The construction of the Innerbelt left a physical scar on a once-vibrant Akron neighborhood.
As the one-time freeway is turned into something new, the city can’t forget about the grief that continues to linger for people who lived in and frequented the neighborhood that was flattened for the Innerbelt’s construction, said Esther Thomas, the director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the City of Akron.
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Speaking on a panel Tuesday as part of the Sound of Ideas Community Tour at the Knight Stage in downtown Akron, Thomas said an apology for the decimation of the community is “absolutely necessary.” Former Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan apologized in December for the “lasting harm” the project caused to the community. But his message wasn’t heard by everyone.
“I didn’t hear about the apology. It’s a little late,” said Annmarie Ford, a panelist on the program that focused on reimagining the Innerbelt, recorded for Ideastream Public Media’s WKSU. The program will air Aug. 5 at 9 a.m. and rebroadcast at 9 p.m.
Thomas said the city has been intentional in involving one-time residents like Ford in envisioning what should come next for the area. She hopes doing so can be healing for her and other residents.
But Ford, who recalled living in the neighborhood between the ages of 7 and 14, said the pain of losing the vibrant community won’t go away. After her family moved away, she said she never again saw many of the people she spent time with as a child.
“The hurt’s been done, and you can’t undo it,” she said. “It hurts, it hurts; that hurt doesn’t go away. There’s a whole lot of damage that they’ve done to us.”
Ford said she thought it was time for the city to “step up and do the right thing,” though what that is remains to be seen. She said she was an advocate of turning the Innerbelt into green space, though Akron Director of Planning Kyle Julien said part of the intention of the project is to make up for some of the economic losses in the community.
He said it’s important, through the project, to “create value that’s going to be reparative and address the harms of the past.”
“There was a lot of things that we had, where now there isn’t,” Ford said. “They just took everything away.”
Ayesha Nurruddin, a West Akron resident who attended the taping, said she remembered going to the area as a child, roller skating, then getting a fish sandwich and a Tahitian Treat float at the local custard shop. She called the area the gathering place for the community and said she appreciates that the city is working to learn what people who were affected by the destruction might need to feel whole.
“The wealth that was lost — those families need to be interviewed,” she said.
‘Malicious intent’
At the time the Innerbelt was constructed in the 1970s, panelists said, the harm it caused to the predominantly Black community was intentional. While other routes for the Innerbelt were recommended, the decision was made to ignore those recommendations, said Rose Vance-Grom, a University of Akron graduate student.
“It’s hard to say it was not malicious intent,” she said.
Roger Riddle, a communications and creative services consultant who has been collecting oral histories from those who were connected to the community, said the descriptions he heard from neighbors underlined how much was available in the neighborhood. There was a market, a barbershop, a drugstore, a record store and jazz clubs.
“If you are an urban planner today, they are describing the perfect neighborhood,” he said. “It gives you an idea of what it could be. It’s not only documenting the past; it’s dreaming about the future.”
Hearing the passion of audience members who shared their memories and their frustrations, Riddle said for many people, the displacement was never discussed. Instead, the feelings they had were left to fester. When they do, he said, “terrible things” happen.
“It’s important for us to deal with grief so we as a city can move forward,” he said.
The Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival used the decommissioned Innerbelt as a venue beginning in 2022 and will do so again this September, said Theron Brown, a jazz pianist and assistant professor at the University of Akron, who founded the festival. He said doing so showed that the area, which is very walkable from downtown, would have allowed for a different kind of community if it had continued to exist.
Thomas, with the city, said she hopes that by including former residents in the process, they will feel they’re now a part of a major project that will allow for healing.
For her part, Ford said she derives some pleasure from the fact that she now makes her home in another part of Akron where urban renewal projects displaced some aunts and uncles.
While the wrongs of the community have not been righted, “I feel peace sometimes,” Ford said.
