Resident is giving up on the city after living in Youngstown almost 85 years

Resident is giving up on the city after living in Youngstown almost 85 years

EDITOR:

I am writing to let you know exactly how fed up and frustrated I am with the City of Youngstown. I’ve been a resident of the city for most of my 85 years, and because of your inability to reduce crime and make the city a safe place to live, I am being forced to leave my home against my will.

Twice the month of December there was a break-in attempt at my East Dewey home. Since then, six other people have had the same problem around the area. So much time is spent on the downtown area; why not worry about the neighborhoods a bit more? The rate we are going, who will be left to go downtown? The city built that beautiful Chevy Centre, and can’t even manage to run it without complications right and left. The South Side is full of senior citizens who worked hard and took care of their homes and were so proud. Now, they have to live around abandoned houses and be unsafe.

I’ve lived in my home since 1994 and watched as other homes on the block fell into despair, especially the house right next to me, which I’ve been complaining to the city for about eight years. The owner has let the house sit vacant, becoming more and more dilapidated every year. Windows were broken out, the grass has been let go for the past eight years, and last summer, the grass was taller than me-and I’m five feet, two inches. I called city officials and heard the same story every year: “We will prosecute the owner and fine him $25.” Then he cuts the grass once, and that’s it. The city doesn’t follow through, so every year it’s the same thing. A once beautiful home is now ruined beyond repair, like thousands of others. I’ve called my councilman, the mayor, and the owner himself, all to no avail. It’s just one case out of hundreds like it. No one does anything about it. Just like the crime. It persists, unchanged and only getting worse.

Every night on the news there is a story of another murder in the city — 39 in 2007 — and both ’07 and ’08 began with multiple murders in January. Homes are vandalized and broken into all the time. How can you expect people to want to invest in the city and live here and send their children to school when they never know when someone will be pounding on their door in the middle of the night trying to break in? It is a waste of time and money to do any revitalization in the city until something is done about the crime. And at this point, I wonder if anyone can do anything.

I lived in various neighborhoods of the South Side since the 1950s. My first home is long gone, torn down in the ’80s, and the one on Marmion Avenue has sat vacant for most of the past decade. Other homes on the street that were once beautifully kept were let go and eventually torn down or now sit abandoned, victims of vandals. It disgusts me to see what has happened to the city I lived and raised my children and grandchildren in. I don’t want to leave my home, but don’t have a choice because it’s no longer safe for me to stay.

After so many years of watching Youngstown officials and politicians make bad decisions for the city, I am convinced that nothing good will come of the city until you do something to make people feel safe in their homes. If that isn’t your first priority, everything else is just a waste of time and taxpayer money.

MARY E. DILLON

Youngstown