Starleen Saulsberry: What I learned from Summit Lake
Residents in Akron’s Summit Lake neighborhood are feeling a new sense of pride and connection after working with the Akron Civic Commons team to build revitalized public places that welcome everyone. In this post, Summit Lake neighbor Starleen Saulsberry shares her personal story of the project in this column from the Akron Beacon-Journal. You can also hear the voices of some of these neighbors and civic commons partners in our newly released video below.
For the city of Akron and its partners, vibrant public spaces are assets for the city’s future success. At the same time, as a resident of Akron’s Summit Lake neighborhood, I know firsthand that creating inclusive, connected public spaces requires community voices; these spaces need to be shaped by people like me.
In the 1900s, Summit Lake was known as the “waterfront playground” of Akron — a meeting place for the community brimming with investment, as well as an amusement park, dance hall and other recreational activities. But that’s not the Summit Lake that residents today know. Rapid urbanization, manufacturing and industrial dumping eventually left the lake polluted, with the surrounding land affected by disinvestment and blight.
Highways and other development also left Summit Lake isolated from other neighborhoods, as well as educational, shopping and employment opportunities.
As such, my first thought upon moving to Summit Lake three years ago was: “There is no way I am staying here for more than one year. Long enough to get back on our feet; then we are out.”
I didn’t know it at the time, but my family and I were about to be a part of the change coming to the Summit Lake area. Three years ago, neighborhood residents were invited to sit in on focus group meetings organized by the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition. My husband, Marcus, joined the first meeting. He was asked to share his thoughts on what the neighborhood needed and some of the challenges we were facing.
After my husband’s experience, I somewhat reluctantly went to the next meeting. There was a mixture of residents and nonprofit professionals. My first thought was: ″Here we go. A bunch of professionals coming in to tell us what they are going to do. They don’t care about Summit Lake and low-income people’s wants or needs.”
I sat and listened to the questions being answered. I heard residents share their ideas and concerns. I watched notes being taken. I waited.
Months later, a trailer with bikes, helmets and a huge barbecue grill showed up. Residents, including my family, started using the bikes, which were free to borrow. Summit Metro Parks got the community together at a “Fishing Kick Off” and the face of the neighborhood, along with my views, started to change.
In 2015, Summit Lake was one of three neighborhoods selected to be part of Akron Civic Commons, one piece of the national Reimagining the Civic Commons initiative that uses parks, trails, libraries and other public spaces to connect people across communities. The initiative supported a yearlong environmental study of Summit Lake, which recently revealed the lake is getting cleaner.
The neighborhood has overcome its history of industrial pollution and sewage runoff and is building back its vibrancy with the help of local organizations and other groups.
The transformation has been amazing; Summit Lake has everything neighborhood residents had asked for in those early planning stages. Today, Summit Lake residents can borrow bikes, have free use of computers, chat near fire pits, get a hot meal at the community center, enjoy the farmers’ market on Tuesdays or sway on a swing by the lake side.
We can also fish on Saturdays, and eat the fish we catch!
And as one of our homeowners always says, “Why not Summit Lake?”
The past three years have made me a believer in civic engagement and my own power to affect change. I eventually started working at Summit Metro Parks’ Summit Lake Nature Center as a program assistant. I began writing for the Around the Lake Community Newsletter, coaching Girls on the Run and after conversations with Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority staff members, I was hired as a SPARK Parent Partner for the Summit Lake area. I also got involved with the Students With A Goal, a program which provides mentoring opportunities for young people.
It all makes me glad that we didn’t move. I have learned a great lesson from Summit Lake: When given the opportunity, positive, active residents have the power to change a struggling neighborhood into an amazing community.
Starleen Saulsberry is a resident of Akron’s Summit Lake neighborhood and Akron Civic Commons Storyteller. When she’s not working with Civic Commons, she’s a SPARK Parent Partner for AMHA.
Reimagining the Civic Commons is a collaboration between The JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and local partners.
