Downtown Construction Video...

With the flurry of construction activity downtown, we’ve been working hard to try to capture this moment in time for posterity sake.

Last week I shared a video that Kent State University had put together and this week Dan Smith posted a video that was prepared by our local video-grapher extraordinaire, Mike Pritt, that was too good not to share.

It seems like if you miss a day downtown these days, the next time you come back through you’re amazed by how much new steel was added or concrete poured at the construction sites in the downtown block.

Jobs, jobs, jobs was our mantra in assembling the many pieces to the downtown project and the thing I like best about Mike’s video is all the construction jobs you see working in Kent.  Good pay for a hard day’s work in the sun – it doesn’t get much better than that.

City Council in 2011...

2011 turned out to be a year with lots of significant ground breakings, and as exciting as those Kodak moments were, they all started in the Council work room as concepts for Council to deliberate, discuss, amend and vote on.

Turning shovels is the fun part but that’s only possible after the hard work is done in Council Chambers, so as we look ahead for 2012, I thought it made sense to look back at the items that City Council worked on in 2011 — since many of those items are likely to be on the highlight reel for 2012 when the shovels hit the dirt.

Below you will find excerpts from the 2011 City Council Activity Report which distills the many hours of Council discussions into categories that relate back to our community strategic priorities.

Town Gown Thoughts...

I know that according to the calendar we’re still knee deep in winter but the temperature and lack of snow is more reminiscent of spring so it’s hard not to be thinking about the annual spring weekends leading up to graduation.

We’ve already had some early planning sessions with the staff at Kent State University, including our monthly coordination meetings with the University-Community Liaison.

I was asked by a reporter this week how I thought the University-Community Liaison position was working out.  I gave it a lot of thought and I offered this reply:

For all the great success that the City and University have had partnering to revitalize downtown Kent, I am even prouder of the way we’ve come together to strengthen the social fabric between the student body and the Kent community, through efforts like the University-Community Liaison position.

Whenever you mix a large number of very diverse people of all ages on and off campus, relations will have their ups and downs.  It’s true in every university city.

But we wanted Kent to be more than just another university city where town-gown is mentioned as a friction point, or worse yet, as a community liability.  Instead we shared a belief with Dr. Lefton and his senior staff that if we get this town-gown thing right in Kent, it can be one of our greatest assets — and I think we’ve started to prove that thanks to the hard work of Vice President Greg Jarvie and Pete Mahoney who have taken the lead on these issues in our community.

We all talked about how we wanted every student’s time spent in Kent to be memorable and hold special meaning in their lives, and we wished the same for those young families or retired seniors who are the student’s neighbors that call Kent home year round. We took it as our mission to make that aspiration not just possible but probable, by committing resources to manage those relations just like we manage anything that we consider a community priority.

It’s been very encouraging to be a part of growth of the University-Community Liaison position, which started with a part time grad student in 2010 and has now become fully staffed under Pete’s leadership with the continued assistance of a grad student.  Lots of universities talk about improving town-gown relations but as evidenced by Pete and his office, Kent State University has been willing to make a significant investment to make sure that happens.  To me, it’s that level of commitment, with feet on the ground and hands knocking on doors, that has been the difference maker and has set us on such a positive trajectory.

The Liaison position deserves a lot of praise as it is a focal point for town-gown relations, but this position could never succeed in isolation, and it’s success is a direct result of the remarkable level of cooperation across all levels of the University and City organizations — particularly in the respective police departments that have devoted an enormous amount of time to partnering, planning and responding to student and neighborhood needs.

Just like any large family, we’ll still have bumps in the road, but we’ve built a support network that is working hard every day to stay out in front of problems, scout for trouble spots, and prepare for challenges in a way that we’ve never been able to do before.

As exciting as all the changes in the downtown skyline are to watch unfold, the cultural shift that has accompanied the renewed focus on managing town-gown relations is a point of pride that may prove to be our most important contribution to life in Kent for decades to come.

Kent Police Annual Report...

With a victory over the Kent Firefighters in the first annual Kent Police vs. Kent Fire basketball fund raiser for cancer this passed weekend, the Kent Police have not only earned their stripes but also bragging rights around City Hall.

Trust me, the firefighters and cops have great respect for each other, but there’s a rivalry buried within all that brotherly love, and I’m sure the overtime loss to the cops is a source of great pain for the firefighters.  No doubt the cops are reminding the firefighters of the final score every chance they get.

