March 12, 2010
By George Nelson
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Youngstown and three other cities impacted by the automobile industry could know by May whether the Obama Administration will use the four communities as demonstration sites for using federal resources to address issues such as land use and economic development, Mayor Jay Williams said.
                Youngstown is one of four communities that participated yesterday in the Future of Auto Communities Roundtable: Repositioning Land and Infrastructure for Economic and Environmental Opportunities. Convened by the Brookings Institution and the White House Council on Auto Communities, the event was held at the U.S. Labor Department in Washington. The other communities that participated were Cleveland and the Michigan cities of Detroit and Flint.
                Among the states, Ohio is second only to Michigan in terms of auto-related industries, Williams said. While not impacted by the industry to the degree that Flint, for example, has been, he said Youngstown was invited to participate in part because of its past successes in reusing former industrial sites and its ongoing efforts to address land use through the Youngstown 2010 plan.
                The federal government appears to be looking for opportunities to identify four demonstration sites where federal agencies would channel federal resources to assist with the transformation of vacant land, planning and resources economic development initiatives, Williams said. The projects would be used to shape federal policy in both the short and long term.
                “These lessons and successes could be translated to other communities across the country,” the mayor said. What programs and resources might be made available to the demonstration sites likely will be disclosed at a follow-up meeting with the four cities planned in May.
                “There is an effort to have this happen in a fairly short time frame,” he said. That follow-up session was initially panned for April, but was postponed because of the “level of discussion” that took place Thursday.
                Based on the discussions, which he described as having “a certain degree of substance,” he is confident that the meetings will lead to “resource allocation and policy shifts” that would be beneficial to the city. A year ago, the mayor put Youngstown forward as a potential demonstration site for federal development programs and initiatives.
                Based on comments during the meeting, federal officials see Youngstown as “ahead of the curve” in terms of leveraging resources to achieve these objectives and in community engagement, Williams said. “We are one of the first communities openly talking about shrinkage,” he said. There are also lessons Youngstown can learn from these other communities, he added, including the role played by philanthropic entities such as those represented at Thursday’s meeting.
                Along with Williams, Youngstown’s representatives were William D’Avignon, city community development director; Presley Gillespie, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.; Ian Beniston, YNDC assistant director; and Jennifer Roller, program officer, urban affairs and neighborhoods, for the Raymond John Wean Foundation.
                Representatives from various federal agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation and White House Office on Urban Affairs, were on hand for the program, as well as representatives of national philanthropic organizations including the Ford Foundation, Kresge Foundation and George Gund Foundation.
                Gillespie agreed that the discussions were productive. “The key thing that we need to do as a city is to stay at the table with the federal policy makers,” he said. Like Williams, Gillespie said the federal officials did not make any commitments but suggested there would be an announcement in 30 to 60 days. “We’re definitely ahead of the curve in terms of the strategies we’re deploying,” but lack the capacity on the financial resources side, Gillespie said. The city is “definitely getting noticed” for its efforts, which he hopes will lead to more resources.
Copyright 2010 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.