State Of the City Part 3

If you missed the mayor's State of the City, well, we've got it for you and a really great opening.

It's the Akron Podcast for May 22, 2026.

Our website, akronpodcast.com.

Yeah, my favorite part of the whole thing I was there at the Civic was they brought out a bunch of kindergarteners to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

And I'm here to tell you, there was a.

We're talking about a diverse group of people.

We're young, old, black, white, whatever, purple, green, straight, gay.

We're all in the room together.

And when you get us all together and we are led by a bunch of kindergarteners saying the Pledge of Allegiance, it just made my heart go pitter patter.

Here it is.

Pledge allegiance to the crown of the United States of America and to Republic of which it stands one nation under incomparable liberty and justice for all.

Yeah, that was really cool.

And this was the first time I've ever been at the State of the City.

And I thought there were a lot more people in the Civic than I expected.

I don't know what I expected, but there were a lot of city workers and a lot of students.

I didn't realize how many students were going to be there because, you know, Elliott's doing great in sports, Firestone, all the different schools are doing great.

We had some Akron Bengals team that went to nationals.

Like they were the number two, I think, in nationals.

It was amazing.

And so, yes.

Was this a giant pep rally for Akron, Ohio?

Absolutely.

Did they mention anything that's not going well?

Nope.

So as much as they talked about transparency, but that's not what this is for.

And it did a great job because there were a lot of things that are going well in Akron.

And the cool thing was most of them we've talked about here on this show already.

But with that, let's get to the mayor.

And this is the State of the City recorded here in May of 2026.

Please join me and welcome Mayor of our beloved city of Akron, Mayor Thomas Mal.

Good evening.

Thank you so much for joining us for our third State of the City address.

I want to start by thanking the Akron Roundtable for helping host this event for nine years now.

I want to thank IdeaStream, Public Media, PBS, Western Reserve, and the University of Akron for helping broadcast this conversation.

And I want to thank our ASL interpreters as well as those translating the speech alive into both Nepali and Spanish.

I want to thank the team here at the Akron Civic Theater led by Howard Parr for welcoming us into this incredibly beautiful space.

And a big thank you to all the sponsors of our event.

I want to make a special recognition of our Living Together sponsors, G. Stevens, Summit County Land bank and Accenture, as well as our Safer Together sponsor state and federal communication.

I want to recognize our Akron City Council members.

Could you stand or wave a hand and be recognized?

And could all of our elected officials please stand?

We're joined by a lot of elected officials.

I particularly want to thank our Summit county executive, Eileen Shapiro.

So much of what we do is in partnership with the county.

And I also want to thank Canton Mayor Bill Shearer for being with us as well.

If we could give both giveaways.

Give both of them a round of applause.

I want to thank three members of council, in particular, our Council President, Margo Somerville, our new Council VP, Brad McKittrick, and our President Pro Tem, Tina Boyes.

Each of you have taken on additional responsibility in these leadership roles.

Our city government runs because of a team of roughly 2,000 dedicated public servants.

I want to thank everyone from our city.

I want to thank our HR Director, Montrella Jackson, our Law director, Brian Angelone, our Director of Labor Relations, Frank Williams.

And I want to give a special shout out to one person, our Chief of Staff, Brittany Zieringer, who leads and sets an example for all of us every day.

Could all city employees who are here tonight please stand and be recognized?

Finally, I want to thank my amazing wife Alice, and welcome our daughter Elodie to her first state of the city.

Apparently, she got a little over excited, but she'll be back.

She turned just six months old on Sunday.

She is learning now about pureed sweet potatoes and pears.

And to be totally honest with you, I had hoped she would help a little bit more with the speech, but there's always next year.

Serving as your mayor is a profound honor, but being Alice's husband and Elodie's dad is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

It's given me new purpose every single day and it's given me a new perspective on life.

And I love both of them so much.

Tonight, I'm excited to talk about how we, our administration, our entire city government, and our broader community are working to build Akron's future.

Together, I'll talk about our core city services, our streets, our sewer system, our 911 call response, and that work is the foundation of what we do.

And over the past two and a half years, you have heard me talk about these four together for Akron pillars that build on that foundation safer, together focused on public safety, living together focused on housing, our neighborhoods and the environment, growing together focused on education, health and our young people and working together focused on economic opportunity.

Within each of these areas, I'll talk about the innovative and collaborative solutions we continue to put forward to tackle these key challenges.

Now, a year ago, outside, I talked about the hard way on purpose, David Giffel's term for how our rubber city DNA allows us to be resilient to weather the storms at the federal level, to weather stark budget challenges here at the local level, and much more.

And while these challenges persist two and a half years into being your mayor, I am more confident than ever in what is possible, that Akron's future can be very bright.

That we have in this room and across this city everything we need to succeed in, the talent and the creativity and the diversity of our people, provided that we work together and provided that we find common ground.

And we all have a part to play in that story, in building the future.

And so, as we go forward tonight, I'm going to ask for your continued engagement and that you lean in even more than you already are.

Our city needs us all, and we all need each other.

Our work starts with basic city services and public infrastructure.

And I'm thankful to Akron City Council for unanimously approving our 2026 capital budget, a $342 million investment in our city.

Let's start with something we hear a little bit about our roads.

We have 832 miles of pavement that we maintain.

And since our 2017 issue four tax went into effect, we've dramatically increased our annual paving from 16 miles a year to about 48 miles a year.

By the end of this year, we'll have resurfaced nearly half of the roads in this city since since issue four was passed.

And we're spending more time on concrete streets across our city, bit by bit each year.

This year in Goodyear Heights and Elliott in particular.

Now there's a lot more work to do, and here's somewhere you can help us out.

In 2024, we rolled out our 311 app.

If you haven't downloaded it, please try it.

