This one shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Get rid of the low income apartment complex, that houses the criminal element, and the crime will be reduced.

Until then, no amount of walks will help.

There has been a dozer over in that area this summer dozing over about two vacant houses a day. One less place for the dope boys and crack heads to hang out.

I agree with Betamax; get rid of the AMHA apartments first. In the 60's and 70's, Summit Lake was still a decent area because most of the homes were lived in by owners, not renters.

The lake is a toxic cesspool. Until it is cleaned up, the only people willing to live near it will be those who are in the lowest economic circumstances.

I thought they did this already?? Last yr.maybe
but they were to bring in stores and help fix
up house's?? "run out the crack heads/crime"

guess its the economy's fault.

Maybe it's time for the Akron Triathlon? Swimmers begin at the southern tip of Summit Lake. If they make it out of the norther end without glowing they then must take a combat bicycle ride through the nearby streets dodging roving gangs of hoodlums, thrown rocks and bottles. The escape run phase then would lead northbound up Broadway to an Aeros Stadium finish. What do ya think?

Another residential area NEGLECTED BY MAYOR PLUSQUELLIC. Oh, but his cronies brag about how he "revitalized" downtown Akron. People don't live in downtown Akron. Plusquellic has neglected our neighborhoods long enough.

vote FOR the RECALL on Tuesday!

It's a simple equation. No dads, insert drugs and rap music and then ignore the problem. Oh yea, label any white person who acknolwedges the problem as a racist and any black person who sees it- call them an uncle Tom. Make excuses for the thugs and then ask for more federal tax dollars. Like those dollars will do anything but polish a turd!

Polish a turd, that's a good one Middle Man

Too little too late. They can improve the look but how do they improve the people who come into the area and commit the crimes, sell the drugs etc. A sinking ship and in this economy, a waste (for now anyway).

Rumor has it that when,and if they pass the law for casino gambling that the lake would be part of it. Now im all for that! Providing jobs, cleaning and fixing up the area. Start with getting rid of those apartments.

My old man always used to tell me about Summit Beach and I could never imagine a thriving amusement park used to be there.

Middle Man good point.

Address the crime problem and then a community will grow.

Education is a key word from the bottom up. You will not have supportive buisnesses in a community that is robbed into bankrupcy.

Police and community must be in harmony to conquer crime. Police need citizens to catch crooks and clean up the community.

People like MARCO SUMMERVILLE keeps friction going to razzel dazzle the black community to think the police just love to pick on the black community because they are black. This is a way he keeps his thumb on the black community for his own personal goals.

Mr. Smith please listen to these words. With crime a community corrodes into despair.

Middle Man, immit to everybody you are not black, or the fact that you were abused by your peers growing up, or havent been in any "black situations", or have been brainwashed. You sir, are worser than Tax, Grump, and Beta put together. I mean, im not one to front, black people do put their self's in peril by already thinking they were born into peril, but to stereotype and say all black people in an area are the same is just ignorant and true showing of your person. If aliens existed and came to earth but landed in Samolia and judged the whole planet by the pirates and didnt bother to look at the people in Samolia who are trying in their circumstance, they would be totally like i describe you.

Its funny how all you people do is put effort into complaining, while Akron continues to improve and improve as almost if to taunt you.

the world is not going to get any better no matter what we do, there is more gangs and more drugs , i think it is a shame there takeing over and i also feel it not right that older people cant walk around with out getting hurt peopl edont think well wheat if that was my family memeber people dont think like that , the world is getting worst and noone cares , it never going to get better no matter what you do


but i wish you all luck

What can Plusquellic really do about all of these low income neighborhoods? I don't really think that he helped start the recession that is driving up foreclosure rates. People think he lives so comfortably away from these areas, but in actuality he lives in Kenmore not even a half a mile from this area. So i guess low income housing is his fault also? The notion that all of this is fault is ludicrous. That area was bad before he came into office, and if he is recalled do you think the next mayor is going to use his magic wand to make an instant utopia there?

