United States
Rust Belt journalist now in D.C., former Vindicator & Arizona Republic reporter. Youngstown native. My passion for journalism is tied to communities — building them, protecting them, and celebrating them through story.
This story is copublished with The Delacorte Review, the literary nonfiction journal of the Columbia Journalism School. WHEN THE VINDICATOR DIED, I knew it meant I'd have to leave my hometown. Again. The shuttering of Youngstown, Ohio's daily newspaper in the summer of 2019 meant my days of being a newspaperman in my own city were [...]
A first-place AP award winning investigation into a predatory land contract company buying blighted homes in the Rust Belt and trapping "owners" in bad deals
By GRAIG GRAZIOSI ggraziosi@vindy.com YOUNGSTOWN When William Johnson walked into his prospective new home in 2011, he noted immediately that he could see the sky, very clearly, through his roof. There was no skylight. The house is on Chalmers Avenue on the city's South Side, and previously belonged to a man known in the neighborhood as the person you could go to for anything you needed.
By GRAIG GRAZIOSI ggraziosi@vindy.com LORDSTOWN There is a perverse anticipation that some people experience when - after a long period of suffering and deterioration - a dying loved one succumbs to their ailment. It's not that we want the loved one to die, and it doesn't lessen the grief that necessarily accompanies the passing of a loved one.
"At least there's still Lordstown." That was a common refrain around the Mahoning Valley, an area of Northeast Ohio that includes historic manufacturing centers like Warren, Youngstown, and Lordstown, home to what was once the largest car manufacturing facility on the planet.
This is an excerpt from "The Promise," an ongoing series from The Big Roundtable about life in Youngstown, Ohio; McAllen, Texas; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. When I was in high school near Youngstown in the early 2000s, the buses would drop us off on the side of the building and we'd enter through a large set of double doors.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Reporter Graig Graziosi had met and interviewed James Reardon Jr. on multiple occasions. Today, he discusses issues surrounding Reardon's arrest Saturday. By Graig Graziosi ggraziosi@vindy.com When I asked James Reardon Jr. if people should be afraid of him during an interview in 2017, he told me no.
By GRAIG GRAZIOSI ggraziosi@vindy.com YOUNGSTOWN Video At the crossroads of the East Side's main thoroughfares is the Sharonline neighborhood that represents both the one-time vision of a vibrant, growing Youngstown and the reality of the city's decline. McGuffey Road, connecting downtown Youngstown with the East Side, eventually ends in Coitsville.
A day after a fire destroyed the dining area of Cave Creek's Silver Spur Saloon, the Frontier Town restaurant looked more "Mad Max" than "Maverick." Waterlogged drywall hung from the rafters. Soggy tufts of pink insulation layered the cement floor and covered the bar.
Video Work
Once expected to be the next major residential development in Youngstown, the Sharonline neighborhood in the city's northeast corner was never fully populated. Now as the population shrinks, abandoned streets are being closed and returned to nature. But Sharonline is far from dead.
Photography