Students are being transformed into musicians every week right here in Kenmore.
Open Tone Music Academy began just two years ago with a simple idea: to offer tuition-free music lessons to fifth- through eighth-grade students. What started as a word-of-mouth opportunity has grown to an over 20-student program, featuring three total hours of weekly music training that includes theory, piano, sectionals and group lessons.
“This is no free babysitting service,” said Dennis Reynolds, one of the program’s directors. “This is a conservatory for students who are serious about music and want to study it on a high level.”
Reynolds said students are dedicated to their music; giving up their Saturday morning to go to Open Tone Academy because they want to.
Additionally, their learning extends far beyond simple As and Bs.;
“It’s more than just reading music. It’s learning integrity. Learning how to work together. Learning how to empathize in a way other disciplines don’t teach. These kids are gaining character,” said Matt Garrett, the program’s director.
Between Open Tone and Live Music Now, music opportunities are erupting in Kenmore, bringing a little extra “soul” to the Boulevard District. When asked the impact music can have on Kenmore, Dennis responded, “Revitalization in the Kenmore community starts with these kids.”
Open Tone Music plans to expand this unique opportunity in the next few years, starting with an intense summer music camp in June, potential programing for high school students, a recital series, expanding the academy’s size and even branching out into other art areas.
For now, join Matt Garrett and his horn-blowing friends, the Open Tone All-Stars, every first Thursday of the month at Live Music Now!, 952 Kenmore Blvd. For more information, visit Facebook.com/KenmoreLiveMusicNow.
On Saturday, January 27, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, Summit Metro Parks and the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coaltion welcomed Kenmore residents’ ideas for making Summit Lake a place of pride and play.
Reimagining the Civic Commons is a national initiative in which the five cities of Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Memphis and Akron were chosen as a platform for the development of civic commons areas. By creating and improving upon public spaces for communities to gather, the lines of racial, educational, and economic segregation begin to blur, and cities have opportunities to unite like never before.
In Akron, Reimagining the Civic Commons is in the thick of year two, with it’s current focus being Summit Lake. What used to be a lively and booming “million-dollar playground” has slowly declined at the hands of industrial pollution.The goal is to invest in this full-of-potential area so the surrounding community can enjoy shared prosperity as well as continued revitalization, which is already beginning on Kenmore Boulevard.
With coffee in hand, the diverse group of heart-of-Kenmore meeting attendees set out to narrow down what restoration would look like at Summit Lake. Based off of feedback from the previous meeting in December, ideas were listed into four main categories: Infrastructure, Economic, Programs, and Safety/Beautification.
Although it was not a definitive vote, each attendee expressed their voice with red and green stickers, both representing how important an option was for them. To these residents, whom many call Summit Lake their front or back yard, it was clear that neighborhood isn’t just a place to live, it’s part of them. To see the future of vast possiblies in their beloved community created an aura of excitement felt strongly felt within the Kenmore Community Center.
The “straw vote” resulted in clear favorites throughout each category:
Top Infrastructure results: seating areas, tables, shelters, and grills available near the lake, biking and hiking trail around the lake, boat ramp access/dock on the lake, a walking connection between 6th St. S.W. to Manchester Rd., and a Kenmore way station with kiosks.
Top Economic results: places to get food and/or coffee, bike rental depot, boat rentals, history museum, bait & tackle shop, and a trail level bridge to connect both sides of the lake.
Top program and event results: watercraft show, fishing tournament, 5k around the lake, weekend farmer’s market, hiking spree stop, and fireworks.
Top Safety/Beautification results: clean up shoreline, scenic trail encircling Summit Lake, artwork along Summit Lake Rd., lighting, fountains, park setting with trees in the field, and to demolish/clean up empty buildings near highway.
The event came as residents await the results of EPA study commissioned of the 100-acre lake by the Trust for Public Land and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Results are due in the coming months, although according to Dan Rice, the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition’s executive, the initial findings have been “better than expected.” The report will be the first comprehensive look at Summit Lake’s environmental issues in 40 years, according to project supporters.
As the prepping stages of Reimagining Summit Lake continue, a steering committee of neighborhood residents will be assembled to further prioritize the proposed ideas and narrow them down. For more information about the effort or joining the steering committee, contact Tina Boyes, executive director of Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, at betterkenmore@gmail.com
Managed by the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance with support from The Big Love Network, Open Tone Music, Jim Ballard Skylyne Productions and Studio 1008, Live Music Now! hosts shows on the first and third Thursdays and Fridays of each month at 952 Kenmore Blvd. (Live Music Now!)
