Dblcut3

The only thing that's concerning to me about the current proposal is how steep of a drop off it is between the 12 story building and the three story historic buildings along High. It seems like there should be some type of transition or setback so that it's not just one gigantic 9-story drop-off. Also, I don't get why they want to put commercial space on Norwich, that's an odd choice. Honestly I'd rather see this historic rowhouse building on Norwich be preserved instead, but as long as they preserve the historic buildings on High Street, then I'm not that torn up about it. Although I do think there's an argument that preserving that building would help preserve the character of the whole neighborhood and it would go well with the historic church and apartments across the street.

New Bike Trail between Downtown and Steubenville Marina: I don't update this thread nearly enough, but I decided to go ahead and make a quick post! I was driving the other day and was surprised to see a new bike trail which connects the Downtown area (and the rest of the city) with the Steubenville Marina. I knew this project was being discussed but to be honest, I figured that it would never actually happen. But, they built it and it seems finished now! The trail creates a safe pedestrian and bike crossing with a marked crosswalk with traffic lights going across the four lane OH-7 highway. It then goes one block down to the marina access road - sadly the marina and the road to get there are still in subpar shape, but this at least shows the city is committed to improving the area slowly. It's got some great views of the bridge from down there if any of you are ever in Jefferson County! The only picture I have is this one from October sadly:

I visited the Detroit Shoreway area this past summer and was blown away by how great of a neighborhood it is. These new townhomes/apartments really make the area look much nicer and they make the neighborhood look nice and modern when viewed from Edgewater Beach and the Shoreway. If I was moving to Cleveland, I'd probably pick the Gordon Square area - It would be great to live in a neighborhood that's within walking distance of a vibrant commercial district as well as Edgewater Park and the Lakefront Bikeway!

If only YSU had an interest in preserving old buildings instead of just tearing them down.... It would be amazing if they were to reinvest on that block to bring life back to the Dorian Books Building and the old fire house. There's a large student population on that corner, it makes a lot of sense for them to invest in that block to make Elm Street a more welcoming and attractive place. But sadly they seem to have no interest in this and if they acquired these properties, they'd probably just knock them down anyways.

I think this location will be better for them and will bring some life into this middle section of Downtown. As it stands now, Downtown Akron is basically two small entertainment districts on the north and south ends with a huge boring stretch of offices and such in between. I will say, the Main Street streetscaping project has done absolute wonders for Downtown both aesthetically and for walkability. It's crazy how much more pleasant it is Downtown now compared to even just 2019 when I went to school there. I guess my point is that I'm just glad to see some commercial space in the Bowery project finally. If that middle part of Downtown around Bowery can become more vibrant, it will do wonders for making Downtown more cohesive. I'm sure something will take up the old space since there's been at least a couple new Downtown restaurants in the past couple years. That being said, it doesn't make me feel too confident since the Main/Market entertainment district is less healthy than the Main/Exchange one.

City Council & Economic Development Director Debate Cancelled Dorian Books Project: https://businessjournaldaily.com/council-economic-development-director-debate-canceled-dorian-books-project/ Unfortunately, and to the surprise of very few I'm sure, the project to restore the old Dorian Books building into retail and apartment space is dead on arrival. The announcement has caused tensions to run high within the city as various groups are pointing fingers at each other, with both sides alleging a long-standing lack of communication between the Economic Development Department and City Council. The Economic Development Department is blaming City Council for tabling the legislation which would extend a loan to the developer who wanted the project cleared immediately, while City Council blames the Economic Department for not giving them enough information beforehand. But whoever's at fault, everyone looses as this could have been a pivotal project for an up-and-coming but struggling business district which has seen several closures since COVID. To make matters worse, City Council began to debate with each other again when the topic of road diets and streetscaping in Downtown (around EGCC campus) came up. About half of council believes Downtown investment is most important to create a strong center of the city which results in development filtering out into the other neighborhoods. The other half of council seems to have finally hit their limit and think no more money should be spent on Downtown projects. Overall, it's a bit of a mess and it's quite possible that this project gets cancelled to. Either way, the City of Youngstown seems to have a big communication problem between different departments as this seems to be a constant point of contention from just about everyone working for the city.

