audidave

I'm not anti gambling. However I don't want to see casinos popping up all over Ohio either. I don't feel there should be special interests ever getting exclusive deals to pursue casinos and have that written into the constitution. I would be for very limited gambling without the bs of trying to tell us that it will solve the school funding issue. Issue 3 was way too sleazily written and promoted. Ohio voters don't want confusing to understand amendments and laws. I wouldn't have a problem with a law that allowed additional gambling at race tracks. The understanding is that the state will get a percentage of that and schools will get a percentage as well. The special interests didn't want to be left out of the fun so they had to hijack the issue to twist it to their wants.

International: 1. Prague 2. Stockholm 3. Munich 4. Buenos Aires 5. Queenstown, NZ North American: 1. Seattle 2 Montreal 3. Anchorage 4 Victoria, BC 5. Honolulu

Pretty impressive list. Minor adjustments to "the list" Gates McFadden should be in the Akron area. What about Eric Snow? He's been in the NBA quite a few years, from Canton. Robert Patrick's bro is pretty famous. His name is Richard. He's the lead singer of Filter. Also he has a new band with the boys of Stone Temple Pilots called Army of Anyone. Over the Rhine in Cinci. Maurice Clarret of Y-town area? James Traficant of the same area. Ben Orr of the Cars from Cleveland. Butch Reynolds- Columbus. Judy Resnick, Astronaut-Akron. The future rb stars from Akron: Pittman, Wells, Sutton(Northwestern), and Delone Carter(Syracuse). Larry Csonka of Stow/Akron staying in the Running back theme.. Ohio- Fast company...

I wouldn't have a problem for everyone having a right to do whatever they want or bars to decide whether they want to allow it or not. But my feeling is more than smelling like cigarettes when I go out, I feel that the build up of chemicals from the cigarettes is that if its toxic enough to burn eyes then its toxic enough to burn lungs. Its not just one person smoking one cigarette, its a buildup of multiple people smoking many. The combined buildup of arsenic, lead, and 20 other known toxic chemicals, into a confined space does not make me feel that the smokers have the rights to screw up the air in a public space. Would we allow a burning tire and all the toxins that puts out in a bar to be ok? I think people don't want to believe that the smoke is poisonous. So should maybe we should rephrase the question: Should people be allowed to put toxic and poisonous smoke into a public space?

That should be one loud walk over a state road with 18 wheelers coming through...

^OH DAMN that was Funny!!!! :-D :-D :clap:

^ I didn't understand that either as brewing isn't just a Cincinnati thing. A good book called "Brewing Beer in the Buckeye State, Volume I" basically describes that the State of Ohio taxation laws killed all the breweries in the 50s and 60s. This volume is devoted to only the Eastern part of Ohio. To give an idea of how big the breweries were, the top 10 list has Schmidt/Carling brewery at 3mil bbl peak. 3 other Cleve breweries at over a half mil barrels peak and several other Akron and Cleveland breweries rounding out the 10 with around 200-300k barrels at peak. "The state's tax structure made it much more difficult to make a profit on any beer brewed in Ohio. This tax gave another advantage to out of state brewers leaving only 8 breweries in the state when Burkhardt brewing shut down in Akron." So state policy sucked this industry dry, literally. On to more the point of why people don't stick around. Ohio is a big confusing state. Everything happens here. Biggest rollercoasters, some of the best fishing and golfing, some of the best hospitals, some of the best football teams, museums, orchestras,etc.. Almost all bands on national tour will stop in Ohio. Then there's touring Amish country vs. potential debauchery or solitude of the Ohio islands. Pretty stark contrast there. Basically if you're bored with Ohio, then you need either a mountain, an ocean, or a really big city to go to. Why do people go to Cali and Florida and other high growth places? Because they are growing faster than Ohio is. Success breeds success. Its also pretty cool being able to go across the nation to a place that wants to employ you and pay you pretty good money. The governments have a lot to do with what states are growing as much as people's attitudes. As Ohio slows in pop growth, the feds stop spending money here assuming we are going to have less population. If the attitude in Ohio is that Ohio's growing faster and things are looking up, then people will absolutely come here as will more Fed money. The bright side of all this is in Ohio's cities there's plenty of growth potential available.

