Examples of signs in Cincinnati implemented through the CoSign program
Today, the Knight Foundation announced Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance’s “Big Boulevard Sign Build” as one of 36 finalists in the 2019 Knight Arts Challenge. The project would transform Kenmore’s historic business district by leveraging the power of visual art to produce business signage through an artistic sign design competition, education and fabrication process.
Should KNA receive the funding, the group would partner with the CoSign program of the American Sign Museum to engage local business owners, KNA Design Committee members, city zoning officials and sign experts to work alongside and educate local artists to bring their winning submissions to life. A CoSign project in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood grew the vibrancy of its retail district while increasing retail sales by 25 percent in its first year.
“Artists are experts in iconography: using design to encapsulate and sell an idea,” said Tina Boyes Executive Director of Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance. “By pairing them up with our local businesses and other experts, we believe we can make an immediately noticeable and lasting impact on our community.”
The Knight Arts Challenge aims to help individual artists and arts organizations—across Akron, Miami and Detroit—bring to life authentic works and experiences that capture the spirit of each city. This is the fourth year for the community-wide initiative that funds projects designed to engage and enrich Akron through the arts. Final recipients will be announced at an event at the Akron Art Museum Sept. 25. The 36 finalists include Friends of Chestnut Ridge Park for their “Many Voices, One Akron” project. See the full list of Knight Arts Challenge finalists here.
Where can you see a 12-piece jazz orchestra, taste-test hot sauces, shop for jewelry, t-shirts and bath bombs, and learn a four-chord song in just a few hours? Nowhere other than Kenmore First Fridays.
Every first Friday of the month from 6 to 9 p.m., May to September, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance welcomes hundreds of residents young and old to back to the Boulevard for a night of family fun and entertainment. The celebrations include food trucks, children’s activities like bounce houses, and craft beer at the Live Music Now Beer Garden, where you can also catch some of the region’s best talent in local rock, hip-hop, jazz and blues.
The Sept. 6 Kenmore First Friday theme is Back to School Superheroes. Kids, adults and even pets are encouraged to dress up as their favorite superhero. Kenmore Komics & Games will be the landing spot for surprise visitors from far-off galaxies. Plus, kids can create bike decorations at stops along the Boulevard, then show them off during a 7:45 bike parade. Prizes will be awarded to best-decorated bike and runner-up.
As always, every 15 minutes starting at 6 p.m. musicians perform outside businesses throughout the Boulevard District. On Sept. 6, the band Kissmass will play hits off the Kiss’s “Alive” album, and rappers Floco Torres and LDG will keep the crowds moving. Plus, don’t miss Martha’s Mistake as they cover all eras and genres, and Michael Stanley guitarist Marc Lee Shannon, who will inspire fans at the New Beginnings stage.
More than a dozen vendors will sell everything from Kenmore t-shirts to jewelry made with guitar strings used by local musicians. Dawn Meehan, a Castle Homes resident and owner of MeehanMakings, sells Kenmore-pride and nostalgia items, including Nesmith Lake mugs and Arena Roller Rink koozies. She sees the First Fridays as more than a way to make money, but a means of bringing pride back to the community.
“First Friday events are such a positive time for Kenmore. It is a great time to showcase local talent, artists and makers,” Meehan said. “I also believe it is a great way to get people back out on the Boulevard to see what is happening and to check out the local businesses. There are great things to down there.”
The events are also a launching point for new businesses, including Kickstand Coffee Company and Lil Bit Café. During First Fridays, Kickstand owners Patrick and Maggie Jackson, both Kenmore residents, sell coffee and iced drinks in front of their soon-to-be location at 975 Kenmore Blvd., a building KNA bought in April with hopes of attracting a coffee shop to the Boulevard. Each month, JOBS (Jump on Board for Success), a nonprofit that provides culinary training to single mothers in the area, offers a taste of what will be featured in their space at 992 Kenmore Blvd. when the café opens this fall.
“The First Fridays get us out of the kitchen to promote the program,” said Jennifer Herrick, the JOBS culinary program coordinator. “Folks get to see the girls and talk to them about what they have learned. It has also gets us in front of potential new students and mentors.”