Live Music Now! will open its doors at 952 Kenmore Blvd. on Jan. 14 at 7 p.m. for a show aptly titled “Songs & Stories of the Beloved Community.” The inaugural show is fitting, because Live Music Now! is managed by the community-focused Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, with support from The Big Love Network, Open Tone Music, Jim Ballard Skylyne Productions and Studio 1008. Read more
Kenmore is Akron’s underappreciated little sibling. At least this is how some residents feel. Although the neighborhood has been part of the city since its annexation in 1928, it has the essence of a place left to itself. People talk of Kenmore as if there’s nothing here besides a steady crime rate and abandoned buildings, which isn’t true.
Kenmore Boulevard, with its enduring brick storefronts crammed against the sidewalk, is a classic American thoroughfare; at night, it resembles vintage city blocks preserved in black-and-white photographs. Some Akronites recall the golden days of Summit Beach: ballroom dances, rollerskating, a massive outdoor swimming pool, fair rides – or the soda fountain at McDowell’s Pharmacy, where teenagers hung around after movie showings. The “silver screen,” both the movie theater invention and the popular phrase, originated in Kenmore. The neighborhood historical society has a lot to be proud of.
There’s more than just history, though; people here care about the community and are working to move the neighborhood past its has-been status. There are wide-eyed business owners like the Vaill brothers, who have reopened and revitalized the Rialto Theater into a vibrant live theater and music venue.
Kenmore (shown here in its heydey in 1950) has changed considerably, with a decline in population and an exodus from the schools here, but a number of people and groups are contributing to its revitalization. (Photo: Kenmore Historical Society)
There’s the Kenmore Community Center, which supports the area’s elderly, and the First Glance youth center, which helps guide the local kids. There are unique, long-running businesses like Kenmore Komics and Games, Magic City Sports Cards and E&S Hobbies. Lifelong inhabitants regard the neighborhood as a collective of friends looking out for each other, as they always have. Some believe Kenmore is going through a revitalization; others think the neighborhood has been falling apart for years and will lose its sense of identity with the eventual closing of Kenmore High School. One thing that seems certain is that the neighborhood is going through a transition, and we should pay attention.
The Kenmore trolley (shown here in 1936) is an iconic part of this neighborhood’s identity. (Photo: Kenmore Historical Society)
First Glance Youth Center Have you stood in a room packed with a hundred unrestrained adolescents? This is a typical Thursday night (“Rec Night”) at the First Glance youth center, a stimuli overload. There’s basketball, video games, awkward teenage dancing (both the Whip and the Nae-Nae) and cheap pizza from Pierre’s across the street. Downstairs is a skate park where you can watch pubescent kids in knee pads and helmets tumble and eat floor. There are cliques and your quiet, shy types, but overall the atmosphere is friendly and accepting. That same air holds a faint scent of aggregate adolescent body odor.
First Glance youth center is one of a number of nonprofits and community organizations lending a hand toward the revitalization of the Kenmore neighborhood. (Photo: First Glance)
Noelle Beck, co-founder and executive director, explains that the center’s function is “to provide a safe place for students where we meet physical, emotional and spiritual needs.”
First Glance provides nine programs, including a night for teen mothers (which “guides teen and young mothers through parenting classes while encouraging independence and self-sufficiency”), Man Up (which “allows volunteers to encourage the young men of our community to be men of character”), Ladies’ Night Out (which “guides teen girls through tough issues such as relationships, gossip, sex, and self worth”) and the free-for-all Rec Night.
“There’s not a ton to do for teenagers in Kenmore,” Beck says. She wears thick-rimmed glasses, Converse sneakers and tight-fitting jeans, not unlike a hiply dressed teenager. She says that the staff and volunteers encourage the potential they see in each of the teens.
“The students we work with are never projects to us. We see them as our family. They become our family; we become theirs.”
