AKRON, Ohio – Fifth-generation Kenmore resident Tina Boyes has announced she will seek election to Akron City Council to represent Ward 9.
Executive director of the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance and vice chair of Akron’s Planning Commission, Boyes seems to have community service running through her veins.
If elected, Boyes will follow in the footsteps of her father, the late Don Brode, who served on Akron City Council from 1982 to 1991, and her grandfather, George Brode, an Akron City Councilman in the 60s.
Like his daughter, Don Brode was known for his dedication to the economic vitality of his ward.
“His proudest achievement,” his obituary read, "was bringing a community center to Kenmore.”
Heading up KNA, a community development corporation, Boyes has worked to re-energize Kenmore Boulevard by ushering new businesses to the neighborhood’s central business district.
If elected, she will fill the seat vacated by Ward 9 Councilman Mike Freeman, who has represented the Kenmore neighborhood on City Council for two decades.
Freeman said his departure from civic leadership will be easier if it’s Boyes who picks up the reigns in Ward 9, because of her work in the community.
“I've seen what she's done with Kenmore Boulevard. I know her background work experience. I know the family,” Freeman said. “She is solid in every corner of her life. So that makes it a thousand times easier to know that you're passing off to somebody that is proven and credible.”
Boyes, assisted by Corey Jenkins, KNA promoter and experience manager, has filled the Boulevard’s empty storefronts with 14 small businesses and hosted an array of family-friendly events to bring residents out to the Boulevard and give them reason to return.
“There's a movement happening in these neighborhood business districts, and we just can't let off the gas now,” Boyes said.
Work on the Boulevard publicly kicked off in 2017 when KNA, under Boyes, hosted a two-day Better Block event that transformed a three-block section of Kenmore Boulevard into a walkable and bikeable strip filled with cultural and retail offerings.
Better Block, a national nonprofit, helps communities showcase to residents what is possible in their neighborhoods.
Since then, KNA has secured more than $1 million in investment in the boulevard and its businesses, Boyes said.
As a council representative, Boyes said she would aim to keep decision-makers’ attention on improving Akron neighborhoods. That effort aligns with the city’s goal to grow the Akron population to 250,000 by 2050, she said.
Akron currently has about 189,000 residents.
“If Akron wants to grow, it’s going to grow through neighborhoods,” Boyes said. “It's not going to go through industrial development, commercial development, you know, on the outskirts of town. It's going to grow by investing where people live, where people want to live.”
Boyes points to the strong identity in neighborhoods, like Firestone Park and Goodyear Heights, which grew up around the tire industry when Akron was known as the “Rubber Capital of the World.”
Pride in Kenmore is no different, she said, as the neighborhood was first a village, then a city before Akron annexed it in 1928, she said.
“There's a strong strain of pride that we're starting to lose in our neighborhoods because people are unfortunately passing away or moving out,” she said. “There's enough of that remnant that if we seize it now, and we build on it, I think we can rebuild the neighborhoods.”
To that end, Boyes worked to have Kenmore Boulevard placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019, which in addition to boosting local pride offers benefits to small business owners who want to make building improvements, she said.
Boyes credits the city’s efforts to revitalize Akron neighborhoods through programs like Great Streets, which makes infrastructure improvements in key neighborhoods with business districts.
“It’s made a difference, but we've got to do more,” she said. “I mean, we have to, and I'm running because I want to be an advocate for Kenmore in a new way.”
One way is to ensure the city makes strategic infrastructure investments so city services are stronger.
“The city should be very good at basic services to neighborhoods, you know, and from what I hear, that's not always the case,” she said.
Boyes points to vacant properties in nearly all Akron neighborhoods, some of which have sat empty for years, exacerbating crime and enabling drug dealing.
“It’s like having to beg, borrow and steal to get something torn down and I'm not for tearing down. I'm for renovating and building up, you know, as evidenced by the work we do,” Boyes said of KNA’s efforts. “But there are people that complain about having drug houses next to them and there's nothing they can do. They're surrounded by them.”
Another way Boyes said she would advocate for neighborhoods is to get American Recovery Plan Act money out the door faster to help neighborhoods when they need it.
“It concerns me that Akron is going to be left with a pile of money that should have been spent, that we've got to give back to the feds,” she said. “I think the ARPA money could be transformational to Akron, but we’ve got to be strategic. It can't be scattershot.”
With people steadily leaving the area, Boyes said the city has to play the long game to win them back.
“We have an opportunity of a lifetime with the ARPA money to make strategic investments that over the long run build our city into a strong city,” she said. “We know it has been and we know it can be, but we've got to be smart. And we've got to invest in the neighborhoods.”
Prior to her community development work, Boyes served for 13 years as vice president of marketing and communications for Akron Community Foundation. She served on the Akron Civic Commons Core Team, the United Way of Summit and Medina County Community Investment Task Force, and is a former president of the Akron Area Public Relations Society of America.
In 2019, Boyes was an ATHENA Akron Leadership Awards finalist and received the Kenmore Chamber of Commerce’s McCutcheon Award.