No resurgence in downtown Akron (Cleveland, Medina: lofts, neighborhood, theater)

[jimdc58]

I had heard much of a resurgence in downtown Akron, so while I was off from work this week (I live in Medina, Ohio), I drove downtown and walked around. There are still many, MANY boarded up buildings. The area around the Civic is especially depressing. There seemed to be a lot of people just hanging out...whether they were homeless or not, some of them it was hard to tell....though I had one beggar hit on me.

It's really sad to see downtown Akron this way. One can imagine what it COULD be like. So many other cities' downtowns have bounce back. But, Akron has a LONG, LONG way to go.

[htlong]

downtown akron does have a lot of people living in the old mayflower on ssdi so it would seem like a lot of homeless are hanging around.
but it depends when you visit downtown. on the weekends the bars and restaurants are booming.
you should try and take in a dinner and a baseball game some night,and then say downtown is dead, or on a friday night check out lock 3 park live music in the open air till midnight.
there is plenty of room for improvement but its not as bad as you seem to think. heck for all of the money that has been sunk into downtown it should be better but its not all that bad.

[jimdc58]

A vital town is vital all the time...not just when there's a ball game being played. And one certainly doesn't want a town to be vital only when the drinkers come out on Friday or Saturday night. That's not the type of "vital" for which any town wants to be known.

Besides that....the ball park and the adjacent bars are a very small part of downtown.

[CityGrrl77]

I live less than 10 minutes from Downtown Akron (in the Highland Square/West Akron area).
Sure you are right, there are a lot of 'homeless-looking people' down on Main....however, right in front of Cascade Plaza is where all of the city buses sit to drop off and pick people up, so there are usually a ton of all types of people hanging around there.

As far as the Civic Theater...have you been inside?? They sunk tons of money into rehabbing that building - its beautiful inside. And that doesnt include the brand new library and the Art Museum that they are giving a facelift.

During the week its primarily working people (its downtown) and of course a lot of the kids from college (the UofA Polsky Building is right downtown as well). On the weekends, htlong is right....there are concerts at Lock3Park and Aeros b-ball games all the time. As far as the bars....same as Cleveland...bustling Friday and Saturday nights by Jillians, Brubakers, etc.

They are trying to bring back downtown A-K...Testa companies just built a huge, quite expensive Retail/eatery and residential building right near Luigi's in the "Northside" area:
http://www.northsidelofts.com/

If you don't like the immediate downtown thing, Highland Square has Aladdins (super! Mid-Eastern food), Angel Falls Coffee, Revival (vintage clothing store), Two Amigo's (mexican), Mary Coyles (ice cream) and Dodies neighborhood restaurant. Or, check out a movie at the Highland Theater - they still serve alcohol during the movies which is cool, old school style and it has great architecture. Its a quaint little neighborhood of which they are also trying to build up. New construction has been started on a brand new Highland Square branch library, a grocery store (soon to come), and the new Chipotle is finally open.

What else were you hoping to find exactly, just out of curiosity?