Local Gallery
Last night me and my wife were in downtown Canton hading to a gallery that I’ve read about in the local paper called ACME Artists Gallery. I’d have to say that we very pleasantly surprised. The artwork was right up our alley and the artist were very engaging. We went into the gallery to just take a quick look around to see what is going on in the downtown scene and I think we ended up talking them for about an hour or maybe more.
The artist community are taking these old store fronts in the downtown area that have been empty for many years and fixing up them. ACME had really nice hard wood floors, that they had to have put a ton of work into bringing them back to life.
These guys are going to be the backbone of bringing the downtown back to life I think. They are just so passionate about getting people to come back to the downtown area, especially at night. Luckily there are a lot of other people to help them do this. Many nice restaurants are popping up. The mayor of Canton is doing alot to get people back by getting more festivals and events there.
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I think you are right on the money here. absolutely correct. it is critically important to get people downtown if a county/region is to thrive. c’mon, any suburban area can be generally said to be uninspiring(to put it kindly). big box chain stores, no sidewalks, lighting that kills the night sky, little human contact and too many damn f^&$#**! cars. all that corporate money fleeing to HQ does the workin’ folk no good. a thriving downtown is quite the opposite. good examples are around.
Portland,SF,Austin are obvious but a few others may suprise you. Knoxville,Memphis,Toledo,even Detroit are getting into the action. all realize after years of decay and subarban flight that potential abounds in the city center. Indianapolis for example is dumping huge bucks on an urban green space that runs for miles straight to downtown. all this is based on the bicycle and people walking of course. what a concept! they are anticipating a huge flow of people thru this area and so the next step is to draw retail/attractions. the city is loaning money at a reduced tax rate to mom & pop ventures just like they did to the guys in the polyester blue vests from Bentonville.
So the Akron mayor is feeling the groove also? good move bro’! that’s the spirit. draw people back downtown into all the vacant properties. I love lookin’ at all the unused red brick and can’t help but seeing a BETTER FUTURE. you know those artist types not afraid to take a risk or two. the cafe’s and coffeeshop’s will soon follow. before you know maybe a record store,gallery,upscale thrift. glad to see things are tutnin’ around in Akron. these are good times.