Thursday, March 27, 2014
YOUNGSTOWN
South Side residents say they’re upset and frustrated about the condition of their neighborhoods and don’t believe the city is doing enough to help resolve the problems.
About 70 people attended Thursday’s meeting at the Oak Hill Collaborative, 507 Oak Hill Ave., to hear an overview of research done by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., the city’s planning agency.
It was the ninth public meeting the agency and city officials had throughout Youngstown to obtain input on YNDC’s “Neighborhood Conditions Report.” The South Side neighborhoods discussed Thursday included Oak Hill, the Uptown and Fosterville.
The area has seen the most population loss in Youngstown in the past two decades, has the city’s lowest median income, above average for major crimes, and half of all of the properties are tax delinquent, compared to one-third for the rest of the city, said Tom Hetrick, a YNDC neighborhood planner.
“It’s an extremely weak housing market” area, he said.
But several people at Thursday’s meeting said the city isn’t doing enough to save their South Side neighborhoods.
“I want more cops to be available,” said Lula Stubbins, a South Side resident. “People throw their trash into empty lots. They dump cement blocks and roofing materials there too. People rent houses and don’t keep them up. I’ve called everyone at city hall for years and nothing has happened. If we had a cop patrol every now and then that would help.”
Read more comments from the nearly two-hour meeting in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.