So everyone is gonna park at summit lake community center and then take buses to Wilbeth?

I hope they have it in their plan to leave someone ( or several and armed ) to guard all the cars or I predict and interesting turn of events for this story.

Immaculate-Germ: I have to agree with you. No way MiddleMan is black.
I mean his spelling and grammer are impeccable.
You sir or madame have of have nothing to prove as

its ADMIT not IMMIT
Worser is not a word. proper english would be "more worse".
Thierselves? No it is themselves
And its Somalia not Samolia

So yes either Middleman is not black

or just maybe he is, but he's one of MY peers. Meaning an intelligent human being that looks to continuously improve himself in all aspects of life regardless of color.

While you sir or madame are one of the very people that he and I rail against. The uneducated fool that only looks to improve the size of the rims on his car and the amount of gold in his mouth and how much he is feared on the street.

Middleman- don't let them bring you down.

what? Has King Don said lets clean up the cess pool. Maybe he will whine like a little girl again when they accuse him of talking about summit lake just to get re-elected.

He has abandoned this place for decades.

Has he ordered Mr Smith to get busy walking... hah

I used to attend a camp there for the disabiled back in the mid-80's to the mid 90's and I saw how that area went downhill every year. Then after that I had a "girlfriend" who lived in that area and I always hated going to pick her up at her house. My older brother used to work for the city and he said they would never plow that area of snow cause it was like running the gauntlet of gun fire and rock throwing. They need to scorch the earth and start anew a little shock and awe.

Why didn't they run the new towpath trail down the other side of the lake so people on the towpath wont be mugged?

"You sir or madame have of have nothing to prove as" you want to enlighten me to what you meant, Dumb In Reality? Surely this must be proper and correct for you cannot make miztakes awn da compooter where we are graded and paid and humans than cant make mistakes. YOUR peers are below me because thar HEADS in thar ACE. Can you show me a statistical number on how many black people "only looks to improve the size of the rims on his car and the amount of gold in his mouth and how much he is feared on the street" preferably one not from you mind or your peers.

Anyway, somehow this site managed to get off race or lower conflict about it, so im not gonna put it back on that course.

@reality we can tell your really smart. We have uneducated whites as much as blacks. The world will never be a better place with people like you around!

See the real problem is that more and more people are getting LAZY, both black and white. People no longer want to work hard to have nice things, they would rather sell dope or rob than work for their money. Then, throw in the fact that the government only helps you in hard times if you are truly lazy, and no not all black people can get welfare. I have a black friend who is one of the hardest workers I know and he can't get assistance because his unemployment is too much and how can he support his family on $200 a week? Maybe when they start putting real requirements on welfare the problem will stop, start with a DRUG TEST. Say "NO mister dopeman, you're not going to sit at home and get high and get paid while the rest of us work" and then you'll see change. Until then, it's nice to dream

You simple-minded ba$tards all need to realize that the people in power have feared that the minorities and brass-ring chasing whites would band together, and have stopped at nothing to keep us apart.

The American Dream has long been a nightmare.

WOW L.A. area huh..i feel that nothing will help improve that area unless they tear down the whole side of lakeshore blvd. and start fresh! and the last i heard about that area is " white trash" lives there....ya build a casino on the scummit lake!

Immaculate-germ: You appear to be too stupid to understand what middle man said.

Amha isn't the only problem at summit lake. The entire area needs to be torn down and rebuilt, like what the don did for Elizabeth Park( a perfect example of another neighborhood NOT ignored by our mayor).

stleo, you appear to be too stupid to understand that i shut people up on here, dont let it happen to you.

@starrman - The city hall hero lives in Kenmore???
When did he move back?

Germy: Are you threatening me? Grow up little man. No one likes a bully, racist!

Germy: Who shuts up because of you? Not any of the people here. You have an inflated opinion of yourself, little boy.

Germy: come and shut me up, I dare you. Phony tough guy.

stleo, ask reality, ask middle man. How am i a bully when you used the word stupid first, i thought i was just responding and defending. How am i racist when i didnt refer to color at all except for black which i am, how about you read my comments and not skim, little mind?

