Mid week notes from Akron

It's trash night in Kenmore. My lovely new bins are not at the curb tonight. I put out one bag of trash and one bag of recyclables. Not nearly enough trash to make it worthwhile for the truck to stop and go through its robotic moves.

There are no Democratic campaign signs that I have seen in Kenmore other than the Strickland/Fisher and Espy for Justice signs in front of my residence. There's a great big ugly Blackwell/Raga sign on East Ave, and a couple of smaller ones down by Summit Lake (the west side). There is a scattering of Kevin Coughlin signs and some Parker for Judge signs dotted around Thornton and Manchester Rd. I didn't see any Democrat signs in Firestone Park when I drove through there earlier this week, and they are usually thickets of Democratic yard support there.

I've been thinking about getting more involved locally. I'm not sure if I would be at all welcome. I'm not the the blind toadying type. The local Dems have had a stranglehold on power in city and county government for quite some time now. It looks like a good old boys network lead by the Mayor and his all Democratic city council. It's a Democratic mirror of the Republican power glut at state and federal levels and the effects are similar. Some corruption may be coming to light regarding Akron Thermal, a company that according to the ABJ has fallen far into debt and owes the city a heap of money. It gets away with it because it provides heat to the major players left in downtown Akron -- the hospitals and the university.

Meanwhile, we all wait to see if the school levy will pass. The For Sale signs are multiplying like fungus in front yards all over the city. There was a letter of complaint in the latest issue of Akron Life & Leisure from a fellow who felt that Granger township in Medina had been slighted because it was not named one of "Best Burbs" in the greater Akron area. He listed all the reasons many people move from Summit County to Granger and chief among them is because it is where the "renowed Highland High School (school of excellence) is located." Pretty darn ironic -- the magazine about Akron is really for the people who live in the suburbs. They are the ones who can afford to buy the pricey stuff found in the ads in that mag.

In Kenmore the retail trade is very small time. The boulevard could be very attractive but neglect and lack of money wash over the area, like the depressing tones found in an old and faded watercolor painting. The sort of thing you might find in a thrift store, of which there are several on the boulevard. A Dollar Store opened up a couple of years ago. It's a working class kind of place.