Made a little trip to Akron - fortunately the weather was more cooperative. Still, there was something ... odd - even strange ...

 

 

Lovely day, lovely compound-estate of my dreams:

 

The lovely Highland Square neighborhood:

 

The lovely Almaza - Lebanese pilsner:

 

A lovely bulldog enjoying the warm weather:

 

Wait? WTF?!?!?

 

AHHH!!!!

 

EEK!!!!

 

Oh no! They got the kids!!!

 

Hey, even zombies are entitled to a smoke break!

 

 

Oh good lord - I just filled up on tasty kibbee and hummus *and* I got a big noggin - so if these zombies are looking for a bloated victim with *braiiins*, I'm toast!!!

 

 

We managed to evade the undead hordes unscathed and made our way toward downtown Akron:

 

 

Tacky small-scale signage in the foreground, tacky large-scale signage in the background:

 

Scenery of a different kind (you're welcome, guys).

 

 

 

I'm guessing this person's pantry has LOTS of Reynolds Wrap:

 

Anyway, back to some lovely scenery:

 

 

 

Looks like the zombies wiped out everyone downtown - just kidding, put down the guns. At 3:30pm in most CBDs in cities like Akron, there's not much going on and I will say that I'm impressed by the residential additions they've made in recent years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And since it's Easter weekend, might as well end this with church:

 

Hope you enjoyed  :-)

 

 

 

 

 

hmm, well after all 'night of the living dead' was filmed pretty close by!

 

very nice to see some decent weather and downtown akron here again --

Thanks! Seeing all those mummies makes me hungry for some..... hummus!

Love Akron!

I'm always amazed by how unghetto Akron seems. Is this even Ohio? It reminds me of Fort Wayne or something- really clean and unthreatening.

 

And what is with all these kids and zombies?

Ha ha...I went to college with one of those zombies!

 

Hail Akron, so many memories both good and bad.

 

Thanks for the pics!!!

^^  Yea, sorry no ghetto areas to go play in..  The worst areas generally speaking are Elizabeth valley where Lebron grew up underneath the Y bridge.  But the development he grew up in I believe was knocked down and rebuilt recently.    I don't think that area is anywhere near as bad as it once was although maybe the reputation of finding dead people from the jumpers from the bridge above increased the  threatening-ness..  Another area that is pretty rough still is by Summit Lake.  But maybe it looks too scenic and placid to be ghetto?  The towpath goes right alongside it and over summit lake.  Otherwise, there are just a variety of rough neighborhoods throughout that could easily be nice neighborhoods again..  Definitely a few neighborhoods I wouldn't want to walk around in after dark..   

  Thinking about that, the city is incredibly spread out as is the strata of society which certainly seems to prevent ghettos.. 

I haven't lived in the city for a while, but a decade ago, you had to be aware of what was going on around you.  We had drugs, break-in etc. but nothing too bad on a regular basis.  In the mid 90's I went downtown and that was probably my worst experience in the city.  Since then, things have been getting better as far as I can tell.

I'm always amazed by how unghetto Akron seems. Is this even Ohio? It reminds me of Fort Wayne or something- really clean and unthreatening.

 

And what is with all these kids and zombies?

 

Akron didn't always look that good. I remember from visits in the '80s that parts of downtown looked pretty bombed out, and it was difficult to find a good place to have dinner. I surmised then that it was because Akron was so close to Cleveland that when people wanted to go out, they just drove to Cleveland. It certainly does look as though there's been some investment.

^^  Yea, sorry no ghetto areas to go play in..  The worst areas generally speaking are Elizabeth valley where Lebron grew up underneath the Y bridge.  But the development he grew up in I believe was knocked down and rebuilt recently.    I don't think that area is anywhere near as bad as it once was although maybe the reputation of finding dead people from the jumpers from the bridge above increased the  threatening-ness..  Another area that is pretty rough still is by Summit Lake.  But maybe it looks too scenic and placid to be ghetto?  The towpath goes right alongside it and over summit lake.  Otherwise, there are just a variety of rough neighborhoods throughout that could easily be nice neighborhoods again..  Definitely a few neighborhoods I wouldn't want to walk around in after dark..   

  Thinking about that, the city is incredibly spread out as is the strata of society which certainly seems to prevent ghettos.. 

 

If you drive on 6th st in Kenmore you can actually see how spread out Akron is. Its one of the best views of the City just as the sun sets.

West Hill, off Copley Road should not be visited after dark and neither should the West Valley or Summit Lake Area in South Akron.

West Hill, off Copley Road should not be visited after dark and neither should the West Valley or Summit Lake Area in South Akron.

 

My buddy works for Time Warner and he just cracked me up with an amusing story about Summit Lake.

 

He works on a "bucket" truck, fixing lines and such. He was caught up in the middle of a complex fix and noticed the sun was going down. He knew that it was company policy not to work without a partner in that neighborhood, but he was almost done. And besides, the streets were filled with kids playing and their moms all walking around and being friendly.

 

So he goes back to his wiring or whatever, and moments later he hears ladies yelling for kids to get inside. In a moment the children were gone, replaced by roving groups of older kids who just started screaming and throwing punches everywhere.  And he was stuck, perched just above all the fighting, holding his wires, and not knowing what to do.

 

Anyhow, the thought of him stuck there like that just seemed hilarious to me.

 

But Akron is a weird place. The thing that I couldn't get used to was, if you're in a good neighborhood in Akron, you're too close to a bad neighborhood.

 

Throw the good side/bad side of town thing out the window. There are bad pockets everywhere.

 

But, maybe you can say the same about Cleveland too.

My fave Ohio city (hometown bias, lol).  Great pics MayDay