Originally published by The Wall Street Journal - Kris Maher, September 20, 2023
AKRON, Ohio—A freeway built in the 1970s through a Black community in Akron was supposed to reinvigorate the city’s downtown, but instead it became known as the “road to nowhere” that devastated several neighborhoods.
Akron is now trying to reimagine a mile-long section of the city’s Innerbelt freeway. The sun-bleached stretch of road was closed to traffic in 2017 and is bare except for weeds filling its cracks. But it still separates a mostly Black neighborhood from the commercial and cultural life of downtown...