Turning around Youngstown (Boardman, Canfield: renters, bad credit, loan)

[pghquest]

Originally Posted by JR_C

That's a good question. But, how much will the city save by taking care of less infrastructure? (Plowing fewer roads in winter, using less electricity, maintaining fewer water lines, filling potholes, collecting garbage, etc.)

The idea is to bring jobs, and thereby having people occupy those empty houses, and paying taxes to maintain the expenses to fill water lines etc.. In addition to the employees paying taxes, the companies would, meaning that there would be a profit to the city for tax purposes. Under their current plan, they are currently paying people to move? Sounds counter productive to me..

more jobs = less welfare, and less welfare = less expenses
more jobs = more taxes, from both the companies, and the citizens

More then covers any maintenance expenses that they currently pay. After all, it costs money to knock down houses, tear up streets etc.

p.s. I know they mention saving money on garbage, but garbage services are usually contracted by the house, it does not matter if a garbage truck drives down the street to collect for 1 house, or 10 houses, the cost per house is the same, and not relevant to the discussion.

[pghquest]

Originally Posted by Art1979

Well, yes and no. Enticing business is a little bit more involved and complicated then slapping down $50,000 and saying "Ya wanna come here?" Not that city or county grants are out of the question, Youngstown must prove to be a viable prospect, assuming their dealing with a prudent business owner. Tax breaks, tax credits, grants, revolving loans, wining and dining are all a part of the red carpet fandango that occurs. It is much easier to throw a check at Joe Q. Public and dismantle the neighborhood. That's a short-term solution, while the other is a long-term solution. I would say they need an intricate mixture of both to maximize a recovery. However, Youngstown should keep in mind that if they are successful, they might find a use for those roads they are tearing up (as blighted as they may be). Once it's gone, you need to rebuild to get it back.

I'm currently relocating to Boardman Ohio, a sub part of Youngstown, and I will most likely keep my business in Pittsburgh. If I do move it to Ohio, it will not be in Youngstown. I can tell you that a $50,000 check, or even property to operate my company would be a very good enticement to me to move my company.

[CortlandGirl79]

Wow, interesting opinions here, glad i posted that link!

[Art1979]

Originally Posted by JR_C

As someone who would want the money pit, I tend to agree with the approach of reducing the city's excess housing and infrastructure.

I'm not sure how you wanting a money pit correlates to you agreeing with the city's approach to tear them and infrastructure down. However, It's your money, and more power to you. From the article, it sounds like there's a fixer-upper colonial and victorian available.

My earlier sentiments should not be considered a total dismissal of their plan. My thought is, while this is a short-term solution, their focus should be more long-term. The best would be an increase in population through development (preferrably new residential and commercial units) as discussed. Green space may be pretty, but if the city's holding the property, who's paying the property and income taxes? At 2.75% of gross income (and whatever would comprise of real estate taxes), that's an economic opportunity to be considered.

Originally Posted by JR_C

Youngstown had created infrastructure to accommodate some 250k people, I believe. At it's peak, there were 150k people living in the city. I am one of those who think the city can be great again, but even I think it's unlikely that we'll get back to 150k in the near future.

I don't think anyone was saying it would get back to 150k in the near future.

However, housing demo aside, infrastructure is a sunk cost. 250k? 150k? Whatever the amount, it's done now. Keep in mind, the demo work costs money, too. You can shut off taps, turn off lights, and not drive down streets without removing the infrastructure. They've put concrete barriers up so there is no traffic down those roads. That is probably the most viable option. If construction crews come in, they've got somewhat of an access road to take them to the various construction sites. Patchwork can be done on the road until the special revenue coffers are large enough to pay for a re-pavement.

The over-arching thought is this. Council should be warned: becareful what you take out, you just might have to put it back later.

[pghquest]

Originally Posted by Art1979

I'm not sure how you wanting a money pit correlates to you agreeing with the city's approach to tear them and infrastructure down. However, It's your money, and more power to you. From the article, it sounds like there's a fixer-upper colonial and victorian available.

Completely agree with you here.. Why they dont offer these homes to investors to fix up, at a 0% interest until sold is beyond my understanding, it would encourage people to invest and spend money.. What Youngstown needs.

Rather then spending the money to knock down housing, tear out infrastructure, make it so that the housing and infrastructure is needed. People are leaving Youngstown because there is no jobs.. give companies a reason to offer jobs and people will stop leaving and will return.

Paying people to move, is not only stupid, but ilresponsible in a community with limited resources and limited jobs.

[recycled]

Originally Posted by CortlandGirl79

Nice article from cnn money:
The incredible shrinking city - Apr. 14, 2008

I saw that article on cnn money web site a few days ago. Very interesting, it caught my attention. I read the whole article instead of just skimming through the highlights like I often do with web articles at work when I have a few minutes to browse the news. I have never been into Youngstown, just driven by there on I-80 a couple of times from Pburgh to Cleveland. So, I can't hold any opinion about how accurate the article is, but I have to admit it got me interested.

After reading it, I went to CD.com and looked up the stats on your city to see for myself. The CD stats lead me to this thread and I read a little more about Ytown. Read a little more on Wiki.

