-
Login
-
Digital Edition
-
Print Edition
- Most Commented
- Most Commented
- Most Emailed
- Most Emailed
- Popular
- Popular
« News Home
Angry officials heading to D.C.
TweetThe area’s high foreclosure and unemployment rates should have qualified it for more funding, officials said.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN — Nine Mahoning Valley communities worked together to apply for federal housing-recovery stimulus money as a block. Now they want to know why there wasn’t a fairer distribution of that money across the state.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17th of Niles, Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams and others spoke at a press conference Monday and urged Valley residents to sign an online petition that they hope will demonstrate to officials in Washington how unhappy they are about the snub.
The petition is be available at www.mvorganizing.org.
The officials will travel to Washington on Wednesday to discuss what went wrong with the Valley’s application with White House urban affairs officials.
“For us to be this blatantly shortchanged is outrageous,” Ryan said of the local proposal, which was denied any of the $2 billion awarded nationally last week and $159 million awarded in Ohio for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program. HUD awarded money to 79 of 482 proposals.
The Mahoning Valley was awarded about $11.1 million in the first round of the program when George W. Bush was president in October 2008.
The program is designed to allow governments and nonprofit agencies to help their communities stabilize their neighborhoods by addressing problems associated with foreclosure and home abandonments, the federal government said.
Officials such as Williams and Kurt Noden, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, which works closely with the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, say local foreclosure and unemployment statistics suggest that the Mahoning Valley needs the money more than any other area in Ohio.
Williams says Youngstown has the highest foreclosure rate in the United States, and Noden pointed out that Warren and Youngstown have led the state in the unemployment rate for most of 2009.
“Leaders throughout the Valley are sorely disappointed that the work we have done and our efforts continue to be ignored, while larger cities in Ohio reap big benefits,” Noden said in a press release.
Williams said he is a big supporter of President Barack Obama’s, but the Obama administration is risking losing support here if it can’t find a way to help the area. Officials aren’t dismissing the possibility that the zero funding was an oversight that can still be corrected.
Williams, a lifelong Democrat who ran as an independent the first time he was elected Youngstown mayor, said he wonders now if he should have run as an independent during his second campaign.
Williams said that because people here give such strong support to Democrats running for president, it’s possible that their support is taken for granted once the candidate is elected.
Ryan said it is important to hold the Obama administration’s “feet to the fire” and tell Washington that: “We don’t have an inferiority complex. We’re not going to let someone walk all over us and get up and have it happen all over again.
“There are going to be consequences to decisions that are made because there is no reason why this application didn’t get funded,” the congressman said.
“We flat-out met the criteria” to get funded, Ryan said, adding that the decision is a “double affront” because the region has always been such a strong supporter of Democrats in the White House.
In a press release, Noden’s organization also criticized state officials, including Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, who promised one year ago that the Valley would not be overlooked when stimulus money was being distributed.
“Top state officials, including the lieutenant governor, promised to deliver,” the press release said.
Michael Keys, director of community development for the city of Warren, said the state of Ohio was given an allocation of $25 million to distribute to 33 smaller counties in Ohio, including Columbiana, Portage and Jefferson, but not Mahoning or Trumbull.
runyan@vindy.com
ACROSS OHIO | Allocations, foreclosures
When counting the allocation given to the six largest urban areas of Ohio in the first and second rounds of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program, the Valley will receive the least per person.
Montgomery County (Dayton) will get the most: $78.60 per person.
Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) second at $62.75.
Franklin County (Columbus) third at $48.16.
Hamilton County (Cincinnati) fourth at $47.80.
Summit County (Akron) fifth at $30.49.
Mahoning and Trumbull counties, $22.98.
Youngstown has the highest foreclosure rate in Ohio at 14.7 percent. Dayton’s is 12.1 percent, Cleveland’s is 12.7 percent, Columbus’ is 6.9 percent, Cincinnati’s is 7.1 percent, and Akron’s is 10.3 percent.
