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Dear Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher:
We appreciated your willingness to meet with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative (MVOC) and our delegation of faith based, neighborhood, non-profit, business and political leaders on January 9, 2009. We found the discussion with your staff productive, but remain concerned about the NSP allocation to the City of Youngstown and look forward to working with you on the commitment to find addtiional resources to address these issues.
We cannot allow another year to go by with millions of Americans lacking basic health care coverage or being forced into bankruptcy and despair trying to afford coverage.
Every day that health care reform is delayed, the entire progressive agenda we voted for in the most historic election of our lives is more at risk. It is time to stand for regular citizens who need quality health care, family-supporting jobs, secure housing and quality education.
On behalf of area legislators, community leaders, and key stakeholders in Mahoning Valley, we would like to request a meeting with you to discuss the foreclosure crisis facing our metropolitan area. Specifically, we would like to discuss the allocation of the State of Ohio's $116.8 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program to our community and the ways in which we can work together to address this crisis which has disproportionately affected our region.
US Senator meets with key community leaders on Monday, April 13th – and will join them again on Friday for a Health Care Reform Rally this Friday April 17th at Forest Hill Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights.
The Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, in partnership with community groups and institutions across the City of Youngstown, is working to move forward a citywide vacant properties campaign involving multiple components. Residents of Youngstown have been involved in surveying every vacant parcel in the city on their respective sides of town. They have also played a significant role in developing a community driven demolition strategy with groups across the city. Another major component to the vacant properties campaign is holding landlords accountable for the condition of their large holdings of properties.
The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) is being developed to undertake strategic neighborhood development and revitalization activities in targeted areas throughout the city. Historically, Youngstown has had limited community development capacity and currently there is no functioning CDC that is able to work comprehensively on a targeted citywide scale. The YNDC is being developed to fill the existing void and to provide the community with a high capacity and multifaceted organization staffed by talented and experienced professionals capable of achieving the needed results.
This past year was defined by tremendous challenges for our communities as we experienced a declining economy, a housing crisis, job loss, and the continuation of a long pattern of disinvestment in urban neighborhoods in Mahoning Valley. Yet, 2008 was also a year that brought hope. Hope that we can imagine a new Mahoning Valley, beyond its past and into a new future. Hope that our neighborhoods can become places of choice. Hope that we will weather the storm once again to emerge with innovative ideas and a new beginning.
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