Green space at the corner of Monroe & Auburn?

Someone could go out there on a Saturday with a garbage bag and pick up some fo the trash if it bothered them that much.

Isn't that the area represented by B.U.M.A.?

I would be very curious to know if there is an entity or funding that is in place that is supposed to be taking care of that already.

My impression is that it was a private undertaking. The greenscaping happened after an old building was demolished (it had been attached to the aging strip of substandard stores to the south). I thought the landlord was trying to do some quick community service action ... there was never a sign attributing the design or work to any city or neighborhood entity. But I don't know all the details.

Hey Upso. It does look bad. It needs to be "adopted" by an agency or an organization. A basic economic principle is the "tragedy of the commons."

When something belongs to everyone it essentially belongs to no one and it becomes neglected, overused, exploited, etc.

If the weather was warmer and I had an old boombox, I'd grab some folk, go rock out a clean up, and then probably get sued or chased off by cops for my trouble.

Dappling2 said: A basic economic principle is the "tragedy of the commons."

A commons doesn't end up tragically when it's secure. How many times do I need to say it? Cleaning up trash in a zone where the people themselves are trash, is a pointless exercise. Security produces pride, not this Liberal "appearances first" crap.

I find it doubly amusing that people who don't walk the neighborhood and just drive by, somehow expect everything to be clean and presentable. If everyone just drives by, who's walking by to pick up a piece of trash or two?

We had better neighborhoods when people weren't afraid of the invisible army of pedophiles and other myths, and let their kids go out and play. The parks were FULL then, doesn't anyone remember?

I'm saying that they real problem goes a lot deeper, and ultimately it comes back upon you all, in your bad choice of modern lifestyles. Stop driving and start walking. Stop spending and start saving. Spend time at home instead of at work. Etc. That's what worked and we need to return to it.

2 or 3 years ago, I remember driving past that area and seeing a couple people with rakes cleaning up that corner. They were both white, young, yuppie-looking, so I doubt they live(d) in the immediate area.

I remember saying to my passenger, "Those two people are either two of Toledo's dumbest people, or most naive. Unless they plan to continue raking and policing that spot forever, their toil will be wasted."

I saw that area was already a mess again last year, as expected. They must have either moved away, woke up, or were mugged and afraid to return. If the citizens living in a neighborhood don't care enough to pick up accumulated trash, I certainly don't.

That corner doesn't need to be "adopted" by any organization. Until the local residents care enough to pick up their own garbage, it should remain a pig pen. Thus, the appropriate label remains assigned to the area's residents.

Dappling, don't worry about adopting that corner, for the people who used to live in homes where we now see empty lots in Upso's photos, are what you see nowadays living via Section 8 scattered throughout the Southwyck corridor.

I was at a planning meeting a few months ago when some guy got approval for a new building there. Something like a dollar store or something. Don't know if that is happening or not.

There was a shooting around 2 am Sunday a few yards from that corner, at Auburn & Ottawa. We should find out how good those police cameras are, there is one at the corner of Monroe & Auburn.

Holland,

Somethings we do in our community is for others.
Somethings we do is for our own satisfaction.
Most things we do is because we care.

Membership in service organizations has declined greatly over the years. Sad. Those are the kind of groups that would pitch in to mend a park, clean a road, rake leaves for the elderly.

Too bad those of you who like to do these projects often times feel like you are "lone rangers." I don't think it has to be that way.

This is a great article:

PLEASE Join!! Service Clubs Plead for Members

Rotary International’s slogan is “Service Above Self.” Kiwanis’s is “Serving the Children of the World.” The Lions Club’s motto is even simpler: “We Serve.” And the Optimist Club calls itself the “Friend of Youth.”

Along with community service, these and similar groups are “networking” vehicles for civic and business leaders, including up-and-comers, as I was at the time. (Whether I up-and-came is debatable.) For a long, long time, their members were almost exclusively men, who spent a lot of their club time schmoozing and “pressing the flesh.”

These days, women execs are almost as likely to be the ones shaking your hand.

Unfortunately, though, these days, many service and fraternal organizations have something besides fellowship and good works in common: They’re hurting — badly — for members.

Last year, for instance, W. E. Russell reported that membership in the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce — a civic association for young leaders — had dropped from 140,000 in 1993 when he was the Jaycees’ president, to fewer than 50,000. That’s a 64-percent decline in 17 years.

According to a Chicago Tribune story in 2009, Rotary International’s U.S. membership fell from a peak of more than 445,000 in 1996 to 376,000 just 11 years later, in 2007. The Indianapolis Star reported in 2008 that “Lions and Kiwanis clubs, Shriners and other service organizations are pondering their futures as membership dwindles and average ages grow older.”

-----------

Read the rest at the link. It's good insight why these clubs are fading. And no...it's not because it's a bunch of "old white guys" (although old fart members being "stuck in their ways" does make the list). Think "Facebook" (for networking) and non-locally owned companies...

