Akron apologizes, resolves to make changes decades after building controversial Innerbelt highway

Описание: If you’ve been to downtown Akron, you've seen it — a stretch of the Innerbelt that's been unused and overgrown for years.

This week, decades after it was built, the city apologized for the highway's construction and released a report to improve and redevelop the 30 acres it sits on.

But to understand what the city is doing today, you have to understand what happened more than 60 years ago.

"I was born on Roads Avenue, which is one block away from the Innerbelt," longtime resident Dr. Albert Bragg Jr. says.

Bragg and others who lived in the area remember when the stretch of unused concrete adjacent to downtown Akron was a vibrant Black community.

"That's where I grew up, so I was very comfortable with that area and I felt safe," he told 3News. "I would spend time at the custard stand. It was right around the corner from my house. Perkins park, the zoo, all of that was just a few blocks away."

In 1964, Bragg's family moved to another part of the city, but he came back often to work and play, including in the 1970s when construction began on the Innerbelt.

"What used to be a thriving community was just no longer there. A swath was cut right through it, dividing people that used to be neighbors," Bragg lamented. "I used to shine shoes at my grandfather's barbershop. Once the Innerbelt came in, the customer flow dropped dramatically."

The city says the road was part of a growing number of urban renewal projects across the country that often impacted Black neighborhoods and communities. Conversations about changing the highway started in the 1990s, but nothing happened until 2016, when the Ohio Department of Transportation vacated the section of the highway between Market and Exchange Streets.

The 30-acre site went back to the city for public use, but for years, the only thing that's come out of it is weeds.

Matt Rascon reports: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/loc... --

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