(upbeat music) - Hey, Akronites.

Welcome once again, to "Around Akron with Blue Green," and like always, we have an amazing show ahead of us today.

I'm going to meet up with Mac Love and learn all about Art by Love.

I'm gonna head down to the valley and learn about Summit Metro Park's newest area, The Valley View.

And I'm gonna meet up with an African dance troupe at North Hill called The Black Beanz.

Now, to kick this show off today, I'm gonna meet up with Mac Love.

Now he's a muralist, but he also does a lot of other amazing things for artists in the area.

Let's go see what Mac Love is all about.

(serene music) - We need to have things that we can look up at.

In environments that have no art, people's eyes are down on the ground and when they're down on the ground, they're not looking up at opportunity.

They're not looking up at other people in their community.

And so, I very intentionally use artwork to try to put little nodes of positivity and color and vibrancy in those gaps so that people might look up and just find and discover many other things.

Maybe a new thought or idea, a neighbor or community member or a business they haven't seen.

Art can serve many, many different roles, but I very much got into murals because of the need to fill the gaps in our living spaces and environments.

Akron Stories is something we created to support the Rubber Worker Statute and Stories Project.

Back in 2016, a letter was written to the Beacon Journal lamenting the fact that there was no statute dedicated to the rubber workers themselves in Akron.

A resident named Miriam Ray read that article and thought, you know what, this is something I care about.

I think we should do something about this.

And so for three years, she just went out and was advocating for it.

She eventually, her husband bought her a maquette of the statue based on the cover of the book "Wheels of Fortune," and she would take it into meetings and say, this is what we need.

So we were introduced by a mutual friend in 2019, who thought that I could just help her bring this project into reality.

And at the time, her idea had evolved into having stories as a core part of it.

So about three months, six months after I came on board, the city of Akron contact her, said hey, we want to put your statue in the middle of this roundabout.

We'll take care of that.

And if you want to do the stories thing in the commemorative bricks, go ahead.

And so, that was where we got involved.

We created Akron Stories as a easy website and name to remember.

Our approach is we sell commemorative bricks, which fund the Oral History Project.

It's exclusively funded through the sale of the commemorative bricks.

At this point, we've sold 1,700 bricks and we've used those resources to conduct hundreds of interviews, collect thousands of stories.

And those stories are stories from rubber workers and their descendants.

And they're focused on all aspects of the rubber industry, from the history to people, to the products, to the work, and to also painting a picture of what Akron was like at that period of time.

It's really important to preserve and capture this history.

It explains so much of what is going on now and also our potential for what could be tomorrow.

(calm music) At the very start of the pandemic in March 2020, I was reading about what was going on with local businesses and also local artists.

I knew the impact the pandemic was having.

And so, I had this idea that when we're all stuck at home, the conversations that we have become more important.

And I always had my best conversations with family members around a deck of cards, playing Rummy or whatever it might be, sitting at home with my grandmother.

And I thought, wouldn't it be great if we can bring something to that conversation that raises awareness of local landmarks and local artists and all the talent that we have here.

So we launched Akron On Deck as a kick starter with the goal, hopefully, of raising $5,000, using that 5,000 to print a thousand decks of cards that we could sell locally.

We intentionally constructed the project so that we weren't asking any artist to create anything new for this.

People were wrestling with so much already with the pandemic.

We wanted to make it as low a threshold for entry as possible.

No costs for submissions, unlimited submissions allowed and all selected artists would receive 40% of the proceeds back in as royalty payments for life.

So the cards came out in October of 2020.

And we sold out of the decks like three or four times over.

So the whole thing, Akron on Deck, is designed to benefit, not just the artists, but also the businesses.

We now have 20 local retailers who purchase the decks at a wholesale price.

So they're also making money off of the sale as well.

Every artist has something beautiful on their wall or sitting on a floor when it could be in front of a lot of other people.

The idea of Akron on Deck was how can we take that thing that they have and share it with more people in a way that's efficient and responsible for the artists, but also benefits the entire community.