The family aspect seems accurate. Walking into the center, I was hugged by a jovial high school kid named Christian whom I’d never met before. Many of the current volunteers attended the center regularly as teenagers and wanted to stay involved with the program after graduating high school. Of the 90 volunteers, 43 currently live in the neighborhood. Some of them have recently moved in to be part of the community. Beck has shown up to her students’ sporting events, plays, graduations and baby showers. She taught one girl how to drive in the parking lot of the abandoned Rolling Acres mall.
Seventeen year-old Jon Marshall, one of the center’s lovable troublemakers, informs me that he’s two months away from being considered a “student leader.” He tells me that the center helps him with his anger issues, and that the place is “pretty dope.” Kids do windmill dunks on hoops barely six feet high in the low-ceilinged basketball court room we’re standing in. One boy continually throws a soccer ball as close to our faces as possible without actually hitting our faces. Another kid hands me his hat while he playfully punches his brother’s arm. Not one person in the room seems mean-spirited. When the event ends at nine, the teens stream out onto the Boulevard and saunter home in noisy cliques, and I find myself wishing, for a moment, that I’d grown up near a place like this.
Performances and events like Zach Freidhof’s (center) recent album release party are establishing Kenmore’s Rialto Theatre as an anchor for the arts. (Photo: Kevin Richards, Studio KMR Photography)
Quick Kenmore Fact:A New York Times article published May 10, 1920 lists Kenmore, Ohio as
the country’s fastest-growing city, according to then-recent census data. Kenmore was not technically a city until 1922, but regardless, it is listed in the article, the subheader of which reads, “Census Returns Show Gains Ranging Up to 712.5 Per Cent In Decade.” Kenmore was the city with the population increase of 712.5 percent, the highest of any listed, regardless of size. (Second went to Dormont, Penn. with 478.9 percent – not even close.) As of 2016, the neighborhood holds an estimated 18,480 people.
Revitalization through the arts “Kenmore has potential as an arts district,” says Jason Segedy, Akron’s Director of Planning and Urban Development. Segedy points out that, whereas many suburban communities spend millions of dollars to construct “old-timey” shopfront districts, the Boulevard is already designed in this fashion. With two specialty guitar shops (Lay’s Guitar Shop and The Guitar Department), the Rialto Theatre, and the old, but now-trendy street layout, Segedy envisions the possibility of the Boulevard taking on an art-centric atmosphere, in which residents purchase apartments above small, bustling first-floor shops.
Rialto Theatre If Kenmore has a future as an arts district, consider the new Rialto Theatre the forefront of this development. I use the term “new” because the Rialto Theatre will be remembered by some readers as the once popular movie theater that ran from 1919 to the early 1950s. The “new” Rialto, opened in June of 2015, was built in the same building on Kenmore Boulevard that housed the original.
Seth (left) and Nate Vaill, who are both musicians, have put care and effort into restoring Kenmore’s Rialto Theatre, along with launching an adjoining recording studio. (Photo: Around Akron With Blue Green, Western Reserve PBS)
The entrepreneurial minds and pocketbooks behind the Rialto are brothers Seth and Nate Vaill.
“When we moved into the building, we had the vision of turning it into a music venue with a couple recording studios,” says Seth Vaill.
They did just that, eventually constructing the gutted-out interior into a cozy speakeasy with a stage, audience seating, and two recording studios.
Seth and Nate, both Norton High School graduates, attended the University of Akron and Hiram College, respectively. They moved into the Kenmore neighborhood together in 2010.
Just A Dream Entertainment Studios (the recording company they co-own) and the Rialto seem to have stemmed from their joint love of music; Nate plays guitar and sings, and Seth plays the keys. However, the brothers exhibit a complete appreciation for all forms of art, whether musical, visual, or theatre-based. This shows in the events put on at the Rialto, which range from plays to storytelling events like “The Stories of Kenmore” to rock performances from local bands like Time Cat.
Once a popular movie theater from 1919 to the 1950s, the Rialto Theatre has been restored and has found a new life as a concert and event venue. (Photo: John R. Aylward Photography)
On a recent weekend, local songwriter and activist Zach Freidhof celebrated his new album release to a packed Rialto, with guest musicians and vocalists, a mass reiki session, and a room resonating with palpable positive energy.
During a subsequent Saturday night, the Wandering Aesthetics’ theatre company’s open mic series, called the Electric Pressure Cooker, brought another packed and energetic crowd, as performers played music, delivered standup comedy, read poetry and performed other manner of expression.
