Jason Segedy is getting ready to make the move from the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study (AMATS) to the cabinet of incoming Akron mayor Dan Horrigan.
Akron's new planning director has put forth a lot of ideas before being hired for Horrigan's cabinet.
Segedy says that those ideas helped him to get hired, but he's practical as well.
"They want someone in the cabinet that can kind of 'dream big', and I like to think that I'm a doer as well," Segedy tells WAKR's Jasen Sokol. "So, I try to do the pragmatic part of it too."
Segedy says he wants to bring people who come back to the area after leaving, back to Akron itself.
"We do get a lot of people who 'bounce back' to the area, that grow up here, move somewhere for a while and come back," Segedy says. "And I'd like to see the city do more to try to get them to maybe choose Akron over another community the region."
Segedy says he wants to help regrow Akron's shrinking population, and says he wants to end the "rust belt" population loss narrative.