W Federal Street petition

Please sign the petition against the West Federal Street plans here:
http://petitiononline.com/wfed07

Pittsburgh: On the Riverfronts - New York Times

Pittsburgh: On the Riverfronts - New York Times: "PITTSBURGH is a perfect example of a 19th-century American city that has reinvented itself for the 21st century. The famous three rivers — Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio — once lined with steel mills, now sparkle next to biking and jogging paths. Gilded-age industrialists made so much money in the city that there is still plenty around to finance several world-class museums. Rundown ethnic enclaves like the South Side and the Strip district now hum with cool shops, great restaurants and loads of places to hang out."

More West Federal Street News: Aug 6 Meeting

The CIC requested the city to hold a meeting to provide details on the West Federal Street deconstruction. The meeting will be held Monday, August 6, 2007, 3:00 pm, at City Council Chambers, 6th Floor, City Hall, 26 S. Phelps St. The CIC requests courtesy of RSVP by Wednesday, August 1 to Lynn at 330-779-0602.

Please plan to be there and come prepared to question the wisdom of the ill-conceived parking-lot approach to revitalizing the historic downtown. Take a look at this business plan from Columbus:

Planners and downtown advocates nationwide now see the advantages of balancing the need for efficient vehicular circulation with the need to make the Downtown environment friendlier for pedestrians, visitors and residents, who are there to enjoy Downtown’s assets rather than speed back to their homes at the end of the day. Streetscape improvements also provide for a more pedestrian-friendly environment Downtown. Potential streetscape treatments include: widening the sidewalks to create a “promenade” and allow for a double allée of trees, seating areas, and a redesign of existing bus stops and shelters.

Sidewalk widening has been used in many downtown revitalization initiatives, including 17th Street in Denver, State Street in Chicago, 3rd Street in Santa Monica and others. The plan proposes these enhancements in a number of areas. Other projects, such as the proposed Broad Street median, are also being considered.

That's right, coveted development elsewhere that already exists in downtown is going to be ripped out. Reminds me of that song about paving paradise to put up a parking lot.

My wife and I went out Saturday night at 10pm to Imbibe and parked right across the street. That doesn't sound like a parking problem to me. And even if we had to park in any of the open lots, we would have only needed to walk a block or two. Show up, be respectful, but speak out and don't be bullied by discussions of parking. To say the least, the plan is inconsistent with current leading thoughts in city planning and architecture.

Breaking News: Federal Street Plans Revealed

Click on the photo at left to view the larger image of the plans. What does it tell us? Well, for one, there's far too much parking. There's no need to intrude to the road or the sidewalk for this. As discussed in the previous post, there's plenty of parking downtown, just show people where to find it. And the trees? Well, the picture makes the most of them, but it's not the beautiful promenade you see today. Trees don't just belong on the very last pseudo-block by the bus station. Trees belong in the median strips all along the road. Plus, just check out the dimensions. If there is going to be diagonal parking, I'm thinking of 18th Street NW in Washington, DC, on restaurant row, there's ample space for people to pull into and out of parking spaces and to drive around them as they're doing it. With the dimensions here, you're inviting accidents... begging for them. Finally, why can't you line up some of the trees on opposite sides, so that pedestrians can cross. For this vibe to work, there have to be regular crosswalks, not just at the curbs. And construct them with brick, so we're enhancing the look and slowing down drivers, drawing their attention simultaneously up, down and across.

Design of the Times

Youngstown has lived through incredible times and has the scars to show for it. Despite that rich legacy, these are as exciting times as have occurred in the city's history. Youngstown is taking a fresh look at itself and its potential. Its creative class is reimagining its identity and future in a revolutionary way. In how many other cities in this area, if not the country, would you find young professionals, and I mean a solid core of progressives aged 20s and 30s, sitting at the table and creating a shared vision for their city and being heard!

To get a community invested--in every sense of the word--in a plan, one must document it, draw it, model it, and put it out there for people to see. Most people do better with visual imagery than wordy description, and modeling the downtown vision requires nothing less. To that end, fifteen students from the University of Michigan's Master of Urban Design Program are visiting Youngstown (along with Chicago and Ann Arbor) to study its downtown and create a design plan for the area between and connecting YSU and downtown Youngstown – from Wick to DeYor Performing Arts Center, Commerce Street to Boardman Street.

