South Avenue task forces to form, take action

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The South Avenue Area Neighborhood Development Initiative (SAANDI) is mobilizing into six task forces to address specific objectives at 5 p.m. Thursday at Metro Assembly of God Church, 2530 South Ave.

The task forces will focus on: crime; housing and blight; neighborhood and community building; businesses, jobs and economic development; grants, financial and material resources; and volunteer resources. Each task force will develop and report on projects to benefit the neighborhoods along the city’s South Avenue Corridor.

This action plan is to tackle the concerns, needs, strengths and opportunities expressed by neighborhood residents, block-watch leaders, churches, schools, social-service providers, real-estate investors and local businesses. Specific projects emerged from a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis, with an emphasis on empowering the people living and working in the SAANDI neighborhoods with specific things that can be done immediately.

The Housing and Blight Task Force will start a property mapping and inventory to build upon the vacant-property survey done by Youngstown State University and Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative in 2008, noting the condition of owner-occupied and renter-occupied homes as well as vacant houses.

With an emphasis on rehabilitation and property maintenance, the focus is on helping property owners to obtain funds to “save the savable” homes and prevent abandonment and blight. This inventory also will identify the parties responsible for blighted properties and prioritize properties for demolition or rehabilitation, using the new “land bank” to be established under House Bill 313.

The Neighborhood and Community Building Task Force will be working in the Lansingville area, preparing for the annual July 3 parade. June 5 and 26 will be cleanup events along the parade route.

“Neighborhood and Community Building will transform our community with the creativity and enthusiasm of our people,” organizer Gail Stark explained. “Combining the talents of our children, schools and residents, there are many possibilities for what we can accomplish.”