Mayor McDowell speaks at 'Good Morning, Youngstown' breakfast
Youngstown city leaders met at Stambaugh Auditorium on Thursday at a "Good Morning, Youngstown" breakfast, organized by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
Mayor Derrick McDowell spoke during the event, highlighting the work the city has done in the time since he took office.
McDowell also spoke on Wednesday during his first State of the City Address at the Youngstown Rotary Club's lunch meeting.
During his speech on Thursday, he mentioned the homicide rate in the city since November 2025.
"Check the city's homicide rate since November 10. Because in more than almost four months, this city's not experienced a murder. That is something that we should be clapping about right now. That in almost four months, when typically this city would have experienced six to eight murders - that is the charge of a new police chief..." said Mayor McDowell.
Additionally, McDowell mentioned the hope for residents to have easier access to homeownership through city-based partnerships and resources.
"So when you hear interest rate reduction, when you hear down payment assistance through the City of Youngstown and our at-home programs, you are now seeing the upward mobility tha tour residents deserve when it comes to being housed in the City of Youngstown," said McDowell.
McDowell continued, expressing the aim of bringing Youngstown higher and, through working with surrounding communities, bringing neighboring cities and townships higher.
"A commitment to bringing Youngstown to the place that it needs to so that its sibling cities around it - the Austintowns, the Canfields, the Campbells, the Boardmans - all of those communities can rise with us. That is the county seat position that I'm talking about, collaboration across communities when I talk with other mayors, when I talk with other township trustees, when we begin to plan projects together," McDowell said.
The city's arts, economic development, family ties and Youngstown State University were all mentioned as factors bringing in more than four million visitors to Youngstown.
"So, when I see the data that tells me the arts and its economic development is bringing more than four million visitors to the city of Youngstown, and topping that list is our wonderful state university, with 1.6 million visitors annually to the city of Youngstown," said McDowell.
McDowell continued, indicating that some community events, such as the Youngstown Flea, bring in roughly forty to fifty thousand visitors.
The superintendent of the Youngstown City School District (YCSD), Jeremy Batchelor, also spoke during the breakfast, sharing updates on the consolidation of the district and new branding, which aims to promote not only unification in the district but in the city as a whole.
"Our board came up with this tagline... It's 'One Vision. One Youngstown.' I've said this to our previous mayor and our newest mayor that we need to be one vision, one Youngstown. We will do our job as the Youngstown City Schools so that we can lead them, we have a big job to do in order for the city to continue to be what it needs to be..." said Batchelor.
Batchelor went on to say that students have indicated that they are optimistic about the unification. He urges parents and adults to believe in the unification.
"I say to you: Our children believe in it, and they're doing the work," said Batchelor.
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