You can help us spot potholes, sidewalks and street lights in need of repair, and much more.

You can still call in to our amazing 311 call operators, or you can use our website to report the same things.

Now, our water and sewer systems are massive feats of engineering, and we are in the middle of replacing the historic Britain Road Reservoir, also in Goodyear Heights.

And thanks to the work of our Service department, particularly our amazing service director, Chris Luddell.

We're closer than ever to completing our federal consent decree project in our sewers.

With the north side tunnel opening up later this year and the Gorge dam removal project moving forward, the Cuyahoga river will not only have improved water quality, but it will be an even bigger draw for tourism.

Playing to our strengths as a region, last year we were proud to complete a historic milestone.

The replacement of every single lead water main in Akron, making us one of the only cities of our size and age to do so.

Now, many people contributed to this work over many decades, but none more so than Dave Crandall, who served with our service department for 46 years and who witnessed the removal of the last line shortly before his passing at age 91.

Dave's Legacy shows us that in Akron we can do extraordinary things, even if it takes time.

Our capital budget focuses on infrastructure and our operating budget is about our team, the folks who every day get up to get the job done.

As I mentioned last year, we are dealing with real budget challenges.

The end of more than $145 million in federal Covid era ARPA funding, the sunsetting of federal grants that paid for 75 roles in our police and fire departments.

Last year, we saw a decline in our income tax collections and we also worked to reach a resolution to our police and fire union negotiations.

Now, after going through a tough fact finding process, we agreed to some of the largest wage increases ever negotiated into safety forces contracts, which will certainly help with recruitment and retention in our safety forces.

But taking all of those things together means we do have to make cuts.

And this year and next year, we're going to work to balance our budget for the long run.

And as we do this, we're going to balance three things.

Making appropriate investments in our workforce and compensation.

Maintaining service levels for the necessary work we do each and every day and not depleting our reserves and putting the city's long term finances into jeopardy.

Now, there are no easy answers to these tough challenges, but we worked with city Council to find a 2026 operating budget that we could all agree on.

We reduced our budget from our 2025 spending.

We moved to a more disciplined, mission critical hiring approach so that vacant roles wouldn't be automatically filled.

We're also taking a harder look at overtime costs, primarily in our safety forces, making adjustments while also maintaining the flexibility to tackle the call volume that we know is going to come in the months ahead.

We're also looking at where new revenue might be found with sensible ideas like restarting our traffic speed cameras that were turned off in our school zones during COVID I want to thank our finance team led by Steve Ferker and Mike Wheeler.

And I want to thank all 13 members of our City Council for their work on this budget.

I pledge that we will continue.

That's okay.

You can go ahead.

I pledge that we will continue to work collaboratively so that our city can continue moving into the future in a financially stable way.

Now, I'm going to talk about a lot of things tonight.

Programs, initiatives, challenges and progress.

And frankly, it's a lot to remember.

We want to make sure that we are sharing our story every day with our residents.

And so we're updating our progress tracker online.

Just as important as the work itself is how we show it.

Last year at the State of the City, we launched the Together for Akron Public Hub and Dashboard where residents can track progress in real time.

And today we are unveiling an updated tracker@akronohio.gov track quarter by quarter, you'll be able to see what's moving forward, what's been completed and what's coming next because transparency builds trust.

And again, we are committed to showing our work.

The Together for Akron Hub gives residents a real time look at progress.

And quickly, before I go any further, I want to give a shout out to some people who help tell our story every day.

Our communications team, Stephanie Marsh, Alexis King, Patricia Porter, as well as Lauren Marsh.

They do amazing work that you guys see on social media and that we are going to see tonight and that we see on the tracker.

But before we talk about economic development, before we talk about housing or sustainability or youth opportunity, we have to talk about public safety.

Because if people don't feel safe, then nothing else matters.

Safety is our most basic building block as a community and it's our most basic human need.

Every single day, the members of our Akron Police Department and Akron Fire Department respond to difficult, often dangerous and chaotic situations.

Just this past week, our Safety forces responded to a plane crash in the Coventry Crossing neighborhood.

They helped to ensure that the tragedy did not turn into something even worse.

I want to recognize our Chief of Safety, Craig Morgan, our Police Chief Brian Harding, our Fire Chief, Leon Henderson, and all Safety forces members in attendance.

Could you all please stand and be recognized.

When it comes to violence?

I want to be clear that we will continue to do everything we can to hold people accountable who perpetrate harm, that we will never get desensitized to violence, that we will never focus on statistics and forget the people behind those numbers, the lives behind those numbers.

Over the past year, we've expanded our federal, state and local partnerships focused on gun violence.

We opened Ohio's fourth Crime Gun Intelligence center, where our Anti Violence Bureau officers work alongside our partners at the federal level with atf, locally with our Summit County Sheriff, Candy, father's office, our U.S. marshal, state highway Patrol, and more to hold violent offenders accountable.

In September, this team arrested 35 individuals for firearms and drug charges.

They seized over 50 guns.

With the leadership of our United States Attorney's Office and our Summit County Prosecutor, Elliot Kulkovich, we're also building upon the new Community Violence Intervention, or cvi, efforts that we have helped to start.

We're taking lessons from trailblazing cities around the country where CVI has taken root.

And in partnership with minority behavioral health group MBHG, led by Pastor Jeff Dennis and Marcel McDaniel, with non stop Growth, we've expanded our pilot program in which people with lived experience are reaching out to those at risk of becoming involved in gun violence and helping them chart a different path, especially our youth.

And in the next several weeks, we will officially begin another community violence intervention program in partnership with our two largest hospitals, Summa and Cleveland Clinic, Akron General, as well as Minority Behavioral Health Group, we'll have counselors like Angelo Anderson respond directly to hospitals.

