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Futures of Downtown, YSU, Closely Linked, CIC Told"
By Dennis LaRueYOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The futures of Youngstown State University and downtown Youngstown are closely linked, Hunter Morrison and Jay Williams told the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp. Tuesday.So are the downtowns of many cities with nearby urban campuses, they said. What can set downtown Youngstown and YSU apart, Morrison said, is even closer cooperation between YSU's Campus 2010 planners and the city's Youngstown 2010 planners."YSU does its planning. The city does its planning. There needs to be closer cooperation," Morrison stated. Morrison, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at YSU, has worked closely with the city since assuming his post with YSU and has been involved in Youngstown 2010, which presents a "vision outline update" at 7 p.m. Thursday at Stambaugh Auditorium.Williams is director of the city's Community Development Agency that is overseeing Youngstown 2010.Both gave brief previews of what will be presented and urged the CIC board to attend. Williams promised to "announce some new, exciting and aggressive ways [to address] the problems that have plagued Youngstown" in presenting a land use plan. Following comments from Thursday night's audience, Williams intends to "present it to the city planning commission this spring [and hopes] to see it adopted this summer.The last land use plan the city adopted happened some time in the 1950s or '60s, Williams said, when planners saw the city's population eventually growing to 200,000. The land use plan to be offered Thursday is for a city with a population of 80,000, "a comprehensive plan made up of small strategic plans" developed at the neighborhood level.One aspect is cleaning up and beautifying the "major gateways to the downtown," Williams said, making them pleasing to the eye such that the driver knows he's crossed the city limits. Youngstown 2010 will address sources of funding for such efforts.Noting the southern boundary of YSU may be a five-minute walk from the downtown, Morrison also noted only one pedestrian path connects the downtown with the university -- the Phelps path that links Commerce and Wood streets. The blight that has been allowed to develop on West Wood Street and West Rayen Avenue west of Elm Street, he continued, does not invite foot traffic. "It may be a five-minute walk between downtown and the campus," Morrison remarked, "but it can seem longer." With Federal Street reopened to vehicular traffic, it is easier for the Western Reserve Transit Authority to schedule buses that quickly make loops from the downtown to the core campus, Morrison said. He would have that stretch of Rayen Avenue that cuts through the university campus be a main thoroughfare for trolley or bus traffic, possibly eliminating on-street parking on Rayen to allow mass-transit vehicles to travel that section and pick up and drop off students.Morrison sees the Kilcawley Student Center being the center of the core campus, a role it could more easily adopt once the Andrews Wellness Center is complete.The boundaries of the core campus, as Morrison sees them, are Wick, Rayen, Fifth avenues. St. Columba Cathedral and the Young Women's Christian Association intend to clear the blight between Rayen and Wood that surrounds their grounds, Morrison said.Mayor George McKelvey would have YSU raze the vacant buildings contributing to the blight near the YWCA and the cathedral and expand its presence, an idea Thomas Humphries, president of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, endorsed.Williams and McKelvey would install more lighting between the campus and the downtown. Claire Maluso, event coordinator for the downtown, reported, "Our lighting campaign continues," adding she is seeking "more donors" from the private sector so more street lights can be installed downtown. Her fund-raising efforts last year came to $5,000, she reported. Contact Dennis LaRue at [email protected]"