If you’re at all familiar with Ohio, you already know that many cities that flourished with people (and manufacturing jobs) have been watching their populations dwindle.

Youngstown is an Ohio border town.

With the dwindling populations come the problems associated with a decaying community. Empty, unkempt houses – vacant commercial buildings and blight. This city that was once home to more than
150,000 has a population of around 80,000.

Youngstown, an Ohio-Pennsylvania border town has decided to address this with a whole new approach. City officials are tearing down what’s ugly and turn it into “green” spaces. More than 1,000
structures have already been destroyed in the Plan 2010 initiative.

“Abandoned houses here are like rainfall in the spring,” said Mayor Jay Williams, “That has gone on for decades. We long pursued a policy of growth,” said the city’s energetic young mayor. “We went after all these things that would make Youngstown a city of 150,000 again. A blimp factory was going to put the city back on the map,”Williams said. “That represents a whole lot of the promises made and broken. They sound ridiculous now. President Clinton promised a defense facility employing 5,000. We were waiting for a savior.”

This is the kind of news I love to hear. I’m sure that this will do untold amounts of good for the city and hopefully other blighted towns (like Cleveland, Ohio) will follow their lead. A “spit shine”
with green spaces makes every community a better place to live.