After attending the two hour neighborhood meeting about the Highland Square Grocery store last night I left scratching my head.

David Giffels is a columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal and life-long Akronite.

The Matinee is probably the hipsterest of the bars located in Highland Square.

To be an Akronite means a lot of things to a lot of people. For me it simply means Luigi’s, Crest Bakery, Mary Coyle, The Peanut Shoppe, The Christmas Tree Festival at Quaker Square, Café Momus, Dontino’s, Thursday’s, the Odd Corner and of course Akron U.

Besides having a fun name to say, David Giffels is also one of Akron’s finest columnists. The lifelong Akronite has recently penned a book entitled “All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House.” The novel, outlining the 12-year restoration of his 1913 Tudor home on Portage Path, has been receiving critical acclaim.

The lack of a grocery store in Highland Square has a remarkable parallel to the war in Iraq: both have seemingly no end. Weapons of Mass Destruction are non-existent, much like interested grocers. Most of all, the neighborhood residents, like the American people and the war, have complacently accepted the fact there is no grocery store.