very palpable sense of pride and neighborhood unity.

This is much more than the installation of a few signs; it's a demonstration that people care about the quality of our neighborhoods and the sense of history and identity that these neighborhoods bring to our city as a whole.

As Youngstown moves forward in this century, we can look back with pride on this project as a great achievement in revitalizing the strength of our neighborhoods."

The sign project was funded in part by Neighborhood Success Grants from the Wean Foundation, as well as private donations and some discretionary funds from Councilman John R. Swierz.

The 7th Ward Citizens Coalition webpage is available at www.7wcc.org

at youngstown's lemon grove at 10:30pm on a Monday

packed house on a Monday night.







Three years ago, finding people walking from establishment to establishment on a Monday night may have been rough.

Not today.

3rd C+Y+P rsvps due

Just a reminder that the RSVP deadline for the Cleveland-Youngstown-Pittsburgh Regional Network conference is TODAY Monday, May 10th.

Conference workshops will include:

* Advancing an Older Industrial Cities National Policy Agenda
* Land Acquisition Strategies (Land Bank)
* Regional Rail, Local Transit
* The University/City Connection
* Strategies for Creating Greener, Sustainable Cities
* Changing Times for CDCs
* Making the Case, Taking it Home: What you can do to bring rail to the region
* Community Organizing: Going Wide and Going Deep
* Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s communities for the next economy

click here to find out more information...

3 ways Youngstown in the middle of the mental map

sir elton, meet youngstown

a few thousand people came together for a small quiet gathering the other night.





link to the Vindicator story, "How the Covelli Centre landed the Rocket Man"

let's "inc" a new want ad for Youngstown

WANTED:

City of Youngstown, 213 years old,
seeks brilliant, engaged, fun-loving individuals
to move into its city limits,
strengthen its neighborhoods,
and build economic and social opportunities for others.

inquire within immediately.


Read about Youngstown in the May edition of Inc. Magazine:







diaspora? rult belt chic?

kusos go to others who guide us along the way.

a day in the life of idora

Interested in the helping out or living in the Idora neighborhood?

all about Idora here.