![smarts youngstown smarts youngstown](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61xF12uoe6L._AC_UX522_.jpg)
Embracing shrinkage has to do with the fact that we had the infrastructure for 250,000 people and we currently have 65,000. There were very few elected officials at the local level, anywhere in the U.S., who were articulating such a message publicly. So we need to start operating in such a way, and that impacts everything you do-when you're thinking about land use, thinking about delivering services, thinking about operations, and what the future city will look like. Not just now, but we really haven’t grown for two-and-a-half to three decades. It's not like “Oh look at us, we're dying.” It's more like, this is our reality, and we have to make decisions a certain way based on this.Ĭampbell: Why do you think it was considered such a novel idea at the time?īeniston: I think it was considered such a novel idea because you had elected officials here articulating the message that perhaps smaller is better and that we're not growing. I think it's really a common-sense approach. But we're not operating in such a way as if we're going to grow tomorrow or even growing now. Given the option to shrink or grow, anyone is going to pick grow.
![smarts youngstown smarts youngstown](https://i.travelapi.com/hotels/1000000/50000/43400/43394/13855bb4_z.jpg)
Ian Beniston: The way I view that is, planning within the realms of reality. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.Īlexia Fernández Campbell: Can you explain the concept behind Youngstown’s plan for “smart shrinkage”? Beniston recently talked to me about what other cities can learn from Youngstown’s experience, though few are trying. Part of his group’s job is to identify the healthiest neighborhoods and fix up the houses there, while demolishing abandoned ones and finding new uses for the land. But it also put into motion aggressive action to fight urban decay and revitalize many parts of the city, says Ian Beniston, director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, which was launched in 2009 as a result of the city’s efforts to revive certain neighborhoods. The Youngstown plan had its share of critics, including those who say it led the city to abandon its poorest residents. Since unveiling the plan in 2005, the city has lost only about 1,000 people. In doing so, it hoped to keep the remaining 66,000 people from leaving. The Youngstown 2010 plan reoriented the former steel-mill town toward providing services to the neighborhoods with the most people, converting abandoned land into green space, and supporting the burgeoning healthcare industry. Youngstown, Ohio, created quite a stir a decade ago when it unveiled a novel plan for the city: It would stop trying to return to its glory days as a city of 170,000 people and instead embrace the idea that maybe smaller is better.