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Three incumbents on Youngstown council have opponents in the Democratic primary
YOUNGSTOWN
All three incumbent city council members seeking re-election will face opponents in the May 5 Democratic primary.
Councilman T.J. Rodgers faces James E. Smith III and Doris Wright in the 2nd Ward, which takes in most of the East Side.
Councilman Nate Pinkard is being challenged by retired Youngstown police officer Rick Alli in the 3rd Ward, which takes in most of the North Side.
And Councilman Mike Ray faces George Doward again in the 4th Ward, which includes the upper West Side. In a three-man Democratic primary four years ago, Ray received 61.2 percent of the vote to 4.1 percent for Doward. Milan E. Zordich finished second with 34.7 percent of the vote.
2ND WARD
Rodgers’ two challengers say the incumbent isn’t proactive about problems in the ward, and they would be proactive if elected.
Rodgers said, however, that he is proactive, and that it’s his policy to return telephone calls from constituents as quickly as possible.
Rodgers said he’s succeeded in removing blight from the ward, including demolition of more than 150 vacant houses in his first term. He wants to explore using members of the military to possibly help with demolition at no cost to the city.
“Cleaning up the neighborhoods is the most-important issue,” Rodgers said. “We demolish when necessary and rehabilitate when needed. You focus on blight and on reducing crime.”
If elected to council, Smith said he’ll “be more aggressive” in making sure dilapidated houses in the ward are demolished.
“The area needs to be clean,” he said. “People don’t want to develop in an area that isn’t clean and has vacant houses.”
Despite the lack of demand for the city’s current housing stock and a declining population, Wright said she wants to seek federal funding to build new homes in the city.
“That would help rebuild neighborhoods and attract businesses to the city,” she said.
Wright also said she wants to work with community leaders to develop outreach programs that would teach young people the skills needed to get jobs.
3RD WARD
Alli said he has “a lot of respect” for Pinkard, but the incumbent hasn’t succeeded in attracting small businesses to the vacant stores on Belmont Avenue.
“The traffic is there,” Alli said. “There’s no reason to not have small shops, such as barber shops and clothing stores, there.”
He also said council should get involved in helping the city’s school system.
Pinkard, a retired Mill Creek MetroParks police chief, said the city needs “to go after smaller businesses.”
One possibility is to “take our economic programs on the road with trade shows to market Youngstown. We don’t do a good-enough job blowing our own horn on the attributes of the city.”
Pinkard said the poor school system is a major problem in attracting economic development to the city.
Both candidates said they strongly support the city’s planned implementation of community policing.
4TH WARD
With the city’s finances expected to be a serious issue next year, Ray said, “It’s important to have experience on council with the challenges. I look forward to working with a new council. I will continue to do what’s right and what’s in the best interests of the city.”
Ray and Doward said their top priorities are public safety, taking care of vacant properties and increasing economic development.
Ray wants the city to adopt a policy to restrict transfer of properties with code violations or those in need of demolition. The plan, he said, is to keep properties from being acquired for little cost by out-of-town owners who don’t stabilize the homes resulting in the structures becoming eyesores.
“One thing that’s important is stopping the hemorrhaging of people leaving the city,” he said. “Once we have stability, we can talk about growth.”
Doward said owners of vacant properties should be forced to tear down the structures or fix them though he couldn’t say how the city could require that.
He also wants to provide resources and activities for youth, and he opposes hydraulic fracturing in the city.