Although 2020 seemed to be a dark year of disappointments, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance helped to end the year with a bright new tradition.
The Light The Boulevard Window Contest is a seasonal window decorating competition sponsored by Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance with support from Heritage Ohio. The competition paired artsy residents, organizations, and volunteers with Kenmore Boulevard business owners in a no-holds-barred creative match.
In its inaugural year, the Light The Boulevard Window Contest was a big hit with businesses, residents, and volunteers. “I had so much fun, I’m going to start planning for next year now,” said Nora Trogdon, one of the 20 artists to compete for a fully catered meal from Thai Soul Fusion. Jennifer Brumbaugh won the competition with her window display themed “Light of the World” located at New Beginnings Boutique and Thrift. The first runner-up went to Roberta Wrights & Dianna Stalcup’s “Snowman Wonderland” display at Rent A Center, and the second runner-up was awarded to Suzanne Mourton’s “Christmas Village” display at ManiKitchen Tea Shop
The Light The Boulevard Window Contest is one of two new holiday traditions. Thanks to support from the City of Akron and Community Hall Foundation, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance also installed lights on the median trees of Kenmore Blvd. Those lights will remain up for the remainder of the winter season.
KNA executive director Tina Boyes said she hopes this new tradition can bring joy and attention to the Kenmore Boulevard Historic District.
Want to help make the Boulevard brighter next year? KNA is accepting donations of gently used decorations and lights. You can drop them off through Jan. 15 at the Kenmore Branch Library, 969 Kenmore Blvd. or the Kenmore Community Center, 880 Kenmore Blvd. 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. Monday – Friday. For more information, contact betterkenmore@gmail.com.
A global pandemic, event cancellations and lockdowns didn’t stop the volunteers of Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance from revitalizing the Kenmore Boulevard Historic District in 2020.
Despite the COVID-19’s impact on small businesses, the number of occupied commercial buildings in the district grew by 16 percent this year. The following five business located to the district and continue to operate as of Nov. 1: BrighStart Early Preschool at 1069 Kenmore Blvd., My Love Home Care at 985 Kenmore Blvd., Hall of Fame Barbershop at 930 Kenmore Blvd., ManiKitchen Tea Shop at 978 Kenmore Blvd. and ThaiSoul Fusion Grill at 992 Kenmore Blvd.
Our Design Committee completed its first façade renovation at 975 Kenmore Blvd. Through the City of Akron’s Great Streets grant program and with support from the Knight Foundation, we removed the building’s vinyl siding, restored the brick, and installed an energy-efficient glass storefront similar to that of the 1923 original. Interior renovations continue as our Economic Vitality Committee looks forward to announcing a long-term tenant in early 2021.
Thanks to funding from the Community Hall Foundation and the city of Akron, we were able to purchase and install color-changing lights on the median trees throughout the the Kenmore Boulevard Historic District. Through funding from Heritage Ohio, we held our first of what we hope will be many Light the Boulevard Window Contests, in which 20 crafty and creatively minded volunteers “adopted” storefronts with bright and creative displays.
While our Promotion & Events Committee was eager to build on the energy of last year’s Kenmore First Friday and holiday events, COVID-19 forced us to adapt. In May and June, we hosted Virtual First Fridays. Starting in July, we partnered with The Dragon’s Mantle, the Kenmore Chamber of Commerce and a variety of generous sponsors to host socially distant drive-in concerts in the Kenmore Boulevard South Alley parking lots. They featured carhop service from local food businesses and musical acts like Jim Ballard, Zach and American Idol veteran Madeline Finn. In all, we drew more than 350 people to the district at a time when outdoor live music events were scarce in Summit County.
As we close 2020, we would like to thank our generous donors and funders for helping us continue our work during these unprecedented times. They include Akron Community Foundation, the City of Akron, Kenmore Chamber of Commerce, Knight Foundation, GAR Foundation and United Way. We also thank our dedicated volunteers, without whom none of our success would have been possible. To keep up to date on all the latest Boulevard news and events, register for our e-news. And, to help us continue our revitalization in 2021, make a tax-deductible donation.
