[24] Local industrialist David Tod, who became Ohio governor during the Civil War, persuaded Lake Erie steamboat owners that coal mined in the Mahoning Valley could fuel their vessels if canal transportation were available between Youngstown and Cleveland.

[28] The situation reached a climax in 1924, when street clashes between Klan members and Italian and Irish Americans in neighboring Niles led Ohio Governor A. Victor Donahey to declare martial law.

[35][36] Migration from the South rose dramatically in the 1940s, when the mechanization of southern agriculture brought an end to the sharecropping system, leading onetime farm laborers to seek industrial jobs.

Compared to these four cities, Youngstown had a higher cost of transporting raw materials to the mills, according to a Harvard Business Review report published in January 1933.

[44] By Saturday, the day they were ordered back to their jobs by a Common Pleas Court judge, citizens were reported as disturbed, rather than badly frightened, by the risks of police and fire services operating at about 30% normal headcounts.

"[46] The industrial economy that drew various groups to the area collapsed in the late 1970s, culminating with the September 19, 1977, closure of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Campbell Works after financial downturn due to changes in the steel manufacturing process and international competition.

Low real-estate prices and the efforts of the Youngstown Central Area Improvement Corporation have contributed to the purchase of several long-abandoned downtown buildings (many by outside investors) and their restoration and conversion into specialty shops, restaurants, and eventually condominiums.

In addition, a $250 million New Urbanist revitalization of the Smoky Hollow neighborhood developed about 400 new residential units, university student housing, retail space, and a park.

In January 2005, the organization unveiled a master plan prepared by Urban Strategies Inc. of Toronto, which had taken shape during an extensive process of public consultation and meetings that gathered input from citizens.

[53] The plan, which included platforms such as the acceptance of a reduced population and an improved image and quality of life, received national attention and is consistent with efforts in other metropolitan areas to address the phenomenon of urban depopulation.

[57] Youngstown has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb/Dfa), typical of the Midwestern United States, with four distinct seasons and lies within USDA hardiness zone 6a.

The older neighborhoods in this area, namely Oak Hill, Erie, Warren, and Lower Gibson, were among the earliest settled outside of Youngstown during the 19th century and were annexed by the city by 1910.

Later neighborhoods such as Fosterville, Newport, Lansingville, Buckeye Plat, and Cottage Grove came into being as industry and population expanded throughout the first half of the 20th century, being annexed in 1929 from the remainder of Youngstown Township.

[83] Despite the violence, historian William Lawson observed that the strike transformed industrial unions from "basically local and ineffective organizations into all-encompassing, nationwide collective bargaining representatives of American workers".

[86] In the wake of the steel plant shutdowns, the community lost an estimated 40,000 manufacturing jobs, 400 satellite businesses, $414 million in personal income, and from 33 to 75 percent of the school tax revenues.

In the late 1980s, the Avanti, an automobile with a fiberglass body originally designed by Studebaker to compete with the Corvette, was manufactured in an industrial complex on Youngstown's Albert Street.

The Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI), in the heart of downtown, houses several start-up technology companies that have received office space, furnishings, and access to utilities.

More recently, the city's downtown hosted the corporate headquarters of the now-defunct pharmacy chain store Phar-Mor, which was established by Youngstown native Mickey Monus.

[107] The community's culture center is Powers Auditorium, a former Warner Brothers movie palace[108] that serves as the area's primary music hall and a home for the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra.

The McDonough, established in 1991, features changing exhibitions by regional, national and international artists and provides public access to the work of students, faculty and alumni from the Department of Art.

The museum, housed in a 1905 Arts & Crafts style mansion on the main artery of Wick Avenue, is managed by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.

Once the estate of a local industrialist, it maintains period rooms that showcase the household's original contents, including furnishings, art objects, and personal artifacts.

[citation needed] The Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor sits south of the YSU campus on a grade overlooking the downtown area.

The park's highlights include the restored 19th century Lanterman's Mill, the rock formations of Bear's Den, scores of nature trails, the Fellows Riverside Gardens and Education Center, the "Cinderella" suspension bridge, and two 18-hole Donald Ross golf courses.

[129] A plaque commemorating this event is near a memorial statue of Volney Rogers, the Youngstown attorney who set aside land for the creation of Mill Creek Park.

Wick Park's periphery is lined with early 20th-century mansions built by the city's industrialists, business leaders, and professionals during Youngstown's boom years.

[171] After The Saturday Evening Post framed Youngstown as "Crimetown U.S.A.", there was an interest by many to create documentaries or podcasts to get in-depth information about the corruption unfolding in the city.

Youngstown State University, the primary institution of higher learning in the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, traces its origins to a local YMCA program that began offering college-level courses in 1908.

[186] The campus is just north of the city's downtown and south of Youngstown's historic Fifth Avenue district, a neighborhood of Tudor-, Victorian-, and Spanish Colonial Revival-style homes.

The Youngstown area is served by the Western Reserve Transit Authority (WRTA) bus system, which is supported through Mahoning County property and sales taxes.