President Bush, I Have a Question
When I brought my wife to Youngstown for the first time in 1971, the first place I showed her was the Brier Hill Route 422 corridor, and the drive along the Mahoning River through Youngstown, Campbell and Struthers. US Steel, Republic Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube and Commercial Shearing were among the largest of the companies. Medium size companies such as Aeroquip and Wean United were sprinkled in for good measure. One could look right into the blast furnaces from the Center Street Bridge, and the fire would light the night sky.
Then came September 17, 1977, better known as Black Monday, Lykes-Youngstown, the old Sheet and Tube, announced it was closing its Youngstown operations. 25,000 jobs were lost. Mill after mill after mill followed. Company after company closed. When it was said and done, the primary job loss estimates reached upward to 75,0000. 24 blast furnaces were located in the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys in 1968. There are none today.
In the carnage, people lost everything they owned. House foreclosures were so common place, Jim Traficant, our then sheriff, stopped enforcing the foreclosures and went to jail for contempt. Our school systems suffered as the money dried up from lack of a tax base. People left the community in droves carrying whatever they could. The population of the City of Youngstown dropped from almost 200,000 to 90,000. Our traditions suffered. The City Series Football Conference died on the vine. The Steel Valley Football Conference died along with it. Churches closed, and our rich ethnic culture suffered as people moved away.
Racially, the black population suffered the most. As the whites who could afford it left the area, the black population had little choice but to stay and fend for themselves with few social services to support them. Health care was sparse if it existed at all, usually found in the emergency room of St. Elizabeth's Hospital. The racial makeup of the 90,000 remaining city residents is over 75% black, with more than a substantial number of them living at the poverty level.
Here is the end result. The Mahoning Valley's unemployment rate is among the highest in the nation while many businesses in the area can't find employees to work. This is proof of a permanently unemployable population, uneducated, elderly, and demoralized. Our real estate values are among the lowest in the nation. The Youngstown/Warren school systems continually get failing grades in state achievement tests.
As President Bush prepares to pay billions to rebuild the City of New Orleans, a city without which, he says, America can't exist, I would like to ask him a question. What about us?
Then came September 17, 1977, better known as Black Monday, Lykes-Youngstown, the old Sheet and Tube, announced it was closing its Youngstown operations. 25,000 jobs were lost. Mill after mill after mill followed. Company after company closed. When it was said and done, the primary job loss estimates reached upward to 75,0000. 24 blast furnaces were located in the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys in 1968. There are none today.
In the carnage, people lost everything they owned. House foreclosures were so common place, Jim Traficant, our then sheriff, stopped enforcing the foreclosures and went to jail for contempt. Our school systems suffered as the money dried up from lack of a tax base. People left the community in droves carrying whatever they could. The population of the City of Youngstown dropped from almost 200,000 to 90,000. Our traditions suffered. The City Series Football Conference died on the vine. The Steel Valley Football Conference died along with it. Churches closed, and our rich ethnic culture suffered as people moved away.
Racially, the black population suffered the most. As the whites who could afford it left the area, the black population had little choice but to stay and fend for themselves with few social services to support them. Health care was sparse if it existed at all, usually found in the emergency room of St. Elizabeth's Hospital. The racial makeup of the 90,000 remaining city residents is over 75% black, with more than a substantial number of them living at the poverty level.
Here is the end result. The Mahoning Valley's unemployment rate is among the highest in the nation while many businesses in the area can't find employees to work. This is proof of a permanently unemployable population, uneducated, elderly, and demoralized. Our real estate values are among the lowest in the nation. The Youngstown/Warren school systems continually get failing grades in state achievement tests.
As President Bush prepares to pay billions to rebuild the City of New Orleans, a city without which, he says, America can't exist, I would like to ask him a question. What about us?
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