By Anthony S. Kobak
Chief Planner, City of Youngstown
Project Manager, Youngstown 2010

The city of Youngstown, in partnership with YSU, is currently planning for the future of Youngstown. The plan, called Youngstown 2010, will help revitalize the city and, by doing so, will strengthen the surrounding communities as well.

In my opinion, the perfect time for a city to revitalize is when its people are ready to get involved.

The first major indication that Youngstowners were ready came on a wintry December evening in 2002 when over 1,200 people attended the first large public meeting to learn about Youngstown 2010.  Next, in a series of smaller neighborhood meetings throughout the city during 2004, attendance peaked at just over 800.

Still, some people said the successful meetings were mere luck or that the project would lose support over time and fade away.  But public participation has been the focal point of the planning process from the very beginning, and people are continuing to get involved.

This past January, over 1,300 people came out to another public meeting with temperatures around 2 degrees (-12 wind chill) to learn about and discuss the future of their neighborhoods and their city.

The 2010 plan is centered around three major themes:  a cleaner, greener and better planned and organized Youngstown.

Various projects are identified in the plan that will essentially implement the themes.  For example, the city does not give the best first impression visually, but that will change with a focus on main street cleanups.  The plan identified supporting the Mahoning River Restoration Project as a key commitment to establishing a greener Youngstown.  Supporting neighborhood groups redeveloping their commercial districts and neighborhoods will create a better planned and organized city.

But the plan, themes and projects will only be carried out if people, such as YSU faculty and staff, get involved.

I have no doubt that Youngstown will be a better place to live tomorrow, next year and in 2010.  And it will be because many people, in their own way, are getting involved in supporting the Youngstown 2010 plan.

It might be a family that spends $8,000 on a new roof and paint for their home, or maybe a child donating $2 to the Mahoning River cleanup.  It might be the newlyweds that start a neighborhood organization to help demolish the dilapidated house next door to them, or the grandparent who explains the 2010 plan to their son or daughter and convinces them it is worth staying here.

The burden of revitalizing an entire city must be the responsibility of the entire community, not only the city government.  A plan is just a document created by people, and it is people that will have to carry it out.

Like the 2010 slogan says, “Youngstown 2010, it's our future… get involved!”

Note: Visit www.youngstown 2010.com for more information or to get involved.

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