Maumee Rolling The Dice On Our Future

To the Editor:
The Toledo Blade published an editorial on April 25 discussing the traffic headaches that are news to no one.
The reasons for the current Conant Street debacle are well-documented: the widening of I-475/U.S. 23, continued work on the Anthony Wayne Trail, etc. Over the last couple of years, most everyone in and around Maumee has become certified experts in traffic management and each has their own opinion of what should be done.
However, the editorial touched on something that I have been feeling for a while – that we are not being good neighbors right now. I feel this has been the reason for the frustration, jokes and memes that Maumee has been a target of during these past couple of years.
Nobody can object to Maumee improving itself. Conant Street looks much better after the sidewalk replacement, paving, painting of the light posts, etc. The Trail also looks tremendously improved, again with the new pavement, new lighting being installed, continued tree additions, so on and so on.
However, the “road diet” taking Conant from four lanes down to two is a slap in the face to our neighbors who rely on Conant Street and the Maumee-Perrysburg Bridge for their daily commute. For people living/working in South Toledo who need to get to Perrysburg and vice versa, this is currently the only way to get to these areas without having to take major detours that will take just as long, if not longer.
Monclova is also joining in the party, since the 475/23 South project is not slated to finish until fall 2024, and we all know how often those projects get done on time. However, after this project wraps up, ODOT is going to start planning and executing the final widening of 475/23 from the Trail to I-75, which will continue to drive people to the Maumee-Perrysburg Bridge. It is going to be a good 10 years before everything is done and we will have what will be the “normal” traffic patterns for the long term.
Unfortunately, even before the 475/23 interchange was shut down, it was still incredibly difficult to cross the bridge or even get across Conant Street during the morning rush hour and the after-school/evening rush hour. I know this because I live west of Conant Street uptown. These last couple of years have not been fun living in the epicenter of this project; and unfortunately, it’s not going to get better any time soon.
Maumee officials absolutely have a blueprint they are following: The Strong Towns concept. People and the city were of course thrilled that Maumee won the “Strongest Town” award from the group led by Charles Marohn Jr., the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity. Mr. Marohn came to speak in Maumee last year, and I had the opportunity to attend and am currently reading his book. The philosophies and ideas can be endlessly debated at Dale’s or The Village Idiot, but the one thing for certain is that city leadership is full speed ahead on this idea.
The one thing that I personally feel throws a monkey wrench into this philosophy is the fact that we have two major U.S. highways going through Maumee: U.S. 24 (Anthony Wayne Trail) and U.S. 20 (Conant Street). U.S. 20 was designed to take significant traffic volume across the Maumee River, and unfortunately there is no escaping that fact. The Trail is also a major truck route from U.S. 24 in Defiance into Toledo, as well as a route for commuters from Waterville, Whitehouse and Maumee to get into downtown Toledo. Unfortunately, Maumee is not Pompeii, and the routes that have developed in Northwest Ohio are not changing any time soon.
During Mr. Marohn’s presentation, the impression I received was that the Conant Street improvements, including our $600,000 arches, are Phase I of rebuilding a failing town. Making Maumee more walkable and pedestrian-friendly would of course be fantastic, and nobody can argue with that.
When Maumee shuts down Conant for Acoustics for Autism and the Summer Fair, it’s fantastic, and people from all over stream into uptown for a fantastic party. However, tell that to the thousands of people who cross the bridge daily to simply live their lives. “Streets are for People” is a great slogan, but it’s a tall order for Maumee when it comes to these major U.S. highways.
The second phase, according to Mr. Marohn, would be filling in higher-density housing around the newly improved uptown/downtown area. My question is how exactly are we supposed to do that with two historic neighborhoods on either side of Conant Street? I can’t change the color of my house without approval from the city, but we’re supposed to tear down houses between Allen/Cass Street and Gibbs/Elizabeth Street to put in upscale row houses or townhouses?
Even if we do that, how does this make Maumee more walkable for the other residential sections of town? It would take 49 minutes, according to Google Maps, to walk from Parkway Drive to the Maumee Indoor Theater. Could you bike that faster? Of course, but you still have to deal with traffic and safety crossing the Trail, which is a significant deterrent to driving uptown to participate in the improvements for people living in the northwest part of our city.
As I listen to the serenade of car horns on Conant at 5:30 p.m. on a Friday from my home, I am resigned to the fact that this is how our city is going to be for some time. We have been promised many things, from decreased overall traffic and improved traffic flow to AI-controlled traffic signals to increased economic benefits to our uptown businesses. However, whatever happens with the revitalization of Maumee, good or bad, is going to be felt by us, the citizens, for decades after our current leadership is long gone from their public and private positions.
All I have to say is: This. Better. Work.
Dave Poeppelmeier
Maumee