- Hey there, I'm Sthephanie Marie, and you have just tuned in to a PBS Western Reserve special series, "City Centric."

That's right.

This is "Youngstown Centric."

Okay, so full disclosure, my family moved to the Youngstown area from Puerto Rico when I was five years old, and I've been here ever since.

I love the city so much.

So if you see an extra twinkle in my eye or sense an extra dose of enthusiasm in my voice, it's just because I cannot contain myself.

Just about everyone from Youngstown knows that pride of place is in our DNA.

I mean, we even had a pro basketball team called the Youngstown Pride back in the day.

In the next half hour, you're going to learn that Youngstown is about as authentic as any city gets.

It is the real deal.

The people are real, the neighborhoods are real, and the politics and sense of community are real.

Just watch and you're going to see what I mean, starting with a Youngstown rock band.

The members of this band care so much about the city that they wanted the name of their band to reflect that.

Meet Jackie Popovec, lead singer of the Vindys.

- See, the word entertainer bothers me a little bit 'cause, like, there's an entertainer and then there's an artist, and we have original music, so it's like I would consider us more artists.

My name is Jackie Popovec.

I am the lead singer of the Vindys outside of Youngstown, Ohio.

When we became a band, we wanted some sort of name to reflect our Youngstown roots.

"The Vindicator," our newspaper at the time, had, you know, definitely, I felt like that was like a great influence, and calling it the Vindys was how we wanted to go with that.

I love the camaraderie that I have with my fellow band mates.

I love the in-studio moments, the magic when you're writing and producing music in the studio and, you know, you feel really great about what you're creating.

So it's about the creation of good music with good people.

My favorite thing about being an artist is that I get to perform in front of people and people relate.

So if anyone is singing our songs ever, if they come to a show and they tell me how much something meant to them, that is like the most, you know, the highest compliment that I could ever receive.

I have been singing as long as I can remember.

So I've always had a goal of having music in my life.

So I kind of gravitated towards playing guitar at a young age, 11, 12 years old.

And then once I had about an hour set, I begged my father, who is a food sales rep in town, to talk to his buddies in town and ask them if I could play a set at their restaurants and bars.

So at 13, I started playing every Friday and Saturday night, so I've been doing it ever since.

Youngstown's important to me because I've always heard of the legend of Youngstown, so I know that it can happen again.

And being a part of a community of people and a history of people who have come out of Youngstown and done well, that makes me feel like I can do it too.

Youngstown, to me, is not as small as people think it is to be based out of because it's sort of a centralized city.

Doing music in L.A. or in Nashville is cool and all, but doing it from a home base like Youngstown makes me even prouder.

(mellow jazzy music) - If you don't already know, the Vindys are legendary.

It's just a bit ironic that Jackie Popovec, a Youngstown living legend herself, is talking about Youngstown being a living legend.

Speaking of legendary, Youngstown is chockfull of amazing big city amenities.

First, we have the Covelli Centre, a venue for live concerts and our hockey team, the Phantoms.

Then there is the newly-built Youngstown Foundation Amphitheater, a magnificent outdoor venue for concerts.

Now, I know, being from Youngstown, I am biased, but I think if you decide to visit Youngstown and only have time to see one place, Mill Creek Park that houses the Fellow Riverside Gardens and Lanterman's Mill is that place to go.

There is so much more, but I think you get the idea.

And as proud as Youngstown residents are of this great place, there is another side to the story.

Our next guest, politician, Samantha Turner is gonna tell you that it is the neighborhoods, parks, and people that make this city's heart beat.

- My name is Samantha Turner.

I am a politician.

I am the 3rd Ward city councilwoman for the city of Youngstown.

For the most part, when someone asks me what do I do, I say I'm a community servant.

I came to the world of politics through service.

The main responsibility if you look it up on paper is I am your legislator.

We write laws.

We change laws.

I do more changing than I do of writing new laws because our laws are old as the city and what the city looked like when they started writing them doesn't look that way now.

So right now, we're working on things in zoning and working on things in parking.

But my responsibility is to be that conduit between the people that need the work done and the people that do the work, so I spend a lot of time just facilitating that, whether it's grass needing to be cut, a house needing to be boarded up, a pothole needing to be fixed.

All of those things are daily conversations that come to me, businesses that need to be linked with economic development, whether that's here in the city or with an outside organization, just really matchmaking in a lot of ways.

I am the chair for our Parks and Playground Committee.

