Planners to suburbs: We'll need your assistance, too

Improving Youngstown could help cut crime in the suburbs, planners say.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- It's heard in whispers at rural grocery stores and as quiet advice from suburban parents to their children:
"Don't go to Youngstown at night. You're going to get shot!"
Some believe such fears could cause problems for Youngstown planners as they try to encourage suburbanites to get involved with the Youngstown 2010 planning process. Planners are hoping both suburban and city residents will attend a public presentation about Youngstown 2010 from 7 to 9 p.m. Dec. 16 at Stambaugh Auditorium.
Jay Williams, director of the city Community Development Agency, said he thinks suburbanites will want to come to the meeting when they learn how they can benefit from improvements to Youngstown.
"We hate to break it down to 'what's in it for me,' but ..." he said.
By improving Youngstown, suburbanites could improve the image of the entire Mahoning Valley, including their home communities, Williams said. That could attract new businesses to the suburbs.
Williams stressed that problems in Youngstown drag down the image of the entire Mahoning Valley.
Businesses thinking about relocating look at the Mahoning Valley and see that crime and corruption have been associated with Youngstown, not the positive aspects of the suburbs.
"The outlying suburbs are associated with Youngstown, and for years Youngstown has had a bad connotation," said Anthony Kobak, the city's chief planner.
He noted that it was the Mahoning Valley, and not just Youngstown, that was ranked in June as the second-worst place to do business in the country by Forbes magazine.
Kobak also said he thinks suburbanites can help reduce crime in their home communities by working to improve Youngstown. Many of the people arrested or accused of drug crimes and theft in Austintown each year are from Youngstown.
"Crime breeds off of unsuccessful, dilapidated areas," Kobak said. If those dilapidated areas are restored, there would be fewer criminals to come to the suburbs, he said.
Safety at meeting
Austintown Township Trustee David Ditzler stressed that he thinks suburbanites shouldn't let their fear of crime in Youngstown discourage them from coming to the Dec. 16 meeting.
"When's the last time you heard of somebody shot in the city that wasn't going to the bad side of town or buying drugs?" he said. "Nobody has issues with going downtown to see concerts and plays."
Ditzler called Youngstown the "core" of the Mahoning Valley, adding "without it, we all lose."
Williams echoed Ditzler's comments and said he thinks suburbanites and Youngstown residents need to work together to improve their communities and the Valley. He added that Youngstown 2010 planners will make presentations about their plans in the suburbs in the future.
Fred Owens, Austintown Growth Foundation president, agreed with Williams. He added, however, that regional approaches to improving the Valley have been unsuccessful in the past.
"A regional perspective to regional issues has been really difficult to get under way," he said. "We don't have a history of solving problems regionally."
Planning for Austintown
The growth foundation is working with Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., to develop a plan for the future of Austintown. Owens said he thinks that by developing plans for their home communities, suburbanites will get a regional perspective on the Valley's problems.
Owens added that the growth foundation wants to work with the Youngstown 2010 planners. He's not sure, however, what the two groups will discuss.
"We're trying to keep the process open so we can move parallel and support each other when we can," Owens said.
Williams and Kobak said they hope to meet with the growth foundation soon to discuss the Austintown plan.
hill@vindy.com