Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance

Ignite neighborhood-friendly investment acquiring and developing property,and attracting (and matching) businesses and residents to spaces and resources: the retail corridor vacancy rate has dropped by double digits since inception. Thanks to recruitment efforts and incentives, female and minority-owned small businesses more closely match the neighborhood's demographic. Better kenmore also provides resources and training opportunities for these small businesses. Further, the organization has restored two vacant/blighted buildings and is currently restoring a third for mixed-use.

Create spaces that sing through signage, public art and "safe and clean"efforts that magnify what's good about the neighborhood: pedestrian and bike paths and wayfinding signage have been installed. In conjunction with volunteers, we tend to hundreds of native ohio flowers and plants in the boulevard medians, and have trash clean up events. A creative placemaking plan has been recently developed to complement the public art murals better kenmore has already completed. A quarterly community safety meeting provides a platform for community members to voice their concerns. In 2024, we installed historic district welcome signs and wayfinding signs from the newly constructed summit lake hike & bike trail connector of the ohio erie & canalway towpath trail to the boulevard historic district.

Engage the community around critical issues: we successfully lobbied akronpublic schools to rebuild miller south and pfeiffer elementary on the site of the former kenmore high school building, just one block north of theboulevard, a construction project valued at 62,000,000. Enrollment is expected to begin in fall 2027.