North Heights - Revitalization Efforts

Revitalization Efforts

There have been numerous revitalization efforts within this neighborhood since 2000. A new Harding school opened in 2004. Next to Harding is The Rayen School. This high school will be torn down, re-built on the same land, and will convert to a middle school upon opening in fall 2007. Hayes Middle School will be demolished.

Crandall Run flows east through Crandall Park and through several neighborhoods before entering Crab Creek. It is possible that Crandall Park will be expanded eastward and extend further toward Crab Creek as part of the 2010 Plan’s city-wide green network. There are three active neighborhood groups in the Crandall Park area, including Upper Goleta Block Watch, Coronado Block Watch, Fifth Avenue Boulevard Neighbors, and North Side Citizens Coalition.

Northside Pool is a local, North Heights landmark; constructed in 1939, it has served the neighborhood's diverse residents through all the city's transitions. In recent decades it has served residents from throughout Youngstown: Brier Hill, the lower-Northside, the Wick Park District, and the East Side.

The pool was recently remodeled and reoppened late in the summer of 2007. It has, thus far, experienced expedient success in attendance and revived much needed life lacking on the Belmont-side of North Heights since the pool was closed and under construction throughout the summers of 2006 and 2007. The New Northside Pool, though lacking landscaping and cultivated, unfenced public space, should be considered by City officials a model for pools that need be placed and constructed on the east and south sides of Youngstown.

In the summer of 2007, residents from Carlotta Drive and the Planning Department's "City Script" program removed woody 1950s shrubs, litter and debris from the street-end (cal-de-sac). The Circle curb was painted Parks Department "Eco" green, and stylishly re-landscaped. A pear tree and tulips were planted, a bench was cemented by the fire hydrant on the devil's strip, and a peace pole with four languages representing the relative ethnic groups that make up the street's culture read, "May peace be in our homes and our communities." The languages chosen by the people of the western block were: Italian, Russian, Hebrew, and English (for the Irish and African-American residents).

The Carlotta Community Circle is now a local landmark and the city's first cultural garden. Every year in the early fall, the street organizes a small block party and multicultural potluck picnic at the Circle to cultivate the garden, then celebrate the street's diversity and unity. The event is called, "The Circle in September."

|- Public Art and Community Development, City of Yo.