Showing posts with label Love Where You Live. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Love Where You Live. Show all posts

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Arrival: The Music of Abba with The Akron Symphony!

The view from the cheap seats.
Do you love ABBA?

Of course you do!

Do you love the Symphony?

Meh?

What about the AkronSymphony?

Obviously... you love everything Akron!

Well put ABBA and the Akron Symphony together and you have a flood of inexplicable happy feelings filling your face! How do I know? Because I had a lovely evening with some girlfriends, soaking in my downtown, and loving this concert! Here’s how it works:

Part 1: We ordered Lockview to go, walked across the street to the open Lock 3, and laid out our picnic at the table. We chatted like girls (who are too busy to see each other nearly enough) often do. Conversation involved engagements, bad roommates, new babies, bad jobs, and memories. You know, everything.

Part 2: Walk next door to the Akron Civic Theater, purchase wine which you are permitted to bring into the seating area, and enjoy!

I love ABBA and I super love song remakes – especially when done in an unexpected way such as when a booty-call, sexually explicit song gets covered by classical piano. Love it! So you can imagine my delight with an ABBA cover band singing with a symphony orchestra! The sound was so rich and full, so strong. The Akron musicians were dressed in the normal all black whereas Arrival was blazing white with shimmer and sheen. The show was all about the music, which made my rear balcony, $22 seats not such a bad deal since it all sounds great in the theater.

I grew up a band kid. I even stayed in marching and concert bands for three years in college. My husband got his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Music Education, as did many of our friends. Then he taught three years of band to fifth through twelfth grade students. All of this means concerts for me to attend. Loads and loads of concerts for me to attend. I was pretty burnt out with concerts by the time my husband changed his career.

But this concert? There was no doubt in my mind once I heard the advertisement on the radio. It was a great night in the big city.
 
I love where I live!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Which tree to bark up?

Remember that Summit County Trails Forum I attended? I loved it! I loved every minute of it - except the last minute.

Like most events such as this, we ran over our time. 'Twas the end of an enlightening session titled Trail Development 101 - and I mean the absolute end, like "Ok,and if there are no other questions we'll wrap it up" - when a middle aged woman raised her hand and with a tone I can only describe as "somewhat miffed," she said (paraphrased to the best of my memory):

"I notice that we're only hearing from the richer communities here, like Bath, Richfield, and the like. And I notice that there isn't a whole lot of color here (as she looked around at all of us). What about the lower income areas? I live over by Summit Lake, essentially across from the projects. What about them? How do we give them the advantages of Summit Trails?"

silence...

collection of thoughts...

And then the speakers discussed their opinions on the matter, which is that the means to involving the lower income areas is Education. We need to provide these populations with reasons that the trails are useful (health, fitness, enjoyment of nature, vehicle-less travel, general recreation, etc.) and assist them in using the trails.

Furthermore, other points were noted:

1. Despite strong encouragement for OECC to build the towpath around the lower income area near Summit Lake, the towpath goes right through the center of it. The towpath is literally in the backyard of these apartment buildings and alongside the Summit Lake Community Center which is utilized by many residents of that area.

2. Several different types of people are on the trail everyday and this diversity has been increasing over the years. (My addition: I agree. I've seen different ages, races, apparent economic classes, etc. on the trail, especially in that area.)

3. The OECC, along with Cargill and PNC (for 2012) hosts an annual Fishing Derby, specifically designed to bring local kids to the outdoors that would not normally have been exposed to the gifts of nature. These kids are taken out for a day of fishing and learning about our trails and parks.

Now, having said all that, my question is: Was this forum to right tree to bark up? I feel like this complaint could be better addressed somewhere else... but where?

In what other ways could we bring our beloved trails and parks to our entire community? Will Phase II, the project to connect all parts of the county to the towpath, be instrumental in this aspect? Will it be enough?

Some other ideas I have:

1. Programs similar to Girls on the Run, directed at inner city children, focusing on trail running.
2. A community walking program, enlisting first the teachers and professionals in the area. Their benefit and enthusiasm could inspire others.
3. What if Lebron James' famous Wheels for Education included a portion of the towpath (it's right there by the Aeros stadium) and some information showing the participants what the trails can do for them?

Hmmm... I wonder how I can make some/all of these things happen...

Why complain if you when you can DO? Why ask "Why haven't you...?" when instead you can ask "How can we help...?" The tree you should bark up is your own!

This is your city Akron. Love where you Live! If you don't, let's fix it!
The floating portion of the towpath over Summit Lake. The area in the distance is the one addressed above. Photo from here.

Friday, October 19, 2012

A Ribbon Cutting of Sorts


As we say when we wrestle from our slumber, put ourselves together, and greet a brand new day – Good Morning! A world of possibility lies ahead for the day – and for this blog! It’s been rolling around in my noggin for quite some time and I’m finally ready to put pencil to paper – or fingers to a keyboard – and get going!

Earlier this week, I attended a trail dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony for The Village of Richfield* in partnership with the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition. The Village, in part through funding received from the Ohio Public Works Commission and Summit County, constructed 1.25 miles of walking trails on land previously owned by the Carter-Pedigo families.  This trail connects the library, Village Hall and leads to Brecksville Road. It was an exciting day for those who had worked for years to make these new trails a reality. We gathered near the opening, listened to the Mayor of Richfield, Bobbie Beshara, and other key personnel happily discuss the creation of the trail. Mayor Beshara’s predessor** spoke about how the property was acquired and noted that the group had actively engaged in once-in-a-lifetime opportunities in order to make their vision a reality. He knew the-time-is-now opportunities when they were presented and he did not delay. Because of his action, Elaine’s Trail, Old Hickory Trail, and Virginia’s Trail are now available for our enjoyment.
 
The trail awaits! Let's cut the ribbon and get going!
I couldn’t help but see the Universe using this event to push me to get my initiatives going, this blog being one of them. The time is now. Let the ribbon to this new path be cut!

You know that Johnny Cash song I’ve Been Everywhere? Sometimes I feel like I could sing that for myself. While my international travel has been sparse (ok, if Mexico and Canada don’t count, it’s non-existent), my domestic travel has been flourishing over the past several years. Through work, professional organizations, and my other “extra-curricular activities,” I’ve been blessed with many occasions for travel. I love going places. I love seeing other variations of American culture. I love seeing new things. But you know what else I love? Akron. I love my home. I think it’s one of the greatest little cities on earth and I feel bad for the Akronites that don’t agree. We’ve got a little of everything and a lot of optimism here. We’re growing well, we’re building, and we’re indulging in the unique qualities we have here.

And I want you to love Akron too. Join me as I live here, love here, and experience everything my favorite city has to offer.

* "I'm no geography whiz, but isn't Richfield in a completely different county than Akron?" I'm glad you asked that. Yes! Richfield is a 20-30 minute drive from downtown. One of the great things about Akron is that it's in driving distance to so many other exciting places and I think that's a valuable quality for a city to have. This blog will be about many things, but they'll all have some relation to Akron. But for the record, the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition is based in Akron and that's the reason I was invited to the ceremony.

** Boo on me for not remembering his name. I even tried looking it up, but failed to find anything. How would you google that anyway?