I cannot recall a lot at Angola/McCord that has that much garden plants and such. There is a lot at Hill and Holland Sylvania that contains an abundance of plants...???? same one ?

Nope. Look again.

NE corner behind Three Happiness.

yeah... that's why I was asking about it. it's completely salvageable and I'm just wondering if the groups involved needed some help.

As asked before, does anyone know who the council person is for that area?

The map shows this is council district #1, so that would be Tyrone Riley:

tyrone.riley@toledo.oh.gov
Phone: 419-245-1050
Fax: 419-245-1072

Count me in. I have a box of moon flower seed pods (thousands and thousands of seeds) and would grow great in a place like this.

I'd be happy to pick up a couple bags of mulch too, just let me know what type to get.

let me contact Tyrone and see what's up. Thanks mike! maybe we can do a little outdoorsy TT meet-up!

"I will be happy to join fellow TT-ers on a warm Saturday this spring and jump-start the process. Anyone else up for a few hours of work?"

The extended forecast calls for partly sunny weather and temps in the mid 40s for this Saturday and Sunday. If that holds (big IF at this time of the year), it might be a good time to do some prelim work of gathering up the trash and maybe do a little ground work if the soil is soft enough, or is it too early to do anything?

Are those bushes in the second photo needed?

Maybe holland can design a simple layout of plants, paths, etc.

Of course, better wait to see what upso learns from city goobermint first.

Kepp us posted, upso. I have a few free hours this Saturday morning (9 to 12-ish) I could spare.

Last summer, that area was approved to be developed for a retail store. Read below.

June 2012 Toledo City Plan Commission Report (pdf file)

Scroll to page 8-1.

-- begin excerpting report --

Request
Request for zone change from RD6 Two Family Residential to CR Regional Commercial

Location
3363 Bishop Street

Applicant
Adams Eduardo Et al
615 N. Hawley Street
Toledo, OH 43607

Contact
Jeff Paulson
Hurley & Stewart, LLC
2800 South 11th Street
Kalamazoo, MI 49009

Applicable Plans and Regulations
- Toledo Municipal Code Part Eleven: Planning and Zoning
- Toledo 20/20 Comprehensive Plan
- Monroe Street Corridor Design & Livability Plan, 2002

STAFF ANALYSIS

The applicant is requesting a zone change from RD6 Two Family Residential to CR Regional Commercial for a site located at 3363 Bishop Street. The .16-acre site consists of one (1) lot and is currently occupied by a single family home. A companion zone change, Z-5002- 12, accompanies this case.

The site will be combined with several lots at the corner of Monroe Street, Auburn Avenue, Baxter Street and Bishop Street to facilitate the development of a retail store.

The Toledo 20/20 Comprehensive Plan targets this site for neighborhood commercial uses. The neighborhood commercial category includes small and medium scale commercial uses that serve nearby neighborhoods such as the retail store that is proposed for the site. The proposed CR Regional Commercial zoning is consistent with zoning classifications of properties within the general vicinity of the site.

The parcels to the west and south of the site, abutting Auburn Avenue and Monroe Street, are currently zoned CR Regional Commercial. Similar land uses exist to the west and south of the site, particularly along the Monroe Street frontage.

The site is within the Monroe Street Urban Neighborhood Overlay. The design and landscape standards as required in TMC 1103.0900 Monroe Street Corridor UNO District will be applied to the new building and parking lot during the site plan review process.

-- end excerpting the report --

The image map within the report shows the land in upso's photos being described as "Vacant" and zoned CR Regional Commercial.

hmmm... so there may be no point in cleaning it up?
i can't believe they are planning ANOTHER dollar store. one just went up at monroe and bancroft and another one at bancroft and ashland is about to open. such a waste of space and sad sign of the times.

Ugh. Dollar stores are almost uglier than trash in vacant lots.

AREIS does not show the land being sold, and the current owner is listed as Ottawa Community Development Corporation: 3711 Monroe, Toledo, OH 43606-4015 (419) 475-1510.

More likely another mexican restaurant.

Yeah, I don't know all the back story about the parcel, or whether the store is still coming or not. I was there for some charter schools that were looking for planning approval, and perked up at that particular piece because its a hot spot at times for shootings at the gas station.

I don't know if it's a coincidence or not that upkeep seemed to stop around the time they went before the planning commission.

To the folks planning to again spruce up that corner...good luck and have fun.

At a planning meeting months ago, Nolan_Rosenkrans reported hearing about a dollar store being built at the Monroe-Auburn corner area.

The report that I linked to above did not mention a Dollar General store, only a "retail store."

But as listed above for the Monroe & Auburn properties:

Contact
Jeff Paulson
Hurley & Stewart, LLC

Hurley & Stewart located in Kalamazoo seems to have other Dollar General business activity in Toledo and the surrounding area.

