Decline-oriented urban governance in Youngstown, Ohio

Population decline presents numerous challenges for municipal officials: vacant properties, infrastructure overcapacity, shrinking municipal revenues, and high crime rates. Policies to address these challenges typically focus on attracting outside investment to "grow" the local economy and population. "Going for growth," however, has been largely unsuccessful.1 In recent years, shrinking cities researchers have called for a new approach to planning and policy making: decline-oriented planning.2 Decline-oriented planning leaves behind the assumption of the likelihood and need for population growth. Instead, it urges planners and policy makers to "rightsize" the city to current population levels (by, for instance, removing infrastructure) and plan for future population decline while maintaining good quality of life for remaining residents. Adopting a decline-oriented approach will not be easy, especially in North America where growth-oriented planning is entrenched.' The fixation on growth has deep roots in the boosterism that accompanied the settlement of the West and the industrial revolution. Growing North American cities "are the 'successful,' desirable, and admired ones, while residents of Nowheresville struggle with a diminished sense of self-worth." 4 Convincing local policy makers and planners to accept future population decline and plan for it will require a paradigm shift. In addition, another layer of complexity exists: in the process of urban policy making and implementation, local officials depend on the expertise and resources of a wide range of actors (including private, civil, and intergovernmental sector actors) to make and implement policy. Even if planners and policy makers shift their mindset away from growth-oriented planning, they cannot "go it alone" to create and implement successful decline-oriented policies. They will need a strong "supporting cast" also willing to make this shift. In this chapter I examine the constellation of actors-including local government, external planning consultants, the university, and local residents and community groups-involved in the creation of the Youngstown 2010 Plan for Youngstown, Ohio. Youngstown was one of the first cities in the United States to adopt a decline-oriented approach to planning in its citywide plan.' My goal is to contribute to understanding what might facilitate the adoption of decline-oriented planning. The Youngstown 2010 Plan was created through the fortuitous coming together of several key actors-in other words, through the process of governance-each of whom was eager to "do something different." Using Minnery's concept of "stars and their supporting cast,"6 I conclude that leadership from public sector and nonprofit sector "stars," including a new generation of city officials, Youngstown State University (YSU) administrators and City Council members; the relegation of the private business sector into a small supporting role; and the rise of the local residents and community groups (whose participation was facilitated by outside planning consultants) as key supporting actors enabled the adoption of a decline-oriented approach. While some have criticized the Youngstown 2010 Plan as overly ambitious about what city officials and others could implement, its focus on rightsizing the city represented a break from traditional growth-oriented planning but inspired little opposition.