In a revitalized part of Youngstown, OH, once dominated by manufacturing and heavy industry, new businesses, shops , and entertainment have sprung up. It’s become a popular place for not only city residents to walk to, but, also, for students from the nearby Youngstown State University.
“It used to be a manufacturing district,” said Adam Lee, the program director for Youngstown City Scape and a member of the Active Transportation Team for the healthy community partnership. “Right now, there’s need for more pedestrian safety on this side of town because it’s being used in a nontraditional way.”
(Left) Sharon Letson, (Center) Adam Lee, (Right) David WheelerBrandon Noel
This creative project is one of several new initiatives being carried out by the group local organizations known as the Active Transportation Team. There will also be an additional parking lane, bike lane, and other road diet features meant to increase its functionality while making it safer everyone. It’s come just in-time as a pedestrian was struck not far from the intersection, on the same road (Federal St.), just a week before this project commenced.
“It’s can be dangerous crossing,” said Lee. “It’s four lanes, people come 40 miles an hour on blind curve down the hill. This is important because of what’s going on here and, also, to see the bigger picture for planning for the East End as it becomes more developed.”
Funds for these new additions came from a somewhat surprising source: the Center For Disease Control (CDC).
“It falls within the healthy movements sphere,” explained Lee. “It’s part of a general shift in understanding within the governmental towards prevention for health outcomes and less on the back end with treatment.”
Getting Paint Onto Pavement
A group of about twelve volunteers were in attendance, dressed in proper safety attire provided by the city, along with traffic cones to redirect traffic. While Lee was the acting foreman on the project, local artist and arts coordinator David Wheeler was responsible for the design. He said that multiple iterations were considered, and the final design was voted upon by the community out of three choices.
“I do a lot of community arts projects,” Said Wheeler. “It’s something I’ve been doing since the beginning of my career. There’s been a lot of painting on pavement, and, especially, playgrounds.”
A day prior, the crosswalk was cleaned with a leaf blower, then a fresh coat of yellow traffic painted between the reflective white bars. Once the community volunteers were there Wheeler used sidewalk chalk to hand sketch out the design, mixed up the colors of paint into smaller containers, and then assigned each helper a section to start filling in with a roller brush.
David Wheeler
“This will be a way more visible crosswalk,” said Lee. “The white areas were repainted this year, and it’s already dulling because there’s a heavy amount of traffic here. A creative crosswalk is artsy, but it serves a purpose more on an engagement and visibility standpoint while creating a more vibrant intersection. Art and design serves a purpose if it’s done correctly to a high level.”
While Youngstown has had a long history of a vibrant artist community, they recently were dealt a heavy blow when a major center for artistic work and development for decades was lost when the Ward Bakery building was sold and the resident artist had to vacate.
“It’s good to be visible,” said Wheeler about projects like the creative crosswalk. “It’s good that the art is visible and this is a community engagement project, as well. So, other people who are not full-time artists are coming out and getting some paint on their hands. Yeah, I think it’s positive.”
Youngstown CityScape’s Mission
Youngstown CityScape is the downtown community and development corporation whose mission, for the past twenty-five years has been to beautify the city, to make changes that really improve the face of the downtown area in particular. While this frequently involves potting plants and laying mulch in flower beds, they also get involved in projects like this.
“This [project] really does a number of things,” said Sharon Letson, executive director CityScape. “We are much more than flowers and aesthetics, really, with an eye at raising the standard. Sometimes the standard means safety, sometimes a standard means pretty, and sometimes the standard means looking at how a road can intersect better with current conditions. It’s all kinds of different things.”
Youngstown CityScape
While the surrounding businesses and their patrons will all benefit, the large scale cooperation between them, multiple local organizations, the university, and the city is a win for everyone, and, hopefully, a sign of future opportunities to come.
“It’s sort of interesting the way it’s all positioned,” Letson said. “We have Penguin City [Brewery] right here, we’ve got the Youngstown Flea [market] operating on the other side. We’ve got these businesses over here. We’ve got this chord of partnerships all working together. It’s absolutely awesome.”
