Strong Towns President Charles Marohn presents at the 2016 Canadian Institute of Planners Conference. Marohn will speak in Akron at 5:45 p.m., April 17 at the Akron Civic Theatre. (Rob McMorris)
AKRON, Ohio – A new initiative launching this month is expected to help Akron boost its economic vitality while laying the groundwork for similar cities across the nation.
Strong Towns, a Minnesota-based nonprofit, is working to help smaller cities like Akron bring economic stability back through incremental investments in key neighborhoods.
The year-long project in Akron, funded in part through a $120,000 Knight Foundation grant, will be groundbreaking for Strong Towns.
While the group will continue to work with other cities, it plans to invest a majority of time and energy in partnerships with the Knight Foundation and Akron’s community development groups in North Akron, Middlebury and Kenmore, said Rachel Quenau, Strong Towns Communications Director.
“We see so much possibility, if people redirected their efforts to small-scale incremental investments that focus on the city’s core neighborhoods,” Quenau said.
Strong Towns will conduct a tax analysis of key areas of the city to identify where Akron would gain the most through investment. It also will share examples of similar cities that had success through initiatives that could be tailored for Akron.
The outcome of the work could be a model for other similar cities.
Lay’s Guitar Shop Co-Owner Joel Shinn shows his custom guitars to national touring musician Ray Goren. Photo by Amanda Rabinowitz
Editor’s note: This story originally incorrectly stated that Marc Lee Shannon is the former guitarist for Michael Stanley. Shannon is still with the band
A few city blocks in east Akron are coming back to life with the help of musicians. For this week’s Shuffle, WKSU’s Amanda Rabinowitz walked Kenmore Boulevard to hear how the community is rebuilding a music district.
When you make the turn off the I-76 exit ramp and onto Akron’s Kenmore Boulevard, it’s hard to tell at first glance that this is the site of a renaissance. The busy street is riddled with potholes. The brick buildings are old, and many are vacant. But if you look closer — or rather listen closer — there’s life.
A music district
Kenmore Boulevard now has two live music venues, recording studios and guitar shops along the three-block downtown district. It’s largely the work of the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance that’s been trying to overcome the area’s reputation as abandoned and unsafe. The Alliance’s director, Tina Boyes, says working with musicians captures the neighborhood’s working-class history.
“You see them on the stage and you look up to them, but man, these are salt of the earth people — these are people who have hustled their entire lives. I feel like that’s what we’re doing as the neighborhood organization. We’re hustling.”
The new and the old Boyes says Kenmore’s music revitalization is a combination of the new and the old. Our first visit is to Lays Guitar Shop, which has been in business for more than 50 years. Joel Shin and his brother are known worldwide for their work restoring and building guitars.
“We’re trying to bring this community back to where people want to walk along the streets and feel safe again,” Shinn says.
The colorful Rialto Theater in Kenmore’s music district. Photo by Amanda Rabinowitz
The Rialto Theater The hub of Kenmore’s music district, is the Rialto Theater, which used to be a movie theater.
Musician brothers Seth and Nate Vaill took over this 100-year-old building in 2010 at first to open a couple recording studios. Now, it’s also a music venue that books local and national musicians three nights a week.
“Every time we’d get a little money we would finish something else. We did a lot of traveling and a lot of the music venues you would play in say, New York City, would be warm, intimate places. And we thought once we painted the walls, we could start fulfilling that here. It morphed into that, pretty much.”
‘I call it sprinkling fairy dust.’
Seth and Nate built an apartment on the building’s second floor and lived there while they worked on getting the venue ready. They’ve since moved out, but stayed in Kenmore.
“People who have lived here longer than Nate and I — I mean we’ve only lived here for seven years — that have lived here their whole lives. They have a lot of pride here. And they are open arms wanting to see this place be successful.”
Live Music Now is a pop-venue that will book shows through May, with the idea that someone will take it over permanently. Photo by Amanda Rabinowitz
Pop-up Venue Live Music Now The Rialto has been so successful, that it’s needed help meeting demand booking events. Enter Live Music Now, a pop-up venue that opened earlier this year down the street.
“Seth and Nate down at the Rialto were feeling like an island,” Boyes says. “We felt the burden to help them out, but also to show that there’s more than just one trick in this neighborhood.”
‘We’re the sons and daughters of steel and rubber workers. And our work ethic was always deeply embedded in us. … This neighborhood just represents to me the essence of that lost America.’
Tina Boyes and the Neighborhood Alliance have leased this former bar that was in shambles just six months ago. They got volunteers to paint the walls, add custom lighting and rebuild the small stage. They have local musicians and others booking shows. The Alliance has the lease through May, with the hopes that someone will take it over.