When violence occurs, we will connect victims with services and support to prevent retaliation and to break cycles of harm.

Now, across this city, we are committed to reducing violence.

Over the last several years, we have seen street parties devolve into violence, especially in one of our densest neighborhood business districts in Highland Square.

Our police department and our economic development department have worked in concert with businesses in the square as well as Councilperson Fran Wilson to create a new special improvement district, or sid, modeled off what we have here downtown with Downtown Akron Partnership, in which assessments help us provide additional security and resources beyond what we already provide across the entire city.

And I want to be clear we will continue working alongside businesses across our entire city to ensure that people can gather safely.

Now, when it comes to safety, we are working to ensure our safety forces have what they need to do their job well.

For decades, our downtown police station has slowly fallen into disrepair.

Broken elevators, peeling paint, H VAC issues.

It all adds up.

Earlier this year, we announced plans for a full phased renovation of the Harold K. Stubbs justice center, with work beginning soon on new elevators and the first phase of the design of improvements.

We're also nearing the completion of a staffing study in our police department.

And soon we're working to undertake a similar one with our fire department at the request of our EMS Advisory Board.

Both will help us determine organizational structures to set these departments up for success over the long term.

Now, two weeks ago, we shared the completion of our comprehensive use of force review commissioned by the Police Executive research forum, with 58 different recommendations.

We announced some initial steps, including revisions to our use of force policy and restrictions on the use of head strikes, as well as our commitment to implement all of the recommendations and update the public monthly.

Now, the report and its recommendations, the actions we've already announced, they're about one thing.

Doing everything we can to improve outcomes in the most challenging situations in which our police use force.

We have outstanding officers in this department, and each day they respond to challenging, sometimes very dangerous situations.

My commitment Our commitment is that we make sure our officers have the best policies, procedures and training, as well as clear expectations, effective accountability structures, and the appropriate resources to implement all of the above.

That commitment applies broadly in the fulfillment of their duties to the residents of Akron and specifically with regard to incidents which may involve use of force, to ensure that every person in our community is treated fairly.

And through all of this work, we will continue to deepen our partnership and collaboration with our independent police auditor and our Citizens Police Oversight Board and move our efforts forward because they serve a critical role as an independent voice on this issue.

Now, there's a lot more that I could talk about in the safety space, but we wanted to do something a little different this year and show you a little bit more than we tell you.

Safety isn't a slogan.

It's how a city shows up every single day.

In Akron, safety means accountability for those who commit crimes.

If you do harm here, there are consequences.

We're using better tools, moving faster, working closer than ever with our partners.

But we also know by the time a crime happens, it's already too late for someone.

So we step in earlier, meeting people where they are, interrupting violence before it spreads, reaching people at their most critical moments and helping them choose a different path.

Because the right response can change everything.

And the strongest safety strategy is making sure the next generation has real opportunities, real support, and real paths forward.

Because safety doesn't belong to one person or one department.

It belongs to all of us.

And the choices we make to show up, to speak up, to look out for each other.

We're raising the standard, serving our residents and building trust one moment at a time.

Because a safer Akron is something we build together.

I really can show you better than we can tell you and it's not just an excuse for me to drink water.

We're thankful to have several folks from our Safer Together space here today.

Pastor Dennis from Minority behavioral health, Marcel McDaniel with nonstop growth, representatives from Summa and Akron General as part of our Hospital Linked Violence Intervention Program.

And of course, our members of our Akron Police Department and Fire Department.

Can we please give them all round of applause?

At the heart of this work is a simple idea.

Folks are better off when they are safe, supported and connected to the community around them.

And that doesn't stop with policing or emergency response.

It extends to the places that people call home, the condition of our neighborhoods, and whether families feel rooted and connected to the communities they live in.

Housing is a foundational part of our city, and our Living Together pillar is about addressing the housing challenges around affordability and quality, homelessness, and making sure all of our neighborhoods are healthy, environmentally sustainable places, but where everyone can thrive.

In September 2025, we launched Akron's Right to Counsel pilot in collaboration with Community Legal Aid Services, United Way of Summit Medina and the Akron Municipal Court, as well as other partners, and through the leadership of our Director of Opportunity and Engagement, Esther Thomas.

We've committed three years of funding to help residents facing eviction have access to legal services with limited resources.

We're prioritizing families with lower incomes and certain older adults with disabilities.

We've experienced so far an 80% success rate with this program.

80% Doesn't mean that all of those people have necessarily beaten back their eviction.

It can mean that they have gotten extended time to move out or settled through mediation.

But regardless of the outcomes which we're going to evaluate through the whole three year pilot program, it's important that we give people a basic right to have representation in our city.

Now.

I also want to thank the Akron Municipal Court because they have been building out a mediation program for eviction.

And rent escrow is designed to help parties resolve conflicts without extra costs and the disruption of a court hearing.

I particularly want to recognize our presiding and administrative judge, David Hamilton, who's here in the audience, and thank all of the members of the Akron Municipal Court.

We want to make sure that people have fairness in housing proceedings in court, but we also want to make sure that we're doing everything possible to ensure people have safe housing conditions.

We're strengthening code enforcement in our 2026 operating budget.

We worked with city council to add two new inspectors, and we've consolidated our housing division, which deals with interior conditions issues, and our Nuisance division, which deals with Exterior neighborhood issues like high grass into one code compliance division led by our longtime administrator, Duane Greger and Director of Neighborhood Assistance Yuvren C. Lasch, so that our team is better using its time and its resources.

The deepest solution to our housing issues is supply.

We have beautiful neighborhoods in this city, including some of the first planned communities in this country, in Firestone park and in Goodyear Heights.

Our neighborhoods have great bones, but they also have a lot of vacant lots and a lot of homes in need of some TLC and repair.

