Creating

Community
by Brian Cetina
 Fred Bohn opened his record store 28 years ago in
a small Pennsylvania town, just outside of Pittsburgh.

He’s never thought about The findings sug- government,YSU and the
moving. gest that business Youngstown-Warren Region-
He has chosen to keep owners are seeking a al Chamber, is lobbying YSU
his store, Attic Records, few simple features alumnae and others to come
in Millvale, Pa. because the in communities: home and launch businesses
location is close to his home, * Cost of living. in the Mahoning Valley.
the cost of the building and * Location. They are offering financial
space were reasonable and * Strong schools. incentives and are trying to
the community is friendly * Safety. tout the area as a great place
and hard working. for entrepreneurs.
Bohn is one of 15 busi- Ten of fifteen businesses But their approach, ac-
ness owners surveyed by a polled said that location and cording to the sampled
Youngstown State University cost were the key elements business owners, may not be
journalism student examining they first looked at when realistic on all fronts.
the issue of why businesses moving or starting a business. For instance,
choose certain communities. Other elements that fol- Youngstown’s crime rate is
There are a lot of ele- lowed were education, popu- high, ranking 15th on the
ments that businesses look lation, and crime rates. list of most dagerous cities
at when choosing which Local, state and fed- behind Cleveland which falls
community to house their eral officials, who have long in at number 11.
business. wrestled with how to pull Although crime went
An examination of those Youngstown out of its fi- down 13 percent for the first
elements may offer revealing nancial sag, have been trying six months, Mayor Jay Wil-
information for Youngstown to erase the area’s negative liams is hiring more officers
and the surrounding commu- stigma and high unemploy- to patrol.
nity, which has been strug- ment rate. The unemployment rate
gling with a stalled economy The Grow Home initia- in Youngstown, now at 7.5
for decades. tive, a partnership between percent as of September, is
about 1.5 percent above the against the other. Ed Paradise knew the neigh-
national average of 6 percent. Community is key in boring businesses would sup-
Youngstown’s schools bringing business to any city, port his.
are in serious financial and Baughman said. Familiarity is also im-
academic trouble and were portant, said Attic Records
placed in fiscal emergency in “A community is a Store owner Fred Bohn, who
2006. place where people live opened his business in his
Additionally, the city together, with similar hometown of Millvale in 1980.
school students consistently values and are shar- “I decided to open a busi-
score lower than any other ing common interests ness selling something I love
school district in the county such as businesses and and the area we are located
and most in the state on stan- schools,” he said. in is right near my house and
dardized tests. centrally located between
But, for the cost of living, “With Akron, we are very Pittsburgh and Cleveland,” he
Youngstown and the Mahon- lucky to have such a great said.
ing Valley are strong contend- community that has competi- Bohn also stressed the
ers. tive wages and many diverse importance of an affordable
The cost of living in the interests of population.” cost of living as a key factor in
Mahoning Valley is reasonable Youngstown Mayor Jay deciding where to house his
and affordable compared to Williams said he sees Akron business.
cities like Cleveland or New as an ideal role model for this “The living costs here [in
York. area because of how it has Millvale] are pretty cheap and
The cost of living index rebounded in the wake of the the location is pretty good
in Youngstown is 79 percent collapse of much of its indus- which helps bring in the busi-
out of the national average of try. ness. We got a deal on the
