youngstown farmers' markets still going strong through september

Did you know Youngstown has its own form of currency?


While the downtown and northside farmers' markets take traditional cash as well, the wooden dollars are accepted by the markets' vendors.

This year, the markets are accepting food stamps, giving people access to fresh fruits and vegetables as some neighborhoods only have smaller junk-food filled convenience stores within walking distance.


Let's step inside the market on a typical saturday...






Thanks to Carmella Pesa, you can get fresh-baked zucchini bread, banana bread, and other baked goods. Fantastic quality.




Canned goods, bbq, braided garlic, cookbooks, breads, soaps, a cornucopia of veggies, and good people can be found here from 9am to 1pm at Wick Park for the rest of September.





want to see a video on how a city works?

check it out:

free walking tours of historic Wick Park this saturday june 6th

along with some other fun bits this weekend, Youngstown CityScape along with the Mahoning Valley Historical Society will be hosting walking tours of north side's Wick Park and the historical structures around its perimeter.



The one mile walk will begin at both 4:30pm and 6:30pm, and will leave from the First Unitarian Universalist Church at 1105 Elm Street.


A major effort is underway to redesign Wick Park for future generations of Youngstowners. You can read more about the initiative here.

After the tour, refreshments will be provided at the UU where you can check out the final design plans for the Wick Park Revitalization Project.

kielbasa, veggieburgers, and wick park neighborhood cleanup

Fresh from the announcement of the final plan for Wick Park 2.0, the group Resettle Youngstown is organizing a little cleanup for the surrounding neighborhood and needs your help.


set to begin at 10pm this Saturday April 18th, volunteers will be meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church (the site of the summer north side farmers markets) on Elm Street on the east side of Wick Park.

then at 1pm after a few hours of taking care of the hood, there will be a potluck.

kielbasa, bratwurst, and veggieburgers will be provided.

bags & gloves donated by Youngstown Litter Control and Recycling. please bring your own rakes.

You can see some pictures of the homes Resettle Youngstown is helping to link up with some urban pioneers here.

if you are reading this and have not been involved with any springtime projects in the Mahoning Valley - this one could be a great starting point.

yes, that means you.


lent is over. no more excuses.

vote your opinions on Wick Park proposal

the final design has been chosen!

After a year-long effort into Youngstown-style "open source community development", a crucial component of one neighborhood's revitalization is now available - for public comment on what projects to tackle first.


see a larger image here.

click here to provide opinions in the next few weeks on your favorite ideas.

see why this effort of openness and multiple iterations of fully-advertised public input should become the new standard.

kudos to the many many people and organizations involved with taking this project from a dream to a final plan.

now work shifts to implementation.

omg, one TON of corned beef

yes, you heard me right.

Kravitz Deli is attempting to sell 2,000 lbs of corned beef on Tuesday.

Last St. Patrick's Day they sold 1,200 pounds, and are gunning for the record.



Kravitz' has been a Youngstown institution since 1939, and is celebrating its 70th anniversary on St. Patty's Day as well.

According to Rose Kravitz, now 93 years old and quality control manager extraordinare, (last month, she advised me not to mail their cookies to England because they don't use preservatives and the freshness would not survive the trip):

“The Northside has always been the melting pot of Youngstown. Our customers are Jewish, African-American, Italian, Irish, Slovak, Greek...You name it,” she proudly boasts. “But here, on St. Patrick’s Day, we’re all Irish!”

so besides Tuesday's festivities, Kravitz Deli will have a tent featuring live music, extra large corned beef sandwiches, rubens, northsiders, corned beef and cabbage dinners, and of course, beer.

Kravitz always has free wi-fi.

Kravitz has bits of matzoh in their wedding soup.

Kravitz has been having live local music on Thursday nights at 6:30pm.

Kravitz now has a sandwich named after a blogger, "The Return of Philly the Kidd Defends Youngstown":


Kravitz just fulfilled my hamentashen quota (10 varieties) for the month:


AND did I mention a ton of corned beef?


truly a gem of Youngstown [map]

fame it or shame it - the land next to Stambaugh Auditorium

Is Select Specialty Hospitals/Services a poor corporate entity in Youngstown?

The company's plan to build a long-term, acute care facility next to the pillars of historic Stambaugh Auditorium on Fifth Avenue have been abandoned since 2007.

In the process of preparing for this promised project, several north side homes and apartments were left vacant and rotting right after their acquisition, adjacent to what is considered a crucial gateway of entry to the downtown and Youngstown State University.










Here are two pictures of the Stambaugh Gardens right off of Park Avenue (houses still occupied):



Unfortunately, Youngstown is a place where abandonment occurs by both residential and commercial occupants.

So besides improving the housing and commercial markets, are there other ways to prevent the gradual decline of properties in the city?

One interesting experiment addressing this topic in the mega-region originates from the Word of Mouth blog. Looking at urban issues in Lorain, the WoM has a feature called "Fame It - Shame It".

In a nutshell, WoM finds properties - both good and bad - in the city of Lorain. By using the county auditor's website, the blog lists the names of the property owners, giving kudos to those who maintain their properties and scorn to those who don't.

From the blog's first installment of this method:

"If there’s a Beauty in your neighborhood, let us know. Likewise, if there’s a Beast, let’s do something about it."

