YOUNGSTOWN A clear vision requires some legwork

The survey is part of the unglamorous but necessary work for Youngstown 2010.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jamael Brown and Bill D'Avignon stood in front of 64 Illinois Ave. and pondered some questions: Vacant or no? Single family or no?
The three-story, red brick North Side home, vintage 1922, has four bedrooms and a first floor that looks empty; the front window has a hole.
"These are difficult," said Brown, with Youngstown State University's Center for Urban and Regional Studies.
"Real difficult," said D'Avignon, the city's deputy planning director.
Then, they spotted an air conditioner jutting from an upstairs side window, in the back. A light went on in an upstairs window.
D'Avignon marked down the house as a single-family and occupied. He also marked down the condition of the house, yard and the sidewalks and curbs before moving next door to 58 Illinois.
Recording that house was easy. The house obviously was vacant, but had boards covering the lower floor, so it wasn't abandoned. Upper windows were broken or open, so the house was marked as needing work.
Soon, the city will have such a record for every property in the city.
Pre-planning step
A key to creating the city's comprehensive plan, called Youngstown 2010, involves neighborhood planning. To do that, city officials and volunteers who will write the plan first need to know with what they're dealing.
Last week, D'Avignon, Brown, Anthony Kobak, a city planner, and two YSU interns conducted a test run of a property assessment process. Volunteers will fan out this fall across the city and use the process to record the physical condition of their neighborhood.
The results will be fed into a database and put on a map, showing the various conditions of every neighborhood.
"It will paint a picture ... of the whole city," Kobak said. "I don't think that's been done before."
The information will help planners decide how city land should be used in the coming years -- or if certain neighborhoods even have a future.
"It will help with overall strategy," Kobak added.
The property survey is part of the unglamorous but necessary work happening now to make the vision expressed in Youngstown 2010 a reality.
Volunteer input
Several volunteer committees are meeting to come up with ways to improve the city. Information about the committees can be found at www.youngstown2010.com.
City planners are writing a guide and training plan to help volunteers who do the property assessments, which should happen in September. The guide will show and describe criteria to differentiate between a "vacant" and "abandoned" house or if a house, yard or sidewalk is "bad," "needs work" or is "average."
That wasn't easy for the group of five who walked the neighborhood bounded by Wick Avenue, Broadway, Elm Street and Illinois Avenue last week.
D'Avignon and Brown spent several minutes in front of several houses deciding if the structures were vacant. Some rundown homes looked empty but showed other signs that people are living there.
They learned to look for multiple mailboxes or electric meters to decide if a house was a multi-family dwelling.
Even those criteria weren't exactly clear. The house at 124 Illinois has three mailboxes but one meter.
Making a judgment
D'Avignon marked 44 Illinois as "needs work" despite a boarded-up and dilapidated appearance suggesting it could be "bad," a candidate for demolition.
"It's secure, which to me makes all the difference in the world," he said.
Finding addresses on homes was a challenge. Many dilapidated homes no longer have their addresses posted.
Time also was a factor. It took about a half-hour to record the condition of Illinois between Elm and Wick, a bit longer than planners expected.
"I'm sure you could zip through most parts of the West Side," D'Avignon said. "If you have problem [houses], you're going to have to stand there and write."
rgsmith@vindy.com