Working Together

REBUILDING AKRON’S ECONOMY

Every Akron resident deserves economic opportunity as a path to a prosperous life. Our city is an amazing place, but we have to be honest about where we’re headed economically. For more than 50 years, we’ve lost population and jobs, and that trend continues today, with folks moving to the suburbs for safety and better schools, and young people who grow up here seeing more opportunity in Cleveland, Columbus, and beyond. So the question for our city’s economic future is – what are we going to do differently?

For too many people, safety, education, and housing are barriers to economic empowerment, which means we need a strategic focus on youth violence prevention, preschool for all our children, and more. For that reason, our Safer Together, Learning Together, and Living Together plans all are essential pieces of our overall economic development strategy. Our goal is to tackle these underlying issues, stabilize our population, and build a new economy rooted in our unique strengths and work that is already underway.

Leading with a strategic and modern city government

It starts with the basics. Everyone seeking to do business in Akron should have an easy, welcoming, and efficient experience working with city hall, no matter if they know who to call or not. Our Working Together plan will modernize our outdated city website, ensure language accessibility, and streamline permitting and contracting processes, so that we avoid miscommunication, bottlenecks, and delays.

We will double down on the collaborative work of Elevate Greater Akron, making sure that resources and staff time are focused on the city’s key role in driving progress on equitable economic opportunities, the future of downtown, and neighborhood-based workforce solutions, while also seeking to bring the University of Akron into the core Elevate Greater Akron team.

Building a downtown that works for everyone

Downtown Akron has faced a lot of challenges recently, from years of construction, to office vacancies caused by the pandemic, to lingering concerns about safety. At the same time, there is so much opportunity – beautiful public spaces and infrastructure along Main Street, new vibrancy from residential housing, and amazing programming with arts, music, and more.

We will work alongside all downtown partners to staff and fund a downtown Community Development Corporation to coordinate real estate development activities. Through our Working Together plan, we will ensure downtown residents and workers have access to basic amenities like fresh groceries and childcare, find innovative, financially-sustainable re-uses for historic buildings and vacant office space, and partner with Downtown Akron Partnership and our small and large businesses to improve the perception of downtown.

Anchoring economic opportunity in our neighborhoods

Akron is a city of neighborhoods. But many neighborhoods – especially on the East side – have never recovered from the loss of rubber jobs, creating intergenerational poverty. This has hit our Black residents hardest, as shown in the 2019 Elevate Greater Akron report. These gaps are beginning to be addressed through resources at the Bounce Innovation Hub, improvements to minority supply chain and procurement practices, and the city’s Great Streets program, which seeks to boost neighborhood business districts.

What we need now is a city-wide commitment to economic and workforce development that harnesses the strength of our neighborhood networks. Our Working Together plan will work with Akron Public Schools to truly open up our Community Learning Centers on evenings and weekends, so that every Akronite is within walking distance of an in-demand certificate or skills training program. In addition, we will build deeper partnerships with all our neighborhood Community Development Corporations, where we’re seeing exciting innovation right now.

Removing barriers to work

Across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered longstanding obstacles to employment, from accessible and affordable childcare, to transportation, broadband access, safe housing, and healthcare access. And as with so many other social trends, we see these issues impacting low-income workers and communities of color at a disproportionate rate. Our Working Together plan will innovate ways to remove these barriers for workers, including creating affordable childcare options downtown and in our neighborhoods that are easily accessible through public transportation, and alternative transportation models like rideshare programs to locations not on the bus route. We also will commit to joining Summit Connects to ensure the County’s fiber project reaches all homes in Akron, removing internet connectivity as a barrier to both workers and students. Through programs like these, we will build a worker-friendly community that is attractive not only to the next generation of Akron workers, but also to folks in other states and other countries, and will help put us on the path to growing our city’s dwindling population.

Building the economy of the future

Akron has a long history of leading the way in innovation, and by working together, we can do it again. We will prioritize investments in the economy of the future – especially our local polymer and advanced materials industry, as well as supply chain infrastructure for the Central Ohio Intel microchip plant, and green energy jobs. We will aggressively seek funding at the regional, state, and national level, in partnership with private industry, to support local research and development.

Join the conversation

What you see here is just the start. We want to spend the next few months talking about safety, getting your feedback, and releasing more details about how we’re going to transform these ideas into action. Your input will help inform the final detailed plans the campaign will release.

WAYS TO ENGAGE