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Soul Food Sensations Presents Feast of Colors
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- What once was a dingy beige building at 2905 Glenwood Ave. that nearly blended in with those surrounding it now stands out. You can’t miss it.
That’s because The Sherwin-Williams Co., a Fortune 500 company based in Cleveland, provided 39 gallons of bright green, orange and yellow paint -- and the tools to apply it -- to the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and Green Youngstown.
As part of Sherwin-Williams' National Painting Week, Lillian DeFrance's building -- it houses her restaurant, Soul Food Sensations, and the Concepts of Learning, along with a third storefront -- was given a vibrant new sheen by YNDC volunteers.
“Glenwood has a lot of problems with blight and abandoned properties. There are people in these neighborhoods who really want to do something, but they don't have the financial means to get it done,” said Jennifer Jones, program coordinator for Green Youngstown.
YNDC volunteers painted the building last week, she said.
“It's absolutely beautiful. It brings out the neighborhood and people definitely know where we're at if we say that we're in the multicolored building,” DeFrance laughed. “The neighborhood needs to be revitalized and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. is doing a great job to fix things up in the community. What they're bringing to the community is all positive.”
The bright colors, DeFrance says, are exactly what she wanted. The colors match the backgrounds of paintings of Motown singers such as The Four Tops and The Supremes that adorn the walls of Soul Food Sensations.
“It means a lot for our business. It attracts customers because they want to see what's going on. It means a lot for us and it means a lot to be selected [to receive the grant],” DeFrance said.
The Glenwood Avenue corridor has been a target area for the YNDC and Green Youngstown for some time, say Jones and Jack Daugherty, neighborhood stabilization director for YNDC.
“It's one of the last buildings you see as you leave Youngstown and one of the first you see as you come in. The difference between the building before and now is just night and day,” Jones said. “It's vibrant and people can see it. It'll be something that attracts people to come to the building.”
“One of our initiatives has been to improve Glenwood Avenue from one end to the other. This is just one component of what we've got going on in the corridor with the community,” Daugherty added.
Jones estimates the grant is worth between $1,600 and $1,800, a price that many commercial building owners might not be able to pay.
“Those [commercial buildings] are some of the most prominent things in a neighborhood. They'll be the tipping point of whether a neighborhood thrives or falls apart,” she explained. “What building owner has $1,600 just to paint the exterior of their building?” Many grants to repaint buildings are available only to residential structures, she added.
The repainting is only the latest of YNDC projects along Glenwood Avenue. In June, the group started the Idora Farmers Market, on a once-vacant lot next to a building that had a mural the YNDC commissioned. The YNDC commissioned and financed two other murals on the corridor.
“It's a sign of progress. It's a sign of success and it's a sign that things are heading in the right direction,” Daugherty said.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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