Fifth Avenue Improvements Completed: This is kind of old news by now, but I didn't have any pictures of the finished improvements to post here. Luckily, the city has posted some pictures! In case you didn't know, Fifth Avenue was formerly an aging 5-6 lane road which links Downtown and Youngstown State University. As part of the city's recent SMART2 project to rebuild Downtown infrastructure, Fifth Avenue was reduce to two lanes of traffic with a multi-use bike and walk path, landscaping, bus pullouts, and more. It looks so much better and it's great that it will finally be safe to cross Fifth Avenue or to bike along it now that traffic has been slowed down. It really helps improve the look of the city. Eventually, a second small phase will be done which will do similar streetscaping from YSU campus up to Stambaugh Auditorium - in my dream world, they'd continue the landscaped median all the way up to the beautiful existing boulevard at Crandall Park! BEFORE: AFTER: BEFORE: AFTER: South Phelps Street Progress: Additionally, work on the rebuilding of South Phelps Street has been progressing really quickly and will hopefully be completed before the new year. Sadly, the street will not be pedestrian only like North Phelps Street, but it will only have one narrow lane of traffic and will sort of be adopting the pedestrian prioritized "living street" model. The traffic lane, as seen below, is actually a textured concrete surface which will hopefully emphasize that this is meant to be a largely pedestrian area for cars that do not need to use this street. There are two blocks being rebuild, so once the project is done, there will be a contiguous pedestrian corridor between the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheater/Wean Park, Downtown's entertainment district, and YSU. Hopefully the block between Boardman and Federal can be livened up a bit with this project - there's already a new vintage store on the corner of S. Phelps and Boardman and apparently there's someone planning to reopen the storefronts facing Phelps on the old Silver's building.

I would love to see a new parking garage on the surface lot on the corner of Commerce and Wick, across from this building. There actually used to be one there decades ago, but it's still a good spot for a new one. I really hope at least some of their plan pans out though. Having a permanent market/upscale food court would be a great attraction for Downtown. It may also encourage some restaurants to open a downtown location in the food court if they are maybe too scared to open a full Downtown location.

I like the ideas but I sort of doubt any of them will actually come into fruition. But I do think we could use at least a modernized market/food court area with some coworking spaces. I visited Springfield recently and they have a really beautiful food court coworking space combo in their Downtown; if Springfield can support such a development, I imagine Youngstown could as well.

Fall 2020 Pictures: I got some good pictures last year, but sadly, I accidentally had my camera on a really weird setting for most of these pictures which means they are often oversaturated. But, they're still cool to see what the neighborhoods look like in the fall! These are the unedited versions of the pictures since those are easier for me to upload here: Harrison West: Look at this tiny house! University District: The Circles/Dennison Place: Downtown:

While most people think of going into nature to take fall pictures, I've always thought Columbus has some beautiful photo opportunities for fall pictures. The amount of tree-lined brick streets, complimented by the historic homes around them, are great for photos! Sadly I only got a few pictures this year, and I'm not sure I'll get another chance for more fall pictures this season (if I do I'll post them here) - But nonetheless, here's some pictures I took this year and last year of one of the prettiest fall cities! Please note, these pictures are currently unedited so they might not look too amazing. Schiller Park (German Village): Italian Village: Some increasingly rare industrial grit in Columbus: Here's some shots from the next street over, East Fourth Avenue. It's crazy how much infill and home renovations have happened on this street. The neighborhood is so hot right now that the old small houses on streets like this are going for at least $350,000 when I could get the same house in my hometown for about $20,000! That being said, I love this neighborhood and can see why so many would want to live here. I like the black infill house - it fits well with the character of the other houses on this street: I'm sure we're all familiar with the Budd Dairy Hall project which is essentially a new upscale food court. I recommend trying Modern Southern Table - I can't believe I got gumbo so good this far above the Mason Dixon Line! Say Avenue: Summit Street: Fifth Avenue: A little taste of home - Ohio Valley style pizza in the Short North!

Fall in Mill Creek Park: I was visiting home this weekend and decided to stop and get some fall pictures at my favorite spot in Mill Creek Park, Cascade Gorge! I posted about Cascade Gorge in my last post in this thread when I first found out about it this summer. It has become my favorite spot in Mill Creek Park and is by far Youngstown's biggest hidden gem. It is a narrow ravine with two small waterfalls and several smaller cascades that feeds into Lake Cohasset and Mill Creek. In the summer, some people actually climb down the rocks of Upper Cascade falls (pictured below) and swim in the natural pool below. The next few pictures are from the West Gorge Trail a few weeks ago: One of many historic inscriptions near Lanterman's Mill on East Gorge Trail: Lastly, here's the beautiful fall colors at Lake Glacier - it's hard to believe such a beautiful place is only a stone's throw away from Downtown Youngstown and the old factories along the river! Overall, my goal to finally explore Mill Creek Park this summer was successful and a really fun way to further appreciate the beautiful nature right in my hometown! I also made it a project to get GPS traces on each trail in order to put them on OpenStreetMap. I've done a ton of work editing the park on OpenStreetMap to make sure every trail, picnic area, stream, etc. is marked down since there has never been a very accurate trail map of the park made before. So if you ever visit the park, make sure to use OpenStreetMap or an app that uses its data such as AllTrails when hiking!