Through over $4 million of federal funding and in some cases donating city owned land, we're currently supporting housing projects that will create more than 530 new housing units, many of which are affordable, including infill housing on vacant land, rehabs of existing homes, and residential conversions of former commercial buildings.

Now we are also committing for the first time local funds to address homelessness.

For a long time we have provided our pass through federal funds, but we know we need to commit to doing more in this space.

And so we're excited to work with our continuum of care to build out new responses, especially for our emergency shelters so that people have a bed, especially when it's too cold to be outside safely.

Now, residents face a lot of obstacles when it comes to buying a first home.

Tonight we are announcing our way to remove one of those obstacles.

A new down payment assistance program that will launch this summer.

First time homebuyers who meet certain income limitations will be eligible for up to $7,500 towards their down payment and closing costs.

In Akron, home ownership should not be reserved for those who can afford it at the highest levels.

It should be in reach of everyone who chooses it, especially working families.

I want to thank our planning director Kyle Julian and his team for their hard work on this new program.

We are also trying to build a stronger civic culture around housing because lasting solutions require broad public buy in.

Through Unify Akron, Akron's residents are participating in the city's first housing assembly, a structured resident led progress process focused on developing real solutions to safe, affordable and quality housing.

And alongside that, advocacy organizations like Freedom Block have continued to push housing issues into public view, organizing around the idea that housing should be safe, dignified and accessible for all.

Now, whether that's worth applauding, Whether people come at this work from inside government or from outside government, that energy matters, it means more.

Akronites are helping shape housing policy in this city.

In June, we will introduce several pieces of legislation to Akron City Council focused on strengthening our housing code.

We will work to better address mold violations within apartments.

Too often our inspectors find that management simply cleans mold so there's no visible violation.

But they aren't necessarily addressing the underlying source of moisture.

So it just keeps coming back.

This is an issue that our neighbors at Spring Hill have experienced all too well and all too frequently for many years.

We are working with them and other complexes to try to address those problems directly through follow up and follow through with building management.

And we are going to leave no stone unturned and no tool on the shelf when it comes to addressing those.

But this isn't just about one complex.

We will also work to strengthen our rental registry system to prevent tenants and landlords from prevent our landlords from bringing in new tenants when they have failed to address housing issues on vacant piece of property.

And finally, we will work to eliminate minimum lot sizes for new housing on infill vacant lots in our city.

Somebody's very excited about that, and the reason they're excited is because in many of our neighborhoods we have vacant parcels and two identical houses on either side.

But filling it in with a similar house is prohibited by the minimum lot size.

That causes people to go through a lengthy City Council and planning commission process that I know we all enjoy, but it wastes time and money and so we will all be better served without it.

City policy should not be an obstacle to new housing, and so we are going to work with our council to eliminate every piece of red tape we can.

Several of the proposals we will bring forward have emerged from Freedom Block's work, and later this summer we will plan to bring in more proposals stemming from the recommendations we get soon from the Unify Akron Civic Assembly.

Here in Akron, more voices at the table are already making a big difference.

Living together is about our neighborhoods and quality of life.

It's about the streets and sidewalks, parks and public spaces that connect us.

We are investing in mobility and public spaces because a neighborhood is only as strong as its connections.

We are working to address a backlog of sidewalk repairs.

We are working to put in place permanent asphalt speed tables and we're working to reduce speed limits on high injury arterial streets across our city.

These are all basic things that we can do to make sure that people are safer and they feel more secure and connected in their city.

We're also investing in parks and public spaces as places of belonging.

And the city has continued our Akron Parks Challenge and tonight this wasn't in the cards, but I am going to announce that this year's winner of the Akron Parks Challenge is Heinz Hillcrest park in Ward 7 in Firestone Park.

Bridget, wherever you are, please forgive me, but we are working with Akron Parks Challenge both to identify parks for community led capital improvements, but also on a strategic plan for all of our city parks.

Our 2026 capital budget also included playground and recreation improvements across our entire city and we're trying to think differently about how public land can work better for residents.

We started a new City Meadows program that replaces city some turf fields with native meadows, improving beauty and wildlife habitat while reducing mowing costs and stormwater runoff in places like Hardesty park, down by the Dog park, the Ginther School site in Kenmore which has been a long time blight on the nearby neighborhood and in Summit Lake.

These are projects that are not just environmentally sound, they're smarter and more cost effective for our city services and our teams.

Living together also means preparing for the future that we know is coming because of our continued sustainability work and community engagement.

We earned the All America City Award during our bicentennial year in 2025.

That is also why Akron recently completed its first greenhouse gas inventory in 15 years showing that we have reduced over that time period community wide emissions by 29% and our city operations emissions by 54%.

Those numbers from that study are now feeding directly into our first ever Climate Action Plan which kicked off in September of last year and will be completed by the end of this year.

The goal of this is not just sustainability for sustainability's sake, its resilience, its lower pollution, it's better quality of life and a city that is ready for extreme heat for stronger storms for the long term pressure that climate change is already placing on residents and on our infrastructure.

This work has helped us secure private funding to continue moving the needle for our Climate Action Plan through our SOL Smart Silver Designation and through our Summit Fresh Mobile Market which received the U.S. conference and Mayor's grant.

And also you can clap.

That's because Elizabeth is on the board of the business piece of the US Conference of Mayors and also for our forestry funding to expand tree planting and community engagement.

That tree planting program we call Project ACORN is a grant funded urban forestry and workforce initiative that combines tree planting with paid job training.

Since its launch, the City has completed its first training cohort.

We're in the middle of the second training cohort.

We planted more than 250 trees, including fruit bearing trees across five neighborhoods in our city.

The broader Project ACORN effort was backed by million dollars in federal community forestry funding and is designed not only to expand the tree canopy but to create workforce pathways and direct environmental investments in our neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment and canopy loss.

