Director fields questions on city’s comeback bid

By Don Shilling

An international newspaper calls the city ‘a young town again.’

YOUNGSTOWN — An international newspaper has published a story describing Youngstown as a city on the verge of a comeback, and people have noticed.

Entrepreneurs, reporters and people who are just curious have been calling the Youngstown Business Incubator, which The Economist described as a key part of the comeback bid.

“We’ve had an incredible amount of inquiries,” said Jim Cossler, incubator director. “We’re having a hard time responding to them all.”

The Economist is a London-based weekly newspaper that provides news and opinions on international affairs.

Last week’s article, which is titled “A young town again,” doesn’t ignore Youngstown’s problems. It summarizes the city’s past struggles with steel mill closings, influence of organized crime and urban blight.

Though the article compliments the city’s efforts to overcome those struggles, it doesn’t say that Youngstown has solved its shortcomings.

“There are a few signs that things are starting to improve,” it says.

The article talks about the incubator and how it hatched a successful company in Turning Technologies, which has 140 workers. It also mentions Youngstown’s plan to shrink its decaying housing stock through demolitions, a new apartment complex downtown, and some new restaurants and nightspots on Federal Street that are attracting young crowds on the weekend.

“At the moment, it is unclear what others can learn from all this. The plan may not even be working. Unemployment ... has risen against the national average. Yet for the first time in years, morale in the city seems to have improved,” the article says.

This is the most recent in a string of respected publications that have covered Youngstown’s efforts to recover from the decay of its industrial base. Cossler said he thinks The Economist and others are publishing stories on the city because they have been surprised when they stopped to take another look at the area.

“I think maybe they realize they’ve got it a little wrong over the years and overlooked the truly world-class things happening here, and I’m not just talking about the incubator,” Cossler said.

shilling@vindy.com