Work in progress: Plan for Warren hits snags

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — Southwest Warren, the part of the city with some of the most serious housing problems, generated the most controversy when a Bowling Green, Ohio, company came to town to create a comprehensive plan for the city.

At a meeting of the Strategic Planning Committee of City Council, Charlene Kerr, one of the principal owners of the company, Poggemeyer Design Group, said Monday that her company thought it had gathered information about what the residents wanted for their neighborhood but later heard quite a different story.

Initially, it seemed that southwest residents were in favor of demolishing large tracts of housing to the south and west of the former Western Reserve High School and providing incentives for people to move to other areas of the city, Kerr said.

But that information primarily came from the people who were the most involved in the information gathering for the southwest area, Kerr said: Tina Milner, her brother, James Walker, and Rhonda Bennett.

In an interview with The Vindicator, Walker said many of the suggestions for demolition and revitalization were his.

Sue Hartman, who lives on Elvina Street Southwest and is the 7th Ward councilwoman in the southwest area, said Monday Milner, Walker and Bennett “don’t even live there [in southwest Warren].”

Kerr responded, “But we didn’t know that.”

Hartman added, “My problem with this, we’re going to voluntarily move these people, and the civil rights of these people is being violated.”

Milner and Walker have said they live in northwest Warren but are interested in southwest Warren and other areas of the city.

Bennett lives on Hoyt Street Southwest and recently filed with the Trumbull County Board of Elections to run for the 6th Ward council seat now held by James “Doc” Pugh. The 6th Ward lies within the southwest neighborhood.

Rucker said the idea of moving people out of southwest Warren sounds a lot like what happened when the “Flats” area on the city’s south side was redeveloped years ago, which moved low-income people out.

Kerr said Milner, Walker and Bennett went on a ride-along to gather information about the neighborhood and attended an informational meeting with southwest residents Feb. 9 at New Freedom Missionary Baptist Church on Tod Avenue Southwest.

But a couple of weeks later, when Kerr attended another meeting at the same church, different people showed up, including Helen L. Rucker, a councilwoman-at large, of Beechcrest Street Northwest.

Milner and Bennett were not there, and Walker didn’t stay long, she said.

Kerr said she finds it frustrating that two different groups have expressed very different opinions on what they want to be done with the southwest neighborhood, but she is willing to revise the recommendations for the southwest area.

The plan now suggests that homeowners wishing to stay in the worst neighborhoods buy up properties near them rather than demolish all of the houses in an area.

Councilman Andy Barkley, chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee, said he will help in any way necessary to facilitate another meeting so that Hartman, Pugh and Rucker and others can discuss the matter further with Poggemeyer.

Kerr said her report, due for completion sometime this spring, will also recommend that investment be made around the new Jefferson K-8 school to be built at Tod Avenue and 5th Street Southwest over the next 18 months.

Kerr said residents want to see the former Western Reserve High School turned into a community center and that Barkley plans to talk to school officials to discuss the feasibility of such a project.

Kerr said she believes there is a limited amount of time available to put such a plan in place.

Council members said they believe that would require the school system to either demolish or sell the old Reserve building within six months of the new Jefferson school opening.

When the comprehensive plan is complete, it will be handed off to the Warren staff of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative to carry out, Kerr said.

The MVOC is a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve neighborhoods in Youngstown and Warren. It is primarily funded by the Wean Foundation.

runyan@vindy.com