Now, a few years ago, a family friend took me over to Betty street, just around the corner from Exchange and Route 8 to see where all of our trash goes at our Fountain street waste transfer Station, just yards away from the folks homes on Betty street.

Since the 1990s, our city government has been working to close Fountain street and to build a modern new facility.

And for the last two and a half years we've worked to make that a reality.

Last night, Akron City Council voted to approve the development agreement that will make this happen, meaning that the Fountain street site will be decommissioned and closed for good.

A new state of the art facility will be built off of Archwood Avenue more than a thousand feet from the closest homes.

It's also Akron's very first agreement that centers community benefits.

What that means is that there are real controls and monitoring, reporting requirements from waste Management and a million dollars in financial commitments that will help strengthen East Akron and Middlebury for a long time to come.

And all of this work since January 2024 was done in a transparent and engaging way with residents.

Not because it was easy, but because it was the right thing to do.

There are a lot of people to thank, especially our residents from East Akron to Middlebury, but also our Planning Director Kyle Julian, and especially our Director of Sustainability and Resiliency Casey Shevlin.

This is the bigger picture here.

Healthy homes, connected neighborhoods, cleaner environments.

Check out how we are doing the.

Work of living together in Akron.

Living together means more than sharing space.

It means shaping a future we can all be be part of.

Through our Climate Action work, we're building a city that's more resilient, more sustainable and ready for what's next.

Protecting our environment while investing in the neighborhoods we call home.

It means creating pathways where opportunity takes root.

Through Project acorn, two individuals started by learning how to plant trees, how to care for the land, and today their full time City of Akron employees maintaining the spaces we all share.

And it means coming together to take on the challenges that affect all of us through Unify Akron residents, leaders and partners in the same room.

Talking honestly about housing, about access, about the future of our city.

Not waiting for solutions, but building them together.

From sustainability to opportunity to shared voice, this is what it looks like when a city belongs to everyone.

Connected, invested, together.

We have a lot of folks here from Project acorn, including our landscapers Matthew Barnett and Anthony Nussi, who as I mentioned are now city employees as well as Our Unify Akron delegates and folks from Freedom Block.

Can we give everyone here who's working on these issues a round of applause?

Building a stronger city is not just about the places we build.

It's about the people we invest in.

And nowhere is that investment more important than with our young people.

When it comes to building Akron's future, we have to focus on how we support our kids from early childhood through youth and into adulthood, and then on the other end, thinking about how we support older adults as they age.

This is what we call the Growing together pillar.

And before we get into these initiatives, I want to take a moment and acknowledge some incredible young people in the room.

Tonight we invited champions in sports and other extracurriculars from across our city to be here, including all city champions, state champions, our Akron Zips Mac champions and their coaches.

Would you all please stand for a moment so we can celebrate you.

Now?

Academic performance is something we want to celebrate as well.

And tonight we have students and faculty here from our Akron Early College High school just around the corner.

Last year, Akron Early College high school earned five stars on the state scorecard for the fifth year in a row, they are ranked 13th out of 903 public high schools in the state of Ohio.

They are number one amongst all Summit county high schools.

And it's not just Akron Early College who's doing amazing work.

Akron Public Schools is the only district in Summit county to improve its ranking in the last year from two and a half stars to three and a half stars.

Akron Public Schools is an amazing team, an organization in itself.

I want to take a moment to thank our amazing superintendent, Mary Otley for her leadership.

I'd like to ask the superintendent, members of the board, and other APS leadership to please stand and be recognized.

We have a quorum.

We also want to support our youth and their success.

And it's important how we do that, right?

The city government is not in charge of the schools.

We certainly don't think we should control what happens in people's homes.

But our role is to help students in those key out of school time hours when they're not at school and they're not at home.

And so we've worked to stand up Youth Success Summit as our city's backbone organization for all youth serving nonprofits.

Our consistent financial support has helped Youth Success Summit, we call yss, secure a multi year national grant with the Wallace foundation in New York City, which is projected to bring $10 million to Akron over the next several years, with a particular focus on East Akron, where There's significant need for youth programming.

In 2025, we awarded $100,000 in small sports and wellness grants to 49 different organizations helping uplift our youth, including the Akron Bengals U7 football team.

They made it to the national championships in Florida this year and it was an empowering experience for these young kids that I saw when they came back.

I'm sure they're eager to repeat next year.

Last year we also started our Connect at the Rec program to give teens a fun, safe space to interact on several Fridays and this year we've expanded it to Saturdays as well.

In a world where so much is pushing us away from connection to loneliness and anxiety to our phones, it's so inspiring to watch our Rec and Parks team create a space for our kids to come and just be kids.

And over 750 young people have taken part in these programs.

Conveniently, they did not use the picture of me beating people at Connect 4, but it's okay.

This year we're undertaking a Project Play Study with the Aspen Institute focused on assessing our youth sports and wellness opportunities and where we can expand and grow from here.

This study will help us as a community create healthy, empowering opportunities for our young people.

We're also supporting our youth through workforce opportunities as well.

We welcomed 50 summer interns last year through our internship program with Summit county and Jobs for Ohio Graduates and this year's group will join us in six, seven weeks so we can clock the latest lingo.

I'm sorry.

Working with Akron City Council, we expanded our support of Akron After School and when it comes to our youth, what I'm most excited about is the work that we're doing in early childhood education with our Unified Early Learning System.

This pilot program is bringing together more than a dozen partners from APS to Head Start to IN Home childcare providers and center based providers with a goal of providing more affordable, high quality preschool and child care to everyone in our city.

This program includes wraparound services for families, professional development for educators, and with another grant from the US Conference of Mayors, a new business accelerator so that child care Elizabeth so the child care providers can access funding, navigate HR and legal and grow as small businesses.

