recap: cle-yo-pitt regional learning conference

Buses full of people from Pittsburgh and Cleveland arrived at the next nexus of Downtown Youngstown, for the first ever meeting of the cleveland+pittsburgh+youngstown Regional Learning Network.


The day began with a welcome by representatives from all three cities, then onto John Austin's keynote address about "Leveraging the Assets and Confronting the Challenges of the Great Lakes Region".

To read Valley24's review of the day, click here.


One of the benefits of the meeting was the ability for individuals to interact with their counterparts from each region - bloggers met other bloggers, economic development professionals met other economic development professionals, and neighborhood leaders met other neighborhood leaders.



Right before lunch, a World Cafe took place to discuss the factors which make the mega-region unique.


Mayor Williams stopped by to chat for a while:



And after lunch, participants moved throughout the Youngstown Club to attend presentations on the following topics:

• Data-Driven Decision Making
• CDCs as Agents of Change
• Addressing Vacancy
• Economic Development Strategies
• Designing Sustainable Communities
• Networking and Blogging for Change

Here's an example of multiple design configurations possible when a vacant property exists between other properties.


To encourage collaboration between cities, mini-grants of up to $500 will be given out to encourage "learning exchanges" where people from one location will go and visit others to learn best practices and witness active programs.


To all who attended, thanks for making the trip to Youngstown. And a special thanks to our new friends who took the youngstown bloggers up on the offer to do a walking tour of the downtown.

the next nexus = downtown youngstown

what does the cle+yo+pitt conference, the i-tree demonstration, the soap box derby, the furthermind festival, and the head of the entire national science foundation (NSF) have in common?

well . . .

- - -

downtown youngstown is the central meeting point of the Cleveland-Youngstown-Pittsburgh region, home to 7.5 million people strong.

In Youngstown, we are fluent in both Pittsburghese AND Clevelandish.

We eat Primantis AND Paninis.

We follow Penguins' hockey AND Cavaliers' basketball.

We drink Iron City AND Great Lakes.

- - -

Youngstown is not just a place for the 700,000 people of the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys to enjoy, but our restaurants and traditions are available for all 7.5 million of yous/yinz.

and so, the Shout Youngstown blog is going to pick out a few choice events taking place this weekend in the next nexus of downtown youngstown - if by chance you are looking for something to do.

friday - Cle+Yo+Pitt Regional Learning Network conference - discuss best practices and approaches to neighborhood development, urban design, economic development, and blogging in the mega-region (10am - 4pm at the Club)

saturday - Soap Box Derby down 5th avenue (9am)

saturday - Youngstown Tree Day Celebration, including a demonstration of the i-tree urban inventory system by the Youngstown City Forester, Wick Park at Park and Pennsylvania Ave (9:30am)

saturday - Wick Park Revitalization Community Meeting #2 at Park Vista off 5th avenue (10am)

saturday - city pools open, party at North Side's new pool (12pm)

saturday - furthermind all-day music festival at the B&O train station and urban camping (12pm to 2am)

sunday - yoga at fellows riverside gardens (9am, 12pm)

sunday - tour of western reserve wildflowers at fellows riverside gardens (2pm)

monday - presentation by the director of the federal NSF (yes, that $6 billion agency) at YSU's engineering building. must rsvp with jmsmith (at) ybi (dot) org. more info here.

- - -

“We’re trying, as I like to say, to further everyone’s mind,” he said, “I want to bridge the gap and have Cleveland bands and Pittsburgh bands — make the Youngstown area a little bit bigger.”

This will be the first Furthermind Festival since 1999 and the first one for the Youngstown area. Though its focus will be mainly on the music, it will also serve as loving tribute to Quillan’s father, David Michael Murphy.

Quillan said his father became ill shortly after Vexfest IV in August and worsened in the coming months.

“One side of his body was shutting down, he couldn’t move his leg,” Quillan said, “In October, he needed a cane to walk and then he fell and broke his hip. He was in the hospital from October to December, when he passed away.”

While his father was in the hospital, Quillan said he wanted to have a giant celebration for when got better.

Having his father’s favorite local bands in mind, such as headliner Pennsylvania rock band Fourth River, Quillan began preparing for the event in November.

With his father’s death from the rare and highly fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a degenerative brain disorder, Quillan said this would be the event his father would want to go to.

“It’s a festival in honor of him and his love of independent music,” he said, “I’m Irish, so I think of this as a wake for him.”

more from valley24 here.

cle+pitt+yo regional learning network

The time and place are set for people from three cities within our one region to come together.

To explore common concerns, share best practices, and identify opportunities for collaboration in the fields of economic development, urban design, neighborhood development, sustainable communities, and blogging for change.

Introducing the Cleveland+Pittsburgh+Youngstown Regional Learning Network :




The event will take place on Friday June 20th, from 10am to 4pm at the Youngstown Club downtown.