Whitehouse, Ohio planning commission meeting notes from a year ago.

August 2012 Toledo planning commission report - pdf file

Request - Zone change from RD6 Duplex Residential to CS Storefront Commercial

Location - 213 Park Street

Applicant - Jeffrey Paulson
Hurley & Stewart
2800 South 11th Street
Kalamazoo, MI 49009

The applicant requested the zone change with plans to combine the commercial property fronting along Lagrange Street and 230 Streicher Street with the subject property and develop them with a Dollar General Retail Store. Based on the irregular shape of the properties, size of the proposed retail store, parking and buffer yard requirements, a zoning change to CS will be required.

Based on the existing community character and proposed development, combining these properties to develop a Dollar General Retail Store will support the pedestrian-oriented setting that currently exists.

So if the Monroe-Auburn property gets developed, it does appear that it will be a Dollar General Retail Store. Unless something has changed, and someone in city government should know, then I see no need for citizens to volunteer time and effort to landscape that property.

thanks for the moral support

whoops 6h_flr I should have refreshed! :)

JR, i'll post whatever response I get from the city council person. I cc'd two more council people in hopes I get a response. sounds like something may be happening over there, and perhaps the lot is still being considered private property which would make a clean-up inappropriate.

I wish I was able to help if needed. But....

Look what the owners of homes in Old Orchard have done to many of their streets. Maybe not their property but it is their neighborhood.

We have a like situation with a creek in our back yard. Many folks put up fence and leave the easement grow wild. Looks awful and a good place for unwanted rodents. We mow clear down to the creek and weed whack the creek bank. Since I have lived her for 29 years I have managed to talk most neighbors into keeping the creek bank clean. And it looks nice and adds to the view from our back yards.

It's typical of inner-city areas that the residents don't have the interest or motivation to keep things clean. Can you imagine this happening in a suburban neighborhood or Ottawa Hills? It's time we are open and honest about realities.

Lol

The folks in Ottawa Hills aren't picking up trash. Their massive property tax pays for it.

Here is the small ravine at corner of Ford and Dussel, against the BP parking lot. I stopped there this morning for gas and coffee. Sadly this looks pretty good, the winter rains have washed most of the debris into the drainage pipe. What realities here should we be realistic about here?

I had set my iPhone to panoramic, so ignore the chopped up car at the top of the pic.

Depends on if it's private or public property! My initial post was inspired by the fact that the green space at auburn & monroe not so long ago looked very nice and I was puzzled by it's abandonment.

But good question... obviously this is a huge can of worms.

That photo mirrors my experience with maintaining the lot at Angola/McCord. "Stuff" blows in from all directions. I'd wager that part of the reason its not been cleaned up is the difficulty of traversing the steep bank. Then in summer some of the litter gets disguised in vegetation, rendering it somewhat less noticeable.

The most interesting and most aggravating thing I've picked up was the prescription medication packaging, including the paper bag, for three medications for the same woman. I had her name, address, medication names and dosages plus all the other stuff that comes attached. Who does that? Just goes to the drugstore, gets their prescriptions, then on the way home probably, pitches all the stuff out of the car window? I really wanted to drive the stuff over to her house and hand it back to her. My ever thoughtful husband, wisely, talked me out of it. He took it home and shredded it while I was still fuming.

What realities here should we be realistic about here?

The majority of people, left to their own devices, are pigs?

Holland: that happened to me once, but even better: it was a bag of trash tossed in my front yard, and it was a neighbor two blocks down who pitched the Wendy's bag full of flotsam and jetsam onto my lawn (I live on a corner, and there is probably a theory that could be developed that corners attract more trash than properties in the middle of a block).

Like you, my better half talked me out of the urge to stop by and deliver the present: "Oh, you must have accidentally dropped this." And for all I know it could have been one of the woman's high school aged children borrowing the car and using my yard as a dumpster.

I found a completed federal tax packet blowin' in the wind outside a rural NW Ohio recycling facility. If I'd wanted someone's social security number, employer, home address & financial data, I couldn't have hit a bigger jackpot!

Holland, HistoryMike: In my case it was a group of unsupervised youth on foot, presumably headed for home. One youth casually tossed his empty plastic bottle on the neighbor's lawn, and before I could chastise him for his uncivilized behavior the cute little teenage girl with him told him not to litter and picked up the bottle. Nice, huh?

I got a phonecall today at work from a gentleman by the name of Bob Krompak. He was involved with the CDC that originally owned the property in question. Long story short, yes another dollar store is coming.

Bob is going to either email me more information to share with TT or he may make his own account to post more info. Sounds like there is a bit of history to that neck of the woods and it was fascinating to hear a first hand account of what happened.

More soon!

Guess my memory is better than I thought.