I have Mahoning Spring Commons, B&O.

That's at the B&O Station.

That's a park.

I have the pool, our municipal golf course, Crandall Park and Wick Park and Eugenia Atkinson Center, so a good portion of the parks the city has to offer or the active parks the city has to offer are here on the North Side.

The parks are community stabilizers.

If you have a family or growing a family or even an aging family, a space where you can go and have recreational activity, those really help sell neighborhoods, and we need to invest in them more to ensure that they stay viable for the growth of the city.

Us focusing on our city core has made a difference.

It makes a difference when people come down to Youngstown and they see the amphitheater and they see Federal Street and they see the work that's on Phelps.

That makes a difference for those people that are coming into the city for an event.

But now it's time to push our ways back into the community, into the neighborhoods.

In 10 years, I see our neighborhoods flourishing, but for the people in the city that have chosen to stay here, that live here, that raise their kids here, it's important for us to get out in the community and say, "We see you.

We hear you.

This is still your city."

We've just gotta get more neighborhood and community focused so that all of this work, that we don't lose it because someone feels like this isn't their space.

We are really pushing to make our community stronger so that our communities can hold up a bigger Youngstown.

(relaxing music) - Youngstown politician, Samantha Turner said, "We are really pushing to make our community stronger so that our communities can hold up a bigger Youngstown."

That's such a great idea.

When you think about it, if you go through a nice, family-friendly neighborhood to get to a really cool place, your overall experience of getting there makes the trip all that much more memorable.

This all begs the question, how do we strengthen our neighborhoods?

Well, you might think that it takes a lot of money or someone with a lot of power.

Our next guest is going to prove that all it takes is just one person who cares about the place they call home and is willing to put the time and energy necessary to talk and listen to their neighbors.

- Okay, my name is Patricia Stokes, and I love the people of Youngstown.

I enjoy what I do for the people of Youngtown.

Well, I think what makes myself a humanitarian would be the fact that I care about people.

I have compassion, you know, for a person's issues.

It's just something that's a heartfelt thing that I just like to do.

I enjoy people, talking with people, and I mean, that's the best I could do.

Well, I would say that time, as time, you know, went on, when I first moved in the neighborhood, I was a younger woman, and the reality of things set in as far as seeing what was going on, seeing the things that happened, seeing my children grow up and actually seeing the real of what was going on in the neighborhoods has really made me want to just not just be, you know, just sit down and just watch.

I just wanted to get in and, you know, give away some of my knowledge, help with some of the things that I have, some of the experience that I've gained from doing some of the things that I've done.

I just didn't want that to be in vain.

It almost makes me wanna cry because I know that the experience and the things in life that I have learned can be and has been helpful to people, you know, to help with the growth, help with their growth, you know.

But like I said, I'm more of a one-on-one person.

I love to talk with people on a one-on-one and give them my knowledge, things that I have learned throughout life, you know.

I've had so many different positions.

Like I was telling you, I used to work at Disney World.

Oh, I think Youngtown has made me a better person because it has helped push me out of my little cocoon that I was living in and it has helped me to actually get out and do my purpose in life, actually.

And this is my purpose in life.

My purpose in life, I feel like, is doing just what I'm doing, dealing with people.

And at one time, I didn't really actually think that that's what I should do, but the more and more I'm doing this, the more and more I feel like I am reaching my purpose in life is to be able to talk to people.

And, for some reason, I don't understand it, but I find that people listen to me, that I have a calming effect over people.

And so it makes it that much more easier for me to talk to them and for them to talk to me.

And like I said before, I think it helps, being that I am from the neighborhood, that helps as far as getting people to relax and talk with me.

My dream for Youngstown would be a better community, people living in better conditions than what they're living now, people getting out and working in their neighborhood and helping to achieve their goals for their neighborhood, and things like that.

(light music) - It sounds simple, but it's true.

One person can make a difference.

That's what the "City Centric" series is all about, introducing you to people just like you and me, using their time, talents, and treasures to make the place they call home a better place to live.

Have you ever watched a home renovation show where they completely flip the narrative on an old, broken down house?

They don't just focus on making the inside of the house brand new, but they also do what they can to give it curbside appeal.

Our next guest, Sharon Letson, is going to talk about how she and her organization revitalizes downtown Youngstown from the outside in.

- I guess I would define a revitalizer as someone who cares, but not only cares, is willing to roll up their sleeves and get involved.

I'm Sharon Letson.

