Rising Stars: Meet Wittman Sullivan of Highland Square

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wittman Sullivan

Hi Wittman, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
It all started when I started biking and taking the bus for my new summer job. I didn’t have my license yet and my parents wouldn’t drive me so I had to find other ways to get around. I started taking the new METRO Direct bus services in Akron and bought myself a new bike. But there was the fundamental issue that there wasn’t enough infrastructure in the city for other modes of transportation. Bike lanes were few and far between, and we’re often in terrible quality. And bus stops in particular were seriously lacking in amenities like shelters and benches. It felt weird that entire subsets of the city were relegated to sub par transportation infrastructure. So I started doing my research, learning the history of American and Akron urban planning and building connections. From there, by 2024 I started LetsMoveAkron

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Its a new and ongoing challenge. I’m learning how to make change and it’s proving to be just a lot of work. In particular it’s hard to get support from the City Government for our projects and proposals. I’m not unique with this challenge however so I’ve been talking with other community leaders about how they deal with the issue

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a student at Firestone CLC in Akron. Firestone is a very diverse and energetic school that has really informed me about my views and my values. It has also allowed me to serve in leadership positions that I wouldn’t have been able to serve in other schools

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
In Akron the best thing is the people. It’s almost like a small town where everybody knows everybody. Every meeting I’m at theres always a lot of familiar faces, ever shop, every restaurant, every walk down the sidewalk I’m met with so many familiar and nice faces.

Despite that there are a lot of things that are dragging down the city and the biggest thing that I dislike about the city is the amount of urban renewal projects that havent been addressed. Particularly West of downtown and in the Northside of downtown a highway was ran through, and there IS conversation about the destruction of Sherbondy Hill through the highway project and the following destruction of the eastern half of the neighborhood with the “Opportunity Park” neighborhood. But there’s not enough conversation about other highway projects, and not enough about the superblock projects in Downtown

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letsmoveakron?igsh=N2o3NTRlOXFicmht
• Twitter: https://x.com/WittmanSullivan?t=sxp2zwY2XP05doOSdyveEA&s=09