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'Forward Youngstown' aimed at reclaiming city's identity
By JUSTIN DENNIS
YOUNGSTOWN
Forward Youngstown
Video
Today, Sept. 19, 2018, is about taking back our story. "We have a rich history of entrepreneurship in this city," Youngstown Flea founder Derrick McDowell says.
Officials proclaimed Sept. 19 as a day for residents to look toward the promise of the city’s revived economy, rather than dwell on its past.
Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, council members and local entrepreneurs celebrated the city’s first “Reclaiming Our Identity Day” on the steps of City Hall along Phelps Street on Wednesday.
The date, which also marks “Black Monday” and the shuttering of Youngs-town Sheet & Tube Co.’s Campbell Works in 1977, is now intended to be a reminder of the city’s forward progress, rather than its economic collapse 41 years ago and the perceived depression and negativity officials said have plagued the city’s image in the following decades.
Derrick McDowell, who operates the outdoor market next to the Covelli Centre, said he launched the initiative as a way to “take back what rightfully belongs” to residents, its story, through the work of Youngstown’s “most valuable and rich” resource: its people.
“Our story is not just the rich history of the mills and the tragic impact it had on our community,” he said. “It’s about reclaiming that identity for future generations. We have a rich history of entrepreneurship in this city. This is a day to remember our resilience and resolve,” he said.
The mayor led the crowd in chants of “Forward Youngstown.”
He pointed to a “resurgence” of downtown growth: the recently opened DoubleTree hotel, a $32 million restoration; a proposed $12 million riverfront amphitheater; and proposed downtown expansion of Eastern Gateway Community College. He added city officials are working with Youngstown State University on new land deals.
“The problem sometimes is we get caught up in our history. We get caught up in what it used to be. And today, we’re talking about what it could be,” Brown said during a news conference. “Youngstown needs to move forward from where we are.”
The event and “Black Monday” anniversary coincided with the closure of Northside Regional Medical Center – a loss of 468 jobs.
The first iron blast furnace in Mahoning County was built in 1803 in the Poland area, said William Lawson, executive director of the Mahoning County Historical Society.
He said the iron and steel eras of the 19th and 20th centuries are what brought Valley residents’ forebears to the region.
He suspects his generation was the last to be familiar with the molten metal’s smell or the sounds that echoed from the mills.
“One hundred years ago, there was a great shortage of housing in Youngstown because so many people were coming here,” Lawson said. “Sept. 19, 1977, fundamentally changed our community.”
Brown said he hopes the day will now, instead, energize a new generation of Youngstown entrepreneurs.
“If you have something you want to do in the city, a business, you don’t have to know anybody, you don’t have to pay anybody – if you have a good product and want to serve this community, we’ll work with you,” he said.