“We really want to help build culture and the arts here in Kenmore,” says Seth. “We believe that through the arts – theater, music, and all that stuff – people can create some form of community.”
Seth has noted that many Kenmore residents have attended various shows at the theater, strengthening his belief that there’s a desire for a flourish of arts in the neighborhood. The Rialto Theatre, despite its small successes, is still a relatively obscure establishment. The building still doesn’t have a sign out front, and, even if you know what address to look for, you’ll likely have a hard time spotting it on the Boulevard. This is temporary, though.
(Photo: Kevin Richards, Studio KMR Photography)
A recent grant from Akron Community Foundation will go toward a new sign that will pull the Rialto’s facade out of hiding.
“We are getting a marquee out front, and we’re going to be doing some front façade work,” says Seth. “We’re really trying to ‘artsy’ that up, so I guess the official, opening-night ribbon cutting for the Rialto Theatre won’t be until then.”
I can’t think of another spot in Akron where a marquee would look more appropriate. Imagine the bright yellow signboard, the plump lightbulbs coruscating against brick buildings, illuminating a line of patrons stretching down the sidewalk along the Boulevard.
Pictured is Kenmore’s Fire Department. When Akron annexed Kenmore in 1929, the city commandeered Kenmore’s new fire truck and replaced it with one much older, which still riles some residents. (Photo courtesy: Kenmore Historical Society)
Let’s have a history lesson.
If you are standing, say, in the Kenmore Branch of the Akron-Summit County Public Library (located in what was once Kenmore’s city hall, which housed the police department, fire department, doctor’s office, dentist, court and library), you’re above a salt mine, or what used to be one. Kenmore was once a town of salt miners and rubber workers.
Many of the salt companies were located near the Manchester Road/Kenmore Boulevard intersection in an area once popularly known as Halo that butted against the now-drained section of Summit Lake, which was once part of the canal system. Manchester Road, by the way, is the oldest road in Akron. Native Americans would “portage” (i.e., carry their canoes to the next body of water) on the trail that’s now Manchester, which had purportedly been worn down for them by buffalo that roamed the region.
How do I know this? Well, I’ve recently been schooled by members of the Kenmore Historical Society. The Society started in 2001 with the aim of preserving Kenmore’s history for younger generations, and is run by the kind of Kenmore-proud residents I’ve been meeting throughout my time exploring the neighborhood. This pride seems the result of families who have resided in Kenmore through generations.
Let’s use Jan Williams, the Historical Society vice president, as an example. She’s a former Kenmore High School teacher who taught three generations of Kenmore residents (the last names of new students would already look familiar in her gradebook). She turns up at events and meetings. Multiple people asked, when they discovered that I was writing about Kenmore, whether I had talked to her yet, because I needed to. Her father-in-law, Harry Williams, invented the “silver screen,” the highly reflective, image-enhancing slabs that became ubiquitous in American movie theaters of the 1940s and early 1950s. At one time, the screens were produced in the building that now houses the First Glance Youth Center on the Boulevard. Williams’ husband grew up in Kenmore, and his old friends all still live in the neighborhood. If anyone moves away, they naturally fall out of the friend group.
“You used to be able to get anything you needed in Kenmore,” says Richard Jolly, trustee of the Historical Society. “We had grocery stores, shoe shops, clothing stores, drug stores, a YMCA. There was no reason to leave town.”
Jolly was raised in Kenmore, and he’s full of neighborhood pride, too. For example, he’s still fed up that the city of Akron stole Kenmore’s fire truck.
Kenmore’s Manchester Road is said to be the oldest road in Akron, created from a trail that was worn down by buffalo in the region. (Photo courtesy: Kenmore Historical Society)
Here’s the story, from what I could gather: When Akron annexed Kenmore at the very tail-end of 1928, ending Kenmore’s six-year stretch as its own town, Kenmore had a squeaky-new fire truck that was much nicer than Akron’s firetrucks. Upon annexation, the city of Akron commandeered Kenmore’s firetruck for use in a different Akron fire station, leaving Kenmore one of the old Akron fire trucks.
Jolly was decades from being born when this happened, but to hear him speak of the affair, you’d think it all happened a few years back. See what I mean about neighborhood pride?
The Kenmore Historical Society collects whatever artifacts people will give them. They own cheerleading outfits from 30 years ago, trophies, a chunk of a water line from underneath Manchester Road that is now over 100 years old and a sign from the old Kenmore trolley stop.