So I wouldn’t be surprised to see some reference to the victory on the cover of the 2012 Kent Police Annual Report, but in the meantime the cops can stand proud following another great year of serving the Kent community in 2011 as detailed in Chief Lee’s 2011 Kent Police Annual Report.

The report provides insights into the measures that matter most in a community — the City of Kent experienced a decrease in nearly all of the reported categories of crimes, accidents and calls for service.  Chief Lee reports that when she looks at the 10 Year Crime Index, she’s proud to see the hard work of the members of the force having led to steady reductions in incidents of serious crimes and a steady increase in our crime clearance rate.  In her business, that’s a true win-win outcome.

It’s worth noting that 2011 was a year of significant leadership transition in the Kent Police Department — former Chief Peach retired, 2 Lieutenant positions changed over, 8 promotions occurred and 3 new hires were made — yet, the Department didn’t miss a beat as Chief Lee used her experience and excellent communication skills to ensure that the professional reputation of the Department carried on and grew under watch.

TV and movies may be entertaining but don’t judge your hometown Police Officers based on the drama’s you see on the small and big screen.  That’s a whole different reality.  I’m not suggesting that there isn’t drama in real life, but the work of a professional Police Officer is so much more than the high tension car chases and crime scenes.

Chief Lee’s Annual Report provides a window into the diversity of work that the Kent Police Officers get involved in.  One of Chief Lee’s ambitions was to expand community policing and strengthen the connections of Police Officers with neighborhoods.  It’s a modern version of the beat cop who had the time to walk the streets, talk to people and stay plugged in to local networks.

The world today is too busy for cops to have time to sit on the front stoop and chat a while but Chief Lee is making a case with her people every day to what they can to interact with residents in positive ways.   She has great people working with her and I’ve personally seen change taking root, and more importantly I’ve heard from people in the community that they notice a more customer oriented approach by the Police under Chief Lee’s leadership.

I think you’ll see some of Chief Lee’s customer orientation listed in the highlights of the 2011 Annual Report:

Downtown Revitalization Video Clip...

On Monday I posted a construction update for the downtown projects.

Today, I learned that Kent State University recently uploaded a video montage of the progress of the downtown projects and after viewing it I had to share it.

Enjoy.

Ice Carving...

Over the last couple of years, I’ve felt guilty recommending attending the annual ice carving event on the plaza in downtown Kent because the typical February weather rarely cooperated with an outdoor venue.   But what a difference a year can make.

Ice carving is custom made for icy conditions, and the Kent State University vs. Akron University competitors in the event tend to turn up the heat of this long-standing intra-collegiate rivalry, but still mid-February in northeast Ohio is usually less than ideal – until this year.

This year has been weather of a different sort and I can in good conscience recommend your attendance at the ice carving event and competition scheduled for Saturday, February 11th from 1 to 4 pm, at the corner of Water Street and Main Street.

Officially, this is the 8th annual “Make Mine With Ice” Ice Carving Exhibition that is sponsored by DICE, featuring the ice carving clubs from Kent State University and Akron University.

Hot beverages and chili will be served by Anthony’s Cafe and pastries from Stahl’s bakery.

If you’re wondering what to expect I can tell you that this isn’t you and me building some lop-sided snowmen; this is some serious art made by professionals skillfully handling drills and chainsaws as their preferred weapons of artistic impression.

Very cool (literally and figuratively).

Haymaker Farmer’s Market...

Periodically here on the blog I try to give a friendly shout out to my favorite farmer’s market — the Haymaker Farmer’s Market – so here I go again.

The market may be closed for the season but the folks that run it are always hard at work making plans to make it better.

There’s a team of staff from my office and other departments that are working closely with representatives from the Haymaker’s Farmer Market, KSU, and a local aquaponics group, to apply for a grant to expand the farmer’s market, increase advertising and marketing of the market, and better integrate the local food with local restaurants here in Kent.

It’s an ambitious effort but we’re convinced that with everything that’s happening downtown now is the time to go after funds to elevate the market to the next level with the ultimate goal of eventually finding a location to host the market year round.

One of the models that we’re using is an organization called LocalRoots in Wooster Ohio (http://localrootswooster.com/ ).  Our grant request will go to Council for discussion in the next couple of months but I wanted to give a little preview of the effort.

