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I’ve noticed (and I very well could be wrong) that there seems to be more restaurants and food options than shopping options downtown. I’m not usually one for shopping, but I would love to see some more stores. Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing stores in the area and having restaurants is amazing! However, you need to have a good balance to draw people into downtown and get them to stay. A small antique store or a plant/flower shop would be nice to see.
Attracting small business to fill downtown with jobs. Larger corporations in the larger buildings to fill downtown with jobs. The city could become self sufficient off of the local economy.
Vibrant restaurants sports bars and hang out spots.
General question??? Ask your friends, relatives, or someone who doesn't live here --- What would make you want to come to Akron to see? What would draw you here just to visit?? Can't include friends or relatives. *Cleveland has the Rock Hall and major sports teams. *Nashville has Grand Ole Opry and Broadway St. (check it out}. *St. Louis has the Arch, Brewery tours and free zoo from a Worlds Fair period. We do a poor job of promoting ourselves. How about ideas to draw people here to stay.
Downtown needs to be extended to include Canal Place. We need to stop buildings from being torn down and replace all the surface parking with meaningful places that keep people here. Downtown Kent did a complete 180 because they made their downtown feel like a place worth going to. We need to do the same or Cuyahoga Falls, Kent, and Cleveland will continue to draw residents from our city theirs.
As a college student at the University of Akron me and my peers would love a Sheetz on East Exchange, it would really boost the areas economy and structure since it's basically a college staple. Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, Dunkin, DQ and Swenson's would all be great in this area too. Safety is a big concern as some say they aren't comfortable walking in the area. Grocery stores would be great, it would also be nice to see more fun things to do to keep people (especially kids) out of trouble!
Restore the canal waterway so that it supports life. It should be full of fish and birds and smell good. Children should be able to swim in it, as they did in the old days.
Stores with stuff I actually buy - food, paper products, hygiene items, medium priced clothes.
Put that big Akron sign at Waters Park with the skyline in the background.
We need a grocery store downtown, at least a convenience store. Also, we need to develop all the surface parking lots. In front of canal park there are 2 lots that aren’t even open for parking, just sitting there taking up space and not being used
There should be some sort of incentive to encourage retail in downtown. It sometimes feels like downtown is over crowded with bars and restaurants. While it is nice, it leaves little else to do while out. Promoting small businesses that provide products could do great to diversify the feel of downtown. Not to mention how great the pedestrian traffic that can be generated in downtown would be for the business. A program that would encourage these businesses to come to downtown would be amazing.
I’d really love to see downtown Akron become more pedestrian and bike friendly. Main St is nice and all, but the other parts of downtown are lacking. Parking lots break up the walkability. Bike lanes are lacking once off Main St. The connections to U.A could use some work. Infill development would really help. A more cohesive and decent bike lane network would encourage more people to use it. Building around slower forms of transit would encourage people to stay in downtown and shop.
More healthier food options & more places to hangout in the daytime promote more places for Happy Hour besides bars that sell alcohol
Better collaboration is needed to promote downtown between Downtown Akron Partnership, The Civic, and EJ Thomas Hall, for starters. Their show reminders emails, or new show announcement emails, should promote an experience - a callout box at the bottom of the email like... "Check out the Downtown Akron Partnership website to plan your evening including restaurants, bars and lounges, and even places to stay overnight."
As many entertainment choices as possible, especially on the weekends. Go carts, water activities, pop up shops, carnivals, things to bring more traffic to the museum and science center, a museum of the history of Akron is a big one especially for tourists, concerts, restaurants that are open later on the weekends. Celebrations of key Akron figures past & present consistently, bowling alley, skating rink. Just take a look at the big cities in other states and take something from each one
All of the downtown focus seems to be on Lock 3, Northside, Akron Art Museum, and Bounce. This approach to concentrate on just a few key venues rather than the connecting parts is increases the sense of disparity in the area. It would be nice to see all of the areas in between get more love. Like, it's cool to walk into the ballpark, but when you leave, what is there to look at? A dirt pile, drunks, homeless people, and a ghost town. Akron does not sound or feel like fun.