“I call it sprinkling fairy dust,” Boyes says. “Showcase something and get people thinking. Because honestly you can say things all day long, but until people experience, it, they need to know what it feels like. And this feels good.”
Former Michael Stanley guitarist Marc Lee Shannon recently performed at Kenmore’s Live Music Now. Photo by Amanda Rabinowitz.
A grassroots revival On this night, Marc Lee Shannon is performing. The guitarist for Cleveland rocker Michael Stanley, Shannon lives in Akron and is launching a solo career. He says he wants to support Kenmore’s revival.
“We’re the sons and daughters, grandchildren of steel and rubber workers. And our work ethic was always deeply embedded in us when we grew up. This neighborhood just represents to me the essence of that lost America. And I think that I can do anything to be a part of a revitalization of that heritage, I don’t think there’s anything more that America needs right now.”
And that’s the overall model of Kenmore’s music district: Community. Back out on the Boulevard, it’s still pretty quiet with the exception of the busy traffic. Boyes says she wants to keep working to have more people feeling comfortable walking the streets, by adding coffee shops and more businesses. And she thinks they’ll get there, one beat at a time.
AKRON, Ohio – The city of Akron is working with Copenhagenize Design Co. to plan a connected bicycle grid that will make it easier for residents to bicycle around the city.
The grid, which will be funded in part by a $127,000 John S. and James L. Knight Foundation grant, is the next step in the city’s plan to build out its bicycling infrastructure. Currently, the city has 25 miles of bike lanes and 16 additional miles are in the planning or construction phases.
“To truly become a more bicycle-friendly community, Akron needs a core network of connected bike lanes that will link our neighborhoods to key destinations and business districts across the city,” Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan said in a news release. “Most importantly, to be effective, these bike lanes need to be safe and welcoming for all users, and designed with input from the residents and stakeholders they serve.”
According to Horrigan, the Copenhagenize program will establish a road map and design principles that determine how, where and when to install bike lanes over the next few decades. The city has already tested bike lanes at Better Block events, and is planning additional bicycle engagement event this year.
“We are excited to talk to residents across Akron about cycling in their city and build a strategy that helps create long-standing improvements to bike safety, connectivity and citizen mobility” said Michael Wexler, partner and urban designer from Copenhagenize Design Co., in a news release.
The grant will be managed by the City of Akron Office of Integrated Development, along with the Ohio and Erie Canalway Coalition.
Kenmore residents of all ages perused the walls of the Rialto Theatre. Suspense filled the room as budding artists and novices alike awaited the results: Would their creation be a cash-prize winner? Or, better yet, would it get chosen for a mural to be created on one of 15 locations along Kenmore Boulevard?
On Thursday, February 8, Kenmore Imagineer participants gathered in the historic theater to hear the results of the community-wide coloring book contest led by Mac Love, founder of the project and Chief Catalyst of Art x Love. Over 120 entries were submitted and over 3,000 of this free 16-page coloring book circulated across the community. The goal: To generate new ideas for bringing life back to Kenmore Boulevard’s public spaces.
“We came up with the Kenmore Imagineer as a way to engage every generation and create platform to discuss a shared vision for Kenmore’s future,” Love explained.
It was all part of Art X Love’s @Play project, which received a $241,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation last year to solve community problems using art and play. Kenmore joins the Middlebury neighborhood of East Akron as the first @Play locations in Akron.
The winner for best entry for each of the 15 locations won a $100 prize and their art will be on display at the Rialto Theatre for all to see.
To sweeten the pot, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance partnered with Art X Love to fund the actual creation of one the murals. Caleb Aronhalt, a local artist and Kenmore resident, will soon see his “Kenmore, Oh” entry become a reality on one building on Kenmore Boulevard, joining Studio 1008 and Kenmore Komics and Games as mural buildings.
The entry included a halo hovering over a large block-lettered “Kenmore,” with “Ohio” written in script as an homage to when Kenmore was once its own city.
“We loved Caleb’s mural because it reclaims the Kenmore name in a very positive way,” said Tina Boyes, executive director of Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance. “With the merger of the school, and with so many in our neighborhood fearing – even feeling – a loss of identity, Caleb’s mural helps to ensure that identity is here to stay.”
In addition to the Kenmore Imagineer project, Love’s Art X Love developed a Kenmore-proud interactive mural for September’s Kenmore Better Block event. There, residents and visitors alike contributed their designs and colors to an eight-foot-tall mural to be displayed at a yet-to-be-determined location on Kenmore Boulevard.
“I’ll tell you right now, Kenmore’s revival won’t be a cookie-cutter model of something you’ve seen elsewhere. It is going to be real, unique, genuine and fun,” he explained. “I don’t think Kenmore’s residents would have it any other way.”
Here is a full list of Kenmore Imagineer winners. See their artwork at the Rialto Theatre.
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.