This is a huge opportunity.

It's about our kids getting the best possible start to their education.

It's about our families having more affordable options and reliable care.

And it's about folks who are doing this essential work getting the support that they need.

This is a perfect example of how we can solve tough problems if we work together.

Look at all the partners Listed on this slide.

Instead of building a patchwork, we're building a unified system to uplift all of our children and every single person who cares for them.

But again, we can show you better than I can tell you.

In Akron, growth doesn't wait.

It shows up early on practice fields.

Under Friday Night Lights, a group of seven year olds, the Akron Bengals, given a shot and a two thousand dollar investment turned it into a trip to the national stage.

Second in the nation.

But here, that's just the beginning.

Because growth isn't just about where you go.

It's about where you are.

On a Friday night at Connect at the Rec, young people find more than a game.

They find connection.

Mentorship, a place that says you belong here.

And in those moments, paths start to change.

And it starts even earlier than that.

Through our unified early learning system, we're surrounding families with support, strengthening child care providers, investing in the people, shaping our youngest minds.

Because when we invest early, we build stronger futures.

From the field to the gym to the classroom, this is what it looks like when a city grows together.

Tonight we're joined by the Akron Bengals, our community center staff for Connect at the Rec, and Joe White from Circle of Life, Child Enrichment center and many other childcare providers.

Can we give them all a round of applause?

Lot.

And we want to share two really important ways that anyone can make a big impact in this space.

One of the great things about Youth Success Summit has been the creation of the Summit Mentoring Collaborative.

We have a lot of great mentorship groups in this community, right?

ACE Mentor Program, Akron Youth Mentorship, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, First Glance and Kenmore, Project Grad, Rahab ministries, Red Oak, iCare, Fallen Fathers, HB3, Akron Area YMCA and Young Life.

Each one of these programs has a unique focus and a unique approach.

Through the mentorship collaborative, you can fill out one form and figure out which of these programs might be the best fit for you.

And there are few things more rewarding than mentorship.

It's not only for the gain of the young people who have a trusted, committed person to regularly talk with.

It's also rewarding for the mentor.

Speaking from personal experience.

You learn and you grow alongside that person.

And secondly, I know this is not a fit for everyone, but there is a huge need in our community for foster care.

In Summit county, There are over 750 kids in the custody of Summit County Children's Services and there's only 180 foster homes available.

Often placements are across Ohio, causing young people to be uprooted from their communities.

We're highlighting this as another thing people can learn more about.

It's on the back of the program at the QR code.

And this Thursday, May 21st, Children's Services is hosting a virtual foster care open house from 6:30 to 7:30pm now, the last major focus I want to talk about is our working together pillar.

Our work to create economic opportunity for every single Akronite from downtown to our neighborhoods.

We're helping shepherd new growth that's adding jobs today.

We're also doing the long term work of building the backbone of our economy around sustainable polymers and advanced materials.

And there'll be more on that in a moment.

Over the past 12 months, businesses of all sizes have made a choice to invest and grow in the city of Akron.

Their commitment to improving the city through their presence, through employment of residents, contributes to our economy, to our competitiveness and to the quality of life of our families.

Here's what this means Downtown.

We've worked with GPD Group, one of the largest engineering firms in Northeast Ohio, to support their decision to stay and grow downtown.

They're adding at least 120 new jobs with an annual payroll of $50 million.

And they've purchased their longtime space in the historic B.F. goodrich complex.

If you walk down there on a day like today, you can see the scaffold.

It's a real sign of their investment and their commitment to Akron.

We've worked with one of the largest law firms in Northeast Ohio, Buckingham, Doolittle and Burroughs, to support their move back to downtown, meaning more than 70 jobs from their Akron office will be right here.

Millennium Capital is growing in the AES building.

Trailhead foundation under the leadership of Tracy Carter is opening their new foundation office downtown.

And 717 Credit Union has made a big investment in our community, buying naming rights to the ballpark and opening new branches both downtown and in Wallhaven.

We're working on residential and mixed use redevelopment with the City center building on High street, the Cascade Plaza project right here in Gino Fasciana and Barb Fasciana are leading that.

And just this past week the Quaker Square Development secured a $1 million grant from the state of Ohio, bringing us closer to our goal of seeing that space open and a convention center adjacent hotel in our downtown.

More people in downtown during the day, on nights and weekends for conventions.

It means more support for the existing retail that has stuck by downtown.

It means more demand for new retail options like Crafty Steer, which is opening soon in the o' Neill's building, a restaurant, Game Spot and market.

It means more jobs.

It means more opportunity in the center of our city.

Now, our economic development team has spent a lot of time helping with each of those projects.

But as I announced in last year's speech, we've also started our Downtown Akron Development Corporation to help move the ball forward and capitalize on the momentum that we're seeing.

I want to thank Chris Hardesty and the entire board of the corporation for their work.

Now, another big piece of how we support Downtown is public gatherings.

The new Lock 3 park is headed into its second year.

This weekend kicks off our summer concert series.

You can come check out a show or one of our big festivals.

There's truly something for everyone.

So if you haven't been to a show or festival in the newly revamped space, please make sure you get to one.

This year.

In our neighborhoods, we're also seeing similar expansions.

Ajinomoto, which is a subsidiary of Tokyo based Stocks and Broths Food Company, is executing a $15 million expansion with the intent to add 23 new jobs over a three year period.

On Home Avenue, Additive Engineering Solutions is in a small, unassuming building on Evans Avenue.

Andrew Bader and Austin Schmidt have built a business using some of the largest 3D printers in the entire world right here in Akron, Ohio.

They recently completed a $5 million investment adding 12 engineering and manufacturing jobs to our community.

Hickory Harvest, which has been based in our Copley Joint Economic Development District, is expanding into Akron this year with the purchase of a new facility on Waterloo Road where they're going to be investing $4 million.

