We travel to the Stuart's Place near the Wick Park neighborhood area in downtown Youngstown, near the Youngstown State University. Pat Rosenthal, Executive Director and Jim Converse, Community Development Director of Common Wealth, Inc. take us through a recently acquired property. The property includes several upstairs apartments and an old warehouse space and restaurant. Jim and Pat are working on an effort to re-purpose these properties to create a mixed-used facility that includes a food coop, a restaurant, and a community food incubator. The space will serve both urban and rural entrepreneurs, providing an outlet to process and preserve agricultural surplus from rural farmers and to support small enterprises for urban residents. Their vision for the space reveals the importance of connecting the needs of both urban and rural communities. Their space will provide an asset to serve the neighbors in the area while fostering new connections with the broader Mahoning Valley region. Their site also includes an urban demonstration site being developed for education and training by a farmer from Geneva.
Videos tagged as 'neighborhood revitalization'
The Youngstown 2010 plan emerged through a community driven process. It's goal is to focus on the renewal and restoration of Youngstown's neighborhoods, communities, and local economy following a long struggle with economic dis-investment and population loss. Part of a "right-sizing" strategy, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) is installing urban gardens across Youngstown on vacant or foreclosed properties. These gardens bring neighborhoods together, increase food access and heath, and contribute to long-term property values. Hear perspectives from YNDC Executive Director Presley Gillespie about the many ways that these gardens can improve food access, increase property values, and contribute to a larger collaborative between other rust-belt cities in the region.
Jen Cancio, an AmeriCorps volunteer, talks about growing up near Youngstown and returning to work with urban gardens as a way to re-vitalize neighborhoods that have struggled with abandoned properties. This video also captures the ways that gardens can connect adults and children. See what the children have to say about the garden and their own "kids only" gardening spaces. This video was filmed at one of several urban gardens installed by residents on vacant lots in the Idora neighborhood. This is a part of the Youngstown 2010 plan and features the work of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation to re-build neighborhoods through gardening.