Akron voters in the city’s west side will likely decide on their next council representatives in the May 6 primary election to fill the unexpired term of the Ward 8 seat.
Bruce Bolden was appointed to the seat after James Hardy resigned in June 2024 after just six months on council. Bolden has one challenger, former Akron Board of Education President N.J. Akbar.
Ward 8 covers much of the city’s northwest side, including parts of the Merriman Valley, Wallhaven, Northwest Akron and Fairlawn Heights.
A shared top concern
Both Bolden and Akbar said speeding is the top concern in Ward 8.
Bolden previously served on Akron City Council in the 1990s and served on the zoning appeals board for two decades. A resident of Castle Park, a historic area in the city’s Wallhaven neighborhood, Bolden would like to build on the city’s existing traffic calming measures, such as speed tables.
Speed tables are long, flat mounds placed in the middle of a roadway with the intent to get drivers to slow down.
Some models of speed tables collect data as motorists drive over them, he said. He'd like to implement more of these.
“So we could find when people are speeding, if there's high times where people are speeding, we could optimize police performance out there,” Bolden said. “They could actually catch the people who are speeding, rather than the errant speeder every once in a while.”
Akbar, a resident of Northwest Akron, would support measures that target speeding and pedestrian safety, he said.
“Making sure that we have some sensible traffic calming solutions that matter to keep our kids safe,” Akbar said, adding that most of the ward does not have sidewalks. “[The street] is used for everyday commuting, not just for driving cars, and making sure that people are being respectful of the shared use of our roads, that's something that's very important.”
Other priorities
Bolden wants to prioritize economic development in the ward, particularly for retail establishments in the Merriman Valley neighborhood. He’s exploring the idea of possibly forming a community development corporation or some sort of community-led partnership for the area, he said.
“Something down there so we can actually grow the valley, along with the residents down there,” Bolden said. “These people love their neighborhood. They've got the Towpath. They got Sand Run [Metro Park.] They've got the Metro Parks and they've got restaurants and things down there, so let's see some development there.”
Akbar would like to expand community policing in the area, he said.
“A lot of people in the ward want to see stronger police accountability and want to see stronger community relationships between the police and members of the ward,” Akbar said. “We need to think of a strategy, that more police officers are embedded in our ward as well.”
If elected, Akbar also plans to support measures focused on preserving green space, investing in cleaner energy, expanding electric vehicle infrastructure and cutting down gas emissions, he said.
“We will look at, you know, investing in solar energy and producing our own energy,” Akbar said. “After producing so much energy, you can lower your utilities bill, and as you know, this will help greatly as the energy prices are skyrocketing right now, and that money can be used to put right back into the neighborhoods.”
Ideastream Public Media also asked each of the council candidates for their thoughts on a review of the Akron Police Department’s use-of-force policy.
Council voted down a $640,000 proposal from Mayor Shammas Malik that would have hired a team led by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch from law firm Paul Weiss. Council debated the proposal for several months.
Bolden voted against the proposal after initially supporting it. He heard from Ward 8 residents that the $640,000 cost was too expensive, he said.
He’d like to work with the University of Akron or the state’s law enforcement accreditation program, he said.
“We are currently certified by this [state] department, but they have amped this up where it does include use of force and basically covers a lot of the things we're trying to do,” Bolden said. “It's a pilot program, and maybe we can get into that and bring that in, with the university background and use those as the benchmark that we're doing.”
Akbar would have supported the mayor’s proposal because it was backed by both the police chief and police union, he said.
“This adds a level of credibility because they're that's the group that they all chose,” Akbar said. “Akron has been really good at doing studies and have been very poor at actually implementing any of those recommendations that come from those studies, and I think this was an opportunity where you could lean heavily on the fact that they all thought that the group had the credibility to do the study and provide sound recommendations.”
Also on the ballot
There's also a race in Akron's Ward 1 to fill the unexpired team of another seat. All candidates for both ward races are Democrats. No Republican candidates filed for the May 6 primary. Independent candidates have until May 4, 2025 to file for the November general election.
Akron residents can check which ward they live in here.