And now, a few questions:

1. Should the "Fame it - Shame It" method of highlighting the property owners of both the beauties and the beasts be pursued in Youngstown?

2. Other sites list the home phone number, home address, and email of the property owners besides the name - would this be an effective strategy?

3. And what design standards should be considered when something is built in the place of these houses?

- as a key entry point into a historical residential neighborhood, how can the integrity of the remaining structures, including Stambaugh Auditorium be maintained?

- what do residents of the North Side, as well of the Board of Trustees of Stambaugh Auditorium, think of proposals for this property?

design concepts out for Wick Park, 3rd public meeting Nov 15th

Some preliminary designs for adaptations to Wick Park are now online, and the next public meeting to discuss these plans has been set.


This project is a great example of Youngstown's "open source community development" model.

Click here for the main website of the project - for video, presentations, images, discussion, etc.

Chere here for this blog's review of the 2nd meeting.
Click here for a review of the 1st meeting.
Prelim of the project here.


Here is another online document at archive.org which contains additional potential design components.

For example, a wooded amphitheater is one concept:


Dog parks, athletic fields, playgrounds and pathways are all to be discussed at the next meeting.


and so the 3rd public discussion meeting is set for:

Saturday, Nov. 15th 2008
10am to 12pm
Park Vista Community Room
(west side of park entrance along 5th)

please rsvp to 742-4040 if coming (area code 330)

youngstown's polish brier hill

"I'd like some mathematics with my halusky."

- - -

Tucked into youngstown's Brier Hill - a neighborhood and home for multiple ethnicities over the generations - sits St. Casimir's Parish from 1907.

and it was rocking last weekend.

vodka, pierogies, topological spaces, dancing, pisanki, singing, data compression, wycinanki . . . this fest had it all.

but what I loved about this festival was blending of the new and the old - youngstown style.

- young kids learning how to color ornate eggs.
- information on cutting-edge mathematical research.
- handed down recipes of stuffed cabbage and kolachi.
- chinese auctions for baskets of polish food.
and open to all people from any ethnic heritage.

for a first glance, check out the parish grounds on Jefferson Street:














Also, there was some information about a few groups in town which I was not aware of:

The Polish Arts Club of Youngstown
next meets on October 12, 2008 from 1-4pm
and if you want to become a member costs $15 a year
which pays for meeting costs and their newsletter

The Krakowiaki Polish Folk Circle
meets every Thursday from 6pm to 8pm
at the YMCA in downtown youngstown
for those interested in Polish customs, language, and folk dance.

first-ever, jam-packed, music-filled, youngstown grey-to-green festival is this saturday

"even all the forks passed out by the food vendors will be made of biodegradable potato starch."

it's amazing what passionate individuals with dedicated sponsors can put together.

wow.


while I encourage you go to Youngstown Moxie's site to see the full schedule of activities, here is a quick sample of things at the first-ever Grey to Green Festival at Wick Park (north side 44504) in Youngstown on Saturday, September 13th:

farmers market
live music
ethnic food
belly dancing instruction
compost instruction
tai chi instruction
puppet shows
children's activities every half-hour

- - -

And as a special treat, Grow Youngstown is teaming together with the Shout Youngstown blog to present the demonstration:

Urban Permaculture: What is it?

The time: Saturday 4pm to 5pm, Sept. 13th
The place: right next to the Wick Park Pavilion
The presenters: Tracie Haynes and Brad Masi of the New Agrarian Center.

This talk is supported by the Cleveland-Pittsburgh-Youngstown Regional Learning Network.

new downtown farmers' market a big hit

every Tuesday for the rest of the summer (that is, till the end of September) in downtown youngstown's central square, there will be a farmers' market of fresh LOCAL produce from 3pm to 6pm.


Last week's event survived the "great deluge of 2008" as the sellers kept selling after a momentary, but powerful storm. (pictures from mahoningvalley.info here)


(note: all shots of produce are from locally grown and owned Ron's Greenhouse.)

In addition to the freshy fresh vegetables and fruits, attendees will be able to:
- purchase baked goods from local artisans
- register to vote
- pick up recipes
- learn of upcoming community events

The vendors of the downtown market even accept WIC coupons, enabling the Mahoning Valley's lower income families to purchase fresh produce and baked goods.

Also, because the extremely useful WRTA bus system exists, the people of the Mahoning Valley can use the buses to save gas and travel from neighborhoods in the city and first-ring suburbs to the downtown to shop.

Since the market runs until 6pm, all downtown workers can stop by on their way home and get some of the good stuff to enjoy later that evening.

The July 29th event this week will include a few comments by Mayor Jay Williams and the individuals who worked together to make this endeavor a reality.






The Tuesday markets join the already successful Saturday morning north side farmers' market, which is held on the eastern edge of Wick Park on the grounds of Youngstown's First Unitarian Universalist church from 9am to 12pm.

For more information on both the Tuesday and Saturday markets, contact Jim Converse at 330-518-6971

and you can continue to sign up for weekly free emails for all of these ongoing downtown events (like the free outdoor James Bond movie monday night and the no-cover downtown Italian Festival this weekend) found here, exclusively at ytownevents.info.