Coalition aspires to revive East SideSFlb

Group wants residents to improve area’s appeal

By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — A nearly 40-year-old organization has joined forces with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative to form an association aimed at cleaning up the East Side.

The North East Home Owners Association got its start in 1970 as a parent group at a local elementary school. Through the years, it’s supported neighborhood- improvement projects, school levies, the parent-teacher association, cleanup campaigns and other projects, said Warren Harrell, president.

Now, with the MVOC, they’ve formed the Eastside Coalition. The MVOC was formed in March 2008 with the goal of improving the quality of life in the Mahoning Valley through the creation and support of healthy neighborhoods, primarily in Youngstown and Warren.

The goal of the new East Side group, said Harrell, is to bring people living in the 1st and 2nd wards together to help make the East Side an appealing location for those looking to purchase a home.

“At the present time,” Harrell said, “[people] are moving south, they’re moving west. We hope and pray one day that can be changed.”

There’s a lot of available land on the East Side, he pointed out.

“We would like to see that green land become developed so the people that live outside the city of Youngstown will find it appealing to move back into the city and build homes on the East Side of town. That’s our dream,” he said.

It will take many organizations to make that happen, he said.

“I believe it will take a number of block watches, a number of churches, a number of community people to get involved to make a difference in the city of Youngstown,” he said. “The Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative is one of the vehicles that can help us do that.”

Pastors, community leaders and other groups such as the Bennington Block Watch and Lincoln Knolls Block Watch are all part of the effort.

“The main idea behind the coalition is to unite the East Side,” said Eric Jordan, MVOC community organizer.

The idea is to tackle bigger issues than a single block watch can handle, Jordan said.

First on the agenda is cleaning up an area off Wilson Avenue, where hundreds of tires have been dumped, he said.

“There’s a huge, huge mountain of tires,” Jordan said, “which attracts God knows what. I’m sure there are rats.”

Other items have been dumped as well, he said.

“It’s definitely an eyesore,” he said. “It’s right in the middle of a community, so it causes all kinds of problems. And the people around it are just tired of it.”

MVOC consists of more than 60 churches, neighborhood associations and other community-based organizations. The North East Home Owners Association has a membership of 75 households.