AKRON, Ohio — Akron’s Great Streets initiative has worked to revitalize neighborhoods from their business districts outward since 2018, starting with 10 key districts around the city.

With the addition of South Arlington Street, announced Wednesday, Akron now counts 13 Great Streets districts, a number likely to continue growing, said Great Streets Administrator Mark Greer.

What You Need To Know

  • Starting with 10 business districts in 2018, Great Streets Akron initiative now encompasses 13 districts

  • The newest districts are South Arlington Street, Sherbondy Hill and Merriman Valley

  • Great Streets Akron initially offered street resurfacing, lighting enhancements and facade improvement grants for small businesses

  • The program partners with organizations on a variety of projects, working to beautify districts and strengthen businesses, while enhancing safety

Adding South Arlington this year, Sherbondy Hill in 2020, and Merriman Valley in 2019, Great Streets now includes:

  • West Hill
  • North Hill
  • Copley Road East
  • Maple Valley
  • Middlebury
  • Ellet
  • Firestone Park
  • Wallhaven
  • Kenmore
  • Goodyear Heights

Modelled after a similar program in other states, Great Streets Akron initially offered street resurfacing, lighting enhancements and facade grants for small businesses. The city said the façade grants are designed for painting, roofing, lighting, landscaping, windows and doors, and signs to help make businesses more inviting.

The objective is to make the overall business districts more engaging, to encourage residents to live, shop and play closer to home, a concept urban planners and designers call “placemaking.”

Since then, Great Streets has not only extended its reach into new districts, it has enlarged six existing ones, Greer said. Different types of grants have also been added. Great Streets works to enhance city parks, clean up vacant lots, and install decorative murals and street pole banners, among other improvements, Greer said.

Great Streets volunteers fill planters in the Merriman Valley district. (Courtesy of Great Streets)

Since its beginning, Great Streets has awarded more than $2.6 million in façade improvement grants to 129 businesses, Greer said. It has awarded $324,000 in storefront relief grants for 90 recipients and awarded seven $2,000 grants for community-based projects.

In addition to street resurfacing in all districts, and new LED lighting in most districts, SPIN electric scooters have been installed in 10 neighborhoods, racking up nearly 130,000 rides taken by about 24,000 riders, he said.

Great Streets works well beyond the boundaries of the business districts, Greer said. Improvements fall within a 10-minute walk of the business areas, and are guided by five core goals:

  • Increase business development by enhancing daily operations through such things as entryway improvements and cleaner parking lots
  • Engage with the community by directly communicating and working with community development corporations; improve transportation conditions by making traffic patterns and pedestrian and bicyclist corridors safer using road diets, new striping, crosswalks and more
  • Improve the aesthetics and design of districts from tree canopies, resurfacing and sidewalk enhancement to public art, signage and planters
  • Promote safer neighborhoods using crime prevention strategies to new LED lighting

For various projects, neighborhoods work in partnership with other groups, Greer said. And once community improvements begin, they often take on a life of their own.

Last year, the Maple Valley Merchants Association and neighborhood block groups wanted to launch a cleanup project, so Greer suggested starting with a couple streets over the course of two Saturdays.

Residents of North Hill, Akron’s international neighborhood, view plans for a North Main Street improvement project planned for 2022. (Courtesy of Great Streets)

“It went from two Saturdays and it just kept going and the cleanups are still going on now,” he said. “Over the course of that time, we've removed over 3,000 pounds of trash, cleaned up vacant lots, we took out city crews and cut back trees and overgrowth, and we planted new hedges. It’s been a big impact on Copley Road, that entire corridor, all the way from, Interstate 77 down to East Avenue.”

In another partnership, a popular pedestrian walkway near the University of Akron was brightened for pedestrians. Great Streets partnered with the city, the university and Ohio Edison to install 252 LED streetlights along South Exchange Street.

Beautification has been ongoing, with planters installed in many neighborhoods, including Maple Valley, Kenmore, downtown, North Hill and Middlebury.

Colorful murals have also been installed with the newest mural on the corner of Copley Road and Hawkins Street, he said.

That artwork was painted by the Art Bomb Brigade, an arts and education program run by the university’s Myers School of Art.

In the Kenmore neighborhood, banners went up on street poles along Kenmore Boulevard, which was awarded historic designation on the National Register of Historic Places. Music-themed murals were painted on buildings there, honoring Kenmore’s plethora of music-related businesses and complementing the nine businesses that were awarded facade improvement grants.

Great Streets also was active on Goodyear Boulevard in Goodyear Heights, with street benches, painted, trees planted and hanging baskets and planters installed, the city said.

This year, Great Streets added the “Movies on the Great Streets” series, in partnership with the city-operated Lock 3 park, Greer said, bringing free outdoor movie events in the summer to Kenmore, Maple Valley, North Hill and Middlebury neighborhoods.

Many improvements are planned around the city for 2022, Greer said, including a project to improve North Main Street in North Hill, Akron’s international neighborhood.

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