|
The neighborhood, bordered
by Dorr Street to Campbell Street and from !-75 to Brown
Street, sits within the former ONYX community development
corporation (CDC) which is also no longer a resource for the
community.
In fact, says Smith “the
neighborhood has been disinvested since 1987” when the
Junction Avenue Business District Revitalization Plan, the
last document by the City of Toledo, chronicled the history
of a once-thriving neighborhood whose vitality had been
stripped due to “white flight,” “urban renewal,” the growth
of large shopping centers and the ensuing depopulation that
occurred within those boundaries.
As the Junction Coalition
begins its task of breathing life back into the area, the
community members are faced with a population density that
is about 4,780 per square mile – 15 percent below Toledo’s
average and housing units of about 1884 per square mile – 17
percent below Toledo’s average. And the population has
declined by 37 percent since the 1980 census (Junction Ave
Revitalization plan and U.S. Census 2010).
The news is not all bad by
any means.
There are 40 black-owned
business, organizations and churches in the neighborhood. So
there is certainly a solid foundation for a vibrant
neighborhood. On Dorr Street, the northern boundary, things
are happening – a new, and soon to be expanded, Toledo Urban
Federal Credit Union, a new Mott Branch Library, for
example.
There’s help. There are
potential partners interested in being part of the revival
such as the University of Toledo, United Way, the Toledo
Metropolitan Area Council of Governments (TMACOG), the Lucas
County Land Bank, The Toledo Urban Federal Credit Union,
among others.
There’s a clear vision.
The Junction Coalition is guided by Four Pillars of Justice
as the members approach ways in which to improve the area:
Economic Justice (community-owned businesses and
entrepreneurship); Environmental Justice (maintenance and
care for our property and repurpose of vacant space); Social
Justice (communication, resources, self-efficacy and self
determination); Peace Education (DO NO HARM, cultural
awareness and self care)
There’s leadership.
Amazing leadership, in fact.
Director Alicia Smith has
been with the Coalition from the start. A graduate student
at the University of Toledo, soon to earn a doctorate on
educational development of youth of color within
disenfranchised communities, Smith is also the City of
Toledo’s executive director of the Youth Commission.
She lives in the Junction
neighborhood and has served the central city community for
over 15 years in a variety of organizations such as the
Wayman Palmer YMCA, TMACOG and Grant Fundamentals working
with inner-city youth teaching the skills of healing
community trauma through improving listening and critical
thinking skills.
She started her
professional career in Detroit as a kindergarten teacher,
later serving as a school principal and currently serves on
the board of a number of local community organizations such
as Healing Our Waters Coalition, Toledo Sister Cities,
Lourdes Parent Institute, the City of Toledo Land Bank Grant
Advisory, to name a few.
In 2012 Smith began her
work with the Junction Coalition as the organization took on
a smattering of activities in the wake of the loss of
outside funding – caring for elders, cutting grass, clearing
spaces. In 2014 when the algae bloom outbreak took place,
the Coalition undertook bigger challenges and started
dealing with public health issues – particularly because of
the lead and asthma issues that plague the inner city
community – “issues of environmental justice and equality,”
says Smith.
The Junction Coalition
members have stepped up their approach to finding solutions
for the problems that plague the community. First and
foremost is the dissemination of information.
“What we see, on a
day-to-day basis is the ability to provide information and
the navigation of resources,” says Smith. “It is not the
poverty of dollars that is the issue here, it’s the poverty
of information.”
As she sees it, her main
task is to “teach families how to navigate information.”
Every year, for example, says Smith, money is released by a
variety of sources. How to access that money is the
challenge for those in need within the community. “People
suffer in silence,” she says.
A whirlwind of activity is
planned for the next few months in the Junction community: a
charrette for businesses and churches on March 13; a
Junction Health Mart on March 17; a community cleanup on
April 14; a gardening event on April 21 (“What blooms on
Blum”).
One solid result of the
effort Smith and her associates at the Coalition have put
towards reinvigorating the neighborhood is the Junction
Neighborhood Greening Plan – a community vision for
beautification and stormwater management – that was
completed two years ago with funding provided by the U.S.
EPA Urban Waters Program and additional funding from TMACOG.
The report provides a plan
for the community’s green infrastructure preferences and
shows how these practices can complement larger community
priorities. No small achievement for a community that had
been devoid of any forward-looking plan for the previous
several decades and without a source of funding since ESOP
bit the dust.
Perhaps the most
impressive aspect of the Junction Coalition’s current work
is that it has been inspired and guided by neighborhood
residents rather than outsiders. Smith and her family –
husband and three children – live there as does Robert
Rivers, board president since the inception of the
Coalition, and the rest of the board members. Rivers has
lived in the neighborhood for five decades.
The Coalition hosts
community meetings on a monthly basis at the Frederick
Douglas Community Association. Information on the meetings
or other Coalition activities can be found on the website,
or by calling 419-408-0998 or by emailing
junctionfunction419@gmail.com. |
