Report on Warren nears completion

By Ed Runyan

The report offers suggestions for what can be done with the former Western Reserve High School.

WARREN — On state Route 45, about a mile south of the Hot Dog Shoppe, dozens of people met at New Freedom Missionary Baptist Church to find out how the Southwest side of the city is being portrayed in the city’s soon-to-be-complete comprehensive study.

It’s important that residents of Southwest Warren help shape the plans that will shape the future of Southwest Warren, said Barbara Phinisee, president of the Southwest Neighborhood Association.

“You know what? This side of town is important,” she said of the part of the city considered the city’s poorest at Monday night’s meeting.

Phinisee said she has one complaint about the report: It doesn’t address the fact that there is not one grocery store in Southwest Warren, meaning residents have to travel to other parts of the city to shop.

Phinisee, David Ruffin, president of another Southwest neighborhood group called Community Concerned Citizens II, and others implored those assembled to comment on the nine pages of descriptions of various neighborhoods and corridors.

“If you want to continue living the way you are, keep your mouths closed,” said Rhonda Bennett, who went on a “ride-along” of Southwest Warren with the Poggemeyer Design Group of Bowling Green, Ohio, which is conducting the comprehensive study for the city.

A copy of the Southwest Warren report is available by e-mailing Tina Milner at tkjmilner@juno.com.

Ruffin said he objects to the report’s continual references to demolishing homes in Southwest Warren.

“It’s talking about demolishing part of our neighborhood. Some of the people have lived here 30 years and don’t want to move. How can you be so cold as to tell them to move?” he said.

The report lists about 13 streets to the east, south and west of the former Western Reserve High School where the houses could be eliminated and the remaining residents voluntarily relocated through an incentive program.

James Walker, a member of the Southwest Neighborhood Association, said he agrees with Phinisee that a grocery store is needed in the neighborhood, but he believes it’s necessary to demolish homes, eliminate blight and reduce crime to make that happen.

Walker said he thinks the area could provide space for industrial companies because it is close to railroad tracks and the Route 5 Bypass.

Walker said some of the ideas contained in the report came from Warren residents during two meetings in the Southwest neighborhood last year, but the meetings were sparsely attended.

The neighborhood group meets with Poggemeyer on Feb. 24 to provide feedback on the advance copy of the report.

Charlene Kerr, one of the principal owners of Poggemeyer, said her company has met with neighborhood groups from each of the five sections of the city two times so far to gather information.

The five divisions include each of the four quadrants of the city. The downtown area makes up the fifth group.

In about four months, after meeting with representatives of all five sections of the city, Poggemeyer plans to turn over the plan to city officials and the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, which will be devoting two staff people to work on housing issues for the city, Kerr said.

Poggemeyer’s preliminary report says the southwest area has experienced the largest drop in population in the city in the past 20 years — between 1,050 and 1,762 people.

The report also discusses what to do with the former Reserve High School when it is no longer used as a school building.

Some feel that it should be used as a community center because it has a planetarium, swimming pool, and library that could be used as part of the center, the report said.

A community college or trade school might also be a new use for the building, the report said.

runyan@vindy.com