The keynote speaker that day will be:

John Austin, former director of the Great Lakes Economic Initiative at the Brookings Institution and current director of the New Economy Initiative of Southeast Michigan.

Other participants include people from these organizations:

• Pittsburgh Neighborhood and Community Information System (PNCIS)
  
• KSU Cleveland Urban Design Collective
  
• East Liberty Development, Inc.
  
• Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition
  
• Slavic Village Development
  
• Cleveland City Planning Commission
  
• Lien Forward Ohio
  
• CWRU Center for Urban Poverty and Community Development
  
• Fund for Our Economic Future
  
• Mahoning River Corridor of Opportunity
  
• Neighborhood Progress, Inc.
  
• Civic Innovation Lab
  
• Youngstown Business Incubator
  
• Building Cleveland by Design
  
• Defend Youngstown
  

The event is FREE of charge, but you must register.

Do so here.

Buses are available for those coming from Pittsburgh and Cleveland. But, if you are sticking around for the evening downtown, we'll give you a walking tour (not on the official program) and go out for drinks and dinner afterwards.

Time to jump in.

time to mark your calendars

Youngstown enthusiasts and bloggers and residents:

3 upcoming regional events to participate in - all just getting underway.

please join us and get involved.

- - -

Great Lakes Urban Exchance (GLUE) Sticky Cities Meeting
Thursday May 8th, 2008 - 7pm to 8:30pm
Cleveland, Ohio - WKYC-TV Studios

Cle+Pitt+Yo Regional Planning Network
Friday, June 20th 2008 - 10am to 4pm
Youngstown, Ohio - June 20th, 2008

Rust Belt Blogging Summit
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
Erie, PA - the Brewerie

quick reactions/solutions to recent levy defeats

I went to bed at 3am Tuesday night, mildly shocked that the tally at the Mahoning County Board of Election's website showed the WRTA levy passing 51% to 49%. Additionally, the Youngstown school levy was ahead by three votes.

I love when votes come down to just a handful of people, but this was not meant to be the case.

It turned out the next day with all precincts reporting that the 0.25 percent sales tax to create a regional bus system for mahoning county failed 57% to 43%. Currently, only Youngstown city residents pay taxes for the system which extends beyond the city's limits. The Youngstown city school levy failed as well.

So some quick thoughts as I read the paper this morning:

- - - WRTA (Western Reserve Transit Authority)

According to this article, the bus service will need to reduce some routes, raise fairs, cut staff, etc. to meet their shortfall. Last year after a reduction of state and federal support along with increased fuel expenses, service was reduced by 50 percent, as all evening and weekend routes were eliminated.

The rejected plan called for a county-wide sales tax to extend the sytstem to all parts of the county, thus supporting the existing system as well. Politically, is seems like a hard sell for the rural corners of the state whose voters are not familar with the existing bus service.

So I keep thinking - is there a way to create a funding mechanism for the city and inner-ring suburbs alone, which will exclude the further out sections of the county?

Maybe a solution [I haven't thought this one all the way through - it's a morning reaction for the most part] is using the JEDD concept (Joint Economic Development District) to fund the bus system. Is it possible to utilize funds generated from water use, which come from the more dense and urbanized sections of the region, and fund urban-wide and not county-wide busing?

- - - Youngstown School Levy

Then this story discusses what to do next regarding troubles with funding the city schools.

So what's a school system to do?

Solution: Bring in Tressel

Check out this story in the Columbus Dispatch:

"Even in the off-season, Ohio State University football coach Jim Tressel scores wins.

His record is 3-0 in endorsing property-tax increases that voters subsequently OK'd for Columbus, Gahanna-Jefferson and South-Western schools.

His latest effort: Reynoldsburg schools' $56 million bond issue for new schools and building improvements.

Voters received recorded phone messages from the coach yesterday, asking them to vote for the bond issue that would pay for a new high school and elementary school and upgrades for six buildings. Voters rejected a similar request in 2006."

it this a possibility?

Gahanna-Jefferson school board member Windy McKenna said Tressel's presence was a big draw.

"I remember one lady coming in the door, and I said, 'Welcome to our campaign kickoff,' " McKenna recalled.

The woman responded, "What campaign kickoff? We're here to see coach Tressel."

