A neat look at Youngstown during the 60s using photos to walk you through.

For a city with a lot of problems, Youngstown has a lot of citizens with a great passion for the place. Particularly in the younger, newer generations growing up in the wreckage of past industrial economic betrayals and disappointments, I find more and more Youngstowners who are blogging and journaling about the city and what it was, is, and what they hope it will become.

What many of the Youngstown blogs I come across do are paint a portrait of the city rather than the bloggers themselves, which I find fresh, and a welcome addition to the many blogs that detail the daily lives of their bloggers.

In the online blog of the Walruss, Youngstown's new alternative newspaper, the city's renaissance call among its bloggers has been reported, detailing a variety of blogs, like John Slanina's "I will Shout Youngstown" blog, which he states has been a way for him to remain connect to his hometown and also as a tool for him to express his thoughts on city planning and economic development. His blog, among many others, like Mike Prelee's "Tales from the Rustbelt" provide readers both in and outside of Youngstown with a picture of the city from the inside.

This city has many tales to tell, and needs its tellers. Hopefully we'll have more in the near future.

Youngstown's Governor Jay Williams has done something in his Youngstown 2010 Plan that seems like it's the opposite of what most city planners think of as progress: instead of growing the city, his plan aims to shrink it. In a featured article about the plan in Governing.com, the shrinkage of Youngstown's community and the greening of its abandoned neighborhoods are listed as two of the main items Williams plans to accomplish while in office. He's trying to develop a new infrastructure for the city which future mayors and city council members can develop as well.

One part of the plan Williams wants to change quickly is the city's refurbishing of low income and poverty stricken households, which previously has allowed people to sign up for the program on a first come first serve basis, rather than attempting to work on specific neighborhoods one at a time. In some cases, Williams wants to move some low income families who are holdouts in abandoned neighborhoods that could be returned to nature into neighborhoods the city is focusing its energies on revitalizing, rather than fixing up one lone house on a street of ten dilapidated, abandoned homes.

The Youngstown 2010 Plan seems to be made of a lot of common sense that past Mayors and Councils have sadly declined to employ. The plan is getting national coverage in venues such as The New York Times. To learn more about it, visit the Youngstown 2010 Plan website, and if you're a local, attend one of the meetings and see if there's any way in which you could contribute to the betterment of the city that's decided to shrink in order to grow.

So sad, and yet so true. The twelve days of Ohio are over. In case you missed them, here they are again!

On the first day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: a state bird (by Jamie)!
On the second day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: a Twinsburg festival (by Tom)!
On the third day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: sports museums (by Katherine)!
On the fourth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: women astronauts (by Jamie)!
On the fifth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: great actors (by Tom)!
On the sixth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: art museums (by Jeffrey)!
On the seventh day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: baseball World Series Championships (by Tom)!
On the eighth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: presidents (by Jamie)!
On the ninth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: doubled cities (by Katherine)!
On the tenth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: famous Ohioans (by Jeffrey)!
On the eleventh day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: Native American tribes of Ohio (by Tom)!
On the twelfth day of Ohio, the bloggers gave to me: trivial Ohio facts (by Jeffrey)!

Ohio is a trivia fanatic's dream come true. There's always some new fact or odd story to dredge up. Here are twelve to start.

1. Oberlin College founded in 1833, was the first interracial and coeducational college in the USA.

2. John Lambert, of Ohio City, built the first gasoline-powered automobile in the USA.

3.The Cincinnati Red Stockings, as the Reds were known way back in 1869, were the first professional baseball team.

4 The first automatic traffic light was installed in Cleveland, in 1914.

5. Ermal Fraze, of Dayton, invented the first pop-top can. We should all be grateful for that one.

6. In 1870, Cincinnati established the University of Cincinnati. No American city had ever had a municipal university before.

7. Cleveland was the site of the first successful blood transfusion, back in 1905. It was performed by Dr. George Crile.

8. Akron is said to be the first city to use police cars.

9. Dayton produced the first patented cash register. It was invented by James Retty, in 1879.

10. The first municipal ambulance service was started in 1865. Cincinnati takes credit for that.

11. Cincinnati also had the first professional fire department. Really innovative folks, down there.

12. Finally, William Finlay Semple, from Mount Vernon patented a seriously important invention in 1865. Chewing gum.

Hey, everyone knows about the Wright brothers. What about some famous people who were born in Ohio, but found their fame elsewhere? You might not even know they were buckeyes.

You've heard of Zanesville, right? You've probably heard of Zane Grey, too. Ever made the connection? Zane Grey wasn't only born in Zanesville, his family started it. For a writer of westerns, he started pretty far east.

How many of you knew Steven Spielberg was born in Cincinnati? A lot of well known people came from there. Take Ted Turner, he was from Cincinnati, too.

It helps to have a sense of humor, especially when dealing with Ohio politics. Erma Bombeck, who was born in Dayton certainly did. So did my favorite on the list, the great humorist and cartoonist James Thurber. That's his picture at the top. He came from Columbus and told some good stories about the place. While we're on the subject of humor, Ambrose Bierce was from Meigs County. He could tell a funny tale or two when he wasn't in a darker mood.

Did you know Clarence Darrow was born at Kinsman, in Trumbull County. His law practice got started in northeast Ohio, before he moved west. Then there's Norman Vincent Peale, who preached the power of positive thinking.

Next we have someone whose face might not be familiar, but you'd probably know her voice. Nancy Cartwright, from Kettering provided the voice of Bart Simpson. Don't have a cow if you didn't know.