So they still own the rights to all of their artwork, but someone might pick up a deck of cards and just discover, not just all new corridors of our community, but also people's voices in the arts that maybe is something they are looking for and don't realize they need.

Believe in the health of art and believe in the power of creative courage.

Just doing or trying, that alone, you'll never make it happen unless you do that.

And other people will see that bravery and they will want to follow and they will want to try too.

So even if you fail, you've given someone else the courage to try and fail too.

And ultimately if all of us are working courageously, you're gonna see that world that you wanna live in.

That idealic thing.

And even beyond that, the things you couldn't imagine even having and seeing in your own world, and doing it together and being sensitive to the needs of others.

That's a big part of it.

- Next up, I'm gonna head down to the valley and learn all about The Valley View.

This is Summit Metro Parks newest location.

It was once a dairy farm, then it was a golf course, and now it's a temporary trail conservation area.

Let's go see what this place is all about.

(calm guitar music) - I've always enjoyed being outside.

In fact, at Valley View right now, I grew up near the Highland Square area.

We would ride our bikes down Memorial Parkway, ride them down the sewer pipe and explore the valley.

Being outside was part of growing up and growing up in the Metro Parks was part of my life as a child.

I'm a landscape architect.

Before I came to the park district, I was a consultant.

And one of my biggest clients was the Metro Parks.

And I grew up in this area.

So I know these areas really well.

And a lot of the times the story writes itself.

How do you get a bicycle from North Hill or Cuyahoga Falls to the valley?

And it's like, wait, we see this pathway.

We see this opportunity.

And so sometimes things are very difficult on paper, but the outcome is so worth it.

Most of our trail networks are large trails, bike and hike trails, are on former, either a utility corridor or a railroad corridor.

So it's not what's the easiest thing.

Sometimes the biggest payoff comes from the things that are hardest to do.

It's easy to put a trail on a former rail corridor, but in this circumstance where we're gonna build a trail to Cuyahoga Falls and North Hill, it's gonna be difficult, but the outcome is gonna be great.

This park was identified in the 1925 Olmsted brothers master plan for the park.

And it stated that this property is very critical and should be acquired.

So it took almost a hundred years, but the Metro Parks were able to acquire it.

And it's kind of the missing piece between the Gorge to the east, Sand Run to the west, and Cascade Valley to the north and south.

So it was a critical get for the Metro Parks.

Normally a park like this would take 30 years to develop.

We're about six years into it.

And I'm so thrilled with what we've achieved so far.

So through grant money, we've been really fortunate with the EPA, with NOAA to get money to restore the site.

And that's a whole story in itself.

But one of the great wins that we had out of it was when the river was restored, we took 80,000 cubic yards of material out of the river and used that to build the base of the road.

So what you'll see is when you drive into the park, there's a road that kind of works its way back and really takes advantage of the views to get in.

So that will ultimately take you to a development that's gonna start construction this summer, which will have a parking lot in a couple of buildings and river access.

So you can get into the river here and kayak or canoe down into the national park and then get into a livery vehicle and come back.

So we're really working with our up and downstream partners to build a river centered park.

So we're really so happy to have a property that straddles the river, which this one does.

(calm guitar music) Currently, if you go to the southern end of the property, the river is a boundary.

And on the other side of it, you see the towpath.

So there will ultimately be a bridge that will come over the river, connect to a bike trail that will go through the park, not only to the north and connect back to the towpath, but also to the east, which will go along the hybrid shell and eventually connect to front street, which will be a great way for people to be able to bike from North Hill or Cuyahoga Falls all the way to the valley in a very easy way.

So this barn was part of the Hemel Wright Dairy Farm.

And this was a dairy barn.

And so, what you would have seen above us would be a floor.

So when we first took over this building, it was the clubhouse for the golf course, and it was really a poor state of affairs.

So anyway, the barn itself, its history is from the late 1800s.

And when the golf course owners took over in, I think, it was the 1970s, they turned it into the club house.

So when we got it, we decided we wanted to make it a lodge, a lodge being a place that people could rent for weddings or different venues, but also the Knight Foundation, we've done some really great work at Summit Lake.

