Philly the Kidd

I challenge you to find a mass media article on Youngstown, Ohio, that doesn’t quote Phil Kidd at least once. From the 2010 Plan to presidential campaign stops, reporters everywhere want to talk to Phil, the spark who started the fire that will “Defend Youngstown.”

Why does Youngstown need to be defended? Because most outsiders prefer to focus on the negative: the unemployment, the boarded-up houses, the mob-affiliated past. The only thing that gets overlooked is all the good going on: the arts, the green efforts, the philanthropy and the revitalization.

So how do you go about healing a marred reputation? Enter Phil Kidd. Phil is from Burgettstown, Penn., a small town between Pittsburgh and Weirton, W.V. He said he first came to the Yo in the late 1990s when he followed some high school buddies to Youngstown State University. After graduation, he served as a military officer for a few years. Then, in 2004, he heard about the Youngstown 2010 plan and really wanted to be a part of it. So much so that he turned down multiple job offers to come back.

He eventually found employment downtown and became a part of the community, attending all the city council meetings and getting involved with Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams' election campaign. I myself am a naturalized Youngstowner, so I know that this place tugs at your heartstrings once you've been conditioned to it, but what is it that makes a surprising number of residents refuse to transplant their roots to a different neighborhood; pulls those who left for job opportunities back after a few years; and attracts people like Phil want to Defend Youngstown?

Phil said he likes to “equate [Youngstown] to a pile of coal,” which is on the surface unattractive, but once “you dig through, you find diamonds.” The trick is to "connect young people who haven’t been interested in the city and get them interested in digging in the pile.”

So one day he came up with the “Defend Youngstown” idea, made a sign, and spent his weekend evenings holding it up in the middle of downtown, hoping to attract passersby. People were suspicious of him so they stopped to investigate and he gave his spiel. When Phil expanded his budding movement to T-shirt sales, the suspicious passersby evolved into curious local and then national media.

Phil calls Defend Youngstown his “Bat-Signal” because it “attracts activists and people new to activism.” It seems to be working; the logo even caught the attention of my typically aloof 16-year-old brother. But even though Defend Youngstown could easily turn into a commercial endeavor, Phil is sticking to his original message. Defend Youngstown isn’t about “I heart Youngstown” T-shirts, it’s about action. Phil calls it a “commitment to a mentality” that compels citizens to “draw a line in the sand between [their] history and future ... recognize of all of [their] challenges,” and “take personal responsibility for [their] neighborhood.”

Learn how you can Defend Youngstown on Facebook, Myspace and Blogspot .

Photos courtesy of Phil Kidd.