I knew you'd come through KJP. I'll ask another question then. Why not have multiple intermodal facilities? That way it wouldn't necessarily matter if a total facility's size is 200 acres. It sounds like Rockefeller site will be turned into one via the UTS company. Say if NS decides to set up one in Macedonia, then this would be achieved.

You included Brook Park but not IX center should that some day get knocked down in favor of a bigger convention center downtown. Just curious, since you took the time to figure all the other ones out..

All the phases make sense to me until 10,11, and 12. To me it suggests really high land values to place tall towers there. Must be based on a casino coming in.

Perhaps with ODOT helping them in the study they can design a dusey of a bridge from TC down the flats so that Lolly the trolley can get down there and move along all the way to meet the train in Independence.

Odd that the Beacon got this story out and not the Cleveland papers when the ceremony happened in downtown Cleveland in Tower City. Its nice to see it has everyone's blessing. I wonder which is going to take longer and cost more: A railroad or a towpath trail through the flats?

Since no one else has given it mad props, I thought I would.. STODDARDS!!!! This is a sweet one of a kind custard stand on the Kent/Stow border. It has better, smoother custard consitency than East Coast Custard. But East Coast Custard has better flavors. I'm mixed on Stricklands. I've maybe tried it 4-5x with varied results. As far as Swensons, no they really aren't an "ice cream" place. Everything they do is good but their specialty is burgers.

^^BizBiz that is the Northside lofts. www.northsidelofts.com Its phase one of 2. Too bad you didn't get a closer look. You would've seen construction going on not only there but also the wings over the art museum.

They're still slowly expanding. They've gone North to Broadview Hts area of Cleveland and they've added South to N. Canton and Jackson Twp. They also updated their original location with a new 2 story- prototype-I'm guessing, in Wallhaven part of Akron as seen in the current Akron pics in the Ohio pic thread. Swensons has been competing for over 50+ years with its Akron nemesis Skyway. That should mean that they are a pretty tight operation. I think Swensons would rule the world if they bothered expanding outside of Northeast Ohio's cloudy/rainy/snowy environment which can't be that conducive to this type of business. It'll be interesting to see how well Sonic does if and when it gets to Akron. They can't be too eager to do that.

Why would one go to a Sonic when you can go to a Swensons?!

Lots of good Money shots of Akron. BTW, the building you "just like" is the YMCA building in Akron also known as Canal Place. Akron has an obvious downtown center but there are also several distant neighborhoods where 5-10 story buildings pop up. Whether its Goodyear hq or Wallhaven with the URW building or Highland Square apartments. The greatest density and diversity is Highland Square but its not annoying density. There are no issues finding parking spots for the most part. The thing thats hard to capture in pictures is how close to National Park and Metro Parks one is from downtown Akron or how close one is to the Portage Lakes where definitely a lot of people seem to live or enjoy boating. Think Firestone CC for the people that were watching Tiger win the Bridgestone open.

Call me silly but the last thing I worry/think about when I'm looking to go someplace relatively distant long term is what kind of big box shopping there might be when I get there. That kind of misses the point of this entire forum/website. I agree on the peculiar angle for a first post. I figure either an odd placed internet marketing tactic to create buzz or a hardcore "foodie".

When I referred to the innerbelt project, I wasn't referring to a 20yr vision statement that the mayor made. I was referring to the actual innerbelt. Here's a link to the thread back in April. This project will have large repurcussions for how Akron grows over the next 50 years. http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=8697.0 Also is a link to the website akroninnerbelt.org. As far as speed, I don't think its a big deal. Its not like construction isn't going on at all. Akron art museum is coming along and a year away from completion, Highland Sq. revamping finally started, Northside lofts first building is almost complete, the 1st phase of the towpath into downtown is complete and phase 2 is getting started, U of A expansion is going crazy. St. V's expansion is very impending. All these things change equations for other businesses in Akron. I'm sure there are dozens of lesser projects that businesses in the area are contemplating but haven't or won't announce. I just popped into Musica and Mocha Maiden last weekend for the first time. Those are great spaces they have there and Mocha is almost finished with their art gallery space upstairs. Mad Dax aka Fat Tuesdays is in the middle of renovation. Barley House just opened a month ago after a big renovation. This shows that Akron isn't empty anymore and bar owners are willing to update and renovate to keep and capture crowds. Compared to 10 years ago, things are moving at lightning speed..

