Neighborhood Resident's Aren't Happy with Urban Renewal Plans

When I read this in yesterday’s Beacon:

Akron wants to designate a mostly industrial area south of Interstate 76 -- including Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. property -- as an ``urban renewal area'' that would give the city legal authority to take property for redevelopment.
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Although the area is zoned industrial and hasn't allowed residential development since the mid-1950s, there are 325 people living in 113 households within the area, according to 2000 U.S. census figures.

And this in the City press release:

"Akron has successfully used Urban Renewal projects throughout the city," Plusquellic said, "to remove blighted areas that have outlived their usefulness. We have been able to create new spaces for development that have included new housing, retail, and industrial development."
In addition to removing older houses and buildings in the area that have outlived their usefulness, the objectives include providing suitable sites for redevelopment and construction of new buildings. Urban Renewal Plans also use development standards to encourage more orderly development.

I braced myself for this:

Residents of the ``poet streets'' off Seiberling Street told Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic on Thursday night that they do not appreciate their neighborhood being described as "blighted.''

Our Mayor has many gifts; diplomacy is not among them.

This should be Kelo’s of fun.