Germy: YOU were the one to question middle man's race, thus making you a racist. You did not understand what he said, yet you posted a stupid reply. To those of us reading your words, you appear stupid. Does that make it simple enough for you? You are a bully because you threatened me. does that make it simple enough for you?

my fake meho, let me stoop to your level real quick and write comments in sucession. Do you see anymore comments from Dumb In Reality, i wrecked him like a train. Do you see anymore comments from Middle Not Black Man, he wishes he would had stayed on his ship. You see you, need to grow your intelect and quit representing yourself as a Saint or King or what ever you will choose to call it inorder to make me seem like im wrong and didnt do you as badly as i just did.

Not to get into the whole race issue, but Middle Man is obviously NOT a black man. The persecution complex shines too bright for him to just be a empathetic black man. That said, I agree with some of what he is saying (dads and drugs, even pop cultural influences to a degree), just without the charade of me posing as a black man.


germ,

I know the message was probably a little too generalized to be constructive, but Middle Man is getting at some valid issues in that there are systemic problems in many areas of Akron that need to be fixed before any community investment will produce sustainable results. I think he's also expressing cynicism that people can't talk about these issues due to racial sensitivities. Eric Holder's "nation of cowards" remark was right on the money. There are important issues that need fixing and people are too afraid and/or too bigoted to confront them. That goes for all races.

my fake meho, Middle Man is putting down ALL black people with this "It's a simple equation. No dads, insert drugs and rap music and then ignore the problem. Oh yea, label any white person who acknolwedges the problem as a racist and any black person who sees it- call them an uncle Tom." and also he has been doing it with the majority of his comments, also also i asked him in another article if he was black while he was doing it and never got a reply. Im racist for that? It is simple to see you have a simple mind. No, i am nice cause i WARNED you even after putting stupid while referring to me. You wanna save yourself or let me end you?

thank you jason.

Germy: Maybe they had better things to do than worry about fools like you. I, on the other hand, have all day to tell you how foolish your comments are. Middle man made good sense and you stepped on him with mal-intent, in a foolish way. If you are a black man, then listen to what he said. There is a problem with much of our culture today. Enough people, black and white, have failed to raise the next generation very well. Much of that needs to be addressed before we can rebuild this city. We need more jobs, better schools and more leaders. Your attacks are not constructive; they are destructive. Use the brains God gave you and change your approach. Some positive attitude goes a long way sir.

"I mean, im not one to front, black people do put their self's in peril by already thinking they were born into peril, but to stereotype and say all black people in an area are the same is just ignorant and true showing of your person." Jason clearly disrespect to you, but did you and my fake meho not see that in my first post?

My fake meho, all of what you said on the bottom half of your comment made sense and i understand that, but we do have better schools, are you the only one who dosent know our schools is being rebuilt and that we are getting new jobs due to Plusone?

Take your own advice cause your Pinky and im Brain. You sir should had been positive and not used stupid.

Fine, I apologize for the stupid comments. I do know the schools are being rebuilt; I've personally inspected all of the crappy ones being replaced, and have been monitoring the progress of the new constucts. I love our mayor, and I know what he is up against. I just felt that you did not understand middle man, and were too negative towards his opinion. Normally I respect most of your postings at ohio.com.

By the way, I'm much cuter than pinky. I consider myself more of an animaniac (yucko).

I do like the Methron mention. That always makes me think you are one of the redeemed, and not a loser. We do need to end that drug as fast as possible. Thank you for keeping it in the attention zone that way. Seriously.

i accept your apoligy and dont see anything wrong with your comments which is why i never addressed you, also hope you are a girl to refer to yourself as cute?