100. That rebounding, however, building and the size.
will take time, creativity and Getting something like this
Akron offers model money, officials said. in other cities might be ten
times as much,” Bohn said.
Scott Baughman, manager What does it take? “You have to look for afford-
of Public Affairs at Goodyear ability and where you are
Tire in Akron, said the city of Location is key, said one likely to grow and expand like
Akron has come along way Cleveland florist. we did from one store front
and is beginning to build big Paradise Flowers, now op- to four.”
business. erating in Cleveland, opened Another business owner
Baughman said businesses its doors 30 years ago be- in the neighboring state of
in Akron and Youngstown and cause its owner found a loca- West Virginia cited location
all over the world have to tion where his would be the and education as the key fac-
work together in a spirit of only flower shop in the area. tors in where to locate and
“partnership” to keep inter- Located near funeral then expand their business.
ests of each group balanced homes and hospitals, owner
 The River City Tavern in Between Marietta College The Toledo office still re-
Parkersburg, W.Va. opened in and the different schools in mains because of the effort by
2001 because there weren’t the area, we knew this would the employees and their fight
too many full service restau- be a good place to share a to keep the business in the
rants there that weren’t food business and raise families, community.
chains. plus having the two businesses Ken Robedeau of Teletron-
River City opened a sec- so close together meant our ics said, the office in Toledo
ond restaurant across the employees could work at both can remain open because
Ohio River in Marietta in 2006 stores without having to travel there isn’t any hard competi-
because restaurant owners too far,” said Smith. tion and they can work with
knew it was closer to a college Teletronics Inc., headquar- other businesses in the area.
town that would translate into tered in Cleveland, also has “With Teletronics being
more customers and a more an office in Toledo. The busi- local to Cleveland and very
educationally engaged com- ness, which started in 1980, small, the bigger names be-
munity. is family-owned and employs came more trusted so we
30 in Cleveland and seven in lost money,” said Robedeau.
“Being near a col- Toledo. “Keeping the headquarters in
lege town made us feel Teletronics, which helps Cleveland always allows us to
like the community had companies with computer have business while the office
great education,” said projects, also had offices in in Toledo being one- of-a-kind
office manager Melody Pittsburgh, Columbus, and gives us another chance to
Smith. Akron but was forced to close flourish.”
them due to low revenue.
 “When the company was flower shop, said he used to added his Parma store because
started, we looked for a place have a store in the Southern it is one of the largest cities in
that was essential to travel,” Park Mall in Boardman. the state.
Robedeau said. “Cleveland is a Twenty years ago he “Parma has a good middle-
central city that makes travel owned Alexander Flowers in class and working-class kind of
from outside cities like Pitts- the Southern Park Mall. people,” he mentioned. “Plus it
burgh or even Youngstown “We did pretty well in the is 15 minutes from Cleveland.”
easy access.” mall, but we wanted to move Paradise had a few sug-
Robedeau said he did to a bigger city with more op- gestions on what Youngstown
not know enough about portunity at the time,” Para- could do and some things he
Youngstown to say whether it dise said. would look for if he were go-
would have ever been a pos- The same desire to be in ing to add another shop some-
sible location for one of the a bigger city motivated him where.
company’s satellite offices. to open his second store in
Paradise, however, from the the Cleveland area. He said he

