Akron Better Block. Photo by Tim Fitzwater.

The North Main Street section of the North Hill neighborhood of Akron normally looks a little empty—with unoccupied storefronts, cars speeding through, and vacant lots.

But the street performers, sidewalk cafes, farmers market tables and busy storefronts that occupied that same block last weekend forced neighbors to see how exciting it could be.

That vision was the intent of the Better Block event in Akron May 15-17.

Better Block was founded by Jason Roberts of Dallas, Texas, when he rallied a bunch of friends and neighbors to show their neighborhood how much better it could be.

Knight Foundation made the event possible with a grant of $52,083.

“It’s awesome to see what happens when a community comes together,” said Heather Roszczyk of Hudson. She, her husband John and their children, Juniper, 1, and Henry, 4, checked out the bocce ball court created at the corner of Cuyahoga Falls Avenue and North Main Street. “It’s awesome to see the potential. It’s easy to write off neighborhoods being neglected.”

Across the street at the pop-up farmers market, Martha Gaffney of Martha’s Farm in Ashland, Ohio, explained her ethnic traditional farming philosophy to visitors at her stand. She had eggs and asparagus for sale. “People want these kinds of events,” said Gaffney, who’s from Ecuador. “And it promotes businesses and helps the local economy.”

Martha’s Farm was one of several local farmers recruited for the event by the Countryside Conservancy, an organization that works to raise awareness of farming and how it impacts communities and health.

Every vacant storefront was cleaned and occupied by a business or organization. The one spot most people said was on their list to visit was the pop-up art gallery.

Nearly 1,000 people climbed the creaky stairs to the second floor of a musty building to see the art, said gallery organizer, Lisa Kane. Kane, who lives in the neighborhood, showed her own stained glass creations and also recruited the art of other neighborhood artists, including three high school students. The most popular piece was a 3-D sculpture/painting of LeBron James, a native of Akron and a Cleveland Cavaliers forward.

But were people buying art? There were a few sales, but “people are mostly looking around,” Kane said. “They really like it. It seems to be pretty popular.”

Earlier in the weekend, Kane’s husband, Michael, coached some of the soccer players who participated in a tournament on a grassy empty lot on the block. Each of the teams paid a registration fee and the total was intended to be a cash prize for the winning team. One of the captains told Michael Kane that if his team won he would donate it to the people of Nepal who are recovering from a second devastating earthquake earlier this month.

This neighborhood is unique in that many of the residents of the neighborhood are either natives of Nepal or Bhutan.

At the end of the tournament, all of the soccer teams agreed to donate the cash prize to the people of Nepal. They are working with another organization that occupied an empty storefront – the International Institute of Akron – to get the money directly to the people who need it, Michael Kane said.

The institute has been instrumental in assisting Nepali and Bhutanese people resettle in the Akron area, said Kyle Kutuchief, Knight Foundation’s Akron program director. And their presence at the Better Block event attracted a lot of traffic and conversations.

Out in the street, the music never stopped. Dancers of all ages and many ethnicities performed to either live or recorded music. Ganesh Biswa and his friends leaned against a brick wall to watch the free entertainment. A high school senior, Biswa said he thought the event was “really cool. All the people are coming together – Nepali and Americans. It makes relationship bonding strong.”