You want people to use parking decks and stay longer downtown. Then you need to provide reasons to stay downtown. Currently you have Bars and resturants downtown you need shops etc…. Also you allow delivery cars and valet parking to take up public parking spaces with out paying fir the parking
Lots of fabulous ideas shared! Love the canal boat idea to connect Summit Lake to downtown. Could be a tourist draw! My vision for Akron starts with easy more environmentally friendly public transportation, like an electric trolley system that goes from East to West on Market Street from Fairlawn to Ellet and down Main Street to the four areas of Akron (Northside, Univ of A, etc) with crossing transfers. This would make it easy for people to live downtown, shop and visit.
Indoor minigolf+bar
Grocery store and dog park please!!
Weekly themed festivals and events in the summer with free admission and free local music. Small town walkable events to hang out and grab local bites. Like food truck festivals and such.
Great ideas in these posts. My vision would be for Akron to put in a Duck Pin Bowling Alley in downtown. Google it. It's bowling with balls that don't have holes in them so it's easy for kids to play. The pins are shorter and squat and you get roles per frame instead of 2. Duck Pin is an east coast thing, including Baltimore. Akron has a history of hosting the World Championship of Bowling every year at Fairlawn Lanes. Akron would become the only city in Ohio with a Duck Pin Alley.
Can we get a first A First Friday Akron were people can come and socialize and visit the different restaurants and bars and experience all that Akron has to offer in the summertime?
I would like to see some stores and restaurants put back in downtown Akron maybe even add a movie theatre.
Downtown Kent is situated right next to KSU and Kent has a vibrant downtown. Akron U. is right next to downtown Akron, and even with more resources, it's not as vibrant as downtown Kent. Visit Kent and copy it.
We could EASILY make tourists FORGET about taking their selfies next to those silly "Cleveland" signs all over the North Coast.. In Akron, we should have at least one MAJOR sign, that can be seen from a great distance, like the HOLLYWOOD sign..and instead of just saying "AKRON", or "AKRONLAND"(which is too similar to Cleveland), our enormous sign should be the following: "Just...AKRON" allowing the dots and spaces between the words as a place for the tourists to stand in their pics.BOOM!!
The strength of Downtown Akron are yhe variety of local businesses a person can patronize.
There's no convenience store.
Too many empty store fronts. Please pull in a grocery market, I would use it several times a week.
It is clean, there are flowers and I feel safe walking down Main Street both day and night.
Just Love the trees that grow in Akron..!
From some of my travels around town.
Allow peddal bars downtown throughout the DORA.
Make the old energy plant at the gorge a dog park.
Good morning, I attended the Summit County Health Fair on February 28, in downtown Akron. After signing in, I was immediately greeted by a one Caleb Thurman III. He was such a pleasure to meet! He was so excited and knowledgeable about the Downtown Akron Partnership. Having an employee like Caleb representing your organization, not only exhibits the agency's willingness to address diversity and inclusion in the city, but will also lead to many years of satisfied residents. Thanks Caleb!
I have to drive Route 8 from northern suburb to come to downtown Akron. The other day I drove to Summa Hospital to visit my brother in law and was appalled at the garbage and litter along the highway. If I were driving through from another city or state I would definitely think that Akron was NOT worth visiting. We need to clean up our streets in Summit County and find a way to discourage such blatant disrespect. Can we not post DO NOT LITTER signs or Keep Akron Beautiful signs?
Affordable rent for emerging professionals. Median househould income is around 42,000 in Akron. A two bedroom at the Bowery is $1800 and two bedroom at Northside Lofts is about $2700 a month. Landlords expect you to make a min a 3x the rent meaning you would need around 5000-8000 a month to afford to live in this area, which hardly fits the average income of $3500 a month that most non-affluent Akronites must live with.
Free parking after 6PM
The picture of the plan seems to have a billion dollars of development of 20 large projects (and six condos on the north side built by a single developer. I would rather see at least three areas where there are a dozen or 50 different developers or at least owners and multiple designs.
A priority for the future should be to update the Cascade Parking Deck. It has numerous buildings it serves for workers, residents, and visitors. it connects directly to Lock 4 which is the gateway to lock 3 plaza and the ballpark. It needs new paint, lighting, wifi ability, and most importantly wayfinding. It is an extremely underutilized asset beneath Main Street.