Lake Glacier in Mill Creek Park is one of my absolute favorite places to visit in every season of the year, and this is the absolute best view of its serene, surrounding landscape.

Ohio's new governor, Ted Strickland, gave Mahoning Valley residents cause to hope for their future again during his inauguration speech. Gov. Strickland spoke about the various causes he will be pursuing in Ohio during his first term, including our ramshackle education system as one of his priorities. He also made several points about the Ohio legislature and how it must begin, like the federal government, to work together, promoting bipartisan projects, reminding citizens that we are all Americans, and in this case that we are all Ohioans, and not to allow divisions between Republican and Democratic parties to allow our country, and in Strickland's case our state, to suffer due to petty power struggles.

Mahoning Valley residents were reportedly happy with Strickland's inauguration address. Many were quoted in the newspapers and on television, saying they believe in Strickland's honesty, and feel he will aid this notoriously economically depressed area of Ohio in creating a future again. A large number of Mahoning Valley politicians appeared with Strickland at his inauguration, including: Attorney General Marc Dann of Liberty, Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams, and U.S. Representative Tim Ryan. Strickland made use of quotes by Republican leaders of the nation like George W. Bush on education, and Ronald Reagan on the status quo.

While I am much in sympathy with my fellow residents of the Mahoning Valley, I'll be waiting to see what Mr. Strickland proves himself capable of. I'm a supporter of bipartisan measures myself, but I fail to see how quoting George W. Bush on education and Ronald Reagan on the status quo is "striking the right political tone," as Representative Ryan was quoted saying in the Youngstown Vindicator. Both Bush and Reagan had and have their positive qualities as leaders of the nation, but President Bush's education policies have proved to be some of the worst created in the history of the United States, and former President Reagan is rarely remembered as a model for progressive politicians who do not settle for upholding the status quo. I still have hope that Governor Strickland will come through for the Mahoning Valley, but will wait a bit longer to see what he is actually able to accomplish in his first few months before committing myself to a Strickland believer.

A lot of people are counting on you, Governor Strickland. Good luck, and fight hard!

Thanks to the forward-looking vision of Volney Rogers, in 1891 the Mill Creek Park in Youngstown, Ohio was founded, preserving a stretch of land that today is compromised 2600 acres. Mill Creek Park is the second largest metropolitan park in the United States, second only to Central Park in New York City. Not bad for a little city in Ohio!

Today some of the parks' most beautiful features are Lanterman's Mill, a pioneer's mill that once ground wheat, corn, buckwheat and oats in the 1800s, the Fellows Riverside Gardens, an eleven-acre museum to roses, tulips, herbs, chrysanthemums, evergreens, dwarf fir trees, rhododendrons, and a variety of annuals and perrenials. The gardens attract people from all over the world. The park also includes golf courses, foottrails, waterfalls, Lake Glacier, horse stables, and the Ford Nature Center, where a group of naturalists work in the park all year around.

The park is Youngstown's crowning achievement as a community, thus making it one of the man-made wonders of Ohio, created in a period when Volney Rogers could foresee the destruction of our natural wonders as Ohio was becoming industrialized, but it's also one of the many feathers in Ohio's cap. Visit the park website for more details. Better yet, make a plan to visit Mill Creek Park this summer when the gardens are in full bloom!

With new Governor Ted Strickland in office, Ohians have begun to raise their voices for various causes. One cause has been in opposition to the death penalty in Ohio. According to the Youngstown Vindicator, protestors gathered outside the Ohio State Penitentiary to let our new governor know that many of Ohio's citizens do not approve of this particular measure of justice.

The protest was organized by Cleveland residents but included Youngstown area residents as well, and was staged on Martin Luther King Day weekend. At this point there are five men on death row in the state penitentiary who the protestors claim are innocent of the crime that put them there. Known as the Lucasville Five, the men were part of a prison uprising in Lucasville in 1993 in which prison guards were killed. The men on death row, say the protestors, were not part of the deaths of the guards.

I myself don't believe that the death penalty is an effective measure for curtailing crime. If it were, the number of crimes in which the death penalty is a possible outcome would drop, but this isn't so. Historically the death penalty hasn't worked to curtail crime. Even in the days of public executions, it didn't stop people from commiting crimes. Some sociological studies have found that it may even promote the idea of social justice being equated with death, creating a society more inclined to kill.

I do think the death penalty serves a purpose, mostly to make family and friends of victims feel that justice has been served. It doesn't aid the betterment of society itself, though, especially when so many people have died on death row who were later found to be innocent. A measure of justice shouldn't have so much collateral damage, as some would call it, as this one does. I do, however, sympathize with the victims of crime and their families and friends, who desire some form of justice in the face of their tragedies, and I won't pretend to have a better plan for justice. I do hope, however, that more measures can be taken to ensure that a form of punishment so severe as the death penalty will be carried out with more caution in the future. Perhaps protests such as the one carried out on Martin Luther King Day weekend will be a call for more consideration of how we, as a society, proceed with a process so fraught as the death penalty is in the new century.

The Steel Valley Triatholon Club is a not for profit group in Northeastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania that is interested in developing multisport disciplines like triatholons for the area.

Originally the YMCA Tri Club, which began in 2004, the SVTC has over fifty members now. As stated on their website, the club's mission is to provide training information and opportunites and to increase the number and quality of racing options in the area. Members of the club receive discounts at their sponsors' places of business, such as chiropractic offices, massotherapy, podiatric offices, cycle shops, and much much more. It's also a great place to make new, like-minded friends and acquaintances. So if you're intro running, cycling and swimming, you should definitely check out the SVTC website for more information.

Ready, set, go!