GLUEspace recap from buffalo

Stuck in the freeze-frame from this uploaded video with a shot of Youngstown's representatives, here are some highlights from the inaugural gathering of the Great Lakes Urban Initiative (GLUE) in Buffalo:

cincy 360 to ytown 2020

What can we learn from our neighbors to the south as we begin the Youngstown 2020 planning process?

we need to represent this weekend

Urban Leaders Gather to Discuss Future of Great Lakes Cities,
Shape Agenda for Multi-State, Multi Issue Community Revitalization Effort;
Brookings Institution, Oishei Foundation, University at Buffalo Regional Institute Agree:
The Time is Now for Post-Industrial American Cities

Contact: Abby Wilson, Co-Founder, Great Lakes Urban Exchange
412 551 4609, abby@gluespace.org

From January 31st to February 2nd, over 40 urban devotees from ten US States will gather in Buffalo, NY to craft a new narrative for industrial cities of the Great Lakes region, the so-called “Rustbelt.” The Buffalo gathering is the kickoff of a multi year initiative that will use new media to build networks for change. The Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE) will engage young urbanists in an effort to bolster regional identity, envision livable urban futures, and tell stories about the people who are creating them.

GLUE was developed by Pittsburgh and Detroit boomerangs Abby Wilson and Sarah Szurpicki to combat negative perceptions about the cities they call home. Its mission quickly evolved from new media boosterism to issue-based network building and resource pooling, and from a brain trust of two to a core planning team of forty young, devoted, and solutions-oriented leaders from twenty-one GLUE cities: Akron, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Des Moines, Detroit, Duluth, Erie, Flint, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Lansing, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Rochester, St. Louis, Toledo, and Youngstown.

GLUE’s ten state network of younger leaders will share best practices, create a resource hub, and use new media to tell 21st century stories about cities that remain hampered by monolithic and anachronistic associations with heavy industry. GLUEspace.org, the project’s online hub, is in development at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies (http://www.ccscad.edu/).

GLUE, sponsored by the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program through its Great Lakes Economic Initiative (GLEI), will use creative research and documentary journalism to build upon the analytic foundation laid by Brookings’ “Restoring Prosperity” and “The Vital Center,” seminal reports about the immediate needs and shared challenges of cities at the core of GLUE’s mission. John Austin, Non-Resident Senior Fellow to the Brookings Institution and director of GLEI, has coordinated support to the initiative. For more information, visit http://www.brookings.edu/metro.

“The Great Lakes region has been and remains a significant center of economic activity, but is making a spotty and imperfect transition from the industrial era,” said Austin. “Young talent, attracted to urban centers with a high quality of life, is essential to this transition.”

“I got tired of telling my mega-city dwelling friends that there’s more to Pittsburgh than beer cozies and empty Steel Mills, but that doesn’t mean we’re living in utopia, either,” Co-Founder Abby Wilson said. “Cities like Pittsburgh have made remarkable progress, hold extraordinary potential, and have a very long way to go.”

“I moved back a year ago to contribute to the future of my first love, Detroit, and have had the good fortune of getting to know several other cities that are in the same boat,” Co-Founder Sarah Szurpicki said. “I’ve had the thrilling realization since that my hometown and its cohorts all boast communities of people devoted to sustainable, equitable, and thriving futures for all. Those communities will, I hope, continue to find peers among the GLUE network.”

Scheduled activities for the Jan 31 – Feb 2 gathering include some of the following: peer to peer interviews that will be downloadable for podcast at www.gluespace.org, a bus tour of Buffalo’s beloved, but overlooked, gems, a presentation of research from the Brookings Institution’s Great Lakes Economic and Restoring Prosperity Initiatives, a new media tools primer, a Great Lakes cities trivia contest, a tour of Hallwalls gallery, and remarks from both the Regional Institute at Buffalo and the Oishei Foundation.

“The foundation believes it is critical to engage young leaders in envisioning and planning for the future of our region,” said Robert D. Gioia, President of The John R. Oishei Foundation, a critical partner in this effort. “This effort not only links emerging leaders in our own region, but connects them to a body of experience and knowledge in other Great Lakes cities dealing with similar challenges.”

“The institute is pleased to partner on an initiative that draws perspectives and ideas from Buffalo Niagara’s young leaders together with their counterparts from nine other Great Lakes states,” said Kathryn A. Foster, director of the University at Buffalo Regional Institute, which will assist in administering the convention. “GLUE will help foster a valuable knowledge exchange and generate strategies for the Great Lakes region’s future.”

“I am proud to support the engagement of young leaders in the future of upstate New York’s urban communities, and thrilled to have diverse regional representation here in Buffalo for such an important and timely conversation,” said New York State First Lady Silda Wall Spitzer. “GLUE is a natural complement to the work we’ve done here in Western New York with the I Live New York campaign.”

“I'm thrilled to support this initiative on behalf of both my adopted hometown and the Great Lakes community at large. The Buffalo Niagara Partnership welcomes the opportunity to engage with young leaders to learn and share best practices. Specifically, we’re excited to explore ideas related to our efforts to cultivate young talent through our Young Professionals program. Investing in our assets and showcasing ourselves as great places to live and work are essential to our collective success,” said Ann Mestrovich, Business Development Specialist at the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, one of GLUE’s organizational supporters in the region.

For a complete schedule of activities, or to attend open sessions at the GLUE conference, email abby@gluespace.org.