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Dozens walk along Summit Lake in effort to improve neighborhood
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, Jun 23, 2009
About 75 people took a new look at one of Akron's most troubled neighborhoods Monday.
But instead of walking down streets lined with abandoned homes, this group saw the neighborhood from a unique perspective.
They saw it from its backside, walking along a picturesque, new 1.5-mile stretch of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, from Wilbeth Road north along the canal and across a portion of the east side of Summit Lake to the Summit Lake Community Center.
''We need a rallying cry'' to help the neighborhood near the lake, Summit County Councilman Cazzell Smith, D-5, said at a brief meeting before the hike.
Smith organized the walk and hopes to bring community leaders together to reduce the number of abandoned homes, fight crime and solve other problems in the neighborhood south of downtown.
The hikers saw the rear of industrial areas that were protected by fences and concertina wire, ducked under bridges covered with graffiti, walked side by side with hundreds of geese, passed the back of Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority's Summit Lake Apartments, and saw one man in a fishing boat and another man fishing from the floating boardwalk.
They saw lily pads and frogs in the canal and in the lake, along with floating plastic bottles and other debris.
Smith hopes that with the $3.6 million city investment in the new stretch of the Towpath Trail that includes the boardwalk, the neighborhood around the trail can be improved with federal stimulus money.
''We need to protect this investment,'' said Smith, who estimated there are 350 abandoned homes in the Summit Lake area.
He said it is possible many abandoned homes could be torn down and green space created on those lots.
Akron Planning Director John O. Moore, who was part of the hiking group, said the city has about 7,000 abandoned homes. During normal economic times, he said, the number is 3,000 to 4,000.
The Summit Lake section of the Towpath Trail, which has not formally been opened to the public, includes a 1,645-foot floating, wood-covered walkway over the lake.
Another 0.75-mile stretch of trail from Wilbeth to West Waterloo Road, estimated to cost $1.6 million, is expected to be finished later this year.
Audley McGill, director of the Summit Lake Community Center, was pleased at the number of people who walked.
''We are blessed to see the turnout,'' he said. ''I have seen the neighborhood when it was fine and I've seen the neighborhood when it was down. We need your help.''
What is going on with rundown and abandoned properties and crime, McGill said, ''is some serious stuff. This is not a game.''
McGill said he hopes the walk helps turn the neighborhood around.
''I hope this is a new beginning,'' he said.
One idea that Smith mentioned to the group involved Lincoln school, which closed this month. It will house students from McEbright for the next year or more while that school is rebuilt as part of the Akron district's master building plan.
He said one option might be using Lincoln for senior citizen housing, but only if ''you secure the perimeter'' and crime and other problems in the immediate area are reduced first.
Philip M. Stevens, vice president of marketing for PSEB Land Development LLC of Akron, said he and developer Tom Dillon have been exploring the possibility of building housing in the Summit Lake area, including ''several high-rise buildings'' and condominiums.
County Council President Nick Kostandaras said it is important for public officials to act now to improve the Summit Lake neighborhood.
''If we don't do something, we will miss the opportunity to help those people who are less fortunate than we are,'' he said.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 03:00 AM, 06/23/2009
well its good no one got mugged or shot.
Tallmadge, OH
Posted 07:46 AM, 06/23/2009
Anothder valuable resource of Akron wasted. How many years has it been going downhill? Mayopr Don has been in office for 23 years and he let this happen.
Again Akron voters need to ask themselves today am I better with or wothout the Don in charge. The answer is easy - Yes Recall Mayor Donny Boy. Look at yet this example of his failures.
Tallmadge, OH
Posted 07:59 AM, 06/23/2009
I certainly hope the new floating dock doesn't have any copper in it or it will be gone in no time flat!
Akron, OH
Posted 08:36 AM, 06/23/2009
Nice try OMG...but you can't blame one man for the demise of the entire neighborhood.
