The long road to the current ECC began in October 2003 when Jacobson was attending Kent State for his master’s degree in liberal studies. His focus was on community development and technology. Through independent investigations, Jacobson came up with the original idea for the Electric Community Center. “It’d be a hip place,” he says.

His idea was to work with area agencies to set up a mentoring program for at-risk teens to work at the center, putting together a multitude of presentations and interacting with others. Potentially, there would have been the ability to collaborate with the university on a work-study program.

Through talking to community members and other agencies, Jacobson says he began to realize that operating as a nonprofit center was next to impossible because the operating money just wasn’t available. So when the current location was rented to him at a low price, he decided to turn it into a bar. “I knew I had to do something,” Jacobson says. He obtained a beer license and became an incorporated company, changing the former ECC name. “If I could make money, then I would afford myself the opportunity to serve the community,” he says.

Jacobson has worked with youth groups in the past, and the new ECC has served as a sort of gathering place for college students — and anyone else for that matter— since he opened it in spring 2005.

Jacobson says nightly attendance at the bar is rising. “I’m not quite where I want to be yet,” he says, of his aspirations for the bar. “I’m still growing.”

Sometimes, Jacobson sits on the bench in front of the bar, and passers-by stop to talk to him. It seems that this laid-back man knows everyone in Kent. The people walking by aren’t just acquaintances, though. They’re friends of Jacobson’s, and they can be seen hanging out in the bar on any given night.

Although this conglomeration of people contributes to the ECC’s appeal, other features help set it apart from other bars in the area. For example, Jacobson says, the ECC was the first bar in Kent to offer wireless Internet. Other regular happenings include a monthly art show and various fundraising events.

The ECC hosted a benefit for Hurricane Katrina victims Sept. 13, and five area musical acts performed. Hip-hop groups split the bill with jam bands and progressive rock groups. Unicron, Parsley Flakes, Goose, Blitz and MC Homeless each took the stage that night.

People wearing Blitz T-shirts mingled with others sporting pink Mohawks and multiple piercings. Some bar-goers even donned special attire for the occasion. “I have a costume for tonight,” says Matt Greenfield, a 22-year-old junior applied conflict management major. Greenfield, better known as MC Homeless, arrived as a devil with a pitchfork. “I like the ECC because it’s probably the most independent place in Kent,” he says.

The hurricane benefit shows just how different yet connected the crowd that inhabits the ECC really is. Their unity is evident during Blitz’s performance. “I’m just out here to have fun,” Blitz says on stage in between songs and crowd-involved chants. “Five fingers in the air means nothing. We clench to a fist, and we all mean something. So you and I gotta get involved.”