’Past, Present, and Future of the South Side’ | Local historian and photojournalist Sean Posey presented the program at the Oak Hill Collaborative in 2014. From the archives.
A Youngstown historian hopes that discussion of the South Side’s past leads to ideas for its future.
Local historian and photojournalist Sean Posey will present “The Past, Present, and Future of the South Side of Youngstown” 1 p.m., Saturday, April 19 at the Oak Hill Collaborative, 507 Oak Hill Ave., Youngstown. Admission is free.
The program will focus on the development, growth and decline of the South Side, but includes recent attempts at revitalization.
Alex Lipinsky, owner of Flannel Farms, a for-profit urban farm located on the lower South Side, will co-host. He has a degree in urban studies from Brown University and will discuss his farm and the “My Roots are in Youngstown: History Mural Project.”
“I think people are going to learn some things they didn’t know about the South Side. Or maybe things only older people remember. Things lost to history,” Posey said. “It’s basically using history as a tool to directly talk about the present.”
The idea for the program came from an article Posey wrote for the website “Rust Wire” called “Can the South Side of Youngstown Be Saved?”
“I wanted to expand on that,” Posey said. “I wanted to talk about more the ideas I had in that article and project them into the future.”
“I think it’s an important part of the city. Whatever happens to it is going to be an important part of the city’s future,” Posey said.
A portion of the program will include input and questions from the audience.
“I hope to use the question-and-answer session to get people to think about what the new planning process is going to be for the South Side, hence for the city,” Posey said. “I want people to come away with their own ideas. I’m not going to directly tell people what should happen.”
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