“Right now, we keep it all in our homes until we get a physical space to keep everything in,” says Jolly. “We’re trying to get a building for all of our stuff because we want the young kids to know what Kenmore was like years ago.”
The best artifacts the Society preserve, the ones that will keep the neighborhood’s history familiar to future generations, are the stories of Kenmore’s past shared on the Society’s web site (kenmorehistorical.org). There are historical writings, interviews from elderly, probably now-dead Kenmore residents and excerpts from one former resident’s memoir. Although the personal accounts are preluded with statements explaining that the stories “may not be strictly factual” or “were not researched for accuracy,” they transcend mere note-taking on geographical locations and archival tidbits and offer accounts, however brief, of what life was like in this specific slice of America in the early 1900s.
Here’s a selection from an interview with Kenmore resident Flossie Triplett Wilson describing halcyon Saturdays spent in nearby Manchester coal yards:
“A special Saturday treat for Flossie and a few of her friends was to get to ride a big horse-drawn wagon from Kenmore down to neighboring Manchester to the coal yard. There the men would load the big wagon high with big chunks of black coal and Flossie and her friends got to ride back to Kenmore, in style, high atop the coal. This was the greatest!”
I imagine anecdotes like this inspire people to start up historical societies. By appreciating the still-recollectable remnants of what was here before, you begin to better understand, to delineate the importance, of what is here now.
Stop the Violence, End the Silence is an organization in Kenmore that seeks to end gun violence and drug abuse among the Akron youth. The group held its first candlelight vigil for 17-year-old Tyler Anderson, who was shot in the head, pushed out of a car, and left lying on the 2300 block of 21st St. SW, just behind Kenmore Boulevard.
Let’s address some of the negative perceptions people have of Kenmore.
I’ve heard the terms “hillbilly” and “white trash” thrown around. I’ve heard complaints about unkempt front yards debasing the neighborhood’s appearance. Some think the young kids have no Kenmore pride, that they just want to get the hell out. Some associate Kenmore with the current heroin epidemic, regarding it as a drug haven. When I first started hanging around the Boulevard, my dad warned me to lock the car doors and watch my back when walking after sunset. Many outsiders think it’s an all-around rough neighborhood.
“Kenmore has had a bad rap for years,” says Kenmore Historical Society trustee Richard Jolly.
Some claim this bad rap stems from a motorcycle gang that once cruised the Boulevard and kept residents living in fear during the ’60s, or the ‘80s; there’s still some unsettled local myth surrounding the gang.
Regardless, there’s some truth to Kenmore’s perceived drug problem. “Drugs are the biggest problem Kenmore is facing,” says Amy Deem, founder of Stop the Violence, End the Silence, an organization with goals to end gun violence and drug abuse among the Akron youth. The group is based out of Kenmore, where Deem lives.
“I’ve watched bodies get carried out of houses on my street,” Deem says.
Deem’s cousin died of a heroin overdose in her home when she was away one day. Several drug dealers have lived on her block, and the neighbors start to wonder now when somebody new moves in.
I’ve been told similar anecdotes. To use the bathroom in the Akron-Summit County Public Library’s Kenmore branch, an employee or police officer must buzz you in; this rule is in place, an officer told me, because of the “high number” of overdoses that have occurred in the bathroom.
Will Sheppard, a friend of mine from Kenmore, explained to me that fentanyl, a super-potent opioid 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, has become popular in the neighborhood. His friend’s mother, a Kenmore resident, died from an overdose.
“She mixed heroin with fentanyl,” says Sheppard. “They found her in her bathtub.”
Stop the Violence, End the Silence Although they’ve held only five or six events since starting the group in 2013, Stop the Violence, End the Silence has been well received by the neighborhood.
“People are always coming up and asking where they can buy T-shirts, or if there’s anything they can do to help,” says Deem.
Their first event, a vigil for 17-year-old Tyler Anderson, a good friend of Deem’s nephew, was held in Shadyside Park and brought together 150 people. Anderson was shot in the head, pushed out of a car, and left lying on the 2300 block of 21st St. SW, just behind Kenmore Boulevard.
Anderson’s death prompted Deem and others to form the group and combat gun violence. They eventually decided to address Akron’s drug problem as well. The group has held walks and open mic events where residents can speak on these issues.