Akron, OH
Posted 08:37 AM, 06/23/2009
That lake was ruined decades before Plusquellic came into office. Since it is owned by the state, they are the ones to hold to the fire. I was on the walk yesterday. The director of Keep Akron Beautiful said her volunteers aren't allowed to go into the water to remove the trash. The only ones who will live next to a toxic lake are those who can't afford any where else. I laugh at the idea of condos and high rises along this polluted lake. It is very pretty, but don't touch!
Posted 09:15 AM, 06/23/2009
Walking along a lake doesn't solve a neighborhood's problems. Chasing the drug dealers and criminals out is what solves problems. I wonder if these same people are willing to do the hard work necessary to improve properties and make the criminals feel unwelcome in Akron?
Posted 09:42 AM, 06/23/2009
@ZippyEm: No kidding. Unfortunately, I have a feeling articles that have nothing to do with the recall will be littered with recall posts today.
Richfield, OH
Posted 09:54 AM, 06/23/2009
Maybe if they had Obama come and bless the lake it would suddenly change.
akron, oh
Posted 12:17 PM, 06/23/2009
i was a contractor for Akrons housing program late 90s early this decade .the feds and the city allready dumped millions into that ghetto. we should strongly oppose anything short of a bulldozing racy means it
akron, oh
Posted 12:24 PM, 06/23/2009
It's going to take a hell of a lot more than a walk around the lake to fix the Scummit Lake area.
Norton, OH
Posted 12:24 PM, 06/23/2009
The answer to most urban plight is long term and involves education and private investment. Sadly what usually happens is money is thrown at renewal projects etc but nothing is done to improve the long term developement needed to improve the economic well being of the area.
AKRON, ohio
Posted 02:38 PM, 06/23/2009
tear the whole neighborhood down and make it all green space
akron, oh
Posted 03:32 PM, 06/23/2009
Where do you go to get your self respect back? What program or politician (white or black), can make people STOP behaving in self destructive ways?
Even if the money is spent...what happens when the program is over, or the politics shift and the money dries up? What will have FUNDAMENTALLY changed?
@ Bucky & those with similar thoughts - Correct! But we have to go further...That old repeated refrain: It starts with the families! EVERY large institution (including schools and neighborhoods), is mostly a REFLECTION of the people (who reflect the families they come from), who populate them.
The politicians AND PREACHERS have mostly failed to make the hard choices and say the hard things for DECADES now.
THIS LEGACY of MULTI-GENERATIONAL POVERTY is (mostly), the democrats Achilles Heel...And many of them know it.
Secondarily, the american church - especially the african american church - has presided as the premier social institution during this ENTIRE period. And many preachers are know it...They will not talk openly, however. Would you?
akron, oh
Posted 03:36 PM, 06/23/2009
Does being "less fortunate" mean you can't pick trash up out of your yard? That neighbrohood is done.
akron, oh
Posted 06:11 PM, 06/23/2009
Bucky-love your avitar.
akron, oh
Posted 06:12 PM, 06/23/2009
Shelia-RIGHT ON just because your poor doesn't mean your yard has to look like the city dump, and if your sitting around all day on your lazy rear-go out and pick up some trash.
akron, oh
Posted 07:01 PM, 06/23/2009
@Bucky and JL Paine
You guys are right. But the truth is that when people are raised in poverty they feel like that is all they know, all they can get, and all they are worth in alot of cases. When you are poor and then add on top of that, Black, people automatically look down on you. After a while that will affect a persons confidence and self worth. Instead of rebuilding the houses, they need to help rebuild the people or the cycle will continue. The wasted neighborhoods, the poor school attendance, the crime, etc... The school districts in the city suck, the jobs in the city suck, and too many kids are growing up without a Father or decent Father in that community. In the meantime, if they want to rehab the area I say go for it. When you put people in a dump they wont respect it because its a dump already. But if you put people in a mansion they will definately take care of it because they have pride in it. Not much pride in a low income area.
akron, oh
Posted 08:05 PM, 06/23/2009
Tear it down and build a golf course
cuyahoga falls, OH
Posted 08:19 PM, 06/23/2009
@ Jazmataz that is full of garbage your post. People should take pride wherever they live wheter in a low income area or a mansion.
akron, oh
Posted 01:28 AM, 06/24/2009
@Kevin
I agree with you. People should take pride wherever they live, but that doesn't always happen. I have been around all kinds....rich poor, comfortable,....and one thing I know to be true is that, no matter who we are or what we look like, the only difference between all of us is our circumstances. Sometimes those circumstances hender our logic. Its human nature. Maybe we should lend a hand in making it better, one family at a time, instead of judging other people who may not have gotten as far as you yet on your so called "social ladder".
