Lots along Dorr Street have remained underutilized and, in some cases, unused since the 1970s, when the city of Toledo, concerned with crime and blight, bulldozed buildings on both sides, widening the street to four lanes.

In unison, neighbors voiced agreement that they want to see revitalization occur but with one main condition — that plans and changes include residential participation — the community's voice.

After being awarded a $25,000 grant from General Motors, the city of Toledo has begun brainstorming ideas to make the once vibrant and thriving neighborhood a place that will once again serve its residents.

A standing-room-only crowd of about 100 area residents and local leaders gathered inside a community room in August at Mott branch library, 1010 Dorr St., to hear the city’s ideas and also to share their input.

Sheila Howard

Historic overlay district proposed for Dorr Street corridor

Along with her team, Rachel Momenee, senior planner and urban designer at the Collaborative consulting firm, was charged by the city with performing a study to explore opportunities for potential future development along the Dorr corridor.

“Really, the reason that they won this grant is because there's such a great opportunity to reimagine revitalization for this portion of Toledo that has really seen a lot of not great things happen through the history of planning,” Mrs. Momenee said.

While there is other land on Dorr Street that may be available for revitalization, the study focused specifically on city-owned parcels between Hoag Street and Smead Avenue.

City planners acknowledged residents' desire that revitalization efforts recognize and preserve historical attributes of the area.

“Many of you know the history of the Dorr Street corridor, but a lot of these parcels were the sites of multiple Black-owned small businesses that were thriving in the ’50s and ’60s and at the cost of urban renewal are no longer there,” Mrs. Momenee said.

“So we have the opportunity today to hopefully generate recommendations that support ongoing community efforts to really reactivate a thriving commercial corridor,” she said.

The study results and reaction

The study involved exploring what could potentially happen in terms of site development. Focus was put on a mix of uses for the land, including marketplaces, green spaces, resource centers, on-street parking, as well as several other ideas.

Prefabricated structures were recommended instead of brick-and-mortar stores to create low-cost opportunities for local businesses if storefront property is not yet affordable.

The ideas presented by the study were met with a lukewarm response. Several attendees questioned why residents were not invited to participate in the initial planning, even suggesting planners go back to the drawing board.

“It is a process that’s going to take a lot of collaboration between community leaders, neighbors, and the administration,” Toledo Councilman Cerssandra McPherson said.

“What I want to stress to our administration is that we have to be intentional about reaching the neighbors that live in this neighborhood for meetings and for input for what they want to see on Dorr Street,” she said. “And then I think we can get together on a plan.”

A similar effort, Dorr Street Live, has celebrated the historical impact of the district while working toward stimulating economic development since 2015. The initiative was spearheaded by the African American Legacy Project, with its president Robert Smith at the helm. The effort incorporates substantial community input.

While not connected, Mr. Smith expressed his wishes that the entities work in concert toward common goals.

“We're kind of working on a separate project, but there's no such thing as separation in this case,” Mr. Smith said. “We hope that this community finds a way to coalesce to figure out how we can move forward reimagining our community.”

“We've heard the stories. Other people have been telling us, dictating what happens and occurs,” he said. “This is our opportunity to demonstrate what goes on,” Mr. Smith continued.

Longtime area resident Doris Greer, 82, requested to speak on behalf of the area neighbors stressing the importance of cultural sensitivity in the planning process.

“I don't have a feeling that somebody looked at culture, and community and history,” she said.

“Those that have come to the listening sessions or the African American Dorr Street project where we want to hear your past history and stories, that is so important to this part,” Ms. Greer said. “Because you got to know who you were, where you came from, what you did, how you and your mom or children and family survived in this neighborhood.”

City planner for Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions, Jonathan Latsko, reiterated that the purpose of the visioning study and meeting was not to say what was going to happen but to share what could happen.

“The goal of this plan is really to attract funding from both private sector investment as well as public sector grants from the state and federal government as well as to give another tool or opportunity to take ownership of your street to the community,” he said.

Met with rousing applause, Ms. Greer shared her concerns of community impute deemed too little, too late.

“It's already in action. We are already on the caboose trying to catch the train before it gets out of sight,” she said. “It moved past us and we didn't even realize what was going on, and then all of a sudden, a flashing light and ‘Oh my God, I got to get on the train.’”

“We will not let this happen again,” she said, referencing how the Black community felt blindsided from the results of Urban Renewal.

“It's not that we’re trying to be abusive, abrasive, mean, or aggressive,” she said. “We just can't let this keep going. We can't let this happen again without having voice and position and let's do it in an organized, intelligent, meaningful, collaborative way.”

Plea for better communication

Only just hearing about the visioning meeting a few days prior, Debra Hogan, president of Fleming Street Communication, WJUC radio station, encouraged the city to beef up advertising of the planning project to attract more interested residents, even offering her radio station as a resource.

“I'm invested in the Dorr Street community,” Ms. Hogan said. “I am one of the members of the African American Legacy Dorr Street project. We’re working on documenting history and re-visioning Dorr Street.”

“When I heard about the opportunity that was coming up with a certain part of Dorr Street, I came to see how far the progress has gone,” she said.

Several younger area residents spoke out, sharing their desire to be heard and seen during the planning process.

“As one of the younger people in the room and younger people in the community, it’s important to me that I understand what my responsibility will be to the community,” said Rosalyn Whickum, 27, of Toledo.

“In this room, there are a whole lot of people who understand the history of the space that we’re in,” she said. “It's important for me to understand the history but also be ready to take responsibility for what will be our future."

To be clear

Even prior to the meeting at Mott Library, Ms. Greer recalled the feeling of confusion between the community initiatives.

“That’s because there's different projects going around using the same vernacular,” she said in a follow-up interview. “This is causing people problems because when you get to one meeting, you think something else is going on.”

A clear distinction between the groups needs to occur so that community members are void of confusion, she said.

“There's three groups: one is the African American Legacy Dorr Street Project,” she said. “The intention there is to retrieve, gather and document the history of the African-American community in the Toledo area.”

The number second effort involves the city of Toledo Planning Commission.

The third initiative relates to creating a Cultural Performing Arts Center and K-8 School of the Arts, proposed by the African American Legacy Project of Northwest Ohio.

“Each one of these entities is extremely important to the community,” Ms. Greer said, imploring the units to come together.

While all three initiatives reference common goals, community members are clear that the planning should include their community's distinct wants, desires and cultural needs.

“When we want to help one another, we need to understand each other specific so we can help them collectively,” she said.

Meeting of the minds

“That's what's wrong. We've become a part of the divisiveness of division,” Ms. Greer said. “And we need to intercept that, get back to what we are in community thinking, community sharing, and community giving.”

“The reality is they're saying the same thing that we are saying but just in a different way,” Mr. Smith said. “We’ve got to take a holistic approach to community.

“We’ve talked about the history and the culture. That has our basis for 20 years,” he said. “I mean, for 20 years, we've talked about this historic Dorr Street Corridor, and what it meant to those who preceded us and what we hope it means to those who follow.

“To me, it was a beautiful meeting,” Mr. Smith said. “You heard a lot of voices. You heard tenors, sopranos, and altos, and the basses — and they all congealed.”

First Published October 1, 2023, 11:30 a.m.