The Toledo Blade, September 25, 2000
Street and green space designs to make the Westgate area a better "out-of-car" experience were presented to about 100 people last night by teams of architectural and urban design students and their professors.
More trees, fountains, distinctive signs, and large grassy areas for poetry readings, concerts, and playing soccer were prominent in many of the drawings, which were displayed in the neighborhood's Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Speakers talked about burying utility lines that are now overhead and clustering stores and recreation areas within smaller areas with shared parking garages.
They said plans should be committed to maintaining existing buildings, although one speaker said his design group had entertained the idea of tearing down the Westgate Village Shopping Center and another talked about similar wishes with the Home Depot store, which was built after much controversy in the area.
The presentation marked the end of the seminar that started Thursday evening when community members were asked to tell the teams how they would like to make the West Toledo area more attractive and pedestrian-friendly.
The plans focus on the intersection of Central Avenue and Secor Road and the area surrounding it, bordered by Sylvania Avenue to the north, West Bancroft Street to the south, Douglas Road to the east, and Talmadge Road to the west.
Many of the 25 students, five professors, and 12 architects involved spent more than 40 hours between Thursday afternoon and last night drawing their ideas for the area. The Walk Westgate group, which sponsored what it called an urban design charette, spent about $20,000 on the weekend, said Sue Wuest, the moderator. She said the money was from local donations.
The students, especially those from the University of Michigan, will refine their plans and present another report to the community in December.
The plans for the area would likely take at least 10 years and millions of dollars of public money to implement, said Douglas Kelbaugh, dean and professor of architecture and urban planning at the University of Michigan.
Walk Westgate, however, has little power to implement such plans, other than through the grass-roots enthusiasm of the area's residents and business owners.
Maintaining that interest is the only way the huge amount of creative energy that went into the plans will become reality, Toledo city council president Peter Ujvagi reminded the audience.
He said he has seen many neighborhood plans over the years "and the vast majority of those collected dust."
"So many of them, while they were energized at the start, failed in the long term," he said, promising that he will "work very, very hard to implement this project and not let it die."
G. William Saunders, chairman of the Maumee Valley Bicycle & Pedestrian Alliance, urged officials to start today by more clearly marking pedestrian crossings and making them safer.
Rory Shanley-Brown, a board member of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, urged designers to include more places for displays of public art.
Richard Karazim, a Westgate-area resident, said he'd like to see more covered walkways than the design groups included.
One of the challenges, Mr. Kelbaugh said, is that Westgate is a large area. Most of downtown Toledo would fit in the Westgate area.