The Youngstown Business Incubator hosted the group last night for a roundtable discussion of what we would like to see in Youngstown. We also talked about what might be missing, from the visitors' perspective. Here are some ideas I heard:

• In addition to places for university students and young professionals to congregate, what about families?
• Should there be some design constraints on new buildings to ensure conformity to existing historical architecture? Or can it mix old and new in a compatible and symbiotic way.
• Is a skatepark a worthy feature of the downtown somewhere, providing recreational sanctuary to urban youth.
• Where's the furniture? Benches, chairs and tables are needed for folks to congregate downtown with lunches or reading material.
• What about a public school downtown? If there are going to be families living downtown, what better place to go to school?
• Art! We need an arts district to showcase the incredible artists in the city and surrounding region. Gallery space, workshops, supplies... Not to mention public art painted on the sides of the many brick buildings. Make the downtown itself a living art gallery!
• We must stop tearing down and figure out how to preserve our peerless landmarks.
• There is plenty of parking, we just have to help people find it. We don't need no stinking diagonal parking on Federal Street, it just extends the commuter culture we're trying to extinguish. Erect signage directing drivers to available parking and get them to walk through downtown to where they need to go. Once you find the place you want to visit, the next thing you look for is parking. If you can see a parking sign from where you want to be, you're set. Even if it's a few blocks down the road.

Add your comments below! What do you want to see downtown become? What's there that needs to be highlighted? How does the river play a part in creating a sense of place?

W Federal Street Median Plans

Thanks to Sharon Letson of CityScape for her generous time today answering questions about the most recent plans for changes to West Federal Street.

There will be a public meeting on or about August 6 (to be announced) to share the plan with and answer questions to the public. The most recent plan I had seen stripped out all medians and inserted diagonal parking from South Phelps down to Chestnut. A number of individuals, business and organizations, in addition to CityScape, objected to the plan and, to its credit, the city took another look and revised the plan.

The current plan preserves some green space in the street while still adding diagonal parking in other sections. The median space will be raised but not curbed and incorporate bricks with the tree plantings. It also incorporates some plantings and benches in the sidewalk. CityScape feels like the city listened and understood compromise was necessary to accommodate their concerns.

Sharon outlined the following concerns that necessitated concessions:

• The street needed to be resurfaced anyway, and the existing trees don't stand much of a chance of surviving as a result of that process
• The sidewalks are in need of repair in any event
• The infrastructure beneath the street needs attention: electric, water pipes

I'm relieved the medians will not be completely wiped out, though I do like their current look. I'll reserve judgement until seeing the plans, and I hope that will happen soon. My understanding from another source is that the project is going to bid around August 15, so hopefully the plans will be published before then.

O, the green wothe botheth

Can anyone source the title? It's from my favorite novel, and no you can't Google it!

The word of the day is GREEN. Why? The Youngstown Business Incubator's newest portfolio company, GreenEnergyTV, provides in essence a free online TV station devoted to renewable energy projects.

In the very short time that it has been up, videos have been uploaded to the site by GE, Google, Yahoo, the United Nations, Penn State University, the US Department of Energy, Johnson & Johnson as well as from just individuals themselves.

Teddy Pantelas remembers Bob Fitzer

In our final podcast in the Remembering Bob Fitzer series, local guitar great Teddy Pantelas talks Bob and Youngstown. And if you haven't yet caught Teddy at Cedars, you're missing the best jazz in the valley.

Ron Gould remembers Bob Fitzer

Dr. Ron Gould was an important mentor and collaborator to me at YSU. He has the unique perspective of knowing Bob's parents when they were teachers and of having watched Bob grow up and shares musical insights from Bob's performances through the years.

Mark Peyko remembers Bob Fitzer

Up next in our series of interviews about Bob Fitzer, Metro Monthly publisher Mark Peyko remembers their friendship, starting back in 1991.

