YOUNGSTOWN 2010 | Part 4 of 4 Leaders are eager to seize the moment for change

The city plan that emerges from Youngstown 2010 will be a blueprint for action.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- If nothing else, the Youngstown 2010 process of generating a vision for the future showed city officials one important thing, planners say.
Youngstown is ready for change.
Consensus among leaders citywide who shaped the vision is that the time has come, said Anthony Kobak, the city's chief planner.
Among the reasons: The rooting out of corruption. The city school-building project. The downtown civic-center project. Cooperation between the city and Youngstown State University.
"There was a sense and a feeling. There was an energy in the room," Kobak said.
Making change happen is a different matter entirely.
That's why a call to action is the fourth and last main segment of the Youngstown 2010 vision.
People -- not a document -- have to act. But a document such as the comprehensive city plan that emerges from Youngstown 2010 provides the best chance for action, said Bill D'Avignon, city deputy director of planning.
Advantages
Leaders won't have to worry so much about politics: There already will be a publicly supported document to implement, he said.
"Leaders need a cause. The plan will be a platform for any leader," he said.
Naturally, money is integral to making changes.
Too often, the city laments being passed over for state or federal funding to fuel development projects. A large reason is that there are too many competing plans, planners say. Coordinated efforts are the most successful, they say.
"No consensus, no plan, no investment," said Jay Williams, director of the city Community Development Agency.
The comprehensive plan emerging from the vision aims to be the blueprint for changing that.
rgsmith@vindy.com