Youngstown couple turns blight into beautiful

They received help to acquire vacant properties near their South Side home.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Willie and Mary Mitchell were newlyweds who had only recently moved into their home on West LaClede Avenue in the early 1970s when they met their neighbor from across the street.

The man they only knew as “Mr. Damon” was an architect who took great pride in his home and his yard.

“He didn’t allow even one dandelion in his yard,” Willie said from inside his beautiful two-story brick home.

This good neighbor saw the Mitchells raking leaves in their yard one day and quietly walked up with his own rake and started to help them — without saying a word.

His example was extremely powerful for the couple.

“I think we took a stewardship from him,” Willie said, noting that their South Side neighborhood just west of Oak Hill Avenue was filled with professional people at the time. The homes were solidly built with lots of oak floors. The houses were set back from the road, and the street was lined with oak and maple trees.

Mary took to Mr. Damon’s example easily, she said, because her mother in Alabama had been a gardener.

“It must have been in my genes. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed, and now my daughter enjoys it,” she said of Jennifer, 24, a graduate student at Youngstown State University who lives with them. Over the years, Mary would return home from her job at General Motors in Lordstown and go right to work on her flowers and shrubs.

Willie, an upholsterer, handled yard work and maintenance.

1997 Pride Award

The city of Youngstown noticed their achievements in 1997 and presented them with the Pride Award for the beautiful condition of their home. The Mitchells’ home stood out because the area had become the victim of blight, crime and drugs. Many nearby homes became vacant.

“You wouldn’t believe the things you would look out and see,” Willie said of that time, including drug dealing, prostitution and rats as much as a foot long. “Sometimes you just want to give up, but we didn’t.”

Fortunately, in 1999, the city demolished four houses directly behind the Mitchells, on West Dewey Avenue. More recently two lots to the side of the Mitchells were cleared.

The demolitions eliminated some of the blight, but piles of rubble remained. And who was going to cut the grass?

“We decided we weren’t going to let it go to pot,” Willie said.

The situation reminds him of a Chinese proverb: It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

Rather than complain about the mess of rubble, Willie appreciated the work the city did do.

“A lot of people say Youngstown is dead. It is not viable,” Willie said. But every person can be a light, rather than darkness.

“Youngstown will always be here,” he said, adding that all of the emphasis on rebuilding downtown Youngstown will not produce lasting results until the neighborhoods are better.

“This is Youngstown. This is the town,” he said, standing in the nicely mowed vacant lots around him.

“Lighting the candle is what she does,” Willie said of his wife’s beautification work. “People will drive by just to look at the yard and the flowers.”

Work as example

The Mitchells hope their work is an example to others.

“We could have lived anywhere we wanted. But there’s a lot of potential with the older homes,” Mary said. “A lot of other people are taking pride in their homes, too.”

Willie added, “When people come down the street, we want them to say, ‘That looks nice.’”

This spring, Mitchells learned an agency had started a program to allow people to buy vacant, tax-delinquent land at a small price so that it could be returned to productive uses.

The Mitchells are close to completing the legal processes to become owners of two parcels. Because the Mitchells qualified for assistance, they will pay about half of the cost of a foreclosure action in common pleas court for both — around $450.

They have also paid the price of the liens on those two parcels and four others nearby that they want to acquire. That cost is $337 for all six, said Debora Flora, executive director of Lien Forward Ohio, the group formed by Youngstown and Mahoning County to carry on the work started by former Treasurer John Reardon.

After Lien Forward Ohio began its work in the 20 Federal Place Building last summer, Willie Mitchell attended its first workshop.

Flora said she was impressed by Mitchell’s enthusiasm for improving his neighborhood. When she drove there and saw the work he and his wife had already done, she knew he would make a good partner for Lien Forward Ohio.

“What Lien Forward understands is people need a vested interest,” Willie said. “Give them something to do.”

runyan@vindy.com