Shantaé Brownlee said depictions of the Junction neighborhood on social media and in the news often miss the neighborhood’s true vibrancy.
That’s her perspective as a resident of 18 years.
“Neighborhoods market themselves on a daily basis and I think we're just not used to that,” Mrs. Brownlee said.
But a new gateway planned for the corner of Collingwood Boulevard and Nebraska Avenue will serve as a welcome sign and an entrance to Toledo’s Junction neighborhood: a central city community on the cusp of revitalization.
As Mrs. Brownlee put it, the gateway will be “a visual voice for the community.”
Where 0.35 acres of vacant land currently sits, the Lucas County Land Bank will build a safe, passive space for pedestrians, with clear signage reflective of Junction’s identity. And for drivers coming off the highway or Anthony Wayne Trail, the gateway will be a greeting.
The project’s all about improving people’s first impression of Junction, explained Mrs. Brownlee, who is also senior vice president for operations at Lucas County Land Bank.
“When you look at healthier neighborhoods, and healthy communities, they have what we call wayfinding or placemaking,” Mrs. Brownlee said.
The land bank partnered with the Toledo Design Collective to plan potential designs for the gateway. Together — with input from the Junction community — they’re figuring out the gateway’s five main features: its signage, sidewalks, bus stop, site boundaries, and passive design.
“The Junction neighborhood gave me an opportunity to work, pray, and raise my family in a community that was like me, that was like us and that was rich in history, rich in pride, and rich in just nurturing each other,” Mrs. Brownlee said.
“This is an opportunity to market the community,” she added.
Designing the gateway
The Junction neighborhood generally is bounded by Dorr Street to the north, I-75 to the east, the Anthony Wayne Trail, Swan Creek, and railroad tracks to the south and railroad and industry to the west.
Junction has a walkability rating below 30 out of 100, according to Alicia Smith, director of Junction Coalition.
The sidewalk along Collingwood Boulevard and Nebraska Avenue is no exception.
On the south end of Nebraska Avenue, the sidewalk sits directly on top of the street, explained Elizabeth Ellis, studio director at the Toledo Design Collective.
There’s no space between cars and pedestrians. It’s unsafe to walk, she said. Students crossing the street to and from the neighboring Jones Leadership Academy are exposed to both traffic and the elements, with vehicles driving relatively close to the curb.
Mrs. Brownlee added that Nebraska Avenue is heavily traveled with trucks and other vehicles coming and going. Several months ago, an individual crashed into the cars of three residents living on that corner.
“There are more trucks that come and go in that intersection than the community is happy with,” Mrs. Brownlee said. “It clogs up the traffic sometimes and they are going a bit faster than typically we feel is safe.”
At a recent meeting of Junction Coalition, community members weighed in on how the gateway project could improve the area.
Christie Edwards, a Junction resident at a recent meeting, suggested adding cameras and lighting to improve feelings of safety. She added that she sometimes wakes up to dump trucks zooming down the street and trucks speeding.
“The roads are horrible,” Ms. Edwards said. “You're playing tic tac toe with your car.”
Given these conditions, Ms. Ellis said pushing the sidewalk in would help pedestrian safety. She suggested installing trees to help shade the area and create both a sound and safety barrier.
This would also help residents waiting at the bus stop, which offers no place to rest and is within the splash zone of the road, Mrs. Brownlee said.
While TARTA’s data suggests that the Nebraska and Collingwood NW bus stop only averages four riders on a weekday, Mrs. Brownlee argued that creating a safer bus stop would make the community feel more comfortable standing on that corner.
Rather than competing with gathering spaces nearby — Gunckel Park and Rev. H. V. Savage Park — they wanted to create a “beautiful, passive space,” Mrs. Brownlee said.
“Places for people to kind of meander through. Maybe pause for a second,” Ms. Ellis added. “There's no really big gathering space necessarily. It's more about people kind of moving through this space.”
Ms. Ellis was most excited by the opportunity to work with neighborhood youth to create interchangeable artwork for the gateway. They will also build a sign that states Junction’s eight-letter name, loud and clear.
“That way people have a neighborhood identity,” Ms. Ellis said. “It serves as a sense of pride.”
Larry Lanting, another community member at the recent meeting, said he hopes for a colorful, “brilliant” sign that makes Junction stand out.
He believes this new gateway and overall revitalization efforts could change the tension in Junction. He referenced gang behavior and other “drama.”
“If they see something nice maybe it’ll make them want to have their yard be nice, like how it used to be,” he said.
Lanting said he cut “too many corners” in his own life and ended up in prison. He didn’t want that future for his children, who he brought to the recent meeting. By raising his children to contribute to their community, such as through volunteering with the local Urban Wholistics in Junction, Lanting hopes they will have access to privileges he lost as a convicted felon.
Similarly, Lanting hopes this gateway inspires the rest of Junction to invest in their community and themselves.
Junction pride
When Ms. Edwards sees trash, stray dogs, or abandoned cars on the streets of Junction, she gets it cleared. Several times, she’s had to call the city for help.
A Junction neighbor of two decades, Ms. Edwards said she wants to create an example for her 14-year-old son of what it means to have passion and pride in your neighborhood.
That’s why she’s excited about the gateway.
“We have a lot to offer,” Ms. Edwards said. “And giving this spotlight shining on who we truly are, and passing that down to our children, is needed.”
While it’s difficult to estimate without a final sketch, Mrs. Brownlee predicted the final cost to be around $100,000, paid solely by the land bank.
After collecting comments from four total community discussions, the design collective will present a final drawing, sometime in October, to start construction by early November.
Once the design is finalized, Sonia Flunder-McNair and her business, SONIA Organics, will landscape the gateway.
She said her goals are to create a beautiful environment and represent the community through nature. That’s why she suggested planting sunflowers as an ode to Junction’s resilience.
Sunflowers were planted in the South to regenerate soil, renewing land once damaged by cotton farming. Mrs. Flunder-McNair paired this history with reference to lead contamination in Junction’s own soil.
She hopes the signage will inspire passersby to want to contribute to the community and learn more about the organizations featured.
“Anything that’s considered a nucleus feeds the entire city,” Mrs. Flunder-McNair said. “When we talk about the Junction and inner-city communities, we have to make sure that these spaces are beautiful, welcoming, because they will feed and be the core of what will represent abundance for the rest of the city.”
First Published July 29, 2023, 12:00 p.m.