ThaiSoul Fusion Grill brings an exciting combination of traditional Thai and soul food to 992 Kenmore Blvd. Since relocating in mid-September from Romig Rd., the restaurant has been offering a diverse menu that includes hibachi-style dishes to burgers and wings. “What makes us unique is the quality of our ingredients,“ said owner Chef Tawon Burton, who operates ThaiSoul Fusion with his wife, Patricia. “People constantly tell us they feel like they should be dining in and drinking wine because of the quality of our carryout,” Patricia added. The Burtons say they’re happy to be in family-friendly Kenmore, and Tawon brings with him a special fondness of the Boulevard. He attended Kenmore High School and spent a large portion of his childhood here. “I love that we get a lot of kids at the carry-out window after school hours, and I wish that we could do more outreach,” Tawon said. That outreach includes a Junior Chef program, where school-aged children learn how to shop for ingredients and prepare meals. The couple has taught the courses in the past and said they hope to continue them in Kenmore.
ThaiSoul Fusion Grill is available for carry out Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. by calling 330-937-8846. They will resume dine-in service when pandemic restrictions are lifted, adding outdoor seating during the warmer months.
On Friday, Oct. 2, Americana favorites Hey Mavis will headline a night of Appalachian music from 6 to 9 p.m. in Kenmore Boulevard’s South Alley parking lots, which are accessible via 13th and 15th St. The duo’s Kenmore First Friday Drive-In Concert appearance comes on the heels of the Knight Foundation’s $4 million grant to convert where the Ohio & Erie Canal enters Akron’s Summit Lake into a 35-acre public parkconnecting the Kenmore and Summit Lake neighborhoods.
Hey Mavis’s most recent album, “Silver Ribbon Dream – Songs & Stories of the Ohio & Erie Canal,” gives listeners a lens into those who lived and worked in the area during the canal’s earliest days.
“This part of Ohio owes much of its early development to the canal,” said Laurie Carner, Hey Mavis’s lead singer and songwriter. “The conditions for
Tina Boyes, executive director of the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, said she hopes the concert does the same for her community. “These are lean times, particularly for our local small business owners, and it can be easy to get discouraged,” she explained, “but the music and camaraderie of shows like these give our little music district hope for the future.”
Hey Mavis will be joined by Americana trio The Stirs and Madison Cummins, whose latest release “Antidote” is included in 91.3 FM The Summit’s rotation. Carhop food service will be provided by ThaiSoul Fusion Grill, which recently relocated to Kenmore Boulevard from Romig Road.
A suggested donation of $5 per car will support the ongoing revitalization efforts of Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance. In addition, attendees will get a link to a free download of Hey Mavis’s newest song, “Yes, the Gypsy Music.”
Cars will be parked at least six feet apart, and attendees are welcome to place lawn chairs in their parking spots. In accordance with the Ohio Department of Health guidelines, face coverings are recommended.
Kenmore First Fridays are presented by Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, the Kenmore Chamber of Commerce, and a variety of generous sponsors. The Oct. 2 event is funded in part by the Friends of Chestnut Ridge Park and Akron Community Foundation. For full event details, visit www.facebook.com/betterkenmore.
The Knight Foundation is committing $8 million in grants to help revamp some of Akron’s public spaces.
The Knight Foundation grants will enhance two public spaces in Akron: Summit Lake and Lock 3. Half the money will go toward rebuilding Summit Lake’s north shore into a community-focused park and recreation area.
Kyle Kutuchief, director of the Knight Foundation’s Akron Program, said this is the right time to be making a substantial investment like this.
As the pandemic has worn on, national trends have shown more people are using public spaces and parks.
“One of the advantages of being in Northeast Ohio is that we have amazing public spaces,” Kutuchief said. “However, not everyone has equal access to a great park in close proximity to their home.”