If you haven't visited Metro Monthly online, check out the videos, vintage home photos, downtown photographs and store!

And if you didn't catch it in the first interview post, here's the link to Mark's interviews with Bob.

[Please forgive the soft background chatter. We found the quietest corner we could, but there were many people over that night, and it was bound to bleed over into the mix.]

This just in...

Public memorial concert for Robert D. Fitzer set for Friday, July 27

A public memorial concert celebrating the life of Robert D. Fitzer will occur at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 27 at the Ford Auditorium in the DeYor Performing Arts Center, located at 260 W. Federal St. in downtown Youngstown.

Fitzer, an instructor of clarinet at Youngstown State University's Dana School of Music, died on May 16 following an eight-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

The program is open to the community and will include musical performances, remembrances and a slide presentation recounting Fitzer's life. In addition, Fitzer¹s uncle, Vincent Severino of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., will discuss the recently established Fitzer Family Scholarship in Music. The July 27 event will be the first in a series of annual concert fund-raisers for the scholarship fund.

Fitzer was born in Youngstown, Ohio on July 27, 1956 to James Robert Fitzer and Dolores Elvira (Severino) Fitzer, who were Dana School of Music faculty members.

Fitzer was widely known in Youngstown for his political and community activism. He served on the faculty of the Dana School of Music since 1996 and was director of the Clarinet Studies program.

Fitzer began musical studies with pianist Gene Rush (Tennessee State University) and with pianist Harold Danko (Eastman School of Music) and began clarinet studies at age 10 with Carl Marks Jr. He graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor of arts in performance. Fitzer undertook additional academic and performance training at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria and at the International Festival-Institute in Round Top, Texas. He studied with Chicago Symphony Orchestra clarinetists Clark Brody and Larry Combs.

From 1987 to 1994 Fitzer was a feature writer and senior consultant for Speed of Sound magazine. He was a founding member of Easy Street Productions' Little Big Band and served as co-host and producer of the WYSU-FM political radio show "Commentary Café" from 1995 to 2001.

Aside from his work as a musician and educator, Fitzer was active in community and civic affairs. He was president of the Citizens' League of Greater Youngstown; served as a Mahoning County Democratic Party Executive Committee member; and was a chairman of the Wick Park Model Neighborhood Project.


Contact: Vincent Severino, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. 702-501-5082.

Mark C. Peyko
Publisher
The Metro Monthly

Holly Burnett-Hanley remembers Bob Fitzer

Continuing in our tribute to Bob Fitzer, journalist, politician, birdwatcher, agitator... Speed of Sound publisher Holly Burnett-Hanley took time to share her memories of working with "Bobby" on the legendary issue pictured here.


I also talked with Holly about the status of the river today and will share river-related info in an upcoming post. Enjoy the podcast. There's a link to the right to subscribe to the series, if you are an iTunes kind of person like me.

[Edit 7/19, 8:27am; if you were unable to get to the audio earlier, this has been fixed. Please try again. Thanks!]

Favorite error message

This happened to me yesterday, I swear. I had to read it several times to confirm it was really true. It was almost like some propaganda effort, "you're not really seeing this, it never happened."

Of course, there really was an error and I really did lose my work, but the ludicrous error prompt kind of made it all worth it.

NPR: Smaller is Better for Youngstown

From the Times to the Journal to AP to NPR, we keep making the rounds. Here's a link to the NPR feature from today's Morning Edition.

Bill Slocum remembers Bob Fitzer

After Bob Fitzer's private memorial service in May, I invited several of his friends and colleagues to record remembrances. In anticipation of the upcoming public memorial concert at the DeYor, I am posting these interviews as podcasts.

The first interview is with my teacher, YSU professor and former New York Philharmonic and Cleveland Orchestra hornist, Bill Slocum. He generously shares memories of Bob as both precocious youth and conscientious colleague.

Please also find interviews with Bob by his friend and Metro Monthly publisher, Mark Peyko, at http://www.metromonthly.net/bob/BobFitzer/BobFitzer.html.

Bob's 10 Rules of Living

I've been in Virginia this week on business, so I apologize for going silent. I've been wanting to share something, so I'll take this opportunity.