I'm pretty sure its a year-round thing. Buckeye fever in Cbus doesn't take a day off or a holiday. And if you're freaking out about OSU playing NIU, then your really in for a treat when the big ten schedule starts.. :whip:

Akronurban, Welcome to the forum. Most of the things you listed have been discussed for the past 2+ years. For the most part, if there is new development and it gets announced beforehand, there will soon be construction following the announcement. The only one I can think of that hasn't started yet is the Main-Exchange building. But being that this is likely to be a signature building I don't have a problem with them delaying to make sure they have the appropriate number of floors, if that is why they are delaying. To me the most pertinent thread of the past 2 months involving Akronites is on the innerbelt and the central interchange. With public discussions with ODOT over the next month or so they will be making crucial decisions about the future of Akron's Innerbelt. One other thing not on your list is the placement of the the central bus terminal for Metro. Definitely a ton of things going on in Akron right now. Do you feel the mo?

A few people might be interested in this.... America's national parks will get transit help THOMAS J. SHEERAN Associated Press PENINSULA, Ohio - Federal officials awarded 42 grants Monday totaling almost $20 million to reduce traffic in America's national parks and public lands by providing alternative transit including trains, shuttle buses and bicycle trails. The goal of the Alternative Transportation in the Parks and Public Lands program is to reduce pollution and congestion and preserve parklands and wildlife areas while increasing access for visitors, including the disabled.

Village dividing up downtown streetscape work Findlay Courier, 8/23/06 Carey Council approved an ordinance this week to seek state funds in order to begin the next phase of the downtown streetscape project. Council approved a separate ordinance to allow Village Administrator Roy Johnson to seek bids and contract for the annual street paving project for this year. Because of increased costs, the streetscape project along Findlay and Vance streets, expected to be done at the same time, has been divided into two phases. Funds are being sought for infrastructure improvements, waterline replacement and burying other utilities, along Findlay Street, from Sky Bank to Lanning Ford dealership. That phase will also include improvements at the Clay, Worrello and Vance streets intersection where the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has given a variance to allow a traffic light to remain at the location. The area is near the "gateway" landscaped area previously completed, at village expense, as part of the overall project.

This is a wacky thread. Kinda like the "Reasons to Love Cleveland" ones. I know I couldn't come up with 20 reasons to go to Dayton. There are definitely some neat things about Dayton if you know where to look. Since I'm used to a mid-sized city in Ohio that has canals and a nice ball park, there's things in Dayton that don't impress me or excite me. So my fave things are in no particular order: Food: Thai 9 Marion's Pizza El Meson Dewey's Pizza I suppose the Oakwood Club, but I never ate there.. Surprisingly decent Indian restaurants Dublin Pub Places and activities Belmont Park for disc golf- really fun course Hills and Dales for regular golf- fun and scenic course Belmont Beverage for the best selection of beer in Ohio Oakwood- cool neighborhood, a beautiful place to walk, drive, run, or bike through with silly easy access to downtown. USAF Museum obviously Dorothy Lane Markets is nice Belmont Billiards-tough tournaments in old fashioned grimy pool hall. Oregon District nightlife including Elbos and Southern Belle/Canal St. Tav

They could have released this "statistics" back right after the last census and said "This is going to be what we estimate the population is going to be in 2005 based on historical data" I don't see these estimates being any better than that. I don't believe much other consideration has taken place. I would be surprised if Akron has lost much if any population in the last 5 years certainly not 10-15,000 less people. They should say this is a rough guesstimate.