Betreuung: Prof. Dr. Thorsten Wiechmann, Dipl.-Geogr. Marian Günzel (ROP)

Youngstown is a rust belt city in northeastern Ohio midway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. For many years the city was caught in a downward spiral triggered by the downturn in the steel industry. The project will be carried out in cooperation with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC). It intends to provide support for the strategic redevelopment throughout Youngstown and will have a closer look at certain areas and assess development opportunities from a planning perspective

Zeit und Ort

Youngstown is a rust belt city in northeastern Ohio midway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. For many years the city was caught in a downward spiral triggered by the downturn in the steel industry. Youngstown’s population was cut in half due to out-migration from originally 166,000 people in the year 1960 to 67,000 people today. During this period the city lost its vitality with many older quarters disappearing and desolate abandoned spaces remaining.

Today the city has to face the problem of a town which has been shrinking dramatically, now displaying a large number of vacant industrial and housing units without the chance to experience a significant rise in population ever again. Land use planning is especially concerned with maintaining a largely oversized infrastructure, since it is no longer affordable to keep up the infrastructure supply in all parts of the city. To cope with these problems the city initiated the planning process Youngstown 2010. The corresponding vision accepted that Youngstown will become a smaller city. It was intended to become the role model of a sustainable city of medium size facing the realities of the new regional economic structure.

Aims and objectives
The project will be carried out in cooperation with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC). It intends to provide support for the strategic redevelopment throughout Youngstown and will have a closer look at certain areas and assess development opportunities from a planning perspective. This includes not only a thorough investigation of the areas itself, but also of the context in which the redevelopment process in Youngstown will be situated as well as the search for good practices in other places.

Requirements
A good command of English is required for participation in this project.

Kontakt

Prof. Dr. habil. Thorsten Wiechmann
Tel.: 0231 755-5428
E-Mail senden

Dr. Marian Günzel

Weitere Informationen:

Art der Veranstaltung: Projekt

Dauer:  8 SWS

Punkte: 10 LP