The Athenian Oath...

Middlebury Road Bridge Work — Getting Starte...

Kent’s Sports Tourism Team...

Kent Downtown: A Tale of Two Cities...

Kent Downtown:  A Tale of Two Cities

I was in a meeting a few weeks ago where we were talking about downtown Kent and retail development.  One of the merchants from downtown made a comment that stuck with me as being a really insightful observation characterizing our downtown.  She said our downtown is a “tale of two cities” — with an active and financially successful night time business sector and a declining, apparently struggling day time retail sector.

I liked the merchant’s observation so much that I went back and looked up what is sure to be one of the most famous quotes from that same Tale:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”

After reading the quote, the relevance to Kent’s downtown resonated even more.  That was us, “the best of times and the worst of times” at the same time.   Since my arrival in Kent I have been a bit confounded by this polarity (although in hindsight I’ve learned that Kent is proudly all about polarity but that’s another story altogether).

Our downtown is an enigma.  I’ve seen dead downtowns and dead it is definitely  not.  But I’ve also seen vibrant downtowns buzzing with activity all day long and a beehive it is also not (at least in the hours that I tend to be awake).  On the one hand I’ve had people speak in desperate tones hailing the death of Kent’s downtown retail.  Yet, on the other hand people have grabbed my lapels shaking me and urging me to make more parking downtown — they claim that they can never find an open spot.  Rarely does a dead downtown have such parking problems and rarely does a downtown evoke such extreme opposite perspectives.

I used to wonder if we were just a bit of a schitzophrenic community until I begun to draw similar conclusions from my own observations.  So either I’m as schitzophrenic as everyone else (which is certainly a possibility) or else there’s something unusual — I prefer “unconventional” — about our downtown.  My logical right brain wants to see order in the chaos so I’ve struggled to make sense of this for some time.  I watched stores move out and bars move in, yet the pattern wasn’t clear to me.  It wasn’t until this merchant christened Kent as a Tale of Two Cities did I realize that I had been looking too close to see the pattern that connected these seemingly random dots.

The truth was much simpler than I was making the problem and it took a passing remark by a merchant to turn the lightbulb on for me — Indeed, Kent’s night time businesses still rock after all these years but the once vibrant day time retail has lost ground.  Now that shouldn’t come as a surprise since downtown retail all over the country first took a hit when the malling of American retail began a couple of decades ago and then Sam Walton came along and with a roundhouse right hook hit downtowns square on the jaw with the invasion of his army of Walmart superstores.

We can complain about it — and many people do, especially about Walmart — but Sam never held a gun to anyone’s head to buy from his stores, they flock to them like moths around a flame.  It is what it is no matter how much we wish otherwise.

Face it, consumers are a fickle lot.  Novelty rules the day and people always want to be part of the latest fad.  The trouble is, Kent doesn’t do the ”fad” thing — we’re unconventionally genuine and true to our roots by nature — so we resisted changes and we’re proud of it.  We beat the mall idea so bad that old Sam and his Walmart minions didn’t dare to take us on so they stayed outside our borders huddled in the township. Smart folk them Waltons.

But as we won the battles, our downtown was losing the war.  Inch by inch it was giving ground to the malls all around us and more recently to the Super K-Mart, Targets and that arch nemesis Wal Mart — all of whom were taking whole chunks out of our downtown’s hide at a time.  It was fun to think we could carve out Kent as an enclave honoring the past glory of downtowns, convincing ourselves that we could be immune to the superficiality of strip malls but every dog has its day and the day of conventional retail and commodity products being bought downtown has passed us by.

That is indeed the story of our daytime downtown city but there’s actually a lot of interesting things stirring beneath the surface, even in the daytime.  Odds and ends have begun to fill the gaps.  Antiques, knick knacks, and other unconventional retail (yes, that includes tatoos) has emerged from the ashes.  It’s not your grandfather’s downtown anymore but it is alive and well, it just beats to a different drummer.  I’ll admit much of it is still in transition and is still forming a new cluster of activity — but I honestly believe it’s there.