@ Betamax
First of all alot of the people who live in those apartments are single mothers. Dispite what you may think their are drug dealers in your are too. And in even the nice areas of town. Secondly, that area is messed up because people who actually own the houses don't keep them up. People always want to blame the poor people for their environment but when provide housing that is sub par then you will have people with low income living in them. Its just sad that the landlords of those areas don't care enough about the people they house. If they did, they would take better care of their property so that all kinds would want to live there. People are poor get over it! If they tear down those projects then it will just be another area that will be less desireable to you because they will all have to move somewhere else. And I hope they move right next to you!

No, sorry. I'm confident in my manhood and my wife asked me to write that cute part as a joke. Didn't mean to confuse. She's a pinky and the brain fan too.

What has happened on this blog is why there are plenty of problems in Akron. The Summit Lake area is not a black and white problem and certainly not a reason to argue on who is to blame. It is a City of Akron problem that needs to be fixed and the people of Akron need to start coming together to try and figure out how to solve the issues that are plauging the area. We have other areas like this also that needs to be concentrated on. It is going to take the citizens of Akron to clean up our own city.

these "i" dioits above need to get a room and argue there.

We know what "summit" lake means. Its a ghetto that even the cops don't care about. Yes the mayor is fully aware this place exists, he's fully aware Rolling Acres is the laughing stock of the nation. He has let it go on for years because he doesnt care.

That area could be put to good use, force akron U to buy Rolling acres. Get the summit lake area cleaned up. Get cops in there, tax em out if you have to but get it moving. Tear them down faster make a big park if you have to.

Years ago they gave up on cleaning the lake. If they disturb the muck on the bottom it will release all of the poison and toxins buried in it and the water will be even more polluted than it already is. By the way the rubber companies were the ones that used to release every toxin known to man into the canal which drained into Summit Lake! As for the houses in the area as long as most of them are rentals, it will always be on the decline. The slumlords only want to make a profit by putting the bare minimum towards upkeep and stashing the rent money into their pockets. I'll bet a lot of them are lawyers because they are downtown at the courthouse and always in the kknow when these houses go up for auction cheap. It's a very profitable sideline being a slumlord. Just check the tax records on who owns many of these dumps. It happens all over town too, not just in LA!

Should you thank Mayor Donny Boy for allowing this to happen over the 23 years of his rule by keeping him in office? I don't think so.

Recall THE DON!

The sad thing is, the 5% that are homeowners over there can't afford to live anywhere else.

Bottom line....Akron is a dying city in many aspects. We all, educated or not, are getting less of what life has to offer because we live in Akron. (well off and rich people excluded). What you see is what you get in Akron. I applaude the Mayor for what he has been trying to do but the fact is the only thing that brings much attention to this city is Lebron James. ( Love you LBJ!) Fact is...unless we can come up with some way for people to want to come to this town, Akron is and probably will continue to be a dying City.

Shut me up?
Imaculate- there is a difference between a typo and the spelling and grammar of a person to lazy and uninterested to even attempt to learn and master the English language like you and your hip hop brethren.

You are obviously a uneducated punk thug so I will address you no more.

middleman stay your course and save the ones you can.

Never give a thug even the slightest chance. And if it looks like a thug, talks like a thug. Its a thug. Not one once of respect or sympathy should be shown.

ounce not once- a typo

admit - immit=lazy ghetto ignorance

DaBigPic- some other time. I only have it in me to concentrate on one idiot ghetto super star tonight.

I read a comment that stated "address the crime problem and the community will grow" . . . the problem here is that the the COMMUNITY is the crime problem.

If the Mayor drives by it twice everyday to and from his Kenmore Home, or worse yet, if he avoids it twice everyday on his way to and from his downtown offices, then it is his fault.

***Don't worry. Obama Gonna Save Us***

Reality, "more worse" doesn't work either. It's just worse - done and done. Saying more worse is no better than saying worser, they're both wrong. It's like saying more better.

Although I do find it amazing that anyone can spell immit and think it's a word.

For everyone on here who is pointing the finger, just remember that you have 3 pointing back at you.

What has been lost is everybody's sense of pride. Pride in our jobs and our ability to support ourselves without assistance; pride in homeownership--owners and landlords alike; pride in being a good tenant if you are a renter; and pride in being a good community member. The mayor can't save us on this one---our pride was lost long ago it is isn't one man's fault.