“We just want kids to know that you don’t have to be a drug dealer, and you don’t always have to carry a gun on your hip, because it’s not going to save you,” says Deem.
The members of Stop the Violence, End the Silence were invited to an awards dinner given by the DBSA (Depression Bipolar Support Alliance) for their work in the community. Deem has received a letter from former state representative Greta Johnson commending the group’s efforts. Their message has not gone unnoticed outside the neighborhood.
Deem’s take on people’s negative perceptions of Kenmore: “Kenmore is not as bad as people say. I think we should bring out the positive attributes of Kenmore, because we have really good kids here, and all the negativity is not good for them. They don’t need that.” Amen, sister.
Joe Heindel is a luthier, who hand makes guitars, ukuleles and other stringed instruments from his workshop in the Kenmore neighborhood. (Photo: Alyssa Keown)
A man sits down in the small workshop behind his house on a warm summer morning, dog at his feet, and begins sketching in a notebook.
“Right now in my head it’s perfect, there are no flaws,” says Joe Heindel who’s a luthier, meaning he creates and repairs stringed instruments by hand. He even carves the wood using hand tools. His preferred creations are guitars: archtops, to be specific.
Heindel considers the art above all else and lives his life by the belief that most of what everyone does is art. For example, his workshop, which he rebuilt with the same care he puts into his instrument-making, could itself be considered a work of art. And like other artists, Heindel admits he enjoys the process of creating things more than the finished product.
“I had so much fun making this shop that I don’t care if I move,” he says. “It was a curious and creative process.”
Unlike visual art, whose final resting place is typically on a wall in a home or gallery, an instrument’s creation is only the beginning of its journey: its true potential is realized when it gets into the hands of a musician.
Another element to making instruments that resembles other mediums is the risk of the artist spending too much time on the craft, a reason why Heindel doesn’t install too many lights in his workshop (so he won’t be tempted to work all night carving and cutting). “And I have to be careful, because if I do it too much, I can go into the martyr artist (mode), where I give everything to my craft and then my relationships fall apart, my health falls apart,” he says.
Luthier Joe Heindel hand-makes musical instruments inside a workshop he rebuilt, which is itself a work of art. (Photo: Alyssa Keown)
A mentor, a new direction About 10 years ago, Heindel found himself in college, overworked without a chance to hold down relationships. After mistakenly sitting in on an inspiring woodworker’s class, taught by a man named Doug Unger, Heindel sought to register for a course taught by the professor. However, each class was full and it was the professor’s last semester teaching.
As if by fate, Heindel ran into Unger outside of school and introduced himself. The woodworker invited Heindel to come to his shop, and from there Heindel began his journey into making instruments.
His first creation was made from wood he found in his backyard, a slide guitar from just a piece of oak. This process also led to the discovery of how different types of wood create completely different types of tones for the instrument.
Originally, Heindel did machine work and created scales for forklifts and cranes. He wrestled with the idea of creating guns with his machine work, but instead wanted to make things that gave life, like music. Today he sells guitars happily and healthily and lives with his wife, two children and dog named Blue.
(Photo: Alyssa Keown)
Heindel says he often meditates on the power of art and music bringing people in conflict together. He tells stories of ceasefires on Christmas during World War II, where soldiers ate, sang and danced together. He believes we can do the same today through exchanging artwork, thanks to mass communication.
“What if artists, instrument-makers and musicians shared work, shared music with the people we’re supposed to hate?” he ponders.
Organizations receiving support include The Well Community Development Corporation, North Akron Community Development Corporation and Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance
Two community development corporations and one neighborhood alliance will launch a plan to improve neighborhood life, keep and attract talented people and advance new investments in Akron with $720,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Well Community Development Corporation, representing Akron’s Middlebury neighborhood; North Akron Community Development Corporation, representing North Hill, Chapel Hill and Cascade Valley; and Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance will each receive $240,000 to accelerate development in the city.
Community development corporations are nonprofit, community-based organizations focused on revitalizing neighborhoods by advancing economic development, community engagement and access to housing. Akron has been conducting significant study and reflection on its public and civic spaces over the last few years; the city has recognized the role community development corporations can play as leadership partners in this regard.