I'm a Youngstown revitalizer.

Well, when you think of a revitalization, you think of a lot of things, but I think the first things that you address are the pretty kind of things, like flowers, like clean streets, lights, green space, but it's much more than that.

CityScape celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

25 years ago, there were literally sections of our downtown where street lights were turned off.

There were parts of the city that were blocked off so people couldn't come and go.

In those days, there was, literally you could see a tumbleweed blowing down the entire Federal Street of our downtown.

So the changes have been gradual, and we have been a part of those in the beginning.

Very grassroots in the beginning, people who rolled up their sleeves and literally brought their brooms downtown, got city lights turned back on in parts of the city that had been turned off, and planted some flowers, and it really started that way.

I think revitalize happens when people are resilient but also when people are willing to partner with one another because what we can do alone is only a fraction of what we can do together.

This organization has been at the forefront of reaching out to anyone who wanted to partner, who wanted to see something happen, whether it was a mural, whether it was a garden area they wanted to plant.

We go back before we even had the restaurants that we do in the downtown, where we were sorta looking at each other saying, "What do we need to get ready for to be able to have restaurants, to be able to have the Covelli Centre downtown?"

And we were looking at streets and things that needed to maybe be boarded up or cleaned up or painted, or old fences taken down.

Those are the kinds of things that we were looking at.

So you start with, really, aesthetics, I guess, and then you move along from there.

Revitalization has a piece of pride to it that's, I think, critical, particularly critical for a city like ours.

To feel a sense of pride, to be proud of where you're from, to be proud of your surroundings, I mean, I think those are the things that get you motivated to be a part of your community however that shakes out to be.

Another just personal philosophy that I grew up with, which is always to leave a place better than you found it, and so that's really what I like my, I guess, my legacy to be.

(mellow jazzy music) - I guess we could say that Sharon Letson and the folks at CityScape are Youngstown's glam squad.

Thanks to their effort, we can be sure that when a visitor comes to downtown Youngstown, they're going to be greeted by a city ready for company and dressed in its best outfit.

This all contributes to Youngstown's sense of pride, and that pride doesn't get any stronger than what it is with our next guest.

Entrepreneur, Aspasia Lyras-Bernacki thought, "What better way to promote the city of Youngstown than with its very own home brew?"

- I am a Aspasia Lyras-Bernacki, and I'm an entrepreneur.

I would say an entrepreneur is someone that just doesn't give up.

And you're gonna get hit with so many roadblocks, and you just have to have it in you to keep going.

You have to just push through.

My father started his bridge painting company the year I was born, and I've always been raised watching him just work really hard and take care of us and other families, and that's always inspired me.

I went to high school.

Then I attended YSU.

I went to school for art, and then after, it was just trying to find my way.

I started bartending.

Then I got really good at promoting bands, so I started booking and promoting bands for the venue.

And I started to realize that's something that I was really good at.

And from there, just got more connected into the city.

So it was always anything that had to do with promoting Youngstown really got me up in the morning and got me excited to do my day.

We started in the summer of 2017.

It was me and my husband.

We were just having a conversation about Youngstown and about beer, and it was just really simple.

It was, "How come Youngstown doesn't have that beer that defines them?

Like, Great Lakes, Cleveland, Iron City, Pittsburgh, Rhinegeist, Cincinnati.

Where's ours?"

Just a conversation.

And then we said, "Well, what would that name be?"

And then just said, "Penguin City."

I don't even know how it came out.

It just happened, and then when it happened, I had that light bulb moment.

I had that moment.

It was unbelievable, and I envisioned big.

So it started out the three of us, and Richard, my husband, started figuring out the beer that defines Youngstown, and my cousin and I worked on the look, the style and what the message is that we were trying to, you know, connect our city to.

We did a ton of research on families, why they came here, all the setbacks that this town's had and getting up, like, just that entrepreneurial spirit.

You just keep getting up.

You keep trying.

So my cousin came up with the slogan, "Tough times don't last, tough cities do."

And we just felt that that is just Youngstown.

And then the colors, the mint green represented the blue collar worker and the steel mills.

That was the color of the flame-retardant jackets.

The gold and red are Youngstown College's, or, yeah, well, Youngstown State, which was Youngstown College when it first started, that was their original colors.

And the schooner represents one of the oldest bars in Youngstown, The Golden Dawn.

So we wanted to tie in the blue collar worker, the college, and the bar and entertainment scene.

