Pushing CRSI, Community Leaders Travel to DC

MVOC forms alliance with Mahoning Valley Mayors Association

As part of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative’s continued work on the Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act of 2009 (CRSI), organizers and community leaders Hattie, Valarie, Dan, Robyn, and Della traveled to Washington D.C. for a lobby day on November 16.

CRSI was introduced by Representative Tim Ryan and Senator Sherrod Brown and—if passed—would establish a competitive grant program within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for older industrial cities like Warren and Youngstown to receive funding to develop and implement creative approaches to reuse their vacant property.

In other words, it would allow us to turn our vacant lots that not only look unsightly but also decrease property values into something that will benefit our community—something like a park or a community garden.

“Because CRSI has the potential to put our Valley on the path to economic revitalization, the MVOC has been working to ensure that the bill moves through congress quickly so that cities like ours can benefit from it,” said former mayor Dan Mamula who has been working with the Mahoning River Corridor Mayors’ Association to persuade other Ohio mayors, the National League of Cities, and the US Conference of Mayors to support the bill.

“The D.C. lobby day allowed us to reach out to representatives from Ohio who had not yet become a co-sponsor of the bill and encourage them to do just that,” said community leader Della Hughey. In addition, leaders met with staffers from Representative Barney Frank’s office—the chair of the committee to which the bill has been referred—and asked for his support.

In all, the leadership team met with the offices of thirteen representatives, Jessica McNiece from Senator Sherrod Brown’s office, and three of our national partners.

Hattie Wilkins, who began volunteering with the MVOC around the issue of vacant properties, emphasized the importance of these meetings: “All of the elected officials we met with really listened to what we had to say.”

Hattie went on to articulate her own belief in the effectiveness of grassroots involvement. She summed up the lobby day as bringing “to mind what our constitution was made on. It’s the concept of ‘we the people’ and all of the people coming together to form a more perfect government.”

Leaders emphasized that the process of forming a more perfect government includes more than attending an occasional lobby day: it’s about spreading the word throughout our communities they said. Hattie envisions all of the people who know about CRSI telling 10 people, and then all of those people telling 10 people, and then all of those people each telling 10 people etc., etc., etc.

She said it is important that ordinary people spread the word because “we [the people] can break it down in everyday layman’s terms and get our message across a lot better.”

While community leaders like Hattie do their part in spreading the word about CRSI, the MVOC will continue to do its part as well. Through the MVOC networking with national groups like the Northeast Midwest Institute, the United States Conference of Mayors, National People’s Action, and the Local Initiatives Support Coalition, we can garner support from the policy makers. At the same time, community leaders will garner support from their friends and neighbors and create a body of activists so large that our government officials can no longer ignore them. As Hattie says, “We are not going to sit idly by.”

Click here to return to the Winter 2010 Valley Voice