Kenmore First Fridays are presented by Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance and Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty and are sponsored by Kenmore Chamber of Commerce, Akron Promise, A-Z Insurance-Dustin Burgess Insurance Group, Freedom Tax Akron, Kenmore Komics & Games, Pegasus Lounge, Schlup-Pucak Funeral Home, Smith’s House of Carpet, Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro, Summit County Public Health and the City of Akron. For more information about this and other events, visit the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance Facebook page at www.facebook.com/knacares.
Kenmore resident Caleb Aronhalt and the University of Akron Art Bomb Brigade worked together to beautify an emerging enclave of activity at Kenmore Blvd. and 15th St. Aronhalt’s mural, entitled “Kenmore, Oh,” now fills the wall of Project Three Gallery and faces the future outdoor seating area of Lil Bit Café.
Funded in part by the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, the work is the culmination of 2017’s Kenmore Imagineer mural competition, conducted by Mac Love as part of his @Play project. Mac distributed a coloring book, which included black and white photos of Kenmore buildings and public spaces, at places like schools, libraries and Boulevard businesses. They drew more than 120 entries from residents of all ages. A group of residents and local leaders named Aronhalt’s concept winner because of its positive depiction of the Kenmore name.
“With the merger of our school, and with so many in our neighborhood fearing – even feeling – a loss of identity, Caleb’s mural helps to ensure our identity is here to stay,” said Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance President Jeffrey Vujevich.
The Art Bomb Brigade is an art and education program that arms University of Akron students and alumni with paint brushes and spray cans to “muralize” highly trafficked sites in our region. Brigade participants include Kenmore residents Arlie and Paula Hollman. To learn more, visit www.akronartbomb.com.
Calling all Kenmore homeowners! Are you in need of large and small home repairs? Rebuilding Together Northeast Ohio is looking for two homeowners in the Kenmore area to receive repairs such as: roof replacements, electrical/plumbing repairs, landscaping, accessibility modifications, painting, etc. Kenmore residents who own their homes, meet an income requirement, and are current on their property taxes/on a payment plan for delinquent taxes are eligible to apply.
Work will be completed with the help of volunteers and contractors as a part of Rebuilding Together’s Rebuilding Day event in September. Applications will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis – so get your application in as soon as possible! Download the app here.
ByDoug LivingstonBeacon Journal/Ohio.com Posted Mar 26, 2019 at 5:17 PM
Updated Mar 27, 2019 at 8:24 AM
Akron reserves its biggest tax breaks for the biggest projects, like when developers promised to save six downtown buildings or provide $30 million in payroll on Romig Road or when a $200 million investment in East End saved 700 Barberton jobs from leaving Ohio last year.
That’s why Tina Boyes looked so humble when the city council asked Monday how many jobs her project would create.
From a seat in the front row, she raised two fingers no higher than her chin. And with that, a plan to build a little coffee shop on Kenmore Boulevard and a new headquarters for her organization*, got its big tax break, which is equal to 15 percent of the cost of the $200,000 project.
Boyes founded the alliance to lead community change in a neighborhood with buildings so old and rundown that no one would invest in them. She scored another victory Friday when the Ohio State Preservation Advisory Board approved her nomination to put Kenmore Boulevard on the National Register of Historic Places, a designation that carries more than sentimental value with historic tax credits that can make otherwise unfeasible projects possible.
The city named Kenmore Boulevard as one of 10 Great Streets last year, promising facade grants and help with marketing local businesses. There was never any mention of tax breaks, which will give Boyes the last $30,000 she needed for her $200,000 project, the smallest to ever get tax incremental financing from the city.
“This is definitely a tool that we could employ in all of the Great Streets areas,” Planning Director Jason Segedy said in response to At-Large Councilwoman Linda Omobien, who expects to see other neighborhoods get the same the deal that up until Monday had often flowed to major or out-of-town developers.
“I just want to say thank you to the mayor’s economic development staff,” Boyes said Monday as the city council passed the incentive that effectively rebates future property taxes. “We were not expecting this. And the fact that something that is used on large scales for places like what’s going on up on Romig Road [at the old Rolling Acres Mall site] can be applied to a neighborhood business will be catalytic to the boulevard.”
Kickstand Coffee will open this fall at 975 Kenmore Blvd. in a 96-year-old retail building where large wooden radios were sold during the Great Depression and, mostly recently, women went to get their hair done.
