Downtown Akron looks and feels much better than the hollowing years of the early 1980s. It has advanced since the improvements a decade later. Yet the core of the city needs a new chapter, lost momentum apparent in a higher vacancy rate, blocks resisting new development, even the appearance of more homeless.
Now, the initiative has arrived. On Tuesday, Mayor Dan Horrigan unveiled phase one of the city’s Downtown Akron Vision and Redevelopment Plan. It is the work of three dozen stakeholders, with the Downtown Akron Partnership, led by Suzie Graham, at the front.
The matter of leadership deserves mention. In running for mayor, Horrigan talked about pursuing a more collaborative brand, attempting to tap the range of talent in the city. That approach has been evident in putting together the downtown plan. It is part of moving ahead, the plan calling for public engagement and a group to vet ideas, to guide and push.
Why downtown? The mayor rightly argues that a strong core is indispensable to the city’s overall health, not to mention the entire region. At work, too, is demand, more people saying they want to be part of the city center.
A stronger downtown becomes a way to retain and attract young talent — serving as a key part of adding to the population, something Akron needs and the mayor has set as a goal. Other cities, including Pittsburgh and Cleveland, already have made advances.
Consider that from 2000 to 2012, the growth of young professionals in “close-in neighborhoods” of Cleveland was 82 percent. In Pittsburgh? Forty-eight percent.
Akron? Zero.
The downtown plan, thus, places priority on expanding the number of residents there. The thinking, drawing from the experience of other cities, is that residential vitality will spur related activity. A housing study will be conducted to help craft a case for coordinated incentives to attract developers.
Other elements, or principles, stress the value of enhanced public spaces. That includes improved street design, more welcoming to bicycling and walking, two-way traffic on streets instead of one-way, which works too often to hustle people out of town.
The Don Plusquellic era saw the arrival or makeover of anchor institutions downtown, among them, Canal Park, Lock 3, the library, the art museum and the Knight Center. Now attention shifts to encouraging new life in the places in between, worrying less about the next big move, say, an arena or a remade Mayflower Hotel, and more about the smaller things that can add up dramatically.
The idea is to think of downtown as a neighborhood, where people live and even more gather. The plan won’t be achieved overnight. Neither does it exclude attention to other neighborhoods. Mayor Horrigan sees a process, the plan with ample direction and flexibility. Now comes the execution, knowing that for Akron to succeed, it must elevate its downtown.