Also, it appears that the farmer’s market is closing in on the fund raising goal to pay for the mural that was proposed for underneath the Haymaker Parkway; you can refer to this link for further information on their fund raising and to make your own contribution to a great cause.  http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=f1036a317185939ad45f415d8&id=4bbb8a42ce&e=1d2be891cf

Downtown Construction and Parking...

Last week I sat through a couple of meetings with a host of staff from different City Departments trying to come up with a strategy to manage parking during the next 12-14 months when downtown construction (around Erie and Depeyster Streets) will be in full bloom.

We’ve worked hard to generate interest in our downtown and it’s working so well that now we’ve got some parking issues to handle until PARTA completes their new 350 space parking garage.

It’s fantastic that Mr. Burbick put the pedal to the metal and built new stores and shops in record time — but it’s left us with a little bit of gap before all of our parking resources are in place.  But as one of our local bank Presidents said last week, “that’s a great problem to have and it’s one that we can solve.”

It is a great problem and we will solve it.  We didn’t make all this investment in downtown to leave the new shop owners high and dry with customer parking — we’ve actually got a great comprehensive parking management plan that will be in full effect in March 2013 — the trouble is between then and now we’ve got to rebuild just about all the streets that have parking on them so the shop owners that jumped in downtown early are left wondering where does that leave their customers.

Fair question, and it’s a question that we’ve been working hard to have an equally fair answer.  We’ve got some answers and we’re working with the downtown shop owners to come up with some more, but even if everything goes super smooth, the next 12 months are going to require a little creativity by customers to hang in there with us and support their new favorite shops as we rebuild everything around them.

We’ve promised to ALWAYS maintain access to the shops.  That may mean a driving over a construction plate here and there but we’ll make sure that if there’s a shop you want to get to, you can, and while parking spots may shift around as the construction shifts around, there will always be parking in reasonably close proximity to the new shops.

As you’d expect the downtown shop owners and Kent City Council have put this issue at the top of our to do list, and even though it was already there, we’re putting in more time to come up with a bunch of contingency plans to carry us through the gap period.

The Parking Action Committee (downtown business owners, citizens, and staff) met last week to share schedules, concerns and ideas for parking options.  It’s a smart and motivated bunch of people who seem to me to be exactly what we need to work our through the challenges posed by the 12 month timing gap in parking.

This group has decided to meet more frequently in order to spend more time together (and to adjust to changing construction impacts) so that we can develop and more importantly implement a strategy to minimize the construction impacts on the new business along Erie Street during this year’s street reconstruction for Depeyster and Erie Streets.

One of the more significant outcomes from the last week’s discussions was noting that even when the streets are being re-built there is free parking nearby that could be used by customers, but unless you’re a regular in downtown shopping it’s not always easy to know where that parking is.  The Kent Chamber and others are going to help with that.

Over the next week or so we plan to put together an information and marketing campaign that will include signs, brochures, ads, etc., indicating that the businesses along Erie Street are open and pointing out where to find parking in the downtown.  There’s no shortage of ideas for how to get that word out there and we’re going to commit city dollars to make sure that happens.

After hearing concerns for the many employees that work downtown who take up key retail parking spots, Public Safety Director Bill Lillich and Chief Lee also met internally to discuss options to put an increased emphasis on enforcement of the 2 hour limits in downtown, including after 5 pm and on Saturdays, in order to keep the prime retail parking locations turning over for customers rather than employees.

This past week we also met with all of the contractors downtown and advised them that they if they are using any of the on-street parking spots they will have to find alternative parking effective Monday (February 6) with the changing of the Erie Street parking from permit parking to 2 hour parking only.

PARTA, KSU and Fairmount also all agreed to put off-site parking requirements in their contracts for any of the construction work to be done downtown.

These are great places to start but the key will be sustaining this focus for 12 months and making adjustments for all those unexpected surprises that construction tends to bring.  Most of all, we need patience and persistence from new customers.  Dont’ give up on your downtown; it’s a beautiful thing even when it’s in the midst of remodeling.

We’ve waited so long for new retail and restaurants to arrive and now that there here, they need your support.  Especially in the first couple of years which are notoriously challenging for any new business.

Citizen Action Center 2008 to 2011...

The top searched phrases in2011 were “recycle”, “population”, and “mulch”