KNA was intentional about having a Kenmore resident, Patrick Jackson, lease the space. Jackson’s plan is to partner with an offshoot of First Glance, a youth center in Kenmore, called JOBS (Jump on Board for Success), a separate nonprofit organization that provides culinary training to the moms. KNA will take the rest of the building for its headquarters. *
After surveying residents and hosting multiple public engagement events, Boyes said the neighborhood resoundingly demanded more restaurants and coffee shops for its main drag.
“By purchasing and improving the property, we as the CDC can ensure what ends up there is something the community wants. We can also use it as an opportunity to model the kind of improvement we want to see throughout the district,” Boyes said. “We look at this as a catalyst.”
City council voted Monday on a zero-sum transaction, buying the property then immediately selling it to KNA. State law requires the city to be a one-time owner whenever offering tax incremental financing.
In the end, KNA plans to pay $60,000 for the property and $140,000 on upgrades and renovations. “That’s the sad state of how expensive it is to bring some of these buildings up to the standard that we want,” Deputy Planning Director Adele Dorfner Roth said of repairs that cost more than double the purchase price.
“People are excited about seeing their local downtowns be a place that they can walk to and enjoy,” Roth said. “We’re never going to be building $20 million buildings in those neighborhoods, other than schools and libraries. So these are the kind of projects that need to happen.”
A postcard from 1916 shows Kenmore Blvd. looking east toward 15th St.
The Kenmore Boulevard commercial area is one step away to being designated a National Historic District.
On March 22, the Ohio State Historic Preservation Advisory Board approved Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance’s nomination of the Kenmore Boulevard Historic District to the National Register of Historic Places.
If approved by the National Park Service, contributing structures will eligible for federal historic tax credits. The parks service’s decision is expected this spring.
“This designation would be huge for Kenmore,” said Akron City Councilman Mike Freeman. “Not only will it set Kenmore Boulevard apart as a destination and a place to be proud of, it will encourage the kind of investment residents want.”
KNA began pursuing the historic designation in 2018, the same year the city of Akron named it one of 10 Great Streets Districts eligible for competitive façade grants and infrastructure investments from the city. KNA Executive Director Tina Boyes believes this combination of city investments and tax credits will magnify investment in the area.
“While compliance with historic renovation standards won’t be mandated by the national designation, it certainly offers financial incentive for developers to go the historic route: from a city, state and now federal perspective,” Boyes said. “We hope this will maintain and even improve the historic nature of Kenmore Boulevard.”
The Kenmore Boulevard Historic District’s contributing structures are located mostly between 12th St. and Florida Ave. According to historic architect Lauren Burge, principal at Perspectus Historic Architecture, the Chambers, Murphy, & Burge Studio, the properties reflect the architecture of the early 20th century, with entrances built to the sidewalk to accommodate pedestrians and street car users.
“The district retains its sense of scale and feeling,” she explained. “Most of the contributing buildings to the Kenmore Boulevard Historic District were constructed within a 20-year period between 1908 and 1928 and retain their materials and workmanship, imparting the overall feeling of an early 20th century ‘streetcar suburb’ commercial district.”
Kenmore Blvd. looking east toward 15th St. (Photo: Perspectus Architecture)
In 1901, the Northern Ohio Traction and Light Company developed street car lines to connect new suburban developments to factories. The Kenmore Boulevard line was sited down the center of Kenmore Boulevard, creating a connection between rubber factories in Akron and neighboring industry in Barberton. That same year, the Akron Realty Company began developing Kenmore to be what they termed “the choicest residence section for both the busy cities, as well as for all the factories between them.”
Kenmore’s street car line stopped operating in 1947, but its impact can be seen in the tree-lined center median in its former location and in the growth of the neighborhood, which went from 1,561 residents in 1910 to 12,683 in 1920 to – today – more than 18,000 residents, making Kenmore the second largest of Akron’s 24 neighborhoods.
“Many Kenmore residents go back three, four even five generations,” said Kenmore Historical Society President Matt Zeiner. “They remember when Kenmore Boulevard was a vibrant commercial district, and it can be again. Now, we’re one step closer.”
The Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance has received a $150,000 grant aimed at helping residents secure well-paying jobs while expanding the culinary presence on Kenmore Boulevard.
The CareSource Foundation’s two-year, $75,000-per-year grant will pay for the nonprofit Jump On Board for Success (JOBS) to train, license and prepare struggling Kenmore mothers for culinary careers.
CareSource awards grants to nonprofits working to eliminate poverty and address the health needs of families. JOBS works to combat generational poverty among mothers in the Kenmore area.
