Grey to Green Festival Draws Crowds and Increases Awareness of the Need For Open Spaces

The Raymond John Wean Foundation is proud to be one of the sponsors of Youngstown's Grey to Green festivals.

The goal of the Grey to Green festival is to increase awareness of environmental issues in general, the grey to green concept in the Youngstown 2010 Plan and the Wick Park Revitalization effort that is currently underway.

The festivals seek to showcase environmentally oriented businesses, community organizations and local and regional agencies.

For many years, Youngstown leaders had thought that it might be possible to regain its former size when more than 165,000 people lived in the city. In recent years, officials have come to realize that the city's population, now just over 80,000, is not likely to grow much.

Officials are now working to embrace this shrinkage and develop green space. Youngstown serves as a model for other rust-belt cities that must recreate and reinvent themselves after years of decline.

The city has already been bulldozing abandoned buildings, tearing up blighted streets and converting entire blocks into open green spaces.

With help from community groups dedicated to reforestation and urban gardening, the abandoned neighborhoods are being returned to a more-natural state, and the Grey to Green Festival seeks to celebrate that process and increase awareness of the importance of green spaces.

PICTURES FROM THE 2009 GREY TO GREEN FESTIVAL: