YOUNGSTOWN Development team submits several ideas hoping to get downtown back on track

The plan calls for taking advantage of the city's assets.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The development of a downtown arts and entertainment district is just one phase of the city's revitalization, according to a newly released Youngstown Reconstruction and Recovery Plan.
Other phases would include attracting new businesses to the Brier Hill area; establishing a shipping hub for Federal Express, United Parcel Service and others at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport; re-establishing local passenger rail service; and using eminent domain to acquire and demolish vacant eyesore buildings in areas near downtown.
The plan, designed to fit into the Youngstown 2010 development vision, was presented Wednesday by Jeffrey A. Kurz, legal counsel for the Youngstown Arts and Entertainment District Association (YAEDA). On July 16, city council concurred with the association's proposal for a state-designated downtown arts and entertainment district that could bring 15 new liquor licenses to the downtown area.
"It takes the entire city and views each part of the city of Youngstown and how we can bring it back through manufacturing, social initiatives, aesthetic initiatives, economic initiatives, and entertainment. It's a wagon-wheel approach" centered upon the city's downtown, Kurz said.
"This reconstruction plan is designed to make sure that downtown can be functional by making everything around it functional as well," he said.
The plan
The YAEDA-sponsored plan is designed to take advantage of the area's assets: availability of ample water supply and land, excellent highway and rail transportation system, fully equipped Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, low cost of living and large labor pool.
Besides bars and restaurants, the downtown entertainment district would include artists' studios and galleries and specialty stores, such as a "Made in America" store featuring only U.S.-made goods, Kurz said.
In Brier Hill, the goal would be to get a continuum of related businesses to locate there, including suppliers, manufacturers and distributors, with convenient proximity to the 711 connector now under construction. Spurred by land and tax incentives, these businesses would offer job opportunities to nearby low-income residents as well as Youngstown State University and technical school graduates.
To expedite shipping for the benefit of local businesses, tax and land incentives would be used to get Federal Express, UPS and others to set up business the airport. This would also capitalize on the area's geographically central location for shippers.
An ambitious part of the proposal calls for local passenger rail service connecting Youngstown and surrounding communities along track in a 24-station system running from Ashtabula to East Liverpool.
That proposal would be patterned after the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.