Business owners and city officials discuss growing downtown

Business owners and city officials discuss growing downtown

YOUNGSTOWN

Downtown business owners and city officials met today to discuss what needs to be done to further grow that area of Youngstown.

Members of the Downtown Business Alliance of Youngstown, a group of downtown business district stakeholders, had its inaugural meeting in the second floor auditorium of the Ohio One Building, 25 E. Boardman St.

The group has about 35 paid members. About 25 people showed up at today’s meeting.

DBAY’s focus will be on retaining and helping grow existing downtown businesses, encourage new ones to locate there, build a working relationship with city government and focus on key areas such as parking, cleanliness and marketing.

The group received the endorsement of Mayor Charles Sammarone, who addressed DBAY at the meeting.

“You’re like a neighborhood watch for downtown,” he said. “Government cannot do everything that needs to be done by itself. It needs to be a team effort. We need a downtown group. We’ve had them before, but they’ve fallen apart.”

For the complete story, read Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com