I'm-a Gonna Yoongs-a-town

When my grandmother arrived in the United States in 1905, they asked her where she was going. “I’m-a gonna Yoongs-a-town,” she replied. The industrial revolution in American paved our streets with gold. More than 100 years later, all roads are “gonna Yoongs-a-town” once again. In another stunning statistic, the Vindicator reported last week that Youngstown-Boardman-Warren leads the nation in percentage increase of exports…up 30%.

The figures are staggering. Exports make up 15 % of the area’s economy, those exports equaling $2.9 billion (with a “B”). That makes the area 75th in exporting areas in the list of top 100 metropolitan areas in the United States, which is remarkable because media statistics dropped Youngstown out of the top 100 ranking on anything several years ago. The article pointed out metal products accounted for 27% of exported goods, and the bulk of those metal exports are due to RTI International Metals in Niles. The article failed to mention is that Youngstown is also one of the top exporting regions in Ohio. It also fails to mention that notwithstanding job losses involving companies like Delphi, Ohio and Youngstown were actually among the big winners in the NAFTA sweepstakes.

Couple that with other “honors” achieved by the Valley, including being the top job growth are in Ohio and one of the top areas in the country, and also being named best place to start a business…dude, we are on a roll.

That speaks highly for our area, and 30 years of standing alone and fighting to survive. People from our metro area are over achievers and tough competitors. We had to be to survive the collapse of the steel industry. Those of us that chose to stay in the area had to work twice as hard and be twice as smart. And we did it WITHOUT the government safety net that has evolved over the last several years too late to benefit the folks here.

On the down side, we tend to beat ourselves up. It’s time to stop that. Over the past year I have had the opportunity to work on a project that involves several other prominent communities in Ohio. I can report that these areas are no better in dealing with their governance problems than us. In fact, we are miles ahead of these other areas in learning to work together as a region and across political lines. It doesn’t seem that way, but as the saying goes, the grass is always greener on the other side. We should be proud to be from this area, and proud of our accomplishments which are many. I know that I am. Somebody just needs to tell us to wake up and look around.

Organized labor, as a force in the area, has diminished from back in the mill days, but not by much. Unions are still force to be reckoned with. But business and labor, notwithstanding posturing rhetoric, have learned to work together. The results are in those wonderful figures…all of which spell jobs. Couple the above with the burgeoning oil and gas industry in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania and we will be the area to lead our nation out of recession. Through thirty years of hard work, corruption battles, poverty, unemployment, scrimping and saving…we have survived, and now we will prosper.

There are still challenges. Hopefully as the growth in the area starts to speed up, the population will begin to recover. Given the high number of people living the area over the age of 60, the goal is to reach critical mass where those moving into the area and/or choosing to stay in the area equals or exceeds those who are leaving through, let's say, natural attrition. And we have the ongoing problem of a large population of permanently unemployable folks that are a result of government largesse. That is a hard one with no easy answers.

That being said, I am proud to say I am from northeast Ohio. I am from Mahoning/Trumbull Counties. I am from the Youngstown-Boardman-Warren standard metropolitan statistical area. I am from Yoongs-a-town. You should be gonna Yoongs-a-town, too. UPDATE ALERT:  Chesapeake Energy has just announced it will build a Nine Hundred Million Dollar shale and natural gas processing plant in Columbiana County...most likely Hanoverton.  Let the good times roll!!!!! 

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