Plus, it's not like development will ruin what's great about Granville. With good planning, they can still ensure the core of the city maintains its small town charm while the outside areas start to capitalize off of growing development in Licking County. Obviously these are very different towns, but Westerville and Delaware have been able to embrace development while also maintaining the historic cores of their town and maintaining the old charm they have. I guarentee there's a market of people that would love to live and work in Granville if new development started to ramp up there. The way I see it, development will trickle out their direction no matter what, it's just a matter of whether or not they capitalize off of it. I'm not super familiar with Licking County, but I guess NIMBYism to new development in Granville and the Township would probably benefit Newark's growth as people will just build homes there instead.

I hate this so much. I'm not even against development here. But they should make some effort to preserve the historic storefronts and set the tall part of the building back a bit. It would kind of kill the whole vibe of that block which is one of the last parts of High Street with most of the historic storefronts preserved. It would kind of take the "old" out of Old North Columbus. Is there any local commission that would make them revise this?

It's so confusing to me how Shaker Square is in such a bad position currently. It's within walking distance to Shaker Heights (which is a desirable area of course) and Larchmere just north of Shaker Square appears to be booming in development and has a lot of cool new businesses. It just makes no sense to me how Shaker Square, which sits right in the middle of these two, hasn't been able to take advantage of the demand in the surrounding area. It seems the demand is there and it has the opportunity to do something big to solidify itself as the center of that whole part of town. Especially with the streetcar access, any improvement to Shaker Square could even attract visitors from Shaker Heights taking the streetcar in.

New Businesses Coming to South Side's Idora & Indian Village Neighborhoods https://www.wfmj.com/story/44997659/plans-for-yearround-fresh-food-market-in-youngstown-underway The YNDC has been renovating a plaza at the corner of Glenwood and Canfield in the Idora/Indian Village neighborhoods of the South Side. The building will have several retail spaces but a large part of the building is being set aside for the Glenwood Fresh Market, a small-scale grocery store aiming to bring healthy and fresh foods year round to what is otherwise a food desert. The only complaint I have is that they got rid of the rainbow color scheme of the building, but I guess that isn't necessarily a modern look! In addition, a new coffee shop known as Glenwood Grounds is coming to a two story brick building across the street! I don't have too much information about it, but it appears it will be owned and operated by a local church but will be open to all people. It looks like it will be a really beautiful space! I'm glad there's finally going to be some shops opening on this corner. I don't know how successful it will be as the neighborhood has a long way to go, but it has a lot of positive attributes. The Glenwood commercial district still has a decent amount of old buildings standing (many which have been stabilized or renovated by the YNDC), it's a 3-5 minute walk from Youngstown's biggest tourist attraction (Lanterman's Mill), and the neighborhoods to the west of Glenwood are improving or in some cases even beautiful and well-kept such as Indian Village. Additionally, the Foster Theater restoration a block away has the potential to bring another great business to the Glenwood corridor and the YNDC still has lots of plans for improvements to the corridor. This seems to be the neighborhood they've really put all their energy into over the past decade, so I hope it works out for them!

Mill Creek Metroparks Aquires Land for New Nature Preserve in Springfield Township https://businessjournaldaily.com/mill-creek-metroparks-acquires-land-in-springfield/ Mill Creek Metroparks has purchased an 88 acre parcel of land in Springfield Township off of I-76. The land has some primitive trails already and includes a portion of a lake. Before the park bought it, it seems the property was used mostly for deer hunting and fishing. The new nature preserve will be known as Springfield Forest. The property will get a new parking lot, an improved trail network, wayfinding signage, a fishing dock/boardwalk, and ecological restoration. The project is set to be completed in fall of 2022. I'm pretty excited for this personally. Mahoning County already has some surprisingly great hiking options in Mill Creek Park, but it would be nice to see that expanded into the areas outside of the city more.

I'm glad West Lane is finally getting some redevelopment. For as much pedestrian traffic as that street gets, it's completely underutilized and has so many surface lots or underutilized spaces. The only downside about this project is that it gets rid of an affordable apartment complex and replaces it with a "luxury" one. All the luxury apartments around campus are anything but luxury and just a smaller space for double or triple the price.

