The 2016 Ralph Meacham Award winner is ...

I decided to start an award in 2015 to honor the feat that is Ralph Meacham, Mahoning County auditor. He went from a suburban anybody to county auditor in 10 weeks – completely out of the blue; a Republican winner in a Democrat-rich area.

This happens in life. David does beat Goliath.

The award is a committee of one: me. Last year, I honored Barry Dyngles for its Queen of Hearts million-dollar lottery spectacle in the shadows of a multi-million-dollar casino. My 2016 Ralph Meacham Award goes to ...

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In the dark, early hours of an April 2016 weekend, when many people were ending their day amid downtown nightlife, Derrick McDowell was just getting his day started.

That day changed his year – and likely his life.

He was with the only person who believed in his vision:

Himself.

He was arranging garbage cans, tables, portable bathrooms and more. All had to be in place by 7 a.m. That is when the vendors would be getting there – 38 of them.

Just weeks earlier, he had anxiety if any vendor would come.

As daylight came that April Saturday and vendors flowed in, his next anxiety shifted to customers. Would there be any?

“My wife got there in the morning, and I was all grimy. I told her I just had to run home to shower and change,” McDowell said.

He tells this story in real-time detail like you were watching live drone footage.

He bolted home, and in no time, he was headed back downtown – just got off I-680; driving down South Avenue. His wife, Nettie, called.

“Where are you? You have got to get here now,” he recalls her saying.

More anxiety. He was just getting near the South Avenue bridge to downtown, and said he’d be there in a minute – until he saw the traffic.

“I remember saying to her ‘What is with all this traffic?’”

It’s his, she told him.

Youngstown Flea was born.

It ran the third Saturday of each month in 2016 off Front Street next to Covelli Centre. (Not in the Covelli lot; more on that later)

It is a “makers mart” and not a flea market, he attests. What you can buy – art, crafts, jewelry, food, etc. – is most times handmade by the person who’s at the table selling it to you.

It’s quality; it’s unique; it’s hip; it’s not institutional; vendors have to apply to get in.

And it was the hipster retail rage of Youngstown this year.

You may have seen the yellow Flea yard signs just about everywhere.

So popular it became, the DeYor booked a holiday Flea indoors a few weeks back.

That first April day, McDowell remembers looking from South Avenue bridge over to the Market Street bridge. The same traffic backup was there too.

He drove down Front Street, and his disbelief turned to laughter when he saw the front lawn of the Covelli Centre.

“I thought starting the Flea with a yoga event on the grass would be a good thing,” McDowell laughed. “But I told the girl who was doing it ‘Hey – I have no idea how this will work. I can’t promise you anyone will do this.’”

The front lawn was filled with 20ish people doing yoga.

If that eight-hour window seems bumpy, unintended, unpredictable, a bit bold and singularly manic – it mirrors Derrick a bit.

Born here, raised in Alabama, then back here for high school, McDowell graduated from Chaney High School in 1998 with aspirations for an art career. He got through a few years at Youngstown State University before fatherhood came and money was needed.

“I didn’t have a mentor for what I wanted to do. I had to go to work, so I jumped into cellphones to provide for my family,” he said.

After several years of bouncing around AT&T stores, he spotted a trend: He was sent to stores that needed to be fixed in some way.

“I was a fixer,” he said.

He was also miserable, per his wife’s observations.

“She said, ‘You’ll never be happy if you don’t be you.’ ”

Two things collided in 2012 that worked in different ways, but resulted in a relaunch of McDowell.

One was a chance conversation with Tom Wronkovich, owner of the Harley-Davidson store in Austintown. He was launching a new clothing line, Whiskey Grade. Wronkovich took Derrick all over the country with that product launch.

“I got to see what maker markets looked like across the country,” said McDowell, and I thought ‘Why not Youngstown?’”

Second was Derrick himself starting a clothing company called Wardrobe with a line of T-shirts tagged “We are a Generation.”

All three ventures – Flea, “We Are” and helping Wronkovich – shared a theme that is core to what drives McDowell. They are not just products. They are also movements, communities and mantras.

He gives much credit to Defend Youngstown’s Phil Kidd and what he started. If you heard the two speak, their conversations could almost be perfect overlays of each other.

I said earlier about “bumpy” and “unintended.”

That was the launch of “We Are a Generation.”

With some leaders, Derrick was not a popular guy because his launch of the T-shirt line included putting “We are a Generation” graffiti and fliers around town.

“I strategically did it on dilapidated buildings in high-traffic areas,” he said.

Some leaders loved it. One photographer sold framed photos of one building hosting the slogan. A social media debate ensued, and McDowell tried to jump in to explain it was a movement, not just a T-shirt sales gimmick.