What is the YBI?

The Youngstown Business Incubator Technology
is recognized as a premier technology Incubator
enterprise development program that (one of 12
uses entrepreneurial expertise, facili- statewide) by
ties, professional relationships, and a the Ohio De-
resource network to link businesses partment of
together to create jobs. Development
The YBI mission statement is to and receives
cultivate, accelerate and promote the about 50 percent of its operating funds
formation, growth, commercialization from the ODOD.
and innovation of technology-based Since the year 2000 the YBI has cre-
business by providing “comprehen- ated 250 new jobs with an average sal-
sive, high quality entrepreneurial ary of $58,000.
services and resources in a robust They have developed 24 new com-
environment that promotes company mercial software applications.
success, attraction and retention.” They have customers in 85 different
It took approximately seven years countries with products and support
to develop the infrastructure, secure translated in 10 different languages.
funding, and renovate the building. They won top positions in Inc.
The facility, constructed in 1915, Magazines 500 list and Entrepreneur’s
is five floors, 25,000 square feet and growth list.
includes two stories. The YBI opened Some customers include Firestone,
in 1995 as a mixed incubator provid- Lockheed Martin and IBM as well as
ing general services and equipment to higher education customers such as
start. Harvard, Yale, Ohio State University
The YBI is designed as an Edison and Youngstown State University.
 “You need to make parking affordable
and give the companies an incentive to
New generation
build there. A lot of this negativity comes from the fact that
Not just tax incentives, but reasons Youngstown was a booming steel city until September
to come, such as education and partner- 19, 1977, “Black Monday,” when Youngstown Sheet
and Tube began layoffs and eventually closed.
ship,” Paradise said. Chief Development Officer at the Youngstown
Business Incubator Julie Michael Smith believes that
“City officials need to educate “the steel mills are gone, that’s not our generation.
people on the city and what it People still throw a pity party over them, get over it.”
has to offer,” said Paradise. Many people relied on the steel industry for jobs
and when they closed and went away, that reliability
never left. People still thought the mills were going to
“Stress the idea that Youngstown is come back one day and save several jobs.
a smaller, affordable city that is located With the new generation in the Valley and the
between many giant cities. Location is new outlook on economy, the steel mills are becom-
important.” ing less popular of talk and becoming more about
The city needs to build downtown technology based business such as Turning Technolo-
gies, M7 Technologies, and Eris Medical Technologies
and create the opportunity for jobs. or even the smaller locally owned businesses that
Paradise said, “filling the offices down- pop up in downtown Youngstown or throughout the
town helps bring the business because Valley.
those workers become the customers “There is a new generation, new enthusiasm and
that will need the food and the goods new future,” Smith went on to say.
When you look at Akron, they have the sense
that other businesses might bring in.”
of Community that Mayor Jay Williams is looking to
model his city after.
“The mayor of Akron is someone I am close
friends with and look to as a mentor for the city of
Youngstown and out community,” said Mayor Wil-
liams. “There will be bumps in the road, but they are
nothing that we cant overcome. The city has taken
a hard knock, but the future is bright and myself as
well as the new generation of young people can help
us grow as a community by bringing their business
here.”
“Rolling Stone’s article could be based around
anything. For that one negative thing, there are
twelve positive about the area,” said Williams. “It’s
like if you Google Youngstown 2010, for ever one bad
story you will find ten good ones, at least.”
Officials are working on making the negative
stigma less of an issue and not as overpowering as it
once was a few years ago.
Mayor Williams is working to make the city a
better place for business by cleaning up the city and
adding more officers to the streets and making things
more cost effective. Creating a “Green City” by going
with the eco-friendly ideas and giving the younger
generation the credit.
“Youngstown can be a place where the new gen-
eration can live, learn, and play,” said Williams.
 Keeping it in the community

A local doctor in Warren, Dr. Giorgio Vescera, grew up in Warren and

Howland and worked at his fathers locally owned restaurant in Warren –
Sorrento’s.
He worked at Sorrento’s from the time he was 11 years old until he
graduated med school. Once graduated from med school he opened his
own Pediatrician’s Office in Warren. Starting a new business in a commu-
nity that he has been a part of for 20 years wasn’t has difficult as he had
thought.
“I opened the office in July and people just started coming in,” he said.
“People new my father and his restaurant and they knew me from work-
ing there so long. It was a community of people that I felt close to that
brought me most business and than it became word of mouth.”
“I think alot of the stigma of how bad the city might be comes from that union mentality which
we need to get rid of. The big steel mill jobs are gone so its time we work on starting something
new, something fresh,” he mentioned.
Generations and time can improve an area.
“The youth is going to play a key role in building new communities and making certain cities
what they may have once been. They have the ideas, they know what is new,” He said.
“Them and myself included never knew the steel mills, so we dont know this drastic change
people talk about first hand, but with time we as a new generation can build something just as big.”

Tyler Clark, a local Independent Web Consultant, grew up in

Youngstown and went to YSU. He majored in music history while working
at the Youngstown Playhouse than later moved to Washington D.C. where
he got a job teaching html and java at IBM. He always enjoyed program-
ming he said so it was something he wanted to go back to, a job in music
was tough to find.
He met his wife here in the Valley while working for IBM, than moved to
Tucson, Arizona because there were no opportunities here.
“I wanted experience in other parts of the country. I’m not saying there
is no experience here, I just wanted to branch out and see what else is out
there in different parts of the U.S.,” said Clark.
After eight years, he came back to the Valley.
“I had a family and it was more affordable to live here,” he said. “Also, this area felt like
home, I grew up here and loved the environment and people. It felt like a perfect place to raise
my own kids.”
Clarks said there are no regrets about moving back. He quit his job and began his own inde-
pendent web consulting business and branched out working with Centric Studios.
“Youngstown is a shrinking city, but it has a bright future,” said Clark. “The media and pa-
pers give it that stigma by always reporting on the bad.”
“Times will change, and new ideas will come from a new generation, but we have to wel-
come them into our community and give thema chance,” Clark mentioned.