I could've had Penguin City anywhere, and I wanted Youngstown because I wanted the challenge and I wanted to be a part of this revitalization.

I would like Penguin City Beer to reach all of Ohio.

I'd like to start expanding into PA, West Virginia, start working into other states, and I really want, honestly, to just create this company that the city of Youngstown could be proud of.

(relaxing music) - Aspasia just took marketing the city of Youngstown to a whole nother level.

How she and her small team managed to tie Youngstown's blue collar work history, the University, and the bar scene into one clever and cohesive beer label, it's pure genius.

And the tagline, "Tough times don't last, tough Cities do," it says it all.

Her dreams for Penguin City Brewing, today, Youngstown, tomorrow, the world.

It's the kinda stuff our next guest will tell.

Let's meet Derrick, who says, the future of Youngstown is the narrative we write for it today.

- My name's Derrick McDowell, and I am the future.

For me, I define the future as what we choose to make it.

If we look at who we were, that gives us evidence.

If we look at who we presently are, that gives us evidence and data.

And we get to take that evidence of who we were and who we presently are and we get to shape.

We get to take back.

We get to reclaim.

I spearhead an initiative.

It's called Reclaiming Our Identity.

In September 19th of 1977, the mills closed in this area, and that caused a traumatic rift in our community where we saw population decline, job loss.

But we forgot in that moment who we are.

And if we wanna talk about the future, we first have to remember who we were, who we presently are and who we want to be.

You know, I started the Youngstown Flea in 2016.

After some travel and consulting in corporate America, I got to see examples of how small businesses, specifically maker spaces, were transforming and revitalizing cities.

And you see a gathering of not only just small businesses, but makers and creatives.

And then I would come home from those areas and I'd find it so absent in my own city.

And for me as a lover of the city of Youngstown, I had to say that I know, I know we're just as creative as any other city, though we have our own way about ourselves, Maybe we're not Brooklyn.

Maybe we're not Miami.

Maybe we're not L.A. or Denver.

But we're Youngstown, and that's absolutely okay.

Now we just need to find ourselves.

And so I created the Youngstown Flea as a platform to begin to introduce a community of our makers with a community of shoppers and supporters that could really see that we have just as many amenities as any other community.

And so the culture of this community is the future of what we decide we wanna look to, and our makers and our creatives, those folks that are doing things that are ahead of their time in the city of Youngstown can show us so deeply what we need to know right now about where our future's headed.

Yeah, since our beginning with the Youngstown Flea, we've seen folks partner with us as vendors coming from as far as East Aurora, New York.

We've had vendors participate from Detroit.

We have vendors from Akron and Canton and Pittsburgh.

And we have shoppers that have come as far as Canada, folks that are in town staying hear that this is the thing that they need to do when they're in town.

And so for me, that speaks volumes to the possibility of not only the Youngstown Flea as a market, but the Youngstown area as a market as well.

You know, part of my own discovery is simply being.

You know, we always talk about what we're becoming, but part of that is just being.

It should be enough to be able to say, "I'm from Youngstown," and not have to completely define what that is, not have to limit it to the way I look and the way I dress and the way we operate, not have to have the stereotypical labels and views, but be able to express ourselves as just be.

Let us just be Youngstown.

Let us discover who we are in the dynamic and unique ways that the future will hold organically, but let us set a course intentionally about where we wanna go as well.

So there's this ebb and flow, there's this back and forth of what we can become and who we already are.

Let us just be.

We are Youngstown.

You know, I define myself as a Youngstown-centric person by saying that no one gets to tell my story For me.

We've been lullaby-ed to sleep by other folks' narrative.

We've got to know who we are.

And when we talk about our identity, we've got to be bold enough to say, "No, you will no longer tell me who I am.

Let me show you who we are."

You know what?

I just think that our future's ours and it's just there for the taking.

We just need to reach out and grab hold of it.

(relaxing music) - Almost every single sentence Derrick said is more full of meaning than the words it took to say it.

Derrick saw a need, did the work and is helping to transform Youngstown.

This is just a beautiful ending to a story of many people who have the same spirit and can-do attitude as Derrick.

What character do you play for the betterment of a place you call home?

Can you find a way to inspire, innovate, and energize?

Are you city-centric?

That's all for now.

I hope you enjoyed "Youngstown Centric" and will joining next time in another episode of "City Centric."

(funky upbeat music) In the next half hour, you're going to learn that Youngstown.

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