The culinary program, launched this week, will take 20 to 30 single mothers through several six-week courses, while providing them with transportation and childcare. The program is designed to:
offer students experience at restaurants close to home
equip them with chef tools for use at home and at restaurants pay for Level 1 and Level 2 culinary licensing
provide 50 percent of wages paid to licensed graduates if employed at restaurants within KNA’s area of focus
Students also will receive counseling on banking, budgeting and saving through the Financial Empowerment Center in Kenmore. The center was launched last year by the city and the United Way of Summit County to offer free financial services to all Akron residents.
KNA has been focused on strengthening and launching businesses on the boulevard since its inception in 2016. Early on, the group conducted a survey in which residents listed a coffee shop and restaurants as the top two things they wanted on the boulevard.
The group also commissioned KM Date Community Planning to conduct a retail study that revealed more than $25 million in restaurant revenue is leaving Kenmore every year to nearby malls and business strips.
“That’s money that could and should be supporting our neighborhood with jobs and food for our residents and vibrancy for business district,” Tina Boyes, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance’s executive director, said in a news release. “This grant will help us meet an immediate need of an at-risk group of residents while adding another tool to attract healthy food to our neighborhood. I call that a win-win.”
KNA is working to prepare the neighborhood to take advantage of activity expected to come via a new employer at the nearby site of the former Rolling Acres Mall. The city is working with a yet-to-be-named developer and expects the development will bring 500 jobs paying an annual average of $60,000.
“Eighty-six percent of folks who shop on Kenmore Boulevard are not from Kenmore, and from zip code data we know their average annual income is more than $66,000,” Boyes said in the release. “They’re demanding food and coffee like our residents are, who we know will patronize them, so we believe restaurants can do very well here.”
Live Music Now is bringing another season of top-notch regional live music to Kenmore Boulevard thanks to The Big Love Network, a group of organizers, artists and healing practitioners who advocate for social equity through activism and the arts based on Carey Ave.
Led by local musician Zach Freidhof, The Big Love Network has already hosted musicians like LA-based Rachel Roberts, Angie Haze and rapper A-MINUS at the venue.
“Live Music Now provides a great opportunity to engage both residents and folks from around the city who may not be overly familiar with Kenmore,” he explained. “Partners in our network are bringing diverse music into this space, allowing a safe and inclusive space for people to get to know others.”
Live Music Now started as a collaborative enterprise between Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, the Big Love Network, Open Tone Music, and Kenmore-based Jim Ballard Skylyne Studio and Studio 1008. Patrons were asked to donate $5-10 – or whatever they could afford – at the door, which went directly to the artists. All money made at the bar supported Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance.
Big Love Network is continuing this model, seeking to provide an example of a new economy of cooperative and collective ventures.
“If this model can be successful in Kenmore, it can possibly be an opportunity in other neighborhoods as well,” Zach said.
Live Music Now is sponsored by Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance. All other funds to keep the events running come through donations at the door, which pay the artists, and the purchase of beverages at the bar.
“It’s refreshing to have a space where the artists and the community can co-create and come together,” Zach said. “Big Love is excited to be part of the Kenmore neighborhood.”
Doors open at 7 p.m. for all Live Music Now! shows. Suggested donation is $5-10. For more information and a full list of upcoming shows, visit www.facebook.com/KenmoreLiveMusicNow.
Dan Rowland Photography at 989 Kenmore Blvd. is the newest addition to the Boulevard District’s growing enclave of creatives.Dan is a freelance commercial photographer specializing in architectural, interior, family and artist portraits, product, nature and out-of-the-box thinking.
Dan has 35 years of photography experience. He studied commercial photography at the University of Akron and began his career under photographer Jim Maguire as an assistant and studio manager.
“I opened my own studio and pursued more of a fine art style photography using an old 4×5 field camera, the type where you pull the cloth over your head,” he said.
Dan went on to learn the ins and outs of the The Zone system, a technique for determining optimal film exposure and development formulated by world-famous black and white landscape photographer Ansel Adams, from one of Adams’s students, Howard Bond.
Dan also has his teaching degree and hopes to someday use his studio as a photography classroom. Until then, he holds meeting for the Rubber City Camera Club, which takes place every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. at the studio. Everyone is welcome, from seasoned photographers to those new to the field.
“Every meeting will be devoted to a photo critique. There are no rules regarding subject matter,” he said.