Summit Lake Park
The Knight Foundation plans to invest $4 million to create Summit Lake Park on 35 acres on the lake’s north shore. Currently, the plot is an abandoned piece of land. However, Kutuchief says it will become a destination park.
The hope is to start the $10 million project next year.
The city of Akron committed $3 million to the project, leaving $3 million left to fund. Kutuchief believes this money can be raised through public funding, other philanthropic support and a fundraising campaign targeting individuals in the next year.
The project aims to create a space for the residents of Summit Lake. Summit Lake is the largest body of water in the City of Akron, and Kutuchief said it has rarely been used.
“We see this park as returning the lake to the people that live in the neighborhood, giving them access to this amazing physical asset that’s in close proximity to their house,” he said.
Since 2016, the Knight Foundation has been working through a process called Reimagining the Civic Commons, through which it tests various elements of the park, such as trails, playgrounds, and picnic tables. The foundation has received very positive feedback from the community members, Kutuchief said.
“An important part of the process is that this is not a foundation or city leaders or fancy consultants coming into a neighborhood and telling people what they need,” he said. “We have been very intentional over the past four years about engaging the residents, starting to build trust, and asking them about what they want to see in their park.”
Kutuchief calls it a residents-first approach, which he has led to a better planning process and in the end, he hopes, a better park.
Unifying Two Shores
The park will be going into a very diverse neighborhood.
“Summit Lake neighborhood is a majority minority, primarily African American neighborhood, and the Kenmore neighborhood tends to be more blue-collar Caucasian,” Kutuchief said.
Summit Lake has historically been two places, two shores. Kutuchief believes the new park will unify the neighborhoods and bring people together.
“It’s investment in neighborhoods that don’t always get it and certainly haven’t gotten investment historically,” he said.
Akron’s Central Park
Redesigning Lock 3, which Kutuchief calls downtown Akron’s Central Park, to make it more accessible for everyday use will take $2 million of the investment. In its current form, he says, Lock 3 is mostly a special event venue.
“There’s very little shade. There’s very little comfortable seating. And there’s a fence currently on Main Street. It doesn’t exactly invite casual use,” he said.
Lock 3 will become both a special event venue and an everyday park, with expanded seating and shaded areas for people to congregate, Kutuchief said. The project also will upgrade Lock 3’s performance space.
The Knight Foundation is also investing more than $1.3 million to support Downtown Akron Partnership and more than $600,000 to remodel the historic John S. Knight house in West Akron, which will become the new headquarters of the Summit County Land Bank.
For his most recent mural, Kenmore artist Caleb Aronhalt went underground: well, under a bridge, at least.
The Summit Metro Parks commissioned Caleb to create a large-scale mural under the Kenmore Boulevard bridge where the Summit Lake Loop Trail connects with the west shore. “They wanted to make the space more inviting, “ Caleb said. They also wanted to be sure it was created by an artist from the neighborhood.
Bringing color to the community is very important to Caleb “because it shows that people actually care,” he explained. “I’m all about investing my time and talent in my neighborhood to help make my community better.”
Caleb has lived in Kenmore for eight years and has worked on several mural projects throughout the neighborhood. His most notable work can be found at the southwest corner of Kenmore Blvd. and 15th St., a collaboration between Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, Art X Love and the University of Akron Art Bomb Brigade.
“This project was different because I did not have a team; I’ve been doing it solo,” Caleb said. He estimates it took him about 80 hours in all, adding “every day was different” depending on the canal levels.
As more opportunities open up in Kenmore, look to see more from Caleb Aronhalt Art in the near future. We are grateful for his work toward our goal of bringing the beautiful neighborhoods of Kenmore and Summit Lake together.
But like most everything amid the coronavirus pandemic, it will take a bit of a different form. The Akron concert ( https://www.facebook.com/events/607648246773094/ ) from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. July 3 will take the format of a drive-in movie.