And they said, hey, we'd really like you to continue your good work.

And so, they gave us some money to help develop this barn to serve the immigrant population.

So this barn will actually serve as a location for the immigrant population to have different festivals so they can show off their heritage.

And so, we're really excited about that.

It adds a lot of depth to be used for the barn.

Currently the trailhead is by the road where we have the barn 'cause it's the only part of the property that's open.

It will probably switch back to where the river development's going to be 'cause there's going to be a larger parking lot there, but there will be access to this property from the trail network.

We've already got about two miles of trails constructed here, but there's gonna be a much more robust trail network that will continue to tie into this parking lot.

- You know what?

That place is so amazing.

We're gonna visit twice.

Now we're gonna learn about the importance of conservation and how this place was once a non-natural habitat when the golf course was there and they turned it into a natural habitat, thus conserving the land.

Let's go see what this is all about.

(calm music) - The outdoors were my early classroom and for the most part, it was the Metro Parks.

I grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, I'm local.

And growing up, the Metro Parks were a critical part of my childhood.

It's an honor.

It really is.

It's a privilege to get to be a part of that.

I've worked for the park district for about 20 years.

And in the 20 years I've worked here, we've more than doubled our conservation areas, the land that we protect and preserve.

So it's really been exciting to be a part of that.

And at Metro Parks, when we talk about conservation, we're talking about things like rare and endangered species, rare habitats, forest systems.

We're also talking a lot about our cultural resources as well.

The building that we're in right now is one of those cultural resources that we preserved and protected.

(serene music) Most of the vegetation on the golf course was non-native.

It was invasive.

They were species that while they're green and beautiful, they're not a part of our natural landscape.

And they weren't something that we wanted to have.

They're not good for our local wildlife.

We wanted to restore this to a natural area.

So we actually removed them.

We removed the golf course turf and we removed a lot of trees and shrubs that are not native to our region.

And we restored them by planting native seed mixes to restore the herbaceous grassland you see behind me.

And we did a lot of very extensive tree planting to reintroduce those native trees that should be here.

There were about 30 different species of native trees that we replanted either by planting potted material or by planting the nuts that were collected by staff and volunteers over over a season.

And we hosted a two day volunteer planting event to plant nuts.

That particular plant is one that is in the native seed mix that we use.

It does well the first couple of years, and then it kind of starts to fade off.

But if you go to Google Earth and you look at the imagery for the golf course, the most recent imagery caught it right after we planted.

And the entire golf course, there's just this outline of yellow.

And I think it's amazing that you can see that from space.

(intense music) When we acquired the property, it was still pretty much a golf course.

We were very limited in the in the diversity of plants and animals that lived here.

Certainly there were some, but not very many.

Now that we're done with the restoration, we've been doing monitoring work to see what we have coming back to the area.

In particular, the fish communities are rebounding in the Cuyahoga River as a result of the restoration work we've done in the river.

The terrestrial landscape or the terrestrial species, birds, invertebrates, even insects, have made a huge comeback.

To help us monitor the species, we're using a citizen science program that uses iNaturalist.

It's a phone app that allows citizens to go out and document wildlife and species and plants.

And I think the last time I checked, we were up to about 600 new species documented for this area.

If you're just coming out for a hike, some of the really cool things you're going to get to see are bald eagles.

We have a nesting pair of bald eagles, and they usually have a few chicks every year.

So if you're back looking over the river where we did our restoration, it is not uncommon to see bald eagles, either sitting in the trees or flying overhead.

Birders would be very interested to know that we have a nesting pair of Common Mergansers, which are unusual for our area.

And they have been consistently nesting back by the river for the last couple of years.

So that's kind of a cool, really cool bird to see that birders don't often get to see in our area, except when they're passing through migratory wise.

My background is fisheries.

So I'm really interested in the fish.

This section of the Cuyahoga River is probably one of the best for small mouth bass.

It's a wonderful small mouth bass fishery from Gorge through Cascade Valley and Valley View.

