Norka Notes

I've been neglecting the blog's middle name. Some catch-up gleanings from around the city:

Eric Mansfield, who gave his last Akron newscast last week, is guesting for WAKR's Ray Horner tomorrow and Monday. You can catch Eric from 5:30 to 9:00 a.m.

The Thirteenth District's Betty Sutton is among the many many Hillary supporters who have publicly endorsed Barack Obama.

The Summit County Board of Elections has rented off-site space for early voting. Apparently it is so popular that the traffic interferes with other Board operations. As a result of a quirk in state law, the Board can only open one early voting walk-up location, so you will not be able to vote at the Board.

The Beacon Journal is reporting tonight that area property values have fallen about one percent over the past year. Given the picket of real estate signs around here, it could be much worse.

The Innerbelt is closing while they install a towpath bridge. From the ebag:

As part of the construction of the Cascade Locks Bikeway in downtown Akron, the City of Akron will close a portion of State Route 59 (Akron Innerbelt) to traffic starting Monday, June 9th at 9:00 a.m. through Sunday, June 15th at 8:00 p.m. Route 59 Northbound will be open to the Dart Avenue Ramp to Mill Street.

Traffic will be detoured around the closure from that exit, via Dart Avenue, Mill Street and Main Street. Southbound traffic will be directed off of S.R. 59 onto Rand Avenue using the W. Exchange Street / Cedar Street exit and then back on to S.R. 59 just north of West Exchange Street.

Akron is in the running for a Bridgestone tech facility. Here's the POV from our rival, Murphreesboro, Tennessee.

United Way of Summit County is looking for participants for their annual Docs to Rock event. If you are a doctor and you, well, rock, sign up.

Finally, Akron has always been one of those towns that gets name checked by humorists as shorthand for something typically flyover. An example from HuffPo: Straight Man Accidentally Sees Sex and the City, putatively about a tragic mishap involving a local Home Depot employee.