Akron, OH
Posted 02:13 AM, 06/24/2009
Any of you ever been to San Antonio and went along the "Riverwalk". It starts in an low income area too, but it's probably the biggest tourist attraction in the city (bigger than even the alamo!).
This is the potential the canals and towpath have, but as long as we have people able to live outside the city they take their salaries from, it will never be realized.
Akron, OH
Posted 02:28 AM, 06/24/2009
Were guns issued prior to the walk?
Akron, Oh
Posted 05:27 AM, 06/24/2009
As long as the people who live there...live there..it will always be trash.
Akron, Oh
Posted 05:30 AM, 06/24/2009
Really...........
Canton, oh
Posted 08:58 AM, 06/24/2009
@Bucky:
Who here do you think really, really wants to invest private money in a ghetto? Think about it. How many international investors are interested in dumping cash, say, into infrastructure investments in Somalia or Rwanda?
Throwing money at ghetto-dwellers is a great way to throw it all away. Honestly!
I love this comment:
“Smith hopes that with the $3.6 million city investment in the new stretch of the Towpath Trail that includes the boardwalk, the neighborhood around the trail can be improved with federal stimulus money.”
Yep! That's the problem in Akron. Not loss of living wage jobs, not the fallout of throwing mortgages at everyone who could steam a mirror, but instead the lack of a Towpath Trail. Just what the doctor ordered!
You have to wonder at the mentality of these people who think the solution to the fallout of a failed big government sweetheart deal is yet another spending splurge.
“Akron Planning Director John O. Moore, who was part of the hiking group, said the city has about 7,000 abandoned homes. During normal economic times, he said, the number is 3,000 to 4,000.”
Uh, why not raze them? What's the hold up, here?
akron, oh
Posted 11:15 AM, 06/24/2009
Re: Abandoned houses...Youngstown has a better idea. In short, raze them and make gardens/green spaces...
@jazmataz: I feel you. Your heart is in the right place. But if good intentions and give-aways were the right medicine - Poverty would be 30 years in our rear view mirror.
I use the following term ONLY in the context of this discussion: "Idiots in a palace are STILL idiots". You can give em houses and new schools with laptops...If they KEEP having kids they cannot or will not manage properly???
What was/is FATALLY missing from almost all these types of initiatives (large & small, from the war on poverty to today), is a SOBER recogition of human nature. Given a choice, MOST people will take the EASY ROAD - however short sited and ultimately crippling and self destructive.
That IS NOT just a trait of poor people either. Look at the history of U.S. energy policy since the first embargo in 1973. (If you said, 'what policy?'. You'd be correct!)
akron, oh
Posted 11:53 AM, 06/24/2009
Finally, whenever Pols start surfacing and lurking and talking in the media...You can bet they are about to need something from the people; like votes.
Nothing wrong with that, it's how you keep your job - but what about all the rest of the time?
These guys are angling for the upcoming local elections, that is all.
Akron, Oh
Posted 06:32 PM, 06/28/2009
How many people that have commented on the lake really live in this neighborhood? the like in not dead. It is beautiful, but the trash does need to be cleaned up. The lake is a diamond the just need to be polished a little. I think people that do not live in the neighborhood need to love here for a week and then comment.
True the crimes is bad and my generation and the generation that is being raised right now need to be shown the right way to live. the only GETTO that is is the GETTO that we let happen. I have live hear for 8 years and it could be nice, but people that do not even live here bash it. So what I an saying is..... If you don't live here shut the F@#k up and lend a hand in reviving the lake!!!
