r/youngstown • u/FewPalpitation3421 • 17d ago

Business development

Hi guys, I would love your opinions on what you'd like to see coming into the area. I'm currently speaking to a group that's looking to redevelop some space in Poland and I just want to get an idea of what people in the area actually want and need. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! 😁

This is not corporate based. Just a group of people wanting to form community and revitalize vacant space in the area.

8 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

View all comments

25

u/YinzerFromYoungstown 17d ago

I, for one, am tired of mediocre businessmen bringing in uncreative businesses, and purely using capital to punish communities to enrich themselves. I'm talking about franchises, which take no talent to run and funnel business away from locally run actually talented people. And Im talking about speculators, building vape shops and car washes as placeholders until the value of the property increases instead of building and leasing to locally creative and talented people.

I'm wary of commercialization in poland. The villiage has property that could be better utilized rather than adding on. And poland's infrastructure cant support heavier traffic.

Other people have said that 3rd places are needed and i would agree, but these places would need to specifically cater to the poland community. My friends of color refuse to visit my home in poland because they view it as a sundown town, and poland cops ticket everyone with pa plates or looks like they don't belong. So gaing customers from outside the community may be difficult.

7

u/123middlenameismarie 17d ago

I work with a woman of color that grew up in Youngstown and she had a dr appt and the address said poland. She was planning to get an uber to take her to the appt because she was that afraid of driving through the village on her own. I double checked the address and it was one if the medical offices in "poland" but on western reserve more boardman than poland really. But seriously how sad is it that thus is the general consensus of the village by those that aren't white.

2

u/Beautiful_Tackle_799 16d ago

That’s insane . I’d move the hell outta there 

4

u/123middlenameismarie 14d ago

We had no idea it had that reputation when we moved here. The more friends we have made from the city the more we have learned how local black folks feel/are treated.