HUNDREDS ATTEND 2nd ANNUAL GREY TO GREEN FESTIVAL

Nearly 800 individuals from across the valley attended the second annual Grey to Green Festival in Wick Park. The festival seeks to raise awareness of the grey to green concept of the city’s nationally and internationally recognized Youngstown 2010 Plan. While focusing on environmental issues and introducing local organizations, the festival also places emphasis on the Wick Park Revitalization Project.

The Grey to Green Festival organizing coalition formed with the shared belief that citizens, agencies, organizations and elected officials can collaborate to mobilize communities. Changing problem-driven solutions to vision-driven solutions is the basic approach to transforming the local community.

“The overall goal of the festival is to increase awareness of environmental issues, but the festival is also about community building. It is about relationships between people and organizations that care deeply about the place where they live. It is about sharing the joy that comes from working together to improve our city.” says Event Chair and Wick Park Revitalization Project steering committee member Deb Weaver.

For more on the festival:

• Festival Slide Show (by Jaci Clark)
• Green For a Day at Wick
• Festival Grows in Second Year

YOUTHBUILD ASSISTS WITH PARK BENCH REPLACEMENT

The Wick Park Revitalization Project received assistance from the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority's YouthBuild Mahoning County program. Work crews assisted with the much needed replacement of park benches on the corner of Elm St. & Park Ave as well as with preparation for the 2010 Grey to Green Festival. The project work was part of the United Way's Day of Caring 2009.

YouthBuild is a youth and community development program that simultaneously addresses core issues facing low-income communities: housing, education, employment, crime prevention, and leadership development. Low-income young people ages 16-24 work toward their GEDs or high school diplomas, learn job skills and serve their communities by building affordable housing or assisting with construction in community development related projects and transform their own lives and roles in society in the process.

Great thanks to Richard King, Anthonie Jackson and the students of YouthBuild for their time and hard work.

For more on YouthBuild Mahoning County visit their website here.

FINAL DESIGN PLAN & SURVEY RELEASED

The final design plan for the Wick Park Revitalization Project has been released. You can review the design here (and key) or by clicking the photo on the left.

A survey has also been constructed to gather feedback regarding park usage as well as to determine priority of various projects. Please click the link below to complete the survey. The survey will remain active until June 1st, 2009.

• Wick Park Revitalization Project Survey

Also, Treez Please recently conducted a tree planting portion of the project. Seventeen trees were planted along the Park Avenue side of Wick Park. For more, check out Youngstown Moxie II blog posting here:

• Treez Please in Wick Park

INITIAL DESIGN PROPOSALS RELEASED

The Urban Design Center released its initial design proposals for Wick Park to the steering committee on October 8th. The proposals are based on the input gathered from the first two community planning meetings conducted by citizens and stakeholders. Professional design recommendations from UDC were also implemented into the planning formulation.

The proposals will be presented to the public at the third and final community planning meeting on Saturday, November 15th 10am @ Park Vista's Community Room (1216 5th Ave). Final design recommendations and project implementation time lines will be discussed at this meeting.

Click here to view the designs: Wick Park Design Proposals

2ND COMMUNITY MEETING HELD

On Saturday, June 21st, over 60 citizens met at the Park Vista Community Room for the second of a three part planning series designed to gather ideas for major renovations to historic Wick Park on the city’s North Side.

Community members, neighborborhood groups, and YSU students along with officials from the City of Youngstown, Youngstown State University, Youngstown CityScape, Defend Youngstown, and the Design Center of Northeast Ohio spent over 2 hours discussing short term and long term physical improvement and usage plans for the 34 acre park.

Participants broke into two groups to brainstorm. Ideas for improvement included:

• improved lighting
• making the front of the community center and the entrance to the park more defined for first-time visitors;
• spreading seating throughout;
• removing some unsightly barriers and guardrails;
• finding a more discreet location for trash bins;
• redesigning a play area to make it easier for parents to supervise their youngsters
• having smaller parking lots as opposed to one large one;
• forming public and private partnerships;
• creating areas for musical performance and a field for casual athletic recreation;
• placement of benches around the park perimeter;
• diagonal parking around park on Elm/Broadway/Park

Vindicator: Changes In Store For Wick Park

ShoutYoungstown.com: Recap: 2nd Wick Park Meeting

STREETSCAPE TACKLES WICK PARK CORNERS

From the Vindicator:

If you’ve been to Wick Park lately, you likely have noticed the freshly planted and mulched rows of flowers near each of the park’s four corners.

Members of Youngstown CityScape were largely responsible for the plantings earlier this month, and the new additions are a segue to bigger changes and improvements to come for the park, some city and community leaders say. CityScape is a grassroots organization dedicated to the revitalization of Youngstown.

FIRST COMMUNITY MEETING COMPLETE

Over 80 citizens participated in the first Wick Park Revitalization community meeting Saturday, March 15th at Park Vista on the city's North Side.

After the speakers concluded, citizens broke out into 3 separate groups and provided input regarding short term goals vs. long term vision. The information was recorded by the Kent St. Urban Design team and will be used to formulate a strategic agenda for the next meeting which will take place in the next 30-45 days.

Building upon Youngstown's growing commitment to "Open Source Community Development", citizens will be able to track and participate in the entire planning, fundraising, and execution process of the Wick Park Project on this site.

Copies of the formal plan, meeting minutes, videos of all meetings, fundraising information, donation and volunteer opportunities, events, and general news/information will be accessible online via links provided on the right side of this page (as well as in future posts).

Click here for video from our first meeting: Wick Park (Meeting #1)

Stay tuned for updates here at the Wick Park Project website!

Valley24.com: Reinventing Wick Park
Vindicator: Wick Park workshop draws 80 participants
Tribune Chronicle: Wick Park Effort Begins
Shout Youngstown: This is the New Standard