Let The Open usher in new era for downtown
For many throughout the Mahoning Valley, downtown Youngstown essentially has been closed for the past few years.
Yes, it’s been open with periodic spurts of excitement with crowd-drawing special events. And yes, many business owners loyal to the health of the central city have soldiered on despite giant losses in foot traffic and profits.
But with a dizzying and frustrating maze of detours, street closures and infrastructure repairs, many would-be visitors kept downtown and its environs off limits.
But all that should change this week in a big way. The city of Youngstown and its co-sponsors, including the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber and downtown and Valley businesses, plan an all-day extravaganza chock full of fun, games, musical entertainment and special events Saturday in a celebration of a fully reopened downtown aptly called The Open.
Mark your calendars now and make it a priority to be there.
Clearly, there is much to celebrate. Most visible, of course, are the many pleasing aesthetic improvements resulting from completion of the $28 million SMART2 (Strategic & Sustainable, Medical & Manufacturing, Academic & Arts, Residential & Recreational, Technology & Training) improvement project over the past four years. Those improvements — wider sidewalks, tree-lined thoroughfares, pedestrian plazas, bicycle lanes, enhanced lighting, soon-to-operate autonomous shuttles and more easily navigable links to the Youngstown State University and St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital campuses — have made the business district much more attractive and much more inviting to the masses that await it.
Those improvements will be unveiled formally with great fanfare Saturday, and they should pave the way for heightened hubbub day and night in the rejuvenated downtown. It all begins with a bevy of activities sure to please Valley residents of all ages. They include:
• Free concerts at the Phelps Street plaza all afternoon and evening culminating with headliner Red Wanting Blue at 9:45 p.m.
• Free entry to OH WOW! The Roger and Gloria Jones Center for Science and Technology from noon to 4 p.m., thanks to sponsor 7/17 Credit Union.
• Youngstown Phantoms hockey game against the Lincoln Stars at the Covelli Centre.
• Free showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at Penguin City Brewing.
• The Youngstown Film Festival at The Vault on the first floor of the Chase Tower.
• Food and beverages galore sold only by downtown restaurant, bar and club owners.
With so much going on that day, we hope thousands will take part in the hoopla. But as they do, they should not let The Open close the door on ongoing efforts to continually revitalize downtown and its gateways on each side of town.
In fact, The Open also should represent just the beginning to even more aggressive, thoughtful and game-changing work to build upon what SMART2 has wrought.
After all, the downtown and its immediate surroundings clearly remain a work in progress. Despite the amazing transformation in creating a more pleasing and vibrant look to the central business district of the city and the epicenter of the entire Mahoning Valley, too many signs of its depressed past sadly detract from the many new signs of progress.
Those signs are evident in the empty or nearly empty condition of many prime buildings including the now shuttered Eastern Gateway Community College campus, the Legal Arts Centre, the former Chase and National City bank towers, and, of course, the vacant black hole smack dab on Central Square where the 13-story Realty Tower stood before the May 28 explosion and resulting demolition destroyed that majestic centerpiece of downtown architecture and commerce.
A viable project to rebuild on the Realty site should be at or near the top of that priority list. YO Properties LLC and LY Property Management Group, owners and managers of the Realty property, have pledged “development of this site will be an extensive process,” and that they are beginning “the lengthy process of reimagining and planning a new project of this historic site.” We urge them to work closely with the city to transform those lofty goals into meaningful action sooner rather than later.
As they do, city officials must continue to pursue and complete the ongoing transformation of 20 Federal Place, the seven-story former department store and office building it owns on West Federal Street, into a center of dynamic retail, entertainment and residential life. Too many millions have been spent thus far in its renovation to settle for anything less.
City officials, the chamber, the Downtown Youngstown Partnership and other stakeholders should spare no energies in the overriding mission to launch a new and exciting era of downtown revitalization.
Let it all start Saturday at The Open. Don’t miss it.