Forum to focus on racial issues

The aim is to start talking about race and its role in a stable community.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Planners pointed out in neighborhood meetings this summer what the Youngstown 2010 plan for the city's future can't address.
Among them are nebulous topics such as safety, education and, particularly, racial divisions.
But that doesn't mean that race doesn't need to be discussed, said Jay Williams. In fact, the city's Community Development Agency director doesn't see how 2010 can avoid such an overarching topic.
"It's impossible to talk about the future of the city and not talk about this," Williams said. "It affects how we work, how we play, how we do our business."
So, the 2010 process takes on race in a live, town hall-style broadcast Wednesday.
"Race and Youngstown 2010: Vision or Division?" airs at 8 p.m. on PBS Channels 45 & amp; 49 from the Kilcawley Center on the Youngstown State University campus. WYSU-FM 88.5 will simulcast the hourlong forum.
The forum is open to the public. Organizers expect about 50 people but hope for more.
Williams will moderate, as he has most other 2010 events the past couple of years.
Highly segregated area
In 2001, a national study showed the Youngstown-Warren area had a higher rate of segregated living than most parts of the country.
The 2010 plan can't "fix" racial divides, Williams said. Nobody should expect the forum to fix anything, either, he said.
Instead, the aim is to start an ongoing community conversation. The discussion needs to be about how to address race and its role in establishing a stable community, Williams said.
Today, race primarily is referenced in discussion about crime and lack of job opportunities for minorities, he said.
"Have we talked about it in the context of building for the future? No," Williams said.
Even the notion of majority and minority need revisiting, he said. The city's population is split between black and white residents with a growing Hispanic population. It's hard to tell who the minorities are these days, he said.
Ultimately, people of every stripe just want to live in a prosperous, vital community, which is what 2010 is all about, Williams said.
"How do we get from here to there?" he asked.
Dispelling fears
The forum also is a chance to dispel some myths about how 2010 could affect blacks in particular, Williams said.
Concerns have been raised about revitalization pushing out some less-wealthy residents. Williams has called 2010 "managed gentrification," with plenty of room for residents of all races and economic levels. There also is suspicion the 2010 plan is under the control of an undefined few with an also undefined agenda, Williams said. The perception remains despite the input of several thousand people in shaping the plan, he said.
A live broadcast is risky, but the fear of a homogenous audience -- black or white -- is greater than whether comments might become overheated, Williams said.
PBS is confident Williams can appropriately direct the conversation, said Jeremiah G. Blaylock, the producer-director.
Background segments
The forum will feature taped segments to give the topic a foundation.
A brief history of race in the area will focus on how steel companies encouraged racial divisions to keep workers from organizing. There also will be interviews with college students and their take on race, and perspectives over a lifetime from senior citizens.
PBS is airing the forum to bring talk about race into the open, Blaylock said. Racial divisions have the potential to scuttle the progress that 2010 is outlining, he said.
"It was time to hit the one topic that could derail the whole thing," he said. "We feel the subject has to be discussed."
This will be the fifth and final PBS broadcast focusing on 2010 unless funding is renewed or a new sponsor secured, Blaylock said.
Other broadcasts have introduced 2010, compared Akron's revival to Youngstown, discussed the role the arts play in revitalization and provided a prelude to the recent neighborhood meetings.
rgsmith@vindy.com