Finally, a woman was born in Licking County, or Athens County, the sources differ, back in 1838. She went on to lead an eventful life and was the first woman to be nominated for president. Her name? Victoria Claflin Woodhull.

It's odd. I can't believe how hard it was to cut this list down to only ten people. The only easy part was leaving out presidents,astronauts, and actors. They were covered in other posts. Ten? I could have listed a hundred and still had more. If you'd asked me years ago, back when I lived in Pennsylvania, about famous people from Ohio, I'd have thought of a few presidents, the Wright brothers,and Thurber. I had no idea how many famous people were born here. I do now, and I'll post on some of them from time to time.

Did you ever realize that we share quite a lot of names with quite a lot of other cities? Look at this list.

1. Cleveland, Tennessee
2. Columbus, Indiana
3. Cincinnati, Indiana
4. Youngstown, New York
5. Akron, Colorado
6. Toledo - I mean, obviously, there's Toledo, Spain, but let's try Toledo, Oregon
7. Dayton, Washington
8. Miami, Florida
9. Athens, Georgia

I mean, let's get the heck out of Ohio! We've got towns all over the place!

Are you a generous Christmas giver? Perhaps you'll feel like a piker compared to the gifts the state government is about to bestow on Ohio communities in the about-to-pass biannual capital appropriations bill.

By the way, I don't intend this to be a 'look how wasteful our government is" post. I'm sure every project in the budget has its passionate defenders, and things I think wonderful others would view as foolhearty.

Among the projects your money will fund in the next two years:

• Hocking College Center for Hospitality Training -- $1,838,986
• Butler County Voice of America museum -- $750,000
• Johnny Appleseed Museum, Urbana -- $50,000
• Galion Historic Big Four Depot restoration -- $30,000
• Cleveland State University windtower generator project -- $400,000
• Ukranian Museum -- $100,000
• Mountain Bike Park in Midtown Cleveland -- $100,000
• Little Brown Jug (horse race) facility improvements, Delaware -- $50,000
• Delaware skate park-- $50,000
• Center for Science and Industry, Columbus -- $1,000,000
• ODNR Ohio Fairgrounds display area improvements -- $700,000
• Gallia County French Art Colony -- $100,000
• Jamestown Opera House -- $50,000
• Cambridge skate park -- $50,000
• Woodward Opera House -- $50,000
• Heritage Center of Dayton Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship -- $1,300,000
• Morgan County Historical Opera House -- $25,000
• Shawnee State Motion Capture Studio Project -- $281,300
• First Lunar Flight Project, Trumbull Co. -- $150,000
• Mason ATP Tennis Center -- $1,300,000
• Georgetown Community Tennis Center -- $75,000
  
• Star Park Skate Park improvements (Meigs Co.) -- $65,000
• The Octagon House (Circleville) -- $100,000
• Pro Football Hall of Fame -- $1,650,000

The full list (174 pages!) is a fascinating read. I'd be interested in seeing a comparison of funding by county vs. the power of the state reps and senators from that county. I'm also surprised at the apparent influence of the skateboard and opera lobbies.

Keep in mind, though, that these local projects represent only a small portion of the budget. A vast majority of the funds are allocated to education.

I think it's interesting to note that our two-year budget of $1.78 billion is approximately 1% of our national budget for the war in Iraq in 2007 alone.

The Blue Man Group is part of New York performance mythology at this point in their career. Now they're back with a new show entitled, "How to Be a Megastar Tour 2.0", which is set up as a satirical "workshop" about creating the perfect rock concert experience, analyzing, critiquing, and making fun of the rock star world and its egocentric excesses in the process.

Taking off from "The Complex Rock Tour", the Blue Man Group "downloads" a new how-to manual that gives the audience the illusions of an interactive game or show one might watch on the internet, inviting people to upload pictures of themselves taken at the show to a website later on as a symbol of the true process of what a rock star at a good concert is: the energy that it takes an enraptured audience to create.

Tickets go on-sale beginning Saturday, Jan. 20th at 10a.m. so mark the date in your calendar!

For more on the event, please visit the main website for the show.

When I talk about our art museums and say Ohio has an embarressment of riches, I'm not overstating the case. It's amazing how many we have. And it's not just quantity, it's quality.

Let's start at the top of the list. The Cleveland Museum of Art is world class in anyone's book. It's still closed for the massive expansion project. They're still busy with special exhibits and events, though. You can also search for your favorite items in the collection on their website.

I can't say I don't play favorites, but few would disagree with adding the Toledo Museum of Art to the list. That's the Great Hall, with works of the Baroque, in the picture. This one has expanded, too. The new Glass Pavilion displays one of the best collections of glass in the world.

Cincinnati enters the picture with the Cincinnati Art Museum. It's they biggest of the lot, with more than 60,000 items, but quality isn't sacrificed. It's downright superb. If you're interested in the ancient art of the Middle East, they have the only collection of Nabataean art outside Jordan.

Columbus isn't far behind. The Columbus Museum brings back memories of a fine collection. It has to be good. I remember it even when I haven't been to Columbus in more than twenty years. You have time to catch their exhibit of landscapes by Edgar Degas. He didn't only paint dancers well. The show runs until the 21st of January.

Another one of my favorites is a work of art itself. The Allen Memorial Art Museum, at Oberlin College houses on excellent collection in a 1917 Renaissance palace designed by Cass Gilbert.

Finally, Ohio had the first museum dedicated to American art. The Butler Institute of American Art was started in 1919 and they're still ahead of the curve, They have the Beecher Center for new media and electronic art.

Remember, though, the list isn't complete. You'll find more museums all over the state at the "read" link.