The area has long been forgotten, residents and community leaders said.

This area had help to get this way. Many times people fail to speak up. It is easy to point the finger at others.

What's really funny is these posters who talk like they've actually been to the Summit Lake area but spew inaccuracies.

1. The Summit Lake area is mixed raced. It has nothing to do with rap, black or white. You can walk a 1/2 block and be in all black neighborhood from an all white area and both will be in partial ruin. It appears contrary to the racist on this board that poverty and crime knows no race just the liberal media and their race stirring agenda.
2. Summit Lake park is used DAILY by people of all races. Out of all our public parks I think they get more use than 90% of them. I was just down there walking the tow path two weeks ago and you would be surprised by the number of people in and out on a nice day. You'll see old white guys fishing. Old black guys fishing. Afro-american kids playing basketball and white kids playing soccer. White and afro-american adults playing softball even toward dusk. Not being stereotypical thats what I saw. Sorry that there wasn't graffiti and roving blacks in hoodies to satisfy our resident internet wanna be klans men aka IKKK.
3. The AMHA homes are actually doing better than the surrounding area. It looks like they've rebuilt them or something. There not the piece of crap I remember from my youth. Although there were a band of roving afro-american teens standing at the liquor store across from the apartments. lol Seriously it was about 10 of them. Staring at me, staring at them. lol
4. Off topic but relevant. I want all my posters to do a quick test this week on our liberal media. Pay attention to how our beloved liberal media makes mention of the 'race' during the story. Now if a white guy shoots his wife. They'll say husband kills wife, etc... Now if a person of color does the same crime they'll identify his race. I swear theres a liberal media agenda. Not saying afro-americans don't commit crimes but I think I think its the new WMD scare tactic the liberals are using to make people scared, again.

Why don't we have a greater penalty for slum landlords? That seems to be the real problem. If a landlord fails to keep a property from becoming a blight why don't we fine him. After so many fines then more drastic measures will be taken.

I would also tear down those boarded up homes thats been vacant for more than two years. Heck, after tearing some of them down give that land to the neighbor of the adjoining property. Help him raise his poverty value.

Just throwing out ideas instead of putdowns for a change. Seems positivity is lacking in all our post (lives) including mine after re-reading it.

I agree the land owners need to be held accountable for blighted properties. Especially land lords and rentals. I also think they should have a better system to determine who get to be in the AMHA housing. It is not fair that good families that need help are subjected to share an area with low-lifes that are abusing the system. I think a monthly drug test would do wonders as weeding out the trash from the good people.....of all races.

Here is a better option for spending our tax dollars. Instead of building more low-income housing, spend the money on block grants to give to homeowners to fix up the properties. In today's market, fixing up many houses today actually you would have more money in the home than it is worth. Don't tear down and build new. No one would buy those for that price. You can't afford them. Look over at the new homes on Laffer/Honodle. All subsidized loans. People can't afford even the $80,000 . Fix what is there for less.

Immaculate Germ has super powers, he can tell a person's race via the computer! I better go before he "shuts me down"!!

I have always said that middle man is not black. And it's not because of his grammer.

why then? Because he doesn't tow the company line of "we ain't the problem its whitey's fault"?

Because I hate to say it but the FACTS of the matter are all the things he pointed out.

high percentage of single mothers due to lazy deadbeat men or fathers ( no not fathers they haven't earned that ) sperm donors incarcerated.

High volume of drug and alcohol abuse

And the embrace of a "culture" (hip hop) that idolizes crime over a real job, women as objects over respected equals, no snitching over neighborhood watch, and a general attitude of "I want mine" over any regard for anyone around you.

THAT is the current state of blacks in America.

Well the ones under the age of 40 anyway. I am guessing middleman is a bit older than that.

but all in all he is speaking the truth and you are in denial or just plain don't want to admit it.

giving him a hard time for stating the truth. Well that just identifies you as one of the problems while he is part of the solution.