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Youngstown Hears about Tools Other Cities Employed
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – It’s incumbent upon the residents of a city, especially a downtown, to make it so attractive that given the choice, people would rather live there than the suburbs,
But downtowns have a reputation as places where life is so hurried and so busy that residents don’t get to know their neighbors and the sense of community is all but absent.
The last session Tuesday afternoon of Strong Cities, Strong Communities Bootcamp Youngstown sought to make residents of the downtown more familiar with the tools available to continue its revitalization.
Little new was advanced and verities were repeated during the last session of Bootstrap. Youngstown has been enjoying a renaissance, admittedly incomplete, nearly two decades.
The three speakers and moderator related what other cities have accomplished and suggested what Youngstown could learn from their experiences.
Tom Litke, a principal in his own consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. moderated the presentations and discussion of the three panelists, Cleve Ricksecker, executive director of Capital Crossroads SID and Discovery SID – SID stands for Special Improvement District; Jeff Siegler, director of revitalization at Heritage Ohio; and William A. Erdos, president of The Coyote Group, Wooster.
Ricksecker related the success SIDs, created by the state Legislature in 1974, have had in other Ohio downtowns. A SID is a “financial instrument,” Litke explained, that allow property owners, whether residential or commercial, to form boards that impose fees on all property owners in a district used for the coordination and delivery services. Among the services: keeping sidewalks clean of litter and free of snow, more safety than the local police department can be expected to provide.
SID boards try to recruit professionals to open offices within their boundaries as well as commercial enterprises. They strive to make the district so attractive that people want to reside in the buildings within, restaurants and stores (independents as opposed to chains) want to open and outsiders want to shop in those stores.
Sixty percent of the properties in a district or 75 of the real properties must band together to establish the entity that requires recognition from City Council. The fees the members pay are added to their property taxes so the county treasurer directs the fees to the board of an SID. County treasurers can refuse to accept property tax payments unless the property owners pay their SID fees.
Also mentioned was the formation of residents’ councils to promote a greater sense of community and encourage people to get to know their neighbors. “A SID is [the tool] least likely to create controversy or conflict,” Ricksecker said.
“So much comes down to relationships,” he said. “Relationships are what make a great neighborhood.”
Afterward, Phil Kidd, an activist, resident and advocate for the downtown, announced the “formation of [Youngstown’s] first residents council.” Those who live in the downtown will be invited to meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 31, in the community room of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, 305 Wick Ave.
The number of people who reside downtown is growing, he said, and this is the time to form such an entity. Sixty reside in the Erie Terminal Building, 20 in the Federal Building and 30 to 40 in Realty Tower. Before much longer, the Wick Building will have tenants, he pointed out, as will the Gallagher Building, where the Cedars restaurant was once housed.
Dom Marchionda, who is rehabilitating that 13-story Wick Building and converting it to apartments, briefly related his experience, saying he is uncertain where and how he is going to install the second set of stairs the building code requires, is uncertain how much more structural steel is needed but offered he expects to pay in the neighborhood of $500,000.
The downtown of Wooster has been transformed over the last decade, Erdos reported, and Youngstown could learn a couple of lessons from how that city came back.
The business leaders and municipal government must be involved, he said.
Wooster had a small “inventory of number of great buildings within a block and a half of each other,” he said, all built in the 1850s and ‘60s, all empty.
Redeveloping those buildings “without tenants was a leap of faith,” he told the audience. Afterward, he said his confidence was based on one building from that era that had stayed open and was prospering.
With the support of the Wooster business community – including architects, accountants and bankers -- Erdos reclaimed the buildings and converted them to a hotel, Chicago-style steakhouse and wine shop/wine bar. All look as if they’ve been in business since first built, Erdos said. One reason they succeeded was limited ambitions.
The hotel purposely did not build a restaurant or bar so it would not compete with the steakhouse or wine bar.
The quality of life has greatly improved, Erdos said, as reflected by the Daisy Co., a dairy company, that moved its corporate headquarters to Wooster. Unknown to Erdos and the mayor and city council, the top executives of Daisy were debating whether to relocate to Wooster and “a city in Michigan” he did not identify. The executives came to Wooster, stayed in the St. Paul Hotel, dined at the City Square Steakhouse and visited the wine shop. Sometime after their visit, they announced they were coming to Wooster because “their employees would have a better lifestyle in Wooster.”
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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