Thanks for the stuff, JCB. I will definitely check it out.
Alas, I don't have the time or money to visit the region myself, so I am restricted to online and print resources. I have read enough to know that the Steel Valley was once a vital industrial center and is now one of the most poverty-stricken sections of the Rust Belt. After checking some local news pages and blogs out there and seeing the then-and-now pictures, I got sad and angry about what has happened. The mob of course was a huge curse to the area, extorting money, corrupting labor, corrupting politics, and so on. Part of my father's family are Scotch-Irish from Pittsburgh, by the way.
The mafia had little do with the economic condition of Youngstown. When large companies that employ tens of thousands of people declare bankruptcy and close its doors, it is tough to blame that on the mafia. To say that labor and politics was corrupted by the mafia ignores the fact that it takes two to tango. Greed is part of human nature, not just a trait specific to some Italian-Americans.
