City's effort to renew itself gets play in trade magazine

The article provides favorable exposure to business and industry, planners say.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A story about the Youngstown 2010 process in an influential trade magazine is a boon to the city, local planners say.
The August-September issue of Planning, the American Planning Association's magazine, features the story "Youngstown Embraces its Future." The story describes recent local history and the Youngstown 2010 planning process. Youngstown 2010 will result in a plan for the city's future.
Planning circulates to about 33,000 association members around the world and is widely read in the industry, local planners say. Important business people and others in the field will see the story, they say.
That is important exposure as the city starts turning itself around, said Hunter Morrison, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at Youngstown State University.
"It's creating a buzz. It's telling the story," he said. "It's ultimately a validation process."
Thomas Finnerty Jr., associate director at urban studies, wrote the story for the magazine. It can be read on the association's Web site at www.planning.org.
Last appearance
A story about Youngstown last appeared in Planning magazine in 1978. The title was "Youngstown: Can This Steel City Forge a Comeback?"
The gap between the two stories -- 25 years -- signals the period it took the community to truly look ahead, Morrison said.
"It's very much a symbol," he said. "It's taken that long because Youngstown was so heavily dependent on one industry."
Planning's interest shows that Youngstown 2010 is important and different from any other effort to address the future, said Anthony Kobak, the city's chief planner.
"This planning process is special," he said. "We're making history right now."
Favorable exposure
Local planners say such wide exposure will leave favorable views of the city. Lasting impressions might influence business leaders to consider Youngstown for development, said Bill D'Avignon, city deputy director of planning.
"People might take a look at Youngstown. They might have had a [negative] impression of it, and that might change," he said.
The magazine's spotlight on the city demonstrates to others that the community no longer is accepting the status quo and is ready for change, he said.
"The planets are aligned now to make this work. The leadership is in place, the expertise is in place, the will and resolve of the people seems to be there," D'Avignon added.
rgsmith@vindy.com