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City Seeks Second Chance To Make First Impression
"By George NelsonYOUNGSTOWN -- Community leaders hope that a downtown beautification program's benefits can be spread beyond the city's core.The formation of Youngstown CityScape, a new downtown revitalization organization, was announced at a news conference Tuesday morning. The new nonprofit organization, an outgrowth of Youngstown's Streetscape program, will seek to revitalize Youngstown's downtown and gateways through beautification education and historic preservation."As you look around you and look at all the wonderful things Streetscape has done in the past seven years, I think this is definitely the right time now that we get out into the corridors and out further in this community," observed Claire Maluso, Federal Plaza director. While the city is putting together its plan for 2010, she said her goal is for downtown to be ready in 2005 "to welcome the community into the city of Youngstown and have all of this area ready to run with our new convocation center." Over the past seven years, Streetscape has raised and spent more than $200,000 for landscaping materials and more than 200 volunteers annually have taken part in the downtown beautification program, said Scott Schulick, vice president of Butler Wick Trust Co. and Streetscape committee chairman. About eight months ago, Schulick said, he had lunch with Dr. David Sweet, Youngstown State University president, who had expressed concern about the gateways into the city and wanted to know the Streetscape program might be used to spruce-up these thoroughfares. "As David and I talked, we thought about how the need for this organization, Streetscape, should expand across the city and instead of duplicating efforts and creating yet another organization for another corridor, we determined that it would be most appropriate to expand the current efforts of Streetscape downtown and gradually move out through the gateways and in time into the city," he said. Youngstown CityScape will serve as the parent of Streetscape and other projects related to downtown development, beautification, education and historic preservation.Sweet, president of the CityScape board, said that at the initial Youngstown 2010 session nearly two years ago, people "came to the microphone and what they characterized, in the planning jargon, is the 'broken window syndrome' of Youngstown, in terms of the need to repair and beautify." The sentiment was echoed this summer during 11 neighborhood sessions for the Youngstown 2010 initiative, he added. "Time and again we heard the urging to clean up, repair and beautify our neighborhoods," Sweet continued. "Youngstown CityScape, as part of its mission, will seek to rally volunteers and residents to take on the action of improving the appearance of the city and its corridors." A cleanup day is planned for March, followed by a planting day in April for the downtown core as well as the corridors leading into the downtown.Jay Williams, Youngstown community development director and vice president of the Youngstown CityScape Board, noted that one of the cornerstones of the Youngstown 2010 vision and planning initiatives addresses image and quality of life within the city. CityScape "puts legs to the principles that we all sit and talk about," he said. "It's said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Well, CityScape will ensure that the first impression that we give to those that traverse in and out of our city on a daily basis is a very favorable one," Williams continued. "But equally, if not more important, than the impression that we give others is the impression we give those who live work and play her,e the people who call the city of Youngstown home. It's important that we send a message of self pride to those who have invested their time their money and their lives here." CityScape also will focus on drawing attention to the city's historic structures. Next month, the education and historic preservation committee, chaired by Holly Burnett, a YSU research associate, will hold the first of its Rediscover Youngstown events at key Youngstown landmarks. The Dec. 1 event, held in conjunction with various YSU departments as well as the Mahoning Valley Historical Society's Young Leaders Advisory Board, the American Institute of Architects' local chapter and Ricciutti Balog Architects, will feature the Metropolitan Towers and the former McCrory's building. In addition, WYSU-FM will broadcast a program this winter based on stories about the two buildings gathered by YSU urban sociology students. The Rediscover Youngstown events will coincide with the end of YSU's academic semesters. Williams said CityScape initiatives will work "hand in glove" with the efforts of the city's community improvement corporation, which deals largely with the development of buildings and businesses in the downtown. "This project is a little bit softer in nature because it deals with some of the landscaping the visuals and the aesthetics," he said. "If you don't have an appealing downtown, it's going to be hard to develop business and convince people to invest. So I think these two work independently but yet share a common mission and a common vision for the downtown."Williams acknowledged that problems along some of the city's major corridors go beyond the scope of CityScape, and noted that the city attacks those problems through the Community Development Agency and other initiatives. "A façade with a deteriorating core behind it isn't any good either, but both of these problems have to be addressed simultaneously," he said. "Sometimes there are unique things you can do to buy time or to at least give a favorable impression while you're working on much more complex and difficult things, those being the neighborhoods."Contact George Nelson at [email protected]"