How Downtown Akron's Renaissance Began

Downtown Akron’s renovated Main Street is lined with bike lanes, artistic banners depicting diverse residents and a rubber worker statue. But 60 years ago, downtown was far from welcoming. “Akron was just plain ugly. Not only was there a lot of smoke in the sky, the streets weren’t very clean,” says Akron historian and author Dave Lieberth. Rubber manufacturers left Akron, and by the early ’80s, the world was in a recession. “We had undergone about a 10-year period when 30,000 manufacturing jobs had been lost within Greater Akron,” he says. But Akron pivoted. In 1985, Akron mayor Tom Sawyer began touting polymers. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., B.F. Goodrich Co., Firestone Tire Co. and General Tire Rubber Co. research facilities remained in Akron. Yet when Don Plusquellic became Akron mayor in 1987, many vacant buildings lined Main Street. Good news was on its way.

Dave Lieberth: National Inventors Hall of Fame was looking for a new home. We put together a group of people to advocate for its relocation in Akron. … It stimulated other things.

There were major openings, with John S. Knight convention center in 1994, Inventors Hall of Fame in 1995 and Canal Park in 1997.

Lieberth: [Plusquellic] was heavily criticized for placing Canal Park where he did. … He knew if he put it in the middle of downtown that it would stimulate downtown activities. That is what happened.

There was a positive spirit that hadn’t existed before people started to see new construction. It was the largest investment in downtown since World War II.

That began the renaissance of downtown.

When Akron Life & Leisure started in 2002, downtown Akron was buzzing, with openings including Lock 3 in 2003, main Akron-Summit County Public Library in 2004 and Lock 4 in 2007, and completed renovations including Akron Civic Theatre in 2002 and Akron Art Museum in 2007. As deputy mayor from 2002 to 2012, Lieberth operated Lock 3 and his team added cover bands and festivals like Rib, White and Blue. In 2011, Akron was among the first to finish its Towpath Trail, which ran through Lock 3. Lieberth attended every Lock 3 program while he was deputy mayor.

Lieberth: We went from having no people on a weeknight or weekend night to about 250,000 visitors a year.

In 2004, we had the Black Keys play the Fourth of July. That was one of their first big shows.

We didn’t know whether we would be successful with African-American audiences. So we decided to program Old School Soul. It was a rousing success. … We were having 5, 6, 7,000 people.

At Fourth of July … we were having 10,000 people. Not only cheek to jowl in the park, but on Main Street as well.

That has led to millions of people coming to Akron since 2003 for entertainment that didn’t exist before.

Downtown was more of a destination, and one that appealed to families. … We suddenly saw toddlers in hand, babes in arms, strollers.

For a city that had not had a downtown nightlife … you would see 1,000 people on Main Street easily on a Friday or Saturday night.

Akron is an entertainment center. … We have people from Stark, Wayne, Tuscarawas, Mahoning and Trumbull counties … Medina, Portage … driving to Akron. That’s true today.

While the Inventors Hall of Fame left, it launched STEM schools in 2009 and 2012. Plusquellic recruited businesses to relocate into what is now the Bounce Innovation Hub and industrial parks including German plastics manufacturer Rochling Automotive USA. “That was to make certain that we had enough income tax money so we could pay for city services that would allow the city to improve and invest in itself,” Lieberth says.

Lieberth: [Plusquellic] became an international spokesman for successful cities and the importance of cities.

In 2006, he came up with the idea, on an economic trip to Israel, of a biomedical corridor. ... That led to the new collaborations between Akron General, Summa and [Akron] Children’s Hospital.

We have been and still are a center of innovation. There are still more patent applications filed out of the Akron standard metropolitan statistical area than in any other in Ohio. ... Fifteen percent of Summit County’s workforce is still involved in manufacturing. ... There’s 400 companies in Akron metropolitan that deal with polymer materials.

We’re never gonna get another huge manufacturing industry to relocate in Akron.

Bounce Innovation Hub … that’s been very critical to the development of the new economy. ... We’ve supported homegrown businesses that have expanded. There are jobs here for the future.

Today, downtown storefronts are mostly filled, and many new apartments are quickly getting rented, including 139 at the Goodrich and 107 at 159 Main. In 2021, the Civic added the Wild Oscar’s and Knight Stage venues and is adding a patio linking it to Lock 3. Construction is set to start later this year on Lock 3, adding a permanent stage, art, green space and seating to reimagine it into the city’s central park. Lieberth is helping to open the Akron History Center in late 2023 and celebrate Akron’s bicentennial in 2025.

Lieberth: We’ve learned we are an agile community. We have the ability to be flexible and to make changes as the situation requires.

One of our biggest assets is our size. … We’re big enough to have problems. But we’re small enough to be able to embrace them and find ways to attack and solve them.

It’s been a long, hard slog to get Main Street done.

It enhances the best of downtown as a living area. ... You can’t attract people downtown if it’s not reasonably attractive and feels safe.

The city has never looked better than it does today.

— by Kelly Petryszyn