In Brief:
- Akron is hoping to promote growth and revitalization of its small downtown with investments in public spaces.
- Last year it cut the ribbon on a $17 million overhaul of Lock 3 Park, which connects to the 100-mile-long Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail.
- It’s among a network of cities using public-space investments to promote social cohesion in cities.
The Ohio and Erie Canal towpath runs nearly 100 miles from the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland to New Philadelphia, Ohio. For decades it was traveled mostly by mules, tugging barges up and down the canal in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today it’s being converted into a multi-use recreational trail, with biking and walking paths winding through northeast Ohio towns and Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Right in the middle of the trail is a three-mile stretch running through downtown Akron, the fifth biggest city in Ohio, with a population just shy of 200,000. Improving the trail — and its adjacent public spaces — has become a central focus for the city of Akron and a network of nonprofit partners in recent years, in the hopes that the revitalization will draw investment to Akron’s languishing downtown.
“Akron is in the center of [the trail],” says Dan Rice, president and CEO of the Ohio and Erie Canalway Coalition, a nonprofit supporting the development of the trail. “If people are not coming to Akron or through Akron, we’re not successful with the overall project.”…