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On May 2, the city of Akron faces a critical decision in the hotly contested mayoral primary election. It’s highly likely that the winner of the primary will become the next mayor of Akron.
While much attention for the race has deservedly focused on the challenges facing our community regarding safety and education, issues of economic development and overall business health of our city and region are also critical considerations for Akron’s future. Our greatest economic challenges stem from years of population and job losses — which have persisted despite past administration vows to reverse them — because there’s been no real change in approach.
And yet, when discussing this upcoming election, we consistently hear from many business, community and political leaders — “The best course forward for Akron is to preserve the status quo.” Our only response is, how can that possibly be true?
We understand that change can be daunting, even scary. But if we’ve learned anything from navigating business and organizational change through the past three years of the pandemic (and post-pandemic era), it’s that flexibility, adaptability and innovation are critical to surviving and thriving during challenging times. New leadership, and a fresh vision and approach, are critical to the change we need now.
We believe that only one of the seven mayoral candidates — Shammas Malik — has provided a strong vision for our future, a vision for helping rebuild Akron, its public trust and its economic future. This vision is more fully captured in his Together for Akron plan.
We believe that Shammas deeply and keenly understands the importance of making improvements in city government to make it easier for people and businesses of all sizes to engage with City Hall.
He wants to do the following: build a downtown that works for everyone; staff and fund a downtown CDC to coordinate real estate and other business development initiatives; prioritize basic amenities for downtown business and residents; support and build up neighborhood business districts so small businesses can thrive; support our workers by removing barriers to transportation and child care; join Summit Connects to bring Akron into the fiber connectivity initiative; hold the city’s partnership in Elevate Greater Akron accountable as an ongoing priority; and work collaboratively alongside the Greater Akron Chamber, Summit County and our local universities to drive change and create progress.
Shammas also has shown the most critical skill of any leader. He seeks input and opinions of others and takes steps to build relationships and work with everyone, even if they don’t share the same views or vision. This leadership quality is foundational to any city’s success and should be embraced by all business, community and political leaders.
Having worked with businesses large and small our entire careers, spanning over 60 years combined, we are confident in Shammas’ ability to move our city forward, attract new investments and begin to reverse all of the reasons so many people are leaving Akron.
The people of our city have a unique opportunity in a few short days to chart a new course for our once-great city. It is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to change a political landscape that has controlled everything here for so very long, stifled growth and equitable opportunity, and led to severe population decline year after year. Let’s not divide our votes between seven challengers in this primary. Let’s elect the one that can best lead us to the change we need, the right way at the right time.
It’s time for Akron to move forward.
Mark E. Krohn and J. Bret Treier
Attorneys
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