I’ve seen the receipts of the Kent Stage and I can tell you firsthand that it’s blues shows are drawing hundreds of people from other states to little old Kent.  I’ve watched people sit in their cars after driving their kids 60 miles to attend music lessons at Woodsy’s each week.  And of course, if you stay up passed my bedtime you’ll see the night come alive with the sounds of music and cheer.

So maybe we are a Tale of Two Cities but it is an exciting time to watch Kent remake itself and stay current in a unmistably Kent way.  I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Kent Entrepreneurs — Taking Care of Business...

Kent Entrepreneurs — Taking Care of Business

Kent Elementary School Kids
Entrepreneurship is all about having an idea and making it happen.  There shouldn’t be an age limit on good ideas and Kent’s very own Alexandra McDaniels is proving that age has nothing to do with creativity and initiative.  She represents the best of Kent’s spirit of unconventionality and she could teach all of us a thing or two about making dreams come true.

Kent High School Kids
Eight Kent Roosevelt High School students joined nearly 15,000 students from the United States, Germany and other countries in Dallas, Texas, April 29 – May 2, to compete in DECA’s 60th International Career Development Conference.

Each year more than 140,000 DECA members, from around the world, start out competing at their local school or district competition in one or more of 70 different competitive events. Those students refine their skills and projects and move on to their state and provincial conferences, from which roughly 10,000 have earned the right to compete at DECA’s International Career Development Conference.

This year’s conference brought together nearly 15,000 students, teachers and business and industry representatives from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, Canada, Mexico, and Germany will compete for top honors, participate in leadership activities, and some take home roughly $300,000 in scholarships.  Kent came out on top.

As you’ll read below, Kent’s kids did us all proud.

Kent College Kids
To be successful in today’s society, you need to be an entrepreneur, said Julie Messing, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation at Kent State University. Kent State launched the center in March and this fall will begin offering entrepreneurship courses to all students and will devote an entire floor of one residence hall to students interested in that field, regardless of their major, she said. Those students will attend classes together, work on business projects and take entrepreneurship-related field trips, she said. We want to fully immerse our students in entrepreneurship from the moment they walk on campus until they graduate, Ms. Messing said.

The entrepreneur lab on campus serves as a kind of safety net for businesses. The entrepreneur may have a good idea, but may not know a lot about running a business. The lab can provide help along the whole spectrum of business operations — accounting, taxation, marketing and inventory — everything the students will encounter in their textbooks.

Kent Business Incubator
One of Kent’s first incubated businesses (Alpha Micron) grew so fast that they ended up buying the whole building from the city.  That’s a problem when you’re trying to make space available for other interested businesses but that’s a good problem to have.  To solve it, the City has added new incubator space and the success stories have continued to roll in, including Liquid Learning who seems to be copying Alpha Micron’s lead as they have outgrown their current space and are moving into a different part of the city building that can accommodate their business growth.

The incubator space is located at the corner of Summit Street and Depeyster.  It hosts a variety of small businesses that are working hard to be successful and carve out their niche.  Interested entrepreneurs should call MIke Weddle, the City’s Economic Development Coordinator at (330) 678-7306 to find out how to get in and get started.

No matter what age, experience or expertise, Kent has everything needed to “take care of business.”

FREE Drama on the Dam...

Just a reminder about the world premier coming up this week-end.

WHO: Standing Rock Cultural Arts and The Kent Historical Society

WHAT:

WHEN: Saturday, July 22nd, 7;30pm & Sunday, July 23rd, 3:00pm 2006

RAIN DATES: Saturday, July 29th, 7:30pm & Sunday, July 30th, 3:00pm

WHERE: Heritage Park below the Main Street Bridge in Downtown Kent- behind the Historic Kent Dam along the Cuyahoga River

ADMISSION: Free and Open to the Public

CONTACT: 330-673-4970

The play begins in 1806 with the arrival of John Haymaker to a land abundant in wildlife and native culture. Having arrived for the purpose of setting up a mill, the Haymakers find this spot to be ideal because of the flow of the river and its potential for commerce.

