Moving to Youngstown Ohio (Boardman, Canfield: 2010, houses, neighborhoods)

[y.hoo123]

Hello All. We are building a call center in Youngstown Ohio. We plan to employ 500 to 700 people. We have selected our site location and we are now looking into placing our leadership team into residences.

We would appreciate ant suggestions as to where it may be a good area to establish residence. Ohio have great school districts over all. We are looking for nice neighborhoods close to fine dining, entertainment and recreation and more importantly great school districts from K - 12.

It does not need to be in Youngstown. We are open to nearby areas. We appreciate any feedback in this regards. Cheers

[y.hoo123]

I neglegted to mention that perhaps it may be a good idea to search for areas that are more diversivied in terms or ehtnic back grounds. How is the Asian population in and around Youngstown?

[JR_C]

Welcome to the area!

Are you building your new call center within the city?

As far as places to live, since you're specifically looking for great schools, I can't recommend living within the city. (although open enrollment to a number of neighboring districts is available)

I don't really know much about the suburbs, so I'll let those who do know about them fill you in. I will say that the city still has most, if not all, of the cultural amenities like museums, symphony, plays, etc. But, Boardman is the center of shopping and dining in Mahoning County. They have almost every chain restaurant you can imagine, and some nice local places, too. (That's not to say that you can't find good local places all around the area.)

Good luck with your move!

[CortlandGirl79]

Where exactly is your call center going to be??? Trumbull Co? Mahoning Co? Youngstown itself? a suburb?
I would need more information before i started recommending places.
You definitely won't find a whole lot of asians in NE Ohio. The asians we do have mostly live in the suburbs and are professionals. When i worked at Delphi Automotive we had a few Asian engineers and the mostly lived in Howland Township. Other than engineers we have some asian dr's, restaurant owners and unfortunately some that run "health spas", i think you can figure out what that means.

[000000]

avoid youngstown schools. the suburban school districts like poland, canfield, or boardman would be good for the kids. the recent trend in white flight is to relocate columbiana or salem.

the youngstown metro area has become too small over time to have organized areas of diversity. in other words, there is no chinatown per se, although youngstown is such a small city it can feel like the area is one big little italy.
in any event, youngstown is a dying city surrounded by a layer of suburbs, which is in turn surrounded by rural areas. basically, people that can afford to live in the suburbs and rural areas regardless of ethnicity and then sort themselves out.


as far as cultural amenities, you will have to realize that youngstown only has modest financial ability. there are some fine restaurants around the area, but no cluster of them. there is a cluster of museums, all three of them in downtown youngstown. youngstown does have a symphony which finally got a conductor which is interested in more than the paycheck after seemingly forever. there are a surprising number of theater groups. that stated, honestly, you and your staff would be much better served going to the world-class cleveland symphony or see theater in pittsburgh. both of which are about an hour away.

your willingness to hire people in the area is exactly what the youngstown area needs to get over, but there have been too few businesses willing to move into such a corrupt and union-happy area. i do hope that you pressured the area governments for tax abatements. i doubt that you will have any problems getting people to work at your call center. in fact, you will likely be considered a sort of hero because you actually have money and are willing to invest it in town.

[TheYO]

I would look towards the southern suburbs of Boardman, Canfield, and Poland. All three have excellent school districts, far better than Youngstown city schools. Boardman is the largest and has the greatest selection of stores/restaurants.

Most of the entertainment will be found in downtown Youngstown, but it's easily accessible from all three suburbs

[South Range Family]

I guess it's true. They already signed a contract for the Phar-Mor building.

Call center downtown could employ up to 500 - Miscellaneous, News Watch - Vindy.com, The Vindicator

My suggestion for housing your management team is to stay South of Route 224.

[BoardmanFrank]

First off, let me say welcome to Youngstown. I hope you and your fellow co-workers thrive in this community.

If you are looking for executive residences, or even beautiful and affordable middle class homes, I would suggest going through the Youngstown 2010 website. There are just some awesome homes in some of the sections of Youngstown that are definitely worth your time. Especially if some of you co-workers are really into historical residences, including many brick and stone ones.

these links have many pictures of what the houses look like in the neighborhoods. There are powerpoint presentations with pictures of many examples.

fifth avenue:
Youngstown 2010 - Neighborhoods - Fifth Avenue

crandall park:
Youngstown 2010 - Neighborhoods - Crandall Park North

handel's:
Youngstown 2010 - Neighborhoods - South Side - Handel's

idora:
Youngstown 2010 - Neighborhoods - Idora

boulevard park:
Youngstown 2010 - Neighborhoods - Boulevard Park

Sometimes people may chime in here, yelling their opinions about how horrible the Mahoning Valley is - the lack of knowledge of living in certain sections of the area helps to drive the negativity. Plus as far a education in the city, there are private academies (two main ones are catholic, but folks of all backgrounds send their kids there) besides the city options.

If fact, if you are looking for diversity, the catholic high schools are actually really diverse places. When I was in school there we had people of many different non-Christian religions. I was just filled with people who wanted their students to learn - which is really the most important thing.

Make sure you visit any neighborhoods with our own two eyes, trusting your judgement over internet chatter.

[ytown2]

The most culturally diverse community in all of the Valley is by far Liberty. Although I live on the North Side of Ytown, I grew up in Liberty and it is truly the melting pot of the Valley. The school system has gone through some changes, but i have younger cousins who recently graduated from LHS and are in very high level colleges...The school (in Liberty) at the Jewish Community Center has a very, very good elementary education as well.

[000000]

as you can see, the people of the area get very provincial about their little parts of town. you should also be aware that "pro-yo" activists are on this board in order to provide a rose-tinted vision of what they want things to become, instead of what is really there.


in reality, youngstown is a small dying city with bland suburbs. what makes it a place for pioneering entrepranuers like yourself also makes it a slow, boring place to live compared to most other cities.