Strategic plan concentrates on groups

The city expects to demolish at least 300 blighted structures this year.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Each of the 800 or so little bulldozer icons on the conference-table-sized map represents a building, primarily dilapidated houses, that city officials want to demolish.
At the end of the year, the city officials say, the map will have at least 300 fewer bulldozer icons. If the money is there, there will be no bulldozers on the map three to four years from now, they say.
In past years, the city demolished 150 to 200 structures annually.
The city is off to an ambitious start having already demolished 107 structures so far this year. Of those, 83 were taken down because of the potential danger they posed if not demolished, said Mike Damiano, the city's demolition director. Many were severely damaged in fires.
The city is demolishing properties using a strategic plan that focuses on taking down groups of dilapidated houses in neighborhoods, Mayor Jay Williams said. The old policy was to have each of the city's seven council members provide a list of about 10 houses in their wards and demolish as many of them as possible until demolition funding ran out, Williams said.
That policy did nothing to improve the city because demolishing one house on a street that needs, for example, the removal of four structures, has no impact, he said.
What made difference
An important part of the strategic demolition plan is council's decision to allocate $1.27 million for demolition funding in the 2006 budget, Williams said. Until this year, the $275,000 spent last year was the largest amount of money the city had devoted to residential housing demolition.
The city is moving the process along with the board of control awarding contracts to two companies, each to demolish 25 structures.
The city's board of control approved a $65,000 contract Wednesday with Pro Quality Land Development Inc., a Campbell company, to demolish abandoned houses on the South Side, including five on West Ravenwood Avenue.
The board also awarded a $62,800 contract last week to Siegel Excavating of Edinburg, Pa., to demolish 25 houses. The houses are scattered throughout the North, South and East sides of the city, but they were properties on the city's demolition list for a number of years that couldn't be taken down because of a lack of funding, Damiano said.
The city was to open bids today on another 25 structures on the northeast side, and will accept bids June 29 to take down 25 additional structures on the southwest side, said Carmen S. Conglose Jr., the city's deputy director of public works.
A fifth group of 25 structures for demolition is being prepared, he said. Also, the city street department plans to demolish 36 buildings.
Schools to go
Also, city officials plan to ask council at its June 7 meeting to approve spending about $85,000 to demolish the former Monroe School on Chalmers and Willis avenues.
Later this year, the city plans to take down the former Tod School on the North Side, a project that would cost about $100,000 to $120,000, Conglose said.
The city plans to demolish at least another 30 structures this year.
With the assistance of the Youngstown State University's Center for Urban and Regional Studies, the city mapped out the 800-plus buildings on the demolition list based on complaints about the structures as well as city housing inspections, said Bill D'Avignon, deputy director of planning.
The demolitions are starting in neighborhoods that are the most sustainable in the city, Conglose said.
"That allows us to make a measurable difference in those neighborhoods," he said. "If there is a street with 30 houses and one or two are bad ones, and you get rid of those bad ones, it helps 30 homeowners."
Williams says the plan isn't a divisive one that favors certain portions of the city over others, pointing out that projects are slated for all parts of Youngstown.
Improvements
The plan focuses on improving neighborhoods with new schools or other new construction as well as near hospitals and parks, Damiano said.
If there is enough funding to finish the catch-up demolition work over the next three to four years, the city will spend less in future years to demolish structures that end up in disrepair, Williams said.
Getting rid of dilapidated houses does so much for a neighborhood, D'Avignon said.
"It's available for redevelopment and expansion for people who still live in the neighborhood," he said.
Also, eliminating the blight increases property values near them and makes the area look better, D'Avignon said.
Another advantage to knocking down the structures is safety, Williams said. Vacant, dilapidated houses are used by young kids to play games such as hide and seek as well as by criminals for illegal activities or as a hideout from police, he said.
"It's a quality-of-life issue," Conglose said. "It changes the perception of people to get rid of this blight in their neighborhood."
skolnick@vindy.com