A Shrinking City Knocks Down Neighborhoods

[John P]

I read this today and wanted to share it.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/03/15/134432054/a-shrinking-city-knocks-down-neighborhoods?sc=fb&cc=fp

By 2006, most of the steel mills in Youngstown, Ohio, had been gone for decades. The population was shrinking year after year. So the city launched a bold plan to redeem itself.

The plan: Quit trying to redeem itself.

 
Before 2006 and the bold plan, there were other ideas. Or, rather, multiple variations on the same idea.

Youngstown was going to replace the steel industry with a car factory. Or with a NASCAR racetrack, or a riverboat casino. Maybe a blimp factory out by the airport.

"That was the mentality," says Mayor Jay Williams. "It was grasping for straws. If you came in with what seemed to be an even marginally viable economic idea, there was a rush to make that the thing that was going to save Youngstown."

In 2006, the city abandoned all that. And Youngstown walked away from the most fundamental assumption of economic development and city planning: The idea that a city needs to grow.

"We needed as a city to recognize that we're a smaller city," says Bill D'Avignon, head of Youngstown city planning. "We're not going to grow; we're never going to be the Youngstown we thought we were going to be."

But without the dream of growth, Youngstown just had a bunch of empty houses that no one was ever coming back to. So the city started demolishing thousands of empty houses.

"Whenever they decide to do it, they might knock down two or three in the run of that week," says Dolores Marie, who is 83 and has seen most of her block razed. "And then they move down to another section and just do the same thing."

The problem with shrinking cities is that they don't shrink in a smart, organized way. It's chaotic. Thousands of people will leave one neighborhood, and maybe a dozen people will stay behind.

So Youngstown has been offering financial help for those people left behind, offering to move them to a place with more neighbors.

"The theory is streets could be closed," D'Avignon says. "Trash wouldn't have to be picked up in that area."

That would save the city a lot of money. But nearly everyone responded to the offer to move the way Dolores Marie did:

I said I had six kids I raised here. And I said another thing, I got grandkids that's coming up. I been here. I don't feel right moving in any other neighborhood. I want to be here.

So the plan is moving a little slower than expected. D'Avignon says eventually, the people left in these neighborhoods will move or they'll pass away. And no one will come to take over their houses. Then, the city will close entire neighborhoods.

Earlier this week, the 2010 census numbers came out for Ohio. Youngstown's population shrunk by 18 percent in the last decade.

"We can't force people to stay in the city of Youngstown," D'Avignon says.

The city can only follow the people who leave with bulldozers. Take down their homes and hope that the population does eventually stabilize, while there's still some city left to enjoy.

[duvaldude08]

Sounds very similar to Detriot situation. There are several Ohio and Michigan transplants in Jacksonville that love Jacksonville and vowed to never go back to their hometown. Thats shows that we dont have it as bad as we THINK we do. There are other citieswho really have issues no doubt.

[Garden guy]

I have always thought that jacksonville was a big hick town...every year that passes if find that to be more true everyday...our leaders have spent decade after decade trying to make this city more than it really is. Look at the way our people vote...they vote like a small town...maybe we should'nt have incororated...i don't know...i do know that it looks like the leaders and wealthy have use us as a play toy...it's rediculous.

[thelakelander]

It seems like their plan has been a failure so far:

Youngstown, too, talked of relocating people and shutting down parts of the city as part of its highly touted Youngstown 2010 plan adopted in 2005. The plan was designed to help Youngstown become a smaller but more livable city after 30 years of population loss.

But relocating people, ambitious in theory, proved difficult in practice. A lack of resources limited the scope. Ultimately, the city offered incentives of up to $50,000 to move just five homeowners. Four declined; one initially said yes but became too ill to accept.

Today, Mayor Jay Williams said the idea of moving people always was more "theoretical and academic" than a core part of Youngstown 2010. Hunter Morrison, an urban planning professor who helped draw up Youngstown 2010, said the city has "pretty much abandoned the notion that you're going to aggressively move out folks."

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=188977&highlight=youngstown

[Duuuvalboy]

Jax just suck.. they mind as well tear everything down.. I gave up on this piece of shit city a long time ago. I'm moving from this hick ass town

[Jumpinjack]

^ Goodbye and good riddance. Your contribution to the improvement of our city has made no difference at all.

[Garden guy]

It's a hick town but its my hick town and i'll not give up....it is with heart and mind to make a hometown better and better does'nt always mean bigger and more expensive.

[duvaldude08]

It's a hick town but its my hick town and i'll not give up....it is with heart and mind to make a hometown better and better does'nt always mean bigger and more expensive.

This I do agree with. Also, I know people that have moved here and they explained it perfectly. Jacksonville is not country or a small town. The people here have a "small town" mentaility. The leadership ESPECIALLY thinks "small town". If our way of thinking was more progressive, it would reflect in the city. I have also discovered that to be considered a "big City" you have to have a busy and booming downtown... Jacksonville does not. Cities are judged by their downtowns.

I will put money on it, if our downtown had a dramatic turn around, peoples "theories" about Jacksonville would change quickly.

[Garden guy]

It's a hick town but its my hick town and i'll not give up....it is with heart and mind to make a hometown better and better does'nt always mean bigger and more expensive.

This I do agree with. Also, I know people that have moved here and they explained it perfectly. Jacksonville is not country or a small town. The people here have a "small town" mentaility. The leadership ESPECIALLY thinks "small town". If our way of thinking was more progressive, it would reflect in the city. I have also discovered that to be considered a "big City" you have to have a busy and booming downtown... Jacksonville does not. Cities are judged by their downtowns.

I will put money on it, if our downtown had a dramatic turn around, peoples "theories" about Jacksonville would change quickly.

I concure...it's kind of like trying to run a mom and pop shop but with a huge city....you cant run a city like a family business....to many deals and lies and agendas and ass kissing...