So let's see, you've got a little more than 80K people in a city with a downtown business district (not sure how much business is there), a pretty large State University, a large urban park, sports arena, hospitals, theater center, music center, big art museum and so forth, which would normally be found in much larger cities. Hmm, not bad. Crime looks high, but as in many cities I would guess it varies by neighborhood. 2.8% city income tax? Is that on all income that a person has (interest, dividends, capital gains) or is that just a "payroll tax" on earned income for people who work at jobs in Ytown? That's pretty high for city income tax, and I'm thinking that alone might scare a lot of people away or from considering to live there.

I see there are a whole bunch of homes for sale in Ytown in the 50K to 80K price range, and some look pretty decent. I would not want a big house, just something small for myself and some yard area for a few trees and a veggie garden. Since I live in a place where $1500 a month barely gets you a simple 1 bedroom apartment, and state taxes are 9.3 percent in my tax bracket, it gets me thinking there has to be a better way.

I will be in nearby Pittsburgh in a couple of weeks, I think I'll take a side trip in the rental car up to your town to have a look around. I'm going to retire from my cubicle bound engineering job in a few years so I'm open to lots of options.

[CortlandGirl79]

My opinion is that they should continue tearing down the crappy, unoccupied houses. Even if there were jobs in Youngstown i doubt that people w/kids would actually want to live in the City of Youngstown. The schools there are horrible!!!! I'm sure it would take decades to fix the problems w/the city schools and the lack of parenting in the city. People that are working good paying jobs in Youngstown will not want to live there, they want to live in the Canfield, Poland or Boardman areas.

[CortlandGirl79]

Originally Posted by recycled

I saw that article on cnn money web site a few days ago. Very interesting, it caught my attention. I read the whole article instead of just skimming through the highlights like I often do with web articles at work when I have a few minutes to browse the news. I have never been into Youngstown, just driven by there on I-80 a couple of times from Pburgh to Cleveland. So, I can't hold any opinion about how accurate the article is, but I have to admit it got me interested.

After reading it, I went to CD.com and looked up the stats on your city to see for myself. The CD stats lead me to this thread and I read a little more about Ytown. Read a little more on Wiki.

So let's see, you've got a little more than 80K people in a city with a downtown business district (not sure how much business is there), a pretty large State University, a large urban park, sports arena, hospitals, theater center, music center, big art museum and so forth, which would normally be found in much larger cities. Hmm, not bad. Crime looks high, but as in many cities I would guess it varies by neighborhood. 2.8% city income tax? Is that on all income that a person has (interest, dividends, capital gains) or is that just a "payroll tax" on earned income for people who work at jobs in Ytown? That's pretty high for city income tax, and I'm thinking that alone might scare a lot of people away or from considering to live there.

I see there are a whole bunch of homes for sale in Ytown in the 50K to 80K price range, and some look pretty decent. I would not want a big house, just something small for myself and some yard area for a few trees and a veggie garden. Since I live in a place where $1500 a month barely gets you a simple 1 bedroom apartment, and state taxes are 9.3 percent in my tax bracket, it gets me thinking there has to be a better way.

I will be in nearby Pittsburgh in a couple of weeks, I think I'll take a side trip in the rental car up to your town to have a look around. I'm going to retire from my cubicle bound engineering job in a few years so I'm open to lots of options.

Yes, city tax is only a payroll tax. Downtown has actually been getting much better lately. There are a couple federal courthouses, a few restaurants, clubs and the Business Incubator. downtownyoungstown.com - The City... Online!

If you are looking for homes under 100k dollars there are plenty, and a lot of them are in pretty decent areas. Not only can you find these types of homes in Youngstown, but throughout the Youngstown/Warren metro. I think you'll find that most crime is in certain neighboorhoods throughout the city. I think the concensus is that the worst crime is in the East and South side areas of town. The west side is considered the best side, but i would still rather live in the suburbs at this point in time. If you are looking for decent towns in the metro, w/lower crime rates and affordable housing you might want to check out Boardman, Austintown, Niles (44446), Northeast Warren (44484 or 44483), etc.

You might also want to check out these sites if you haven't already:

Mill Creek MetroParks

Youngstown 2010

DEFEND YOUNGSTOWN!

i will shout youngstown

I think if you read anything about the Business Incubator (Youngstown Business Incubator) and you may be impressed by the expansion that is going on w/them in Downtown Youngstown.

Have a great trip!

[Art1979]

Originally Posted by pghquest

I'm currently relocating to Boardman Ohio, a sub part of Youngstown, and I will most likely keep my business in Pittsburgh. If I do move it to Ohio, it will not be in Youngstown. I can tell you that a $50,000 check, or even property to operate my company would be a very good enticement to me to move my company.

Ok, let's say I'm a representative for the City of Youngstown. My initial questions would be:

- What industry is the business in?
- How many people are you going to employ?
- How large a lot would you use?

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Hello,

I was hoping to get some ideas/opinions from some Youngstown locals on a property my friends and I purchased on Redondo RD in Sep 2007. We did our homework and I came to to town, looked at several and finally settled on a beautiful 4 bedroom home that the owners of 30+ years were selling for a song. Since that time, renting it out has been difficult and the current renters don't pay on time. After our property manager evicts them, we are wondering what our next move should be. We are not looking to make a lot on rent. My concern is that we get reliable renters who take care of the property. Are there any programs, besides section 8, that lease long term? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Jeff