J Jay Pirko's Page

To the Pickens Plan Army:

You have heard me describe the Youngstown Ohio region (in northeast Ohio and
western Pennsylvania) as a hotbed for Green Energy technology and business
opportunity.

The Youngstown Business Journal published this article, an example of their outstanding business news coming from the Youngstown region. (I strongly recommend subscribing to the Youngstown Business Journal daily news broadcasts, and in-depth printed newspaper.)

- James Jay Pirko
OH-17 District Leader

Global Green USA Finds City Fertile Ground
Dec. 18, 2009 6:32 a.m.
By Dan O’Brien
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The city missed out on the technology revolution during the last decade and it won’t make the same mistake with the “green” revolution, vow U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17, and Mayor Jay Williams.

Ryan and Williams announced Thursday a partnership with Global Green USA, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Monica, Calif., that pledges to help the city get grants and philanthropic contributions to boost its stature in environmental and neighborhood redevelopment.

“We are committed to make sure that we don’t miss the green revolution that’s coming,” Ryan told reporters during a conference call. Ryan and about 30 other members of Congress joined world leaders in Copenhagen yesterday at the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

“We have a partner with Global Green that’s internationally recognized and is going to help re-brand Youngstown and put Youngstown back on the map,” Ryan said. “This is something that totally takes Youngstown to the next level.”

Ryan said Global Green’s expertise in the field “expedites what we thought would take much longer” to accomplish.

Matt Petersen, president of Global Green, said his company would help the city craft an environmental and neighborhood sustainability component to its Youngstown 2010 plan.

“We were looking for a community to work with in the state of Ohio for awhile,” said Petersen, also on the call from Copenhagen. He noted that the organization wanted to work with an area in which it could “create a model that embodies everything we need to do in this world, such as green jobs and affordable energy to low-income families.”

The idea has already received $25,000 in contributions from Youngstown State University alumnus Jack Scott, president of Applied Systems and Technology Transfer. That figure was matched by the Raymond John Wean Foundation, which has taken an aggressive role in promoting and supporting housing and neighborhood revitalization projects.

Petersen said he’s impressed with the work that’s already been done relative to Youngstown 2010, the city’s long-range land use plan that was launched six years ago.

“It will help us contribute to Youngstown 2010 in regards to the ‘greening’ of the city,” Williams said.

That could translate in identifying new ways to adapt green space in the city that’s been vacated as a result of demolition projects, Williams said. “Global Green has got a strong history on finding productive ways to reuse this space,” he said.

As an example, the mayor said green parcels could be reused to develop an urban agriculture program. “It could be a plan to provide fresh food in the inner city to a small-scale economic venture,” he said.

The partnership with Green Global would also yield a design competition to redevelop areas of the city, in specific a neighborhood along the south side.

“It’s still in the early stages,” Williams said. “I think by early next year we’ll have more to report.”

Here are the goals of the partnership, as stated in press materials:

• Create a climate action and sustainability plan that builds on Youngstown 2010 and could be implemented near to mid-term.

• Establish a neighborhood-specific plan on an as-yet unidentified area of the south side that suffers from devastating levels of blight.

• Attract provocative and creative ideas through design competition that could bring national attention and resources to the project.

• Establish measurable indicators of progress, documenting model policies and best practices t hat would be shared with regional and national leaders.

• Leverage existing investments and secure funding commitments from local and regional organizations and congressional appropriations.

• Create a regional framework of ideas and next steps that will identify how the “greening” of Youngstown could influence the greening of Rust Belt communities in the Midwest.

Copyright 2009 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.