{"id":12235,"date":"2024-05-30T17:25:39","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T17:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=12235"},"modified":"2024-05-30T17:25:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T17:25:39","slug":"a-plan-for-an-historic-overlay-district-along-dorr-street-is-coming-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/30\/a-plan-for-an-historic-overlay-district-along-dorr-street-is-coming-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"A Plan for an Historic Overlay District along Dorr Street Is Coming Soon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Esther Tetteh, urban planner; Robert Smith, AALP founder and president; LC Commissioner Anita Lopez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Truth Staff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, May 22, the first step of a plan to develop a thriving \u201chistoric overlay\u201d business district along the Dorr Street corridor was announced during a press conference at the African American Legacy Project (AALP). The concept of the plan will be to bring the area to life much as it was during the glory days of the old Dorr Street \u2013 before \u201curban renewal\u201d destroyed the thriving commercial district.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like these are the first steps,\u201d said Robert Smith, founder and president of the AALP. \u201cBut the first steps really started 20 years ago when we first started documenting Dorr Street and trying to impress upon the community the value of this community and we think that today represents a milestone that we\u2019re about to reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith was joined at the press conference by Lucas County Commissioner Anita Lopez and Esther Tetteh, Toledo city planner with the Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Toledo Plan Commission has agreed to work with us,\u201d said Smith. \u201cIt has been a journey to get to this point and today represents a milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal of the movement is to replicate, as best as possible, the Dorr Street commercial district that contained numerous Black-owned businesses during the strip\u2019s heyday in the 1960\u2019s \u2013 grocery stores, shops, restaurants, professional offices, salons and barber shops, among others.<\/p>\n

The goal is also to avoid the unpleasantness caused by last year\u2019s City of Toledo outreach to the Dorr Street community during which the city brought onboard city planners from the Collaborative consulting firm, at the cost to taxpayers of $25,000, to produce a study to devise development possibilities for the Dorr Street corridor. Collaborative unveiled the plans to the Dorr Street community in a meeting at the Mott Branch Library that was an absolute disaster, as Tetteh acknowledged last week.<\/p>\n

Clearly Smith hopes to avoid that negative reaction from the community.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Lopez has only been in office for a few months but Smith noted that she reached out quickly to help with the effort to revitalize the Dorr Street corridor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to seeing the work from the city,\u201d said Lopez, referring to whatever the City\u2019s planners can put together. \u201cAny development along the Dorr Street corridor is good for all of us \u2026 we\u2019ve talked about this for years. I still remember Edna Brown wanting to champion development along the corridor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez noted she is looking forward to seeing \u201cnew energy, new ideas at the County\u201d to assist in the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we bring development, it brings jobs. When we bring jobs, it brings a brighter community for our next generation,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

As part of the process of collecting ideas for the Dorr Street historic overlay district, the AALP is organizing a bus trip to Columbus on July 10 to visit the King-Lincoln District. Those on board will visit the King Arts Complex, hear presentations by Complex creator Larry James and former Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman (a Toledo native). After lunch the riders will visit the rest of the District including the Lincoln Theater.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Truth Staff On Wednesday, May 22, the first step of a plan to develop a thriving \u201chistoric overlay\u201d business district along the Dorr Street corridor was announced during a press conference at the African American Legacy Project (AALP). The concept of the plan will be to bring the area to life much as it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[232],"class_list":["post-12235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12237,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12235\/revisions\/12237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12235"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=12235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}