Ten years ago, the New York Times featured Kent City Manager Dave Ruller and Kent State University’s then-President Lester A. Lefton in an article touting their college town-gown success. Kent State Today is following up on that article, looking at the different ways the town-gown relationship is still flourishing. Read more about the background of the relationship here.
From her perch in Rockwell Hall, where she takes classes as a fashion merchandising major, Kent State University student Lucia Perry has a perfect view of the Lefton Esplanade leading to downtown Kent.
It was that same setting that sold her on Kent State when she was just a sophomore in high school.
Perry, a sophomore from Poland, Ohio, was impressed by the campus and city of Kent even before she thought about picking a college. She first visited Kent while in high school, on a day trip to tour the Kent State Museum and stop at a restaurant downtown to eat.
"I immediately felt like it was a college campus that was very welcoming from the downtown alone," she said. "This is such a great community. It has great shops and restaurants and places to walk."
Lucia Perry - Downtown Kent from Kent State on Vimeo.
Perry still loves the downtown and how connected it is to campus and students. Her friends, she said, are downtown often to meet up at coffee shops, eat or shop.
"Four years later there's still so much going on down there. There's always a new store or business down there," she said. “My friends and I definitely take advantage of it, eating down there, shopping down there, studying down there.”
Perry also appreciates how the city preserved some of its older buildings and built the new development in a way that blends in and preserves the older, small-town feel. "It gives me the homey and safe campus feel for sure," she said.
Learn more about Kent State's School of Fashion Design and Merchandising.