YOUNGSTOWN Ads about forum on city's future are blunt, in-your-face

The approach to the Youngstown 2010 forum is to get people off their butts.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city's print ads aimed at drawing people to Monday night's forum on the future speak plainly.
The ads challenge peoples' pride.
"This is our home, if we don't care ... who will?"
"We were ranked as the next-worst-place to do business in this country ... all of us (underlined). Doesn't this bother you? It should."
"Our kids go away and never come back!"
There are bold predictions, too:
"Success is possible; if not now, then when?"
"A GUARANTEE: In 10 years you will look back and be glad you participated, or wish you did."
The language is far more blunt and confrontational than the nonoffensive, politically correct way in which government types tend to couch such issues.
That's no accident.
The goal is to stir up people into coming to hear about the vision for the city's future -- as it stands thus far --and make comments on it, from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at Stambaugh Auditorium.
The auditorium is on Fifth Avenue on the city's North Side, across from Wick Park. City and suburban residents are invited.
There are no apologies for the tactics used to draw them there.
It's a challenge
City officials are challenging people to take a role in the vision and the process shaping it, called Youngstown 2010. The downfall of any planning process is lack of public involvement, said Bill D'Avignon, city deputy director of planning.
"There's too much apathy in the public," he said. "It's to push people into getting off their butts."
The campaign may be in-your-face and uncomfortable, but it's necessary, said Jay Williams, director of the city's Community Development Agency.
"This process is that important," he said.
People shouldn't feel comfortable about the city's place in the world, said Anthony Kobak, the city's chief planner. People should be so uncomfortable that they decide to get involved with Youngstown 2010, he said.
The start has been good.
The city has received dozens of comments about the vision via phone calls and e-mails, and hundreds of hits on the Web site where the 2010 vision is outlined, since The Vindicator published a four-day series concerning the major planning effort.
Purpose
Monday's session is to educate people about what has happened so far and collect their comments on the vision -- not a gripe session about the city.
Planners will spend about a half-hour outlining the vision after an introduction from city officials.
Then, city officials want to hear what people like and don't like and changes they want to see in the vision as it's laid out now. Next year, the vision will be turned into the city's comprehensive plan.
Every comment will be heard Monday and in the coming weeks, even if all ideas won't necessarily be incorporated into the final vision, Kobak said.
Ultimately, participation is the most important thing, he said.
"People need to be talking about the process," Kobak said.
rgsmith@vindy.com