“Akron is currently grappling with population decline and lack of investment,” said Kyle Kutuchief, Knight Foundation program director for Akron. “Efforts to address these challenges have largely focused on attracting multinational and large employers, without considering ways to improve quality of life in cities and make Akron a more vibrant place to live and work. These community development corporations will help to address this gap, with the goal of increasing public and private investment and creating a better future for our city.”
Knight Foundation’s “Build in Akron” report and the city of Akron’s “Planning to Grow Akron” report highlight future housing hot spots and market-ready commercial districts in the city’s Kenmore, Middlebury and North Hill areas. Each neighborhood has already led Knight-funded Better Block events, which focus on bringing the community together to transform a blighted city block into a vibrant neighborhood destination. Knight funding will enable these organizations to draw lessons from these events, using them as a basis to develop broader strategies to improve neighborhood life and accelerate community growth.
The organizations will use the support to:
Hire new staff focused on increasing business development, civic engagement and housing access, while building expertise in marketing and economic development to share with Akron’s broader community.
Lead a neighborhood planning process with input from local leaders, including ways to use public spaces to encourage civic engagement, create strategies to strengthen business districts, and attract interest through neighborhood branding campaigns.
Identify pathways to advance community development through prototyping and idea testing.
“With this support, we can move on some of our plans immediately,” said John Ughrin, executive director of the North Akron Community Development Organization. “This lets us get to work programming, beautifying and energizing life in our neighborhoods. It also gives us some freedom to experiment, assess our current practices and get input from the community. Residents of North Akron already know it’s a great place to live, we want to make that undeniable.”
Each neighborhood has explored their economic development, residential and community engagement needs through the Better Block planning process, as well as through similar neighborhood activities. As Zac Kohl, executive director of The Well Community Development Corporation in Middlebury notes: “The Middlebury Better Block formed a group of committed individuals and organizations that rallied to test strategies to improve the neighborhood. This support will allow us to create the capacity to execute on future neighborhood planning, specifically as we fight to create equity for the people of Middlebury in housing and economic development.”
Tina Boyes, a Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance board member who chaired the recent Kenmore Better Block event, says she sees the planning process as a timely tool for leveraging her community’s already growing interest in Kenmore Boulevard, the neighborhood’s main commercial area. The alliance will explore what an effective community development organization should look like in what is Akron’s largest continuous neighborhood business district.
“Better Block highlighted Kenmore Boulevard’s potential for economic development and placemaking,” Boyes said. “Residents, artists, small business owners and investors are now talking to each other, and want to take action to realize the potential for our neighborhood together.”
With deep partnerships already established with other community development corporations, nonprofit organizations and agencies working in Akron, these three organizations hope to create a plan for growth that is inclusive of the residents of each of the neighborhoods. All three organizations live and work within Akron, and their boards include residents, business owners and nonprofit leaders from across the city.
Support for these organizations is part of Knight Foundation’s efforts in Akron to attract and keep talented people, expand economic opportunity and create a culture of engagement. Since 2008 Knight has invested more than $58 million in Akron.
About Kenmore Neighborhood AllianceKenmore Neighborhood Alliance is a 501(c)(3) public charity, whose mission is to enhance the Kenmore community by reaching out to all residents to engage them in cultural, artistic, recreational and business revitalization. It does so through programming and collaboration with Kenmore residents, businesses and existing community groups. To learn more about Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, visitwww.knacares.org.
About North Akron CDCThe mission of North Akron Community Development Corporation (NACDC) is to assure a vibrant thriving North Akron Community that inspires and connects its residents while celebrating its unique diversity. North Akron CDC hopes to achieve this mission by focusing on the following areas of impact: business and economic development; physical infrastructure and beautification; social and informational events and programming. NACDC’s Board members include residents, business owners and nonprofit leaders.
About The Well CDCThe mission of The Well Community Development Corporation (The Well) is to see communities all over Akron giving individuals the opportunity to thrive in their current context. The Well Community Development Corporation will work with like-minded partners to create affordable housing, a thriving economy and placemaking initiatives, while reinvesting worth, value and dignity back into the individual lives and social health of the neighborhoods of Akron. Rebuilding community through relationships. The Well’s Board members include business leaders, residents and nonprofit leaders. To learn more about The Well CDC, visitwww.thewellakron.com.
About the John S. and James L. Knight FoundationKnight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy.