And at House 330.

Has anybody been to House 330?

At House 330 we're seeing the latest example of the LeBron James Family Foundation's people centered approach to economic development with I promise students, parents, teachers and family members learning new skills and job training while serving the community with the world's leading bucket getter.

Hailing from Akron, we're fortunate to have the new addition of his Buckets restaurant where Akronites can work together, grow together, share meals together, and as a community, their we are family approach to daily interactions should become the blueprint for hospitality safety and economic development.

Because family doesn't let family fail.

So if you're looking for a place to watch the Knicks get dunked on, that's your place.

In 2026, we will invest in growing opportunity and increasing the tax base by supporting businesses across the entire spectrum of entrepreneurship.

From small businesses with one to two employees to large corporations.

Our economic development team will meet with more than 200 businesses to grow our city's economy.

One conversation at a time.

We will not only provide support, we will provide connections to a lot of our small business assistance providers.

Those providers, folks like the Akron Urban League Bounce, our city's innovation hub where most of the speech was written.

Our Black Chamber of Commerce of Summit county, the Summit Medina Business alliance, the Greater Akron Chamber, these are all entities that we're supporting with funding to be able to help support all of our small businesses grow in what they need to succeed.

We're also supporting businesses specifically in our great streets neighborhood business districts.

Last year we invested in 31 small businesses to support not just their general operations, but also business development for entrepreneurship entrepreneurs who own their own business and have one to five employees.

These grants again were paired with those same connections to those small business assistance providers.

Now, you know, before I continue, I want to talk just a little bit about our polymers we have in this community and I'm going to talk about it in a second.

An amazing opportunity with the polymer industry cluster.

And so we are going to work with the University of Akron and with all of our providers to grow that as part of our economy.

And we can do both things.

We can grow the long term of our economy.

We while also supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs as they grow.

These are businesses like Trinmax Freight Movers owned by Tiffany Jarlo Ethic Race owned by Terrence Bailey.

Joyful Interactions owned by Bianca Harris.

And these are folks who've been able to use our grants to support their operations and we're proud to give them a boost.

I think we have the next video.

In Ackman.

We don't just look back at what we were known for.

We build what's next.

Our polymer cluster partners are driving a new kind of economy.

Built on polymers, on innovation, on a global cluster rooted right here.

One of the largest concentrations of polymer expertise in the world.

Turning research into real world impact.

Turning ideas into jobs.

Turning Akron into a leader in what comes next.

But growth doesn't just happen in labs.

It happens on our streets, in our neighborhoods, in businesses built from the ground up.

Ethic Race Clothing, a black owned business.

Moving goods, creating jobs, building opportunity right here in Akron.

Backed by local government, turning vision into velocity.

And across our city, momentum is building companies, choosing Akron businesses, expanding developers, reinvesting in our future.

Breathing new life into downtown and into neighborhoods across the city.

From innovation to entrepreneurship to investment.

This is what happens when a city believes in itself.

Please join me in thanking some of the stars of this video.

Our Palmer Industry Cluster Terrence Bailey, owner of Ethic Race, and all of our business owners, owners who are here with us tonight.

Now, as I mentioned a couple of times, I want to talk about sustainable polymers and the future of Akron's economy.

But before I do that, I want to take a short trip to our past.

In the 1800s, Akron was at the center of the growing American economy.

Because of the Ohio Erie Canal, which runs right under this building, we were a hub of commerce between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River.

And because of that, in November 1870, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich moved to Akron to start the first rubber factory west of the Allegheny mountains.

In the 1900s, as we all know, Akron was the rubber capital of the world.

To be a part of this industry anywhere in the world, you had to have some kind of connection or presence to Akron.

And that industry was our backbone economy.

It created tremendous jobs and prosperity.

We were the fastest growing city in the country between 1910 and 1920, and it wasn't perfect.

We had plenty of environmental issues and fights between labor and management, but the rubber industry powered our city.

Every community needs a backbone economy, something that young people growing up here can aspire to, to see a future for themselves.

And just like we did with the canals, just like we did with the rubber industry, we can be the best in the world at sustainable polymers and advanced materials.

We already have the pieces we need.

Our rubber legacy means we have hundreds of polymer related companies right here in Northeast Ohio.

We have one of the best polymer science programs in the world right here at the University of Akron.

And as many of you know, with the leadership of the Greater Akron Chamber and the Polymer Industry Cluster now led by HANS DORFY, In 2024, our community was able to secure $100 million in state and federal grants to support this work.

Right now, we are part of an application from Case Western Reserve University on behalf of all of Northeast Ohio for a $160 million grant from the National Science foundation focused on polymers and other advanced materials like metals and coatings.

We won't hear about the grant until later this summer, but earlier this year, I was part of an NSF site visit.

And I want to tell you how proud I was of our community.

I was sitting in a room alongside Governor DeWine and Mayor Bibb and Steve Millard from our chamber and many other leaders.

And for the first time, I mean this, for the first time, it felt like we weren't begging.

It felt like we were sharing the confidence we have in our communities.

I am convinced that we are going to build this industry into an international leader.

Grant money will help it come quickly, but we are going to do this one way or another.

Now some of what we build is going to be tangible.

The Polymer Industry cluster will break ground soon on a pilot facility at the University of Akron to bridge the gap between an idea in a research lab and a commercial product.

But as a community, we have to make sure that our young people see the value of what we're building, that it's not just big numbers and big buildings.

I'm really proud of the work that the GAR foundation has done with Akron Public Schools and Weathervane Playhouse.

They have called it Once Upon a Polymer.

And every single third grader in Akron Public Schools is now learning about polymer materials through the magic of musical theater.

I got to see this earlier this year.