The graffiti and fliers came to a head when a copycat painted the “We are” on the old Mahoning Avenue Sparkle Market, which was for sale. The tagging was out of McDowell’s hands, and he knew the street marketing reached a halting point.

“I overstepped and was overzealous, I admit,” he said. “I went and painted them over and apologized, and I moved on.”

That’s the poetry with McDowell – he has immense conviction, and is blunt in some ways. I sat with him for many hours this year on another community project, and there’s a magic about his style that is often captivating and sometimes exhausting. But you realize: He’s really good, and let him run.

Flea was immense conviction.

“He was my cellphone guy, and his customer service was exceptional,” said Wronkovich. He was launching Whiskey Grade a few years back as Derrick was launching Wardrobe.

“I said ‘Let’s try this together,’” Wronkovich said. “He thinks abstract. He asks ‘How can we be different?’ And he asks questions not just to ask questions, but to get to an end,” he said.

There’s one key thing Wronkovich liked.

“He’s resilient. Any time you start something new, you’re often sitting at night staring at the ceiling wondering ‘What did I just do?’ You have to get up in the morning and just go. I told him that the longer you stay in the box to duke it out, the better,” Wronkovich said.

“I have seen successes fall short too many times because of not turning the next corner. Derrick has resolve.”

Not many people got Flea, McDowell said. He grew more discouraged when even the people he believed in, who fit the maker mold, did not believe it would work here.

It was convenient that Flea excelled in the shadows of the Covelli Centre. He was a startup, and knew that locating the parking lot mart at Covelli would lend it credibility. But Covelli rent and insurance terms for parking lot space were too rich. He remembers thinking “How do I explain to them – this is a startup.”

But in exiting there, he saw a vacant lot next to Covelli Centre. It was next to perfect.

This was about a year ago. He had to figure out who owned it. When he did, it was countless unsuccessful phone calls to the secretary. “She even knew my voice after awhile.” One fluke day, the owner answered, and McDowell got his yes.

He trolled online, recruiting the kind of vendors he wanted – voices of doubters unending. His first vendor contract was an ex-Youngstowner living in Pittsburgh. She signed up for the whole season.

“There were all these moments of thinking ‘Am I the only one who believes?’ She validated that I wasn’t. I will never forget that moment.”

That first Flea paid all the bills for 2016, and the rest of the season was just padding to grow his vision. The only Saturdays that struggled were when Mother Nature intervened. His peak event drew 68 vendors.

He’s not rich by Flea. But he’s on a roll and ready for it. He’s now in demand.

He wants to stabilize Flea in 2017 while looking at other things in other places.

“We’re looking at different communities. But it’s also about finding the recipe that works for that community. You don’t just pick this up and drop it in another community. Had I tried these maneuvers in Poland or elsewhere, I could have easily been rejected.”

He notes one steady partner he had was Youngstown itself.

City downtown events director Mike McGiffin said McDowell was the right person at the right time to make this backdrop work. He helped McDowell through some early steps when the concept was foggy, and then helped after launch when there was this collective “Wow” and some tweaking was needed. McDowell said many officials stepped in after Flea 1 to help him get official; all help, no hate, he said.

“There’s a grit to what Derrick has created. It’s real. It’s authentic. It’s a good fit for what else is happening in the city right now,” said McGiffin.

Also new in 2017 is derrickmcdowell.com – an aspiring motivational speaker site and career. I teased him about going all Tony Robbins and such.

He said in part, the site was to be sure that as all of this grows – Flea, Wardrobe, “We Are” – and his name starts to get attached to it, his story and beliefs are expressed and not lost in public perception.

In earning the 2016 Ralph Meacham award, one last thing that’s cool about the Flea instant success and McDowell’s perseverance is the 800-pound elephant in the room.

He is a black entrepreneur.

In a perfect world, it would not matter. But let’s be honest: we ain’t perfect.

As downtown has evolved the last 10 years, and you list the top names tied to its growth – either legitimately or by hype – one thing is consistent: All are white.

Flea was right for many reasons, and one reason is who McDowell is by race.

“I enjoy being one example of a seat at the table. I didn’t single out that cause, but it needs to happen,” McDowell said.

“Hopefully it represents an example that we need to see more of the underserved sectors of our market at the table. Women need it. Black people need it. Hopefully even YSU students see it, too – that you can go after things like this if you are willing to take a leap.”

Todd Franko is editor of The Vindicator. He likes emails about stories and our newspaper. Email him at tfranko@vindy.com. He blogs, too, on Vindy.com. Tweet him, too, at @tfranko.