Youngstown Ohio Crime

Longtime Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic embroiled in acrimonious primary fight

(For video of a debate between the incumbent and challenger, and other online coverage, see the Storify sidebar at the end of this story.)

The race is much about the 62-year-old mayor's management style and famously combative temperament. It exposes a political divide in Akron that is not Democrat versus Republican, but between those who support Plusquellic and those against him.

Williams is among a loose collection of Democrats against him. The anti-Plusquellic camp has hammered him for years on everything from his travel to his handling of the police department. They have run an anti-Plusquellic slate on City Council. They tried to throw him out of office in a failed 2009 recall election. They even hawk stainless steel travel mugs and ceramic steins emblazoned with "Change Akron Now."

"He's divisive, vindictive and frankly, just plain mean," Williams said in an interview at his campaign headquarters, tucked in the corner of a retail plaza west of downtown. "He has a huge enemies list of people he does not talk to."

Williams promises to be a mayor who gets along. He acknowledges Plusquellic has support from the business establishment, but says he will win the election in the neighborhoods.

Williams would be Akron's first black mayor. He picks up some political capital as the son of well-known James Williams, a retired Common Pleas Court judge.

But some question whether the city of 199,000 will want to replace Plusquellic, especially during fragile economic times. Supporters credit the hard-nosed mayor with saving the city from the abyss after the declining rubber industry, which once employed 60,000 or more, belched out its last tire.

Broken Lives || Amid the rubble, there's rebuilding | The News Outlet

It takes the biggest bunch of sinners to run Ohio Valley Teen Challenge

By Doug Livingston

TheNewsOutlet.org

Within three hours of his release from the New Castle Correctional Facility, Mark Moore Sr. was standing in the residential hallway at Ohio Valley Teen Challenge.

“The camaraderie, the love,” said Moore, a heroin addict of 29 years making his second visit to a Teen Challenge center, as he described his welcome. “I knew I was home.”

Home for New Castle native Moore and 42 other drug- and alcohol-addicted men is 1319 Florencedale Ave. on Youngstown’s North Side. The community surrounding the center reflects the very elements that put these 43 men into the rehabilitation program: heroin dealers, crack houses, crime and poverty.

“With this neighborhood — phew,” said OVTC intern and Youngstown resident Ron Strait, motioning to the buildings outside. “Right over here, over there, about six places right within a seven-block radius — drug lords.” While nearby Wick Park anchors a revitalization discussion for Youngstown’s North Side, six of the 10 homes that line Broadway Avenue are boarded up.

It’s similar to what surrounded the first Teen Challenge center, founded by Dave Wilkerson in 1958. In the crime- and poverty-stricken streets of Brooklyn, N.Y., the first center was built to combat drug addiction and the advent of street gangs among the youths. Teen Challenge has since grown to incorporate 242 national facilities and more than 1,000 worldwide. It also facilitates the rehabilitation of women and children. It’s essentially a labor of love for the 15 staff members and six interns who run the Youngstown site. The total payroll is nearly $210,000. As part of the rehab, the men enrolled in the OVTC program work as many as seven days a week. “Working here ain’t a job,” said director of operations Bob Pavlich, who runs the expansive work program. “No. 1: They don’t get paid. No. 2: They don’t get a day off.

What is crime?, controversies over the nature of crime and what to do about it

Ohio, the history of a people

Ohio

Crime and Punishment

Crime: Its Cause and Treatment