Source: Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative
Comments
Now Tim Ryan knows what it feels like. He has been playing kissy-face with the party bosses in Washington, and when the chips are down they (in his own words) screw him. What does he think he has been doing to the people he supposedly represents in this Valley. He has consistently voted in opposition to the desires of the people he "represents". Remember tax raising, job costing Cap and Trade? Remember his refusal to eliminate the influx of illegal aliens? Remember health care in a form unacceptable to a majority of the voters (including the Senate)? This list continues to grow. We, the voters of the Mahoning Valley, must put an end to this and elect people who will truly represent us.
Do the math. Every city in the USA needs money to remove urban blight; nearly 500 of them applied to HUD for $15 billion and only $2 billion of our money was issued to 79 of them. But we send more than $7 million every day to Israel, where many of these so-called community leaders were wining and dining with war criminals when the bad news came down. Maybe they should go back to Tel Aviv and demand our money back.
I predict lots of photo-ops, and some fire-and-brimstone rhetoric, but nothing else, will come out of this junket.
And this area will continue to be overwhelmingly Democratic.
Somebody else help us! We can't help ourselves!
The squeaky wheel gets the grease. If the negative commenters would spend a little time writing and calling HUD, rather than griping, maybe the Valley could get somewhere.
Maybe the HUD program can be integrated with Department of Labor programs that ARE sending significanr tunds for economic development.
Maybe the Valley shoud bring back the Ecumenical Coalition.
Meanwhile, this entire region might have one ray of sunshine, in that it sits on top of the Marcellus Shield, probably the biggest energy find in US history. Maybe the federal gvt. can investigate, as local leaders are apparently asleep at the switch.
I agree with USA1...abolishing HUD as well as 1/2 of all the Federal programs and agencies out there would save us all "ah lot a money!"
One of the biggest reasons our economy stinks the way it does is because government is the largest contributor to our failed economy. They sit smuggly up in their chambers looking down at us as in Nancy Pelocy with that arrogant smurk and have the guts to think they are doing something good.
What have they done for us lately? Nothing...absolutely nothing! They are all consumed with this healthcare thing and are letting the rest of the country go to heck in the process.
I don't know why are local officials are angry. The Mahoning County has been a Democratic stronghold since the begining of time. Why should they do that much for us when there going to get our votes anyway.
LOL @ Foxtrot. Let's give $60 million to a city that decided to sprawl like crazy out in the middle of the desert. (Phoenix, AZ) That's a much smarter "investment."
You guys already know my thoughts:
http://vindy.com/news/2010/jan/18/dem...
These guys could care less about results, all they care about is votes.
Lets stop and think about this for a minute.
Did Youngstown really just get the shaft? Has anyone looked at NSP II application? Even better, do they understand it?
Trends for funding change over time. I moved from Youngstown to the southern part of OH and have found that the state favors certain applicants and/or projects based on how they line up with state/federal goals.
Regardless, lets think about the vacancy rate. Youngstown's vacancy and foreclosure rate is at what I would call a critical mass. Typical use of NSP II funds is, as implied, stabilization of the neighborhood. At this point it seems like maybe the Federal Gov't is suggesting that these funds would be wasted on a city that is flirting with the point of no return on these numbers.
Whatever the reason, I think that local officials are doing the right thing. The rest of the population needs to remain calm and remember that part of the reason Youngstown is doing so poorly is that most of the Vindy's readers are committing economic activity to Boardman, Niles, and Liberty. Until that trend changes people will continue to exit the city and move toward more attractive urban centers.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17th of Niles, Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams will be going to DC and support whatever decision Obama makes .
I have stated before that our local leaders have to go. They are too comfortable in their elected positions and now is the time to shake them up. All we get are promises from the national candidates to the local candidates and once they get the votes, we are forgotten. The next time you go to the polls, think of the broken promises and vote them out. New faces and new ideas are what we need. I hate to be negative, but look around.
"Kim" I enjoyed your story Title recommendation, and "YSUPlanner", sadly, your "point of no return" is correct. Most of these elected officials could not be gamefully employed in the private industry at the wages and benefits that they each receive.