Previous to the Haymakers, Heman Oviatt, a whiskey trader who traded furs with the natives in what is now Hudson, was the white representative to the area.

Little is known of this time period and ³Dawn Falls attempts to depict what this area may have been like during the early years of settlement along these banks of the Cuyahoga River.

For more information visit:  www.standingrock.net

So bring your families and come support Kent’s downtown programs and starving artists!

Sponsored by The Rotary Club of Kent, The Kent Bicentennial Committee, and the Ohio Arts Council among others.

Word of Thanks for Kent’s Firefighters...

Main Street Bridge Parking...

Main Street Bridge Parking

You may have seen the article in last week’s paper concerning the barricades on the bridge. I thought it was worth sharing some thoughts on this since people in the community have been asking lots of questions about it.

Last year at about this time Council authorized putting new parking spaces on the bridge for a 2 year trial period based on a recommendation of the Transportation and Parking Committee. The Transportation and Parking Committee made that recommendation after listening to the appeal of downtown businesses for more parking and reviewing the engineering and traffic safety standards related to parking on the bridge.

While parking on the Main Street bridge is new in Kent it’s not unheard of and given the fact that our bridge is basically right in the heart of downtown where parking is at a premium I think Council was anxious to try to respond to the businesses who were pressing the city to do something to relieve the strain of parking, especially on the west side where the new doctor’s, lawyers and financial offices were doing a great deal of new business. Plus, with the size of the investment in renovating the Dam, it also gave people an easy place to park and access the river.

As a temporary experiment we had to arrange the parking in a way that was safe without investing too much money into something that could be removed at the end of the 2 years. As you know, we tried a variety of barrels and barricades and while these were visible to motorists, they were not particularly attractive or effective. Over the course of the first year we went through a number of different styles trying to find one’s that were stable and safe but time and again vandals tossed them over the bridge, tipped them over or took them away all together. And each time we had to spend more money to buy new ones so the tab was rising on our “temporary” solution.

Meanwhile, the parking spots were becoming increasingly used. I know the whole parking on the bridge thing is an easy target for critics because it is a change from how things used to be and it has slowed traffic slightly that is trying to turn right at the Bissler building so people jump at the chance to throw darts at the idea. But to be honest the doctors and lawyers have sent letters thanking us saying that the bridge parking has definitely helped their businesses and with all of us clamoring to restore business vibrancy downtown, parking on the bridge seems to be one of the few things that is actually succeeded at doing just that, at a relatively small inconvenience for people trying to cut through downtown.

Back to the barricades. I had asked Gene Roberts to see if we could try a different approach to managing the parking and bridge traffic flow and look at something more permanent that frankly couldn’t be lifted and tossed off the side of the bridge; something I’d call semi-permanent at as low a cost as possible. In addition, given the importance of keeping the downtown looking good (which this year thanks to the consistent rainfall we’ve had the flowers look great) I added the bonus request to try to make our semi-permanent more in-keeping with the look of a historic downtown. Safety orange barrells are definitely not consistent with the character of our downtown.

Gene and the crews came up with the asphalt triangles that you see out there today. Are they perfect? No, but you don’t get perfect for free. Instead what we got was a better looking, more permanent structure that keeps parked cars safe. I thought it was a very resourceful effort and I am quite proud of what they did. I think some of the recent criticism is really not about the asphalt triangles it’s just a continuation of the core argument about whether parking should be on the bridge or not. Putting something new out there just gave people a chance that didn’t like the idea in the first place to revisit it and complain again.

Despite the few comments shared at Council this week I’ve actually had people complement the work the city has done on the bridge. I think that most people take time to settle into changes and I think that’s what’s happening with parking on the bridge. We actually had an offer by one local business to donate large planting boxes to put on the asphalt triangles to make it look even better while also further delineating the parking area from the travel lanes. Ideally what we need to do now is to find a top seal product to basically re-do the travel lanes in a nice dark black color to cover up all the previous lines that are still somewhat visible and create some visual confusion. I think Gene is looking at the option.

