Youngstown as Urban Villages

MVOC’s Ian Beniston pointed out a Free Press article about Detroit’s shrinking population potentially creating “distinct urban villages surrounded by farms, fields and meadows.”

These days, it seems, what’s true for Detroit is true for Youngstown, and indeed as local activists here push City Hall to make it easier for urban agriculture programs to flourish and as Grow Youngstown sold out of their community-supported agriculture program.

The Free Press article reviews recommendations from a report by a committee of the American Institute of Architects.

The committee suggests that Detroit could recreate itself as a 21st-Century version of the English countryside.

“Isn’t that basically what’s happening? Even without any plans or strategies?” [New Jersey-based planner and team leader] Mallach asked.

But he added, “It’s happening in a sloppy, destructive fashion where you get areas that are essentially abandoned, but they’re not useable open space, they’re not environmentally sound, so they’re basically wasteland.”

Instead, the team suggests planning for that future by relocating residents out of distressed areas and concentrating new development in more vital nodes[...]

The downtown and north side are fairly attached and compact, perhaps providing Youngstown’s urban core. The east side seems most amenable to this type of approach, though the south side also has obvious population-density issues, too.

The article concludes with a brief mention of the increased focus on greenways.

Meanwhile, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and other nonprofit groups have been working to create more greenways through Detroit’s open spaces to link neighborhoods.

Just last week, the latest link in this network, the 1.2-mile Dequindre Cut, opened on the city’s near-east side.

The greenway concept will be a subject for an upcoming post, but I think this is just as important for Youngstown’s image and quality of life, not to mention economic development.

By the way, the black-and-white photo above depicts Youngstown Depression Relief Gardens in 1932 from an excellent post on the Sprouts in the Sidewalk blog.

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