The neighborhood event sponsored by the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance and the
Kenmore Chamber of Commerce will host the concert in the Kenmore South Alley parking lots behind businesses like Lay’s Guitar Shop and Live Music Now.
Participants will be able to listen to the performances from the comfort of their own cars. Those slated to perform include Zach, Marc Lee Shannon, Jim Ballard, and The Rialto Theatre co-owner and A Band Named Ashes frontman Nate Vaill.
Some Kenmore Boulevard restaurants, including Lil’ Bit Café and Pierre’s Brooklyn Pizza, will offer delivery to the parking lot. There is room for 62 vehicles, with a suggested donation of $5 per car. Tina Boyes, the executive director of Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, said the First Friday events, which started in 2018, have been held virtually on Facebook since the start of the global pandemic. “People are hungry for some normalcy and miss things like concerts and festivals,” Boyes said. “We have adapted Kenmore First Fridays so people can come together, enjoy local music and support small businesses in a way that’s safe and comfortable for all.”
Music lovers are invited to listen from inside of the vehicle with either the windows down or from an FM radio signal or bring along chairs and sit outside.
Some Kenmore Boulevard businesses will be offering specials that night. The concert will also be livestreamed on the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance Facebook page.
Kenmore Boulevard’s Historic District is home to five recording studios, two guitar shops and The Rialto Theatre — which hosts local and national acts.
Even Coronavirus couldn’t squelch Kenmore Boulevard’s fighting spirit. The key to our survival? Creativity. Here are ways our businesses have adapted to serve customers safely throughout Ohio’s Stay at Home Order, and now the Stay Safe Ohio Order
The Dragon’s Mantle owner Carrie Acree used her daily store check-ins to offer virtual product tours on her Facebook page, plus and online ordering by phone, email and website.
“Our biggest concern is our customers’ safety,” she said, adding they continue to offer ‘purple door’ pickup.
Weeks-old Lil’ Bit Cafe ramped up curbside pickup and delivery options, offering payment over the phone and no-contact food drop-offs. The Kenmore Eastern Sports Bar is offering food and beer takeout specials 5-9 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday through May 20 and will reopen May 21 with safety and social distancing protocols enforced.
After a month long closure, Pierre’s Brooklyn Pizza & Deli reopened April 21 with abbreviated hours for takeout. They have since resumed regular hours Tuesday-Friday 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. and noon-8 p.m. Saturday.
With public gatherings on hold, KNA also got creative, holding our first-ever Kenmore Virtual First Friday event on Facebook. The event mimicked the content and options of a typical Boulevard street parties. The May 1 event featured live music from The Guitar Department and The Rialto Theatre, a variety of useful demonstrations from Lay’s Guitar Shop, Lil’ Bit Cafe and Kenmore Branch Library. You can still check out the May First Friday videos on the KNA Facebook page.
The June 5 Kenmore Virtual First Friday will feature music from Kenmore’s own Mr. Pink, Facy Legs’ Corey Jenkins, Ben Gage and Rialto co-owner Nate Vaill of A Band Named Ashes. There will also be virtual tour of Summit Lake and a bicycle repair demonstration to get you and your family ready for the Boulevard bike lanes and Towpath Trail.
A whole lot of effort went into getting the 25-seat Lil’ Bit Cafe off the ground in Akron’s Kenmore area.
“This is real, and when it’s real it gives you a lot of hope for the neighborhood,” said Tina Boyes, who is working to revitalize the Kenmore Boulevard Historic District, a roughly five-block commercial area where about a quarter of the storefronts are vacant.
Boyes, executive director of the nonprofit Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, talked about the effort at Wednesday’s grand opening ceremony for the eatery at 992 Kenmore Blvd.
The restaurant, which opened late last month and serves sandwiches and made-from-scratch soups and salads, is in a redeveloped former office building.
It is the first sit-down lunch and dinner restaurant to open in years in the area. It’s near the boulevard’s Rialto Theatre, and plans to stay open later during Rialto events.