Deported Businessman Returns to Youngstown, Resumes Pig Iron Press Building Restoration Project: https://www.mahoningmatters.com/local-news/after-nearly-4-years-away-al-adi-is-getting-back-to-work-in-downtown-youngstown-here-are-his-plans-4346736 In feel good news, local businessman "Al" Adi Othman is back in Youngstown after his highly publicized 2018 deportation to Jordan! He was deported in 2018 after living in the US since the 70s due to him allegedly faking a marriage in the 70s. Othman owned several businesses in Youngstown and was an early re-investor in Downtown Youngstown with plans to revitalize the Pig Iron Press Building along the new Phelps Street pedestrian street. His deportation case came at the height of angst over ICE's deportation practices, and reached national news. His deportation was mourned by Democrats and Republicans alike due to his contributions to the local economy through job creation and him having to leave his family behind in Youngstown. A few weeks ago, Adi was allowed back into the US on a special visa that puts him on the path to citizenship. A lot has changed since he left, but his family held on to the Pig Iron Press Building, and he now announced that he is resuming the restoration plans of it! He's still planning to open a deli on the first floor with apartments on the upper floors. He also is considering a cigar bar to honor one of the building's original uses. When he returned to his former business Downtown to announce these plans, he was met by a small crowd of friends and former employees welcoming him back home.

Coffee Shop coming to the Garden District: https://businessjournaldaily.com/cold-brew-manufacturer-plans-200k-plus-project-on-mahoning-ave-buildings/ This isn't huge news, but Voyager Coffee and Tea is moving their roasting facility and opening a cafe on Mahoning Avenue in the Garden District. They will be occupying two old buildings adjacent to Casa Ramirez. This will hopefully be a big step in revitalizing the Mahoning Avenue corridor which has seen an increase in popular new establishments, namely West Side Bowl. Unfortunately though, this location is several blocks away from the up-and-coming Rocky Ridge business district near West Side Bowl. I wish a coffee shop would have opened closer to there, but this location isn't bad either. It's walking distance from Mill Creek Park and a few restaurants, so perhaps this could spur further revitalization of this part of Mahoning Ave.

I know this is a very NIMBY take, but personally, I wish that property (2180 N. High) would be left alone. Those blocks above Lane have a really good well preserved historic streetwall, and even in newer projects (such as The View on Pavey), the old facades have been maintained. I just hope that at the very least, they preserve the brick facades. If not, replacing those facades with a sterile modern apartment facade will really kill the whole vibe of that part of the Old North. Also, there's better places to redevelop nearby anyways such as the CVS lot or the Little Bar lot which wouldn't disrupt the feel of the neighborhood as much. Not to mention, there's a ton of potential along Lane Avenue just around the corner. A developer could do a lot with all those ugly 60s & 70s era apartment buildings - it's a very well trafficked corridor for pedestrians but barely any retail space exists on Lane. If the developers end up preserving the facades decently and set the new building back from the road a bit, then I may be okay with this. I just am not confident they'll care to preserve anything.

$1.5 Million Renovation of Silver's Vogue Shop Building Planned https://businessjournaldaily.com/silvers-sold-owner-plans-1-5m-renovation-with-business-living-space/ Silver's Vogue Shop had been a staple of Downtown Youngstown for 49 years until it shut down in 2020, marking the closure of one of the last Downtown clothing stores. The plan calls for commercial spaces and luxury apartments. Four commercial spaces will be on the first floor and two in the basement. The developer hopes to keep space in the building cheap for local businesses, particularly minority owned businesses. The top floor will be converted into 20 "affordable" loft style apartment units - I'd be kind of surprised if none of the building is market rate since a luxury apartment market definitely exists in Downtown Youngstown, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Put-in-Bay's one of my favorite places! I always wish I could spend more time up there!

Downtown's just in a weird position. Not a lot of people go down there, and COVID has really set it back. In fact I still don't think all the bars reopened and there's noticeably less people compared to summer of 2019. That being said, I truly think that Downtown could become a really popular entertainment destination if a bunch of nice restaurants and bars moved in all at once; it's in a weird position where there's not enough stuff down there to draw in huge crowds, which then means not enough motivation to invest in new businesses down there. The absolute collapse of in-person office workers post-COVID has also made this problem even worse and has even caused the only coffee shop Downtown to close. I think overall Downtown is still moving in a good direction, but it really needs some type of shot in the arm to get more suburbanites to make Downtown their go-to drinking/entertainment and restaurant destination.

Does the committee forget that they're in the University District and that the vast majority of people renting apartments in that building would be students, who likely won't all need parking spaces anyways? I really hope this project continues; it's insane to try to argue that three random 70s era apartment buildings are better for the community than this.