We were driving home from the recent Summer Festival of the Arts and decided to make a detour into east Youngstown. We don't know the area well, so we were prepared to get somewhat lost. As we were driving through, my wife said, "This really is like the city Youngstown forgot." Separated geographically somewhat, the area has its own distinctive feel to it--almost rural even.

As we encountered a new street or interesting house, we pondered aloud about its past. As we did, we knew there was one person who, if we could only call him, would have had the answers.

Bob Fitzer knew Youngstown like perhaps no one else. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of its boundaries, buildings and history. We wished he were with us on that drive instead of only in our hearts as we anticipate his public memorial service on July 27. Some of his wisdom remains behind, however, and that's what I want to share.

Bob (aka "Bobby", aka "Bobbo") Fitzer's 10 Rules of Living:
1. Get Involved
2. Be Kind
3. Never Give Up
4. Rejoice in the Success of Others
5. Take Chances
6. Be Humble
7. Embrace Chaos
8. Take Time
9. Trust in Your Intuition
10. Don't Move to the Suburbs

Vindicator letter published today

I wasn't even aware, but thanks to Phil for pointing out to me that my recent letter to the editor was published in today's Vindicator. Cool!

I sing the YBI electric

I was treated today by Jim Cossler to a tour of the Youngstown Business Incubator. If you still have any doubts that good things are happening in Youngstown, then you need to hear about the YBI.

Jobs. National and international revenue streams. Serious profits. Innovation. Seriously impressive. And the place couldn't have a better pitchman. Jim is practiced at wowing visitors with his tour. I was likewise wowed.

The incubator clearly does a remarkable and invaluable job nurturing and leveraging its portfolio companies--including now-veteran Turning Technologies, positioned-for-explosive-growth Softek and secret-weapon Zethus Software--providing all the physical and technical resources needed to run a company and serving as a powewrhouse international network of contacts and expertise.

Jim says as the YBI gets exposure, he gets resumes from across the country from former Youngstowners longing to return and grateful to see there are opportunities being created. I related that my wife and I decided to move back when we finally realized that all the stories we told each other were about the people and places of Youngstown and our good times there. It's a singular place with a unique history and uncommon people in distinctive communities.

Now, forward this to your friends who know Youngstown, and tell them there are jobs coming here they can return to. Youngstown has been home to the best and brightest the world has to offer, and we're still here and welcoming more!

Fifth Avenue Historic District Homes

This is not an exhaustive chronicle of the Crandall Park-Fifth Avenue historical homes roster, but it is at least a fairly complete showing of north Fifth Avenue homes. We're working to create a shared Web space for the neighborhood, including a contact directory and bios of homeowners, along with any neighborhood news and organizational tools. Hope you enjoy the homes! They're each truly one of a kind.

Street Fair

Before returning to Youngstown, my family and I lived in Tucson for seven years. One of our favorite events was the biannual Fourth Avenue Street Fair. According to the official Web site, the event features "400+ arts and crafts booths, 35+ food vendors, 2 stages, street musicians, food, jugglers, street performers, 'VAN GROW' kids hands-on-art area, face painting, balloons, and tons of other fun activities."

The place was packed with artists, sculptors, woodcarvers, painters, baskets, clothes, pottery, music ... and people. This isn't a solution to the problem of a true, permanent gallery for the display of locally made art, but it would be a great venue. Maybe Commerce Street would be a good, wide location. I'm not sure Federal, at least W Federal, provides enough space, with the medians (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Is there any street fair currently going on downtown? I heard there might be one associated with Phelps and a gentleman named Velani? Does anyone know more? How is it? How big is it?

Tucson collects a fee of $35 for an initial review and judging of applicants. Once selected, users reserve a booth for three days. We've gotten many great finds there, and it would be wonderful to have that opportunity to sample local and national artists' creations and eclectic energy.

They use a site called zapplication.org to facilitate the collection of and communication regarding each booth application. We might be able to leverage that, too. What organizations would we need to partner with? Is there a merchants association?

Use the comments below to continue the conversation with your thoughts...