Youngstown Blogs

Two years ago, when I began blogging about Youngstown, I was aware of only a few blogs. Youngstown Pride began in December 2004, Tales From the Rust Belt’s first post was from January, 2005, Shout Youngstown began in 2006, and Defend Youngstown preceded this blog by a few months.

Things have progressed rapidly since then, and in the past week at least twenty local blogs have posted fresh content! Here’s a look at the Youngstown blog scene. Add these to your bookmarks, if you haven’t already.

Food:

Louis Gastelum blogs about Gardening and Cooking at Gestures.

Mark M writes the Youngstown Eats blog “traveling northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania in search of the perfect meal.”

Clarencedale Cakes of Campbell has a blog. Though it hasn’t been updated in quite a while, what’s there is a real treat!

Humorous Commentary:

Fat Camp by Robert Joki is over on Valley24 and is frequently very funny, as is the man, actor and director himself.

Lifestyle & Entertainment:

Youngstown’s own award-winning novelist Christopher Barzak, author of The Love We Share Without Knowingand One For Sorrowblogs at Meditations in an Emergency.

Even if we weren’t married, I would still link to Jaci Clark Photography, which features stunning lifestyle and wedding photography.

Steel Valley Outdoors is the area’s premiere resource for “Outdoor activities and Recreation in Northeast Ohio,” thanks to Lou Yuhasz’s dedication.

Jason Van Hoose is a local artist of some renown, and he shares thoughts on the art scene atYoungstown Art.

Jan Crews’s Amazing Adventures are chronicled with the sobering experience of husbands past and a sapping, daily Youngstown-Akron commute.

I’ve just become aware of Dear Violet, a blog about art and design by Sarah Cheeks. She’s a graphic designer and creates some truly unique invitations.

Jambrain covers the local musical scene, with a listing of nearly 1,000 bands.

Project Mom is a project of marketing expert Geniene Pernotto, who’s returned with her daughter to the Valley from New York.

Brian Wells is co-chairman of the Mahoning Valley Pride Coalition and blogs at City Limits: A pro-mo in the yo and the Mahoning Valley Pride Center.

Subpopular is a unique, local online community designed by the great Steven Andrew.

Michael Sean Gallagher is a User Services Specialist with JSTOR in Princeton, New Jersey, but isDreaming of 224.The mysterious “Dr. Goo” maintains a blog of “random ranting” titled “It’s Better Than Yours” on Valley24.

I’ve just become aware of Keith Brown from Girard, who blogs about the network marketing industry at MLM Basics – News and Training.

Media:

Lincoln Avenue chronicles the weekly interviews on WYSU’s current affairs program, hosted by YSU Professor of English and American Studies and Co-Director of the Center for Working-Class Studies, Sherry Linkon

There might need to be a History category, but we all sort of touch on it. None perhaps more thoroughly or devotedly than Mark Peyko in his Made in Youngstown blog.

Your Newspaper is a blog from Vindicator Public Editor Todd Franko.

The YSU Archive maintains a blog including posts like How to Study Documents and What makes a record historical and another not?

Accent Media is a downtown media production company.

I don’t have a good bead on this blog by Andrew Caldwell, but it seems to be focused on gaming and the Internet.

News and Politics:

Youngstown Pride might be the granddaddy of us all, though Joe Lowry “hung it up” last summer, after blogging faithfully from Virginia while literally fighting fires as a volunteer firefighter.

Mike Prelee’s Tales From the Rust Belt is four years old and still going strong.

Shout Youngstown is a popular and regularly updated blog focusing on economic development. If you know “Janko,” you know this is the good stuff.

Defend Youngstown and Phil Kidd need no introduction.

You Are Here: Youngstown Renaissance is my humble contribution to the genre. If you’re new here, I talk about news, politics, technology, and music. I try to provide a healthy dose of history along the way.

Attorney Deb Weaver is a long-time Youngstown activist and TreezPlease president. Read about peace and justice at Youngstown Moxie II.

Jim Jordan keeps his Elecpencil sharp and “snarls at pretense and bites at hypocrisy and conformity out of a healthy sense of outrage.”

Brian Corbin is the Director of Catholic Charities and, frankly, one of my favorite people. His blog records Critical Thinking on Faith & Politics.

Bertram de Souza, longtime reporter and columnist for the Vindicator, keeps a pretty regular political blog, though no one seems to know why it’s called “Stirfry.”

Apparently I just can’t blog enough. I was invited to keep a blog I call “Reason” for the Vindicator, and I agreed. New posts appear weekly (typically Monday).

Judy Carlson lives in Cleveland but has Youngstown on her birth certificate and in her blood. She writes at Five Husbands.

Rust Belt Friends keeps track of the regional scene and promotes the recognition our shared identity.

The Wizard of Yo pulls a thinly veiled curtain in front of Jemimah Robbs, who currently lives in Columbus and was formerly chairwoman of the Mahoning County Republican Party.

The Mahoning Valley is famously Democratic. If you’re not, you might be interested in Michael Metzinger’s MVRED.com.

You can keep tabs on Congressman Tim Ryan’s good work here.

Oh yeah, Mayor Jay Williams has a blog, too.

During Phil Kidd’s tenure as Youngstown’s Downtown Director, he kept a working journal at 44503 Live. Not sure if he forgot to leave the keys with successor Lyndsey Hughes, or if she just has a different vision. (Not insinuating anything, by the way. I met Lyndsey recently and enjoyed talking with her.)

Fifth Ward Councilman Paul Drennan is not a frequent poster, but he puts his contact info out there for his constituents to see.

Organizational:

You can follow everyone’s favorite local theater, The Oakland, right here.

The official blog of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society is “Mahoning Valley History,” maintained by its Manager of Education and External Relations, Leann Rich.

Working-Class Perspectives is a project of the Center for Working-Class Studies and features some of the best minds in the area, including Sherry Linkon, John Russo, Hunter Morrison, Jack Metzgar, Alyssa Lenhoff, Leo Jennings, Tim Francisco, Paul Gordiejew, and Denise Narcisse.

Friends of the Steel Museum is a burgeoning group devoted to the promotion of one of Youngstown’s signature and most unique assets. The Steel Museum on Wood Street does a great job of explaining how steel is made, showing scale-model views of different processes involved in its production, and bringing to life the people and places that made steel in the Valley.

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