Story by Ben Breier | Photos by Alliey Bender

Cars and cabs fly by like in any other midsize city, while students and professionals roam the streets chattering with each other or on their cell phones. The city may seem vibrant and busy, but Akron is lonely — and looking for a change.

About 25,000 college graduates, 20 to 29 years old, left Ohio between 1995 and 2000, according to the Ohio Board of Regents.

This loss is prompting various cities across the state, including Akron, to ask: “Are we cool enough?” In an effort to make the city more appealing and keep young people in the area, Akron hired an image consultant to suggest ways to increase the city’s popularity and make it more alluring.

Rebecca Ryan is a consultant for, and founder of, Next Generation Consulting, a company that conducts research to improve communities.

Ryan was inspired to start Next Generation Consulting after observing the generational disconnect between baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) and Generation X-ers (born between the ’60s and ’70s), she says in an e-mail interview.

The city of Akron hired Ryan and Next Generation Consulting to provide some input about how the city can improve its image and increase traffic of 21- to 35-year-old people. Ryan says she doesn’t believe Akron’s image is broken, but she believes it can present itself better. She says there are “many efforts under way to do just that.”

Ryan’s list of suggestions to improve Akron includes developing municipal legislation to allow for outdoor dining, equipping public buses with bike racks and installing a director for the sole purpose of catering to young professionals in the Akron area.

Ryan also looked into improving the job situation for Akron, and she seems optimistic about the city’s economic future.

“I know anecdotally that there are some young professionals who would like to move back to Akron and can’t find work. That’s too bad because Akron needs talented, young professionals to boomerang back,” Ryan says. “The Chamber, mayor’s office and many other partners are announcing employer relocations and expansions every year. I think Akron is going to be just fine.”

Boomerangers — those who have moved away from the Akron area but would consider moving back — are a key component of Ryan’s plan to strengthen the city. One of the suggestions detailed in Ryan’s study involves the organization of a “Come Home to Greater Akron” campaign to attract these young professionals.

Ask Dave Lieberth, deputy mayor of administration for Akron, what Ryan is responsible for, and it is apparent that Ryan’s vision for Akron is more than skin-deep. Ryan’s impact on the city is meant to be more than a quick image fix. “Part of her work was to identify what kind of jobs are going to become vacant and, also, how to attract and retain young people to get those jobs,” Lieberth says. “What she really did was look at the population of young professionals in the Greater Akron area and see who could fill those jobs that could be vacant.”