Is Akron a tough place to grow up in ?
Parts of it - sure.
Most of it’s just another shitty rust belt mid size city with a dead downtown they are slowly trying to revitalize using the same cookie cutter establishments.
How many boutique cookie shops, craft whiskey bars and fancy tea places do people need here ?
After 3 weeks in the hospital there - I never want to see that city again. Every damn night at 1:45-2a - guaranteed they were getting a gunshot victim (right after last call at the legal bars). Would hear the announcements up in cardiac unit for the ER.
Akron itself isn’t “rough” in my opinion - just shitty. Miami in many parts is rough - St Louis and Houston are rough and LA is rough. Akron is a cakewalk - you got one damn gang and it’s mainly comprised of 16 year olds stealing Kia’s.
Used to listen to a bunch of white kids from the outer suburbs talk about “growing up in Akron” - nah, their punk asses grew up in a sub division 25 minutes west of Akron. But LeBron’s from Akron and they wanted to sound cool. Even LeBron likes to talk shit about growing up in section 8 - but by the time he was 12 he was in SVSM paying hoops for a school with a tuition of 15k a year (high relative to the cost of living in Akron where a house can still be had for under 100k).