© 2025 WOSU Public Media
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Knight Cities Challenge Winners Envision New Ways to Engage With the Landscape

The Towpath Hike and Bike Trail comes within a block of the Akron Innerbelt, where Knight Cities Challenge winner Johnathan Morschl envisions a public bicycle park.
SHANE WYNN
/
AKRONSTOCK
The Towpath Hike and Bike Trail comes within a block of the Akron Innerbelt, where Knight Cities Challenge winner Johnathan Morschl envisions a public bicycle park.
The Towpath Hike and Bike Trail comes within a block of the Akron Innerbelt, where Knight Cities Challenge winner Johnathan Morschl envisions a public bicycle park.
Credit SHANE WYNN / AKRONSTOCK
/
AKRONSTOCK
The Towpath Hike and Bike Trail comes within a block of the Akron Innerbelt, where Knight Cities Challenge winner Johnathan Morschl envisions a public bicycle park.

Two Akron winners have been announced in the Knight Cities Challenge, a contest held in the 26 communities once served by Knight-owned newspapers that recognizes ideas to improve their cities.

WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair reports both Akron projects engage residents in exploring the landscape.

The first winning idea will help Akron residents explore the urban landscape in a new way. DesignerJohnathonMorschlwill receive $120,000 to develop a bike park in downtown Akron.

Johnathan Morschl is a designer with Four Points Architectural Services, and winner of a $120,000 Knight Cities Challenge grant to develop a bike park in Akron.
Credit JEFF ST.CLAIR / WKSU
/
WKSU
Johnathan Morschl is a designer with Four Points Architectural Services, and winner of a $120,000 Knight Cities Challenge grant to develop a bike park in Akron.

Morschl envisions converting the northern section of the Akron Innerbelt, which is scheduled to shut down in 2018, into aBMXcourse that is linked to the nearby towpath trail.

“And this location, right on theInnerbelthere, could be a great location for people to easily get on and off the Towpath, use the bicycle park, and get back on and go on their way.”

The other winning idea in the Knight Cities Challenge came from Tracy and Brian Davis.

Their Cuyahoga Explore-A-Foot project will receive $70,000 to set up a service for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park -- similar to trail associations in Europe -- that facilitate trekking through the park with overnight stays.

Click here to listen to the complete interview with Johnathan Morschl.

Copyright 2021 WKSU. To see more, visit WKSU.

Knight Cities Challenge Winners Envision New Ways to Engage With the Landscape

Jeff St. Clair
A career in radio was a surprising turn for me seeing that my first love was science. I studied chemistry at the University of Akron and for 13 years lived the quiet life of an analytical chemist in the Akron area,listening to WKSU all the while in the lab.