Rock-solid future

Sweet, Williams recognize value of YSU-city partnership

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Those gathered in Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University on Friday evening were there to celebrate.

They were experiencing African culture at the 10th annual Jabali African Cultural Celebration, sponsored by YSU’s Africana Studies Program.

There was dinner, music and even entertainment later by the Harambee Youth Group dancers.

But as they celebrated Jabali, which means the rock in Swahili, they also celebrated the rock, or foundation, that education gives people, said Victor Wan- Tatah, director of the studies program.

He went further, explaining that the evening also was a recognition of the partnership the university has with the city of Youngstown.

It’s a partnership the university is “particularly proud of,” YSU president David Sweet told the crowd.

Sweet remembered a keynote speech at Jabali two years ago, when Sonja Williams, Mayor Jay Williams’ wife, spoke of the Jabali goats, a hardy Syrian breed that will climb a mountain to get food when it’s scarce at the base.

Jay Williams, who gave the speech this year, said he wanted to pick up where his wife left off as he talked about how Youngstown is on the rebound.

He said the city itself is climbing out of harsh conditions.

It has been named by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the top 10 cities in which to start a business, he pointed out.

It is one of the top 25 metropolitan regions where you can get more “bang for the buck,” he said.

Its health-care systems and the university are excellent, he said.

He pointed to General Motors in Lordstown as critical to producing an important new small car, the Cruze.

The mayor acknowledged the city’s crime problem but said the crime rate is trending down.

He said investors and entrepreneurs are attracted to the city, which is shedding its image as the “poster child of a rust-belt community gone wrong.”

He said that population in urban centers is rising, with small and midsize cities suited for many to call home.

“We can be strong again,” he said. “We can climb, because as Sonja told us two years ago, that’s what Jabali goats do.”