my new fav site on the internets

and yes, it's about The Chuck.

Look for Todd mentioning "Youngstown" in upcoming breakdowns of the swingin' state of Ohio.

mccain was in youngstown on tuesday

from an article in the Business-Journal:
McCain Fields Questions About Economy at Forum

While he sympathized with those workers who have lost the types of manufacturing jobs held by their family for generation, McCain warned that the future of the U.S. economy lies in new technologies and not old industries.

“We are undergoing a transformation the likes of which the world has not seen since the Industrial revolution,” he said. Many thousands of people now are earning a living in new information technology jobs, he noted, with companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

“What comfort is that to someone in Youngstown? What we’ve got to do is provide education and training programs that work,“ he said. “I can’t tell you those steel mills are coming back. I can tell you I’m going to do everything in my power to provide people the necessary education and training to have a better job and a better future than the one their parents had.”

Worker retraining “is a huge deal,” said Carly Fiorina, former chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard, who accompanied the Arizona senator on his trip to Youngstown. “There are a lot of communities like Youngstown where people are out of work and don’t have the skills to go after the new jobs,” she said.

from another article in today's Business-Journal:
Two Manufacturers Supply Backdrop for McCain Visit

Fab Art Inc. is an “old economy” company struggling to survive. Fireline Inc. is a cutting-edge manufacturer that’s so successful nearly every commercial jet airliner in service today uses parts made from the company’s products.

The tale of these two businesses, in this poster city for presidential campaigns, provided backdrops for U.S. Sen. John McCain’s visit Tuesday, as he juxtaposed one segment of the economy that is suffering, and another that is making use of education, training, new ideas, and innovation to grow.

Since October, Fireline has hired 21 and expects about a 30% increase in business this year, said Roger Jones, chairman. “We’ve cornered the market with our product,” he said. Fireline employs 103.

Fireline’s success is an example of what can be achieved with the proper business know-how and training among its work force, McCain stressed, and lauded the company’s partnership with YSU.

- - -

kudos goes to Dan O'Brien and George Nelson of the B "hyphen" J for two outstanding articles.

creative destruction on display by the republican nominee.

Schumpeter might be proud.

mccain in youngstown on tuesday

So, tomorrow there will be a meeting downtown (open to the public) with the 2008 republican presidential nominee, John McCain.

Word on the street:
economic development will the central theme of the discussion, including the progress of technology-based companies in the city of Youngstown.

Youngstown State University
Kilcawley Center, Chestnut Room
Tuesday, April 22nd
Doors Open at 11:15
Event from Noon – 1:00 PM

a question:
If you could ask John McCain any question on economic development issues, what would your question be?

another day, another democrat

The students at Youngstown Chaney High were shoveling snow at sunrise in preparation for Hillary Clinton:


It was her second appearance in the Mahoning Valley in less than a week. Barack Obama and his staff came to Youngstown as well, filling the basketball arena at the university downtown:



And suddenly, in the eyes of the candidates and other politicians, Youngstown has become relevant again.

Reporters from the New York Times, npr, the Wall Street Journal, and other national media outlets have come to town to write their stories. Matt Lauer's interview with Senator Obama on Tuesday's Today Show prominently featured Youngstown and YSU to a national audience. Bits and pieces of Youngstown have appeared through the hundreds of other articles and blogs in print and on the internet.



The media's archetype of Youngstown is bubbling to the national surface again, with our "shot and a beer" mentalities and "hard scrabble" unionized temperaments.

Sometimes it's fun to join in on this working class aura, other times the realities show us there is much work to do.

Youngstown is what it is.

Like many communities, it's a combination of people with different opinions and different backgrounds, different sensibiliites.

It is what it is.

- - -

What's interesting to me are the similarities between presidential campaigns and cities.

In both cases, they are complex systems with many people and many different components with their opinions.

Some good, some bad . . . well here's mine:

When you choose a candidate, you are not just choosing one person. You are choosing their advisors, their political appointees, their cabinet, and the thousands and thousands of other people the President gets to install as head of the Executive Branch.

Maybe that's why the years of the Bush Presidency have been such a struggle: not only do we get George W. and his personal opinions, but we also have inherited the actions of his entire cadre of followers and policy makers.

Painting with a broad brush, the team now in power has drifted far away from the responsibilities of sound fiscal management as well as the protection of personal liberties.

So Youngstown, so Ohio, when you are making your choices in the upcoming elections, don't think of the candidates as individuals.

Do you want McCain and all the people he is affiliated with?
Do you want Clinton and all of her followers?
Do you want Obama and the staff he brings together?

Just like these campaigns, cities are more than just one person and their opinions.

Remember this, as you read all these media reports and go to the polls this year.

good luck.

the ascension

On December 29th, the individuals who will compose Youngstown City Council for the next four years were sworn into office. Of the seven ward seats, six of them are new to the office, now held by first-time officeholders.

Pictured here is 1st ward councilperson Annie Gillam, just as she was taking the oath to upload the Constitution and the laws of the city:

Here is the view of downtown from Council Chambers on the sixth floor of city hall:


And here is the beautiful ceiling of the chambers, restored a few years ago:


Listed below is the contact phone number for each of your City Council members, as provided on the city's website. You can find a map of the wards of Youngstown here.*

First Ward
Annie Gillam
330-744-2921

Second Ward
DeMaine Kitchen
330-727-1563

Third Ward
Jamael Tito Brown
330-559-6498

Fourth Ward
Carol Rimedio-Righetti
330-792-0967

Fifth Ward
Paul Drennen
330-550-2283

Sixth Ward
Janet Tarpley
330-788-4585

Seventh Ward
John R. Swierz
330-788-5114

Council President
Charles Sammarone
330-793-5778

*note: for a listing of some really cool GIS maps, go here.

steel valley movie

"we are a network, and not a hierarchy"

such was the quote about the strength of the blogging community and their production of ideas, which came from the Meet the Bloggers recent interview with Tim Ryan - Youngstown's representative in the halls of Congress. You can listen to the entire interview here.

George Nemeth of Brewed Fresh Daily provided this opinion on the interview:

"I was engaged by this remarkable young man and his yearning for all of us to live in a world of ideas and limitless possibilities. He sees the vision, he knows how to lead us toward it, and he knows the difference between hierarchical and networked. He’s a communicator, and I guess you’ll just have to listen to the podcast to see what I mean. Tim Ryan may be the best chance any of us has, either side of the aisle, to move forward and attain our potential as a people. I can’t say enough. Listen. This is the future, beckoning."

now that's an endorsement of vision.

Another interesting thing I came across for the first time while surfing last night is a movie called "Steel Valley". The film has Youngstown native and Ursuline grad Ed O'Neil playing one of the movie's main characters.


So while the movie is not a dead-on biography of Mr. Ryan's rise to Congress, the plot shares a similar theme.

wow. that was quick.

I wonder when the first Jay Williams' movie is going to be in the theaters . . .