The State Theater in Youngstown, the city's oldest building--older than the old Warner Brothers Theater--is currently the focus of much debate. Apparently the Youngstown Business Incubator is set to take the building over, but there has also been rumors of a potential demolition in its future. In the wake of this news, people have begun organizing to save the building. Fundraisers and benefits are being talked about, and a small group of people interested in restoring this historical building has begun to form.

The State Theater opened in 1927. Originally operated as a cinema, in the 1970s it was transformed into a nightclub called the Agora. By the 1980s it was closed, like so many other buildings in the business district of Youngstown. Now, with the city's vision and plans for revitalization on track once again, we're trying to salvage pieces of our heritage to carry into our future.

Potential plans for the State Theater, if salvageable, would be to restore it to its former function as a center for drama, music, literature, and the arts.

If you're interested in donating time, money, supplies or anything at all, please contact YoStateTheater@yahoo.com, or visit the website for the State Theater's supporters. Any help at all would be appreciated.

Everyone in Youngstown knows Bruce Springsteen's song about this city and its history. Listening to it, you can learn a lot about what kind of place the city once was, its importance to the United States in various wars we've fought. War is never something to brag about, but it's unfortunate when the rest of the country knows very little about a city that was once one of the main production centers to help establish and maintain the nation's defense and growth. What's sadder still is that, after the victories, the city's reward was abandonment by our country's industrial leaders. The "Jenny" Springsteen sings about in this song is in reference to the Jeanette Blast Furnace here in Youngstown, Ohio.

If you're a history buff like I am, and obviously connected to the internet if you're reading this right now, you should take a trip over to Youngstown State University's Oral History Digital Program, where you can download transcripts of over eleven hundred oral accounts given by Northeastern Ohians since 1974. The histories recorded span subjects such as the World Wars, Vietnam, Immigrant Cultures, the steel industry before and after it settled and abandoned the Youngstown-Warren region of Ohio, the Holocaust, religion, and so much more.

I've read through a great many of the oral history transcripts myself, trying to familiarize myself with the region in which I grew up. You'd be surprised how much you don't know about where you come from. So take a dip into your heritage, and see if you can't find out some of the reasons why Northeastern Ohio is what it is today.

A slice of life from the 1930s Downtown Youngstown, when the city was building up quickly due to the demands of steelmakers.

The Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corporation is accepting proposals from companies interested in designing and building the Taft Technology Center. There will be a mandatory prebid conference at 2 p.m. on January 22nd at the Youngstown Business Incubator for those interested in the job. Proposals will be accepted until February 5th 2007, when the Community Improvement Corporation will open the bids at 2 p.m. to begin their review of the proposals. They will award the contract no later than forty-five days after the deadline. Construction will be set to start in March 2007 with a December 17th completion date.

The Taft Technology center will be three-stories tall, around 30,000 square feet, and will be built between the business incubator and the Semple Building on West Federal Street. Named after our departed Governor Taft, who helped to obtain 3.5 million dollars for the facility in state funds, altogether the project will amount to 5.9 million dollars. Apparently the state will also be providing 2.75 million dollars for another 5.9 million dollar technology project on West Federal Street, but this will be a project completed in phases.

If your company is interested, be sure to make the January 22nd mandatory prebid conference.

Murad Shorrab and Ryan Clausen are two of the Youngstown area's best stand-up comedians these days. I first saw Murad and Ryan perform at one of the Oakland Theater's Open Stage nights in August and have looked forward to seeing them perform at any event ever since.

Their comedy is definitely geared more towards the impolite, constantly pushing the envelope of our culture's contemporary tastes and manners, so with that said, they're not the sort of act you'd take your children to see. But if you're looking for a fun night out with adult friends, you should definitely try to catch one of their acts. These guys are, as my own favorite comedienne (Amy Sedaris) always says, hi-LAR-ious.

Future dates for shows include February 1st, March 1st and April 5th, 10pm at Mojo's Bar and Grille 5423 Mahoning Avenue in Austintown, Ohio. It's an 18 and over crowd, and the cost of admittance will be five dollars.

Take a look at Murad's comedy website for more information, and enjoy the little commercials for the show he's posted there as well.

What other natural formation in Ohio is more grand than the Ohio River itself? Approximately 981 miles long, it is the largest tributary of the Mississippi River.

The Ohio River was an essential source of life for the many Native American tribes that lived along it, and later became one of the main transport routes for pioneers traveling west from Pennsylvania in the early years of America's expansion. During the eighteenth century, it was considered the boundary for the Northwest Territory, and due to this was the borderline between freedom and slave territories. The river flows along or through six states, and its watershed is comprised by fourteen states.

It's grandeur and beauty is so powerful that it's captured the imaginations of a number of writers and poets, including the Zane Gray "Ohio River Valley" trilogy.

It's good to remember sometimes how quickly communities can die. Youngstown is only one city abandoned by the American dream. There have been others, and will be more. It's best to be aware and try not to let it happen to anymore of our communities in Ohio.

Lanterman's Mill in Youngstown's Millcreek Park is one of the most gorgeous spots we have in Ohio. The first mill was built in 1799, and was replaced by a second one in 1823. The mill you see now was constructed between 1845-1846.

Congratulations to the Boxcar Lounge, which opened on New Year's Eve in Youngstown's old B&O! The lounge is smaller than your average lounge, but has a wide selection of beers, both local and imported brews, as well as providing a warm, relaxed atmosphere for people who want to get away from the loudness of clubs with DJs and bands playing.

The B&O is a historic site in Youngstown: the old train station, now functioning as a banquet center and pub, has been around for decades. It's good to see new life springing up in old places. Stop in and see for yourself!

Thanks to Matt at DowntownYoungstown.com for the tip.