To fix the Mahoning Valley, leaders and residents must start looking at big picture

To fix the Mahoning Valley,leaders and residents muststart looking at big picture
EDITOR:
Two citizens expressed their views in The Vindicator recently on the racial composition of Youngstown, the Youngstown City School Board's goals, (not quotas), and the district's seven-year school construction project. These goals were established by the board with the ideological notion of equality of opportunity.
The people of Youngstown are being polarized with rhetoric and innuendo in response to comments made regarding the low number of employment opportunities for minorities and females on the school construction project. This rhetoric can have a negative impact on our collective economic survival as we build these schools and struggle to move this community into the 21st century.
Once we were a small steel mill town, with people living in our own separate ethnic neighborhoods and under the shadow of organized crime. Now we have the opportunity to become part of a larger world, economically, socially and even racially. To successfully seize this opportunity we must work as a community. Canfield, Austintown, Boardman et al are all part of the greater Youngstown area -- something we should all remember.
In many communities across America, the flight from the inner cities is being reversed with gentrification and rebuilding of the inner city core. The Smoky Hollow project seems to be early signs of gentrification in Youngstown. It just makes good economic sense to have one police department, one fire department, etc., instead of trying to support one for each overtaxed township or village.
In the Feb. 26 Vindicator, Dorian T. Warren, a civil rights leader, researcher and doctoral candidate from Yale University, discussed the harmonious relationships that existed in union organizing activity in the 1930s between ethnic groups and races. Warren was visiting YSU to discuss "The Relationship Between the Civil Rights and Labor Movement: Connections, Contradictions and Contemporary Lessons," as part of a YSU Center for Working Class Studies Lecture. He points out that during the 1930s, in addition to workplace issues, unions worked with blacks on political issues, housing and even voting rights.
The contemporary lesson to be learned in 2004 is union membership is declining. Young people from multigenerational union families are now encouraged to go to college, become professionals. This seems like an opportune time for the building trades to step up recruiting of Latinos, females and blacks. Especially in view of a recent public relations announcement from the U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao that by 2012 there is a projected shortage of 2.5 million people in the skilled trades and more as baby boomers retire.
The unions may also be missing the BIG picture. Tapping into the readily available labor pool in this community and incorporating them into the building trades will add to the taxpaying base. Since apprenticeships can be four, five years or more, unions need to start recruiting now to prepare for that projected shortage.
Let's stop the we and they, the us and them! Let's work together to bring this community kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
AL CURRY
Youngstown
XThe writer is the EEOC officer for the Youngstown City School District's construction project
To clean up Youngstown,everybody must cooperate
EDITOR:
As a property owner of several city vacant land parcels, I thought I would comment on the July 5 Vindicator editorial, "You've got to pitch them to clean up Youngstown."
I own approximately 10 acres of vacant land at the corner of Albert Street and Victor. This summer I hired two people to remove debris and to cut the grass and weeds.
After the job was finished, I had approximately 18 trash bags of rubbish. Since I felt I did my part on cleaning up my property, I called the Youngstown City Street Department and asked if it would be able to pick up and remove these bags.
My first call resulted in "Yes, will pick them up, either Monday or Tuesday." I received no results, so I called again and said "I am trying to do my part, please pick up these bags." Again no results. I took it upon myself and removed the trash bags.
At approximately the same time, I had vacant property I own in Hubbard Township cleaned of debris and rubbish. When I called Hubbard Township to remove the bags of trash, the Hubbard Township Road Department was there immediately.
For our town to improve its reputation as a "city beyond repair," there must be joint cooperation between the city officials and everyone who rents and/or owns property in Youngstown.
Just think if everyone would take a few seconds of their time to use a trash container to discard their trash, the cumulative effect would be invaluable to our town.
We all must work together to clean up our town.
WAYNE MANCINO
Youngstown
Ex-Strouss building wouldbe perfect for agency offices
EDITOR:
I have read many of the recent articles on the relocation of the Human Services Office. I think the Strouss building in downtown is the better choice and location. Many people are elderly and disabled and have to come by bus. It now takes two buses (one way) to get to the office on Garland Avenue, unless you live on the East Side. If the office is moved to Southside Hospital, it is again going to take two buses to get there, whereas a centralized downtown location allows for all people on all sides of town to have equal access and one bus trip. Why move the office at all if it is not going to be centralized?
I see Southside hospital as a poor location as it is on a steep hill (that no elderly or disabled person is going to walk up if they miss their transfer bus from the WRTA Station.) Downtown is a 9 to 5 downtown. That is when the majority of businesses are open. Adding the Human Services Office, reinforces revitalization by allowing the people who work there and come there to use other downtown establishments during business hours, thus strengthening those businesses. If parking is the problem for not relocating down there, then rebuild the parking deck on Commerce that went with the building when it was Strouss. It seemed to be ample parking for the needs of that building then.
LISA BETH MOORE
Youngstown