And now that we've done our restoration work, we're seeing more of these types of fish in the river.

And probably the neatest thing I think that we have seen so far is last summer when we were doing our monitoring, we caught a flathead catfish.

And that is the first one that I think has ever been documented here in Summit County.

This is our largest catfish.

They can grow to huge proportions.

They're really more common in the Ohio River drainage, but there are some in Lake Erie and they've started to migrate up.

And now that the Brecksville Dam is down, they can traverse over the dam.

And we picked up the first one here at Cascade Valley.

It was pretty neat to see.

- Next up, I'm gonna head up to North Hill and meet up with The Black Beanz.

And that's a Black Beanz with a Z.

They're an African dance troupe, and they're from Uganda and Tanzania.

Let's go see what the Black Beanz are all about.

(upbeat music) - My first ever time, he came up with idea like we should start dancing.

I was like, I think 12 or 13.

So about like two or one year ago.

And like, I'll always remember, we all was dancing back in our home country, Africa.

So like at a celebration or anything, we just go there.

They put music and they would just start dancing, kids dancing.

Yeah, that's like my early memories of me dancing.

- I'm from Uganda.

- Tanzania.

- Tanzania.

- Same with me, Tanzania too.

- Yeah, and yeah, I'm from Tanzania too.

African dances, we mostly use like African dances, not many people that I know uses dances like in America yet.

What I find most enjoyable is when audience see us, seeing us, how we dance and the moves, and it was amazing.

It was just great.

It feels great because I can see them enjoying us doing what we do, what we like to do.

It just gives the happy feelings for people to support you through what you really like, what you want to do.

It just gives you a good feeling.

(hip-hop music) - You know, I was over at Jennings, teaching and North High School.

So I observed between classes, seeing these guys turning on their smartphones and speakers and dancing between classes.

Not you guys, but some of you guys even got detention for doing it in school.

And then I just remember some guys over at Jennings, I go, you guys, you can't do it in class, but let's see what you guys can do.

Show me after school.

And it just blew me away.

It was amazing.

And then these guys are in yard core.

So they are really good workers.

We do landscape maintenance afterschool, and Saturdays and Sundays.

And these guys, you know, when they would have rest time and all that, they just break out in dance and chants and songs and stuff.

And so, it's like, they just do it naturally.

And I thought, guys, people would go crazy to see you.

They'll pay you to do this kind of stuff.

So if we practice and getting a little staging going, costumes, that kind of thing, I mean, this could be your career.

'Cause they just have this innate talent that they've learned since they were little kids at their family festivals and events.

And then they just have such great personalities too, and work so well together that that's what comes through.

It's not only their dancing, but it's just the joy they have for what they're doing and the way that they work off of each other.

So it's just something that as a teacher for 40 years, I've never seen this.

To me, it's like a teen phenomenon and we have to bring it out to the community because of the message that it sends.

(upbeat music) We're starting a fan club.

Also, they do get money, tips.

Busking, we'll go out and we'll just pick a park and go out and stuff.

So it's great extra income for their families and stuff.

And we're just starting or just on the road to get these guys positioned because they have the talent.

They can even sing, they can drum.

So we're kind of working on that aspect of it.

There's also about three or four other guys that can join in and do some good stuff.

And I do believe that they can displace, what are those guys, BTS, in South Korea?

Yeah, these guys can do it.

- Nobody can stop you from being you, so do you.

- Thank you for watching this episode of "Around Akron with Blue Green."

Now, if you have any questions or any comments, or just wanna drop me an email, you can reach me at www.aroundakronwithbluegreen or you can catch me in social media.

Thank you and have an amazing day.

(upbeat music) One of the newest places at Summit Metro Parks and learn about.

Next up, I'm gonna head down to the valley and meet.

Next up, I'm gonna head down to the valley to.

Next up, I'm gonna head down to the valley to, Summit Metro Parks.

And meet up at The Valley View.

The Valley View.

Now, they're an African dance troupe.

Uganda and Tanzania.

Reach me at www.

Now if you have any.