Kent 360 - Kent, Ohio

Much has changed in downtown Kent but one song remains the same  — the Kent Stage continues to rock, and folk and swing, it’s way into the hearts of people from all over Ohio (and beyond) who travel to catch their favorite bands at the Stage.

Obviously it’s impossible to accommodate everyone’s musical tastes but the Kent Stage does a great job of digging through the trunk of nostalgia to pull out the best from the days when vinyl was still king.

The venue is intimate and personal, just like the acts that it attracts.  It’s no wonder people drive for hours to be a part of the Kent Stage musical experience.

As the Kent Stage celebrated it’s 16th Anniversary last month, the management was proud to report that the Stage had a two sold out shows that attracted more than 2,200 people to downtown Kent.

With a little help from our friends at the Kent Stage, the restaurants were packed, the town was jumping, and everyone was singing on key (mostly).

Last week, City staff were joined by a couple dozen property owners, business owners, and residents that share a desire to see North Water Street (between Main Street and the Fairchild Avenue Bridge) become a more vibrant and engaging part of downtown Kent.

For years, that stretch of North Water Street has cornered the market for funky, artsy, coffee house vibe — which is great — but with all of the success in the other parts of downtown, there’s an increased interest to amplify that vibe and let that part of downtown more fully develop and celebrate it’s identity.

The Star of the West flour mill has officially closed their mill operations and that’s changed the dynamics of the street — making it feel less industrial, with more room for people scaled activity centers along the street.

The question is — what activity centers should that be?

People scaled activity can range the gamut from expanded coffee shops, to park-lets, bike lanes, public art and landscape upgrades — and anything else that coffee fueled creatives can think up.

That’s the point of the “Better Block” initiative that is gaining traction in the Mill District neighborhood — to invite the owners and residents to sit around a table and generate ideas for how to personalize and better animate the block.

The City is helping to facilitate these meetings and we’ve submitted a $1.3 million grant application to upgrade the public infrastructure in the corridor in order to better enable those local ideas to be possible.

Better Block has a great track record for focusing local talent in communities around the country — including in Akron — so we’re hoping there’s enough local interest to host an official Better Block event later this year.

Stay tuned!

We were SO ready to be hanging the Championship banner for the Strong Towns competition in Kent —  but it wasn’t meant to be as Muskegon, Michigan came out on top by 4% points in the voting. (read the Strong Towns article)

We made a great run and exceeded our expectations (just have to work a little harder on our ballot box stuffing skills).

We’re certainly proud to have reached the national Runner Up status for Strong Towns and there’s no shame in placing 2nd behind Muskegon as they’re an impressive community, so win or lose, we were in good company.

In the end it was a fun ride, and it definitely caught the imagination of the community, adding a Kent buzz to coffee and barbershop conversations around town — and that’s a great thing.

Kent got votes from all over Ohio so despite the loss it was a great way to promote our hometown and soak up some well deserved community pride.

We’re #2 may not have the same cache as being #1 but I am very grateful to everyone that supported Kent each round. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Here we go, it’s show time — the Strong Towns Championship Tip Off was at 1 pm Monday and the Championship voting will be over by noon on Friday so it’s now or never for Kent vs. Muskegon, Michigan.