I'm sitting cross legged on the floor alongside the kids from Forest Hill Community Learning Center.

They're learning about polymer materials through the light.

The polymers that help change the colors on stage lights through the polymers that make up the materials on the costumes in the dance studio.

And I can see them connecting with these concepts.

I can see them seeing a role for themselves and a future for themselves.

It's a beautiful thing.

And I'm not just saying that because my wife is a musical theater teacher and if I was, it doesn't matter because she's gone again.

But tonight I'm twice I shout her out.

Who's here?

There we go.

I love you.

Tonight I'm excited to announce the next step in making the polymer economy real for our young people.

The City of Akron is working with partners across our community to create a Polymers Part Pathways partnership in collaboration with Stark State College, the University of Akron, Akron Public Schools, Connexus NEO Jobs for Ohio Graduates, our Chamber and the Polymer Industry Cluster.

We will work to ensure that any high school student in Akron who wants to pursue a career in sustainable polymers and advanced manufacturing can get credentials and certifications to do so.

From early career exploration to hands on learning and direct access to high demand jobs, we are going to build a system so that every young person in Akron can see a future for themselves here and a pathway to build it now.

One symbol of Akron of both our past and our future is the Goodyear Blimp.

A good year is a key part of our polymer industry cluster.

You may have noticed by now that despite the beautiful sky, this year's speech has fewer blimps than last year's speech.

Well, after last year we thought, what is a cool way we can do something fun and also give us some civic pride.

I'm excited to announce that this year the city of Akron will officially kick off a new city holiday with the help of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Check it out, Sam.

One of these videos, not like the others.

When we tried that this morning, the sound was like twice as loud.

This year, on Saturday, June 6, we'll host the inaugural Blimp Day in the city of Akron.

From 9am to noon, Goodyear will fly two of their iconic blimps over all 24 neighborhoods in our city.

We plan to host this event every summer, and while the specific date might change, you can get ready for a yearly Blimp Day holiday on your calendar.

In future years, Blimp Day will also include a festival with opportunities to get up close and personal with these symbols of Akron.

This year, we're hosting a Blimp Day photo contest to see who can get the best picture of the two blimps around the city.

So stay tuned for more information on that.

Tonight, I'm very excited to have the Goodyear team with us.

We have Michael Dougherty, who's the chief pilot for all airship operations.

We have Jerry Hisom, chief pilot for Akron, the amazing Joni Finch.

And I want to thank the Goodyear team and CEO Mark Stewart for teaming up with the city.

Can we give them all a round of applause.

Before we wrap up and appreciate your patience?

I just want to share a few final thoughts with you.

Last month, the Akron Roundtable hosted a conversation with someone from Akron who's the best in the world at what he does.

Paul Tazewell, who's won an Oscar, an Emmy and two Tony Awards for his work in renowned shows like wicked and Hamilton.

Mr. Taswell shared about his childhood how a supportive community in West Akron Booktol High School helped him grow into the person he is today.

One of our team members, Patricia, was in the audience.

She was very excited because Paul is a huge inspiration to her.

She mentioned to me that her grandparents had known Paul when he was young as his coach and as his teacher.

And I thought, isn't that a beautiful reflection of what community is?

Her grandparents were part of the community that helped him achieve amazing things.

And now he's inspiring someone from that same family.

That's what's powerful about akr.

We are all part of this amazing community.

Sometimes we are lending a hand.

Sometimes we are the ones who being helped.

We are always doing it together in a world that pushes us towards individualism.

Our community is a living example of how we can achieve amazing things together.

Our team in city government is part of a much larger community.

Everyone in this room and everyone across our city.

As you've seen over and over tonight, the work that we're doing to build Akron's future is collaborative work, and we will continue in that spirit.

Together for Akron, to me, is more than just a plan.

It's a way of doing things.

We are connected to each other and in a world that feels more divided than ever, more isolated, more cynical.

We still believe in community.

We still believe in showing up for one another.

We still believe in neighborhoods and mentorship and in public service, in coaching a team, in helping a neighbor, and in building something bigger than ourselves.

That spirit is everywhere in this room tonight, in the public safety forces that we have in this room, in our teachers, in our childcare providers, our mentors, our students, our volunteers, our public servants, and our residents who are speaking up to use their voice.

That's what Together for Akron means.

It means understanding that none of us builds.

The city alone is all of us together.

And the truth is, the future for Akron is not something that's just going to happen one day.

It's something.

It's something I was got overexcited and turned off the mic.

It's something that we are building right now.

We're building it with the choices we make.

We're making.

We're building it with the way we treat one another.

We're building it with each day how we choose to make an impact.

So as we close, I want to leave you with five ways that we can continue to lean in for this community.

As I've mentioned downloading our 311 app, attending our amazing lineup of downtown events, learning about mentorship opportunities with Youth Success Summit, Learning more about our foster care system in Summit county and for our young people and for our polymer and advanced manufacturing businesses.

You can use the QR code on that program to sign up for the Polymers Pathway.

Partnership with each other.

There's nothing we cannot do in successes and setbacks.

We are stronger because we face things as a community.

Add on.

Akron's greatest strength has never been our factories.

It's never been our buildings, even our history.

It's always been our people.

Their resilience, their creativity, their compassion, and our willingness to show up for each other when times are easy and when times are hard.

That's who we are.

That's why I believe in this city.

Because when we work together, when we believe in each other, when we invest in each other, there's nothing we cannot do in Akron.

The state of our city is strong because we are building our future together.

Thank you.

And there you have it.

I'll have a link if you want to watch the video, as well as if you want the slides from the president presentation.

And it was interesting.

Well done to the mayor.

I thought he did a good job.

Congrats on his new little one.

I think he said she was six months old.

Absolutely adorable.

And that's going to do it for this episode of the Akron Podcast.