Maybe I’m crazy but I like what they’ve done and I will continue to cheer them on to make it even better since that is what Council asked us to do.

Status of the Old Hotel Renovation...

Downtown Retail Project (Formerly known as Right D...

Downtown Kent Retail

There’s been a fair amount of press about the fact that the city did not renew the Memorandum of Understanding with Right Dimensions so I thought it would be helpful if I could try to give you an update of what’s happening and what’s not happening.

As far as the city is concerned the Retail Project is still on track, the question is who will be the next private partner that will develop the project with us. That partner was Right Dimensions but after 18 months Right Dimensions suffered a setback when it’s major equity investor decided to withdraw from the project. The loss of that investor combined with the lack of progress from Right Dimensions on acquiring ownership of the properties in the block led us to make the hard decision to cut our ties and find a new partner. Obviously, this was not a choice we took lightly. We had worked hard to help Right Dimensions succeed but at the end of the day they were not able to meet their commitments so we decided it was time to move on.

What we’ve learned from 18 months of effort with Right Dimensions is that there is a viable retail project at that location. The project numbers work but the margins are slim and as a result land acquisition can make or break the project. If all the land was able to be purchased at or near market rate then the project is a go but it became clear from the efforts of Right Dimensions that the land acquisition costs were going in the wrong direction. We heard from Right Dimensions over and over that they needed help to assemble the land because the numbers for the project really only worked when the project was the full block — a little piece here and a little piece there was not going to cut it, but that’s all they were able to get.

So when the Right Dimensions investor pulled out just as our agreement was expiring we chose not to renew the agreement so that we could re-group and put all of our focus on assembling the land which had proven to be Right Dimensions greatest obstacle. Although our decision was very difficult for Right Dimensions to accept, as they had made significant personal investments in the project, I actually believe that in the long run this is the best thing we could do for them and the project as we understand now that the key to success will be the land and I intend to make that our sole focus moving forward. Our ability to help make that happen will help any developer, including Right Dimensions, so I think our decision ultimately will give the project a better chance of success.

Although it wasn’t always evident publicly, Right Dimensions had made some head-way and I think it is really important to pick up where they left off so we can keep momentum moving in the project. Although land acquisition had stalled, we were actually making good progress in a number of areas on the project such as negotiating financing options, defining land uses, and structuring the terms of a final agreement that would be the next step required to move the project from the drawing board to construction. Unfortunately we could not take those next steps because Right Dimensions was unsuccessful at securing the land and keeping its major investor in the project.

I have advised Right Dimensions and other interested developers that have contacted us that my goal is to put a land package together that would include the entire block and then solicit a development partner. I am not ruling out any developer at this time, it could very well turn out to be Right Dimensions or some variation of that original team, but at this point my objective is to secure land control so that we can attract quality developers who won’t have to spend so much time and money fighting for every square inch of land in the project area.

This is one of the main reasons Kent has not enjoyed the retail boon that has been (and still is) going on all around us — “greenfield” or new development on vacant land tends to be cheaper and easier for developers because it typically does not involve bargaining with so many different property owners; you just buy one chunk of land from one guy and go build on it. So part of what we’re trying to do is to level the playing field and give re-development a chance to compete for the same businesses that have been more inclined to plow new ground all around us rather than in Kent.

Jim Silver, Charley Bowman and I are working with the property owners in the block to see what agreements we can reach to secure the land and I’ve been pleased with our progress so far. We are also trying to purchase the property acquired by Right Dimensions but that is proving to be a difficult negotiation. I am hopeful we can work out all the issues amicably but I am equally prepared to ask for Council’s approval to use emminent domain if we get stuck.

I’ll be the first to admit that some of the choices we’ve made, and more that we’ll likely have to make down the road, will be hard. On a project like this we try to accommodate as many of the interests as possible but at some point we have to make decisions that may not make everyone happy but are in the best interest of the city. To me that’s what leadership is all about and that’s what I’m doing my best to provide because I think Kent’s downtown is a cause worth fighting for.