The restaurant opened thanks to financial incentives and a vision shared by the café’s owner, Akron developer Todd Ederer, Boyes and others.
Wednesday’s ceremony — which included Ederer, café employees and various city officials — moved outside as Akron Mayor Don Horrigan cut red ribbon with oversize scissors.
Among those holding the ribbon was the head of Lil’ Bit’s kitchen and the creator of its menu, Micah Townsend, a resident of Kenmore. Townsend, a 20-plus-year veteran of commercial kitchens, previously worked at Mr. Zub’s Deli in Akron’s Highland Square, where he invented various customer favorites.
At Lil’ Bit, his menu includes Whole Hog (pulled pork, ham, bacon, cheddar cheese and house slaw on a Kaiser bun) and Mac Daddy (panko-crusted fried mac and cheese). There’s also more traditional fare, such as a Pub Burger (with a kaiser bun), egg salad on a croissant and turkey club.
The space has an industrial feel, with its buffed cement floor and unpainted, heavy-duty corrugated steel ceiling. Edison bulbs hang over the tables.
Big step
Sure, Lil Bit is an unassuming place, but Boyes, Ederer and others say it’s a big, eagerly awaited step forward in efforts to revitalize the boulevard.
The café is a training ground for mothers involved with a culinary training program run by JOBS (Jump on Board for Success), a nonprofit that operates out of space in Kenmore’s Park United Methodist Church.
CareSource Foundation of Dayton awarded a $150,000 grant to Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, part of which will go toward paying wages of JOBS workers at the café. The wage subsidy is available to other food-related businesses in the neighborhood that hire JOBS graduates, Boyes said.
Ederer, the owner of the Lil’ Bit business and building, said the idea for the café was hatched more than two years ago at a weekend-long Better Block event on the boulevard organized by the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance.
The Better Block happenings — part of a national program — bring temporary, pop-up businesses and activities to help underused business districts envision a better future.
At the Kenmore Better Block in May 2017, Ederer got to talking with Townsend, the kitchen veteran, about their boulevard dreams.
By that time, Ederer had bought a few storefronts on the boulevard, inspired by work that the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance was doing.
Ederer noted Wednesday in an interview that Akron Councilman Mike Freeman, who was at the grand opening and represents Kenmore in Ward 9, helped persuade him to invest in the area.
Ederer also recalled that as a child he went with his father, developer Alan Ederer, to the now-closed Kenmore Tailors on the boulevard.
“It made me appreciate local neighborhood business districts … over the years, I’ve really become a new urbanist,” Ederer said, referring to those who find inspiration from the way cities developed years ago.
Ederer then found out about Jennifer Herrick, a friend of Townsend, who runs the culinary training program for the JOBS initiative for young mothers.
Herrick said three graduates from the JOBS program are working at Lil’ Bit. Herrick, who ran a cupcake shop on Romig Road in Akron a few years back, runs the front of the house, while Townsend runs the back of the house.
Incentives
In addition to the CareSource grant, the project received a $100,000 loan from the nonprofit Western Reserve Community Fund, which finances ventures in economically distressed neighborhoods.
The project also received a $30,000 facade grant from the city. Ederer used some of the money to install large storefront windows, replacing a single small window. The brick facade has been painted a cream color. A Lil’ Bit Café sign will soon go up outside.
A Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance-commissioned study focusing on retail revitalization was key, Ederer said, in helping convince him to go forward with the restaurant plan.
The study found Kenmore “was leaking restaurant traffic,” with residents going to the Montrose area and other spots to eat out, Boyes said.
She said the study showed demand for up to five additional food-related businesses on the boulevard, roughly five blocks of which were named to the National Register of Historic Places last year. The café is in a 1968 structure, which means it is too young to be included in properties that could land historic tax credits to help developers finance redevelopment projects.
The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. A walk-up window is available. Phone is 234-718-2233.
