{"id":13267,"date":"2026-03-04T16:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/?p=13267"},"modified":"2026-03-04T16:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:18:14","slug":"toledo-neighborhoods-under-threat-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/toledo-neighborhoods-under-threat-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Toledo Neighborhoods Under Threat, Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Peggy Daly-Masternak, Coordinator for the I-475 Neighborhoods Coalition<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ohio Department of Transportation<\/strong> (ODOT) may not calculate the harms to people, but they are nonetheless real.<\/strong><\/p>\n

First and foremost, we believe this is a matter of environmental justice for more than 15,000 residents in ODOT\u2019s five-square-mile I-475 project area. ODOT itself reports the demographics of the impacted neighborhoods thusly:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe area is surrounded predominately by residential properties,\u201d [and] \u201cCensus demographic data\u2026shows that there are larger volumes of elderly populations (aged 65 and older) living in the areas surrounding the corridor; there are also some areas along the corridor with higher concentrations of lower income, individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP), and minority populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historically, highway construction is steeped in this indifference to the most vulnerable people, whether forced into actual displacement from their homes or destined to endure the burden of air and noise pollutants. Residents have further endured the economic damages of depreciated property values or from the actual taking of private property, by eminent domain, if landowners resisted.<\/p>\n

ODOT has continued planning the project despite neighborhood opposition, which began in 2020.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, while residents have been asking all along for inclusion as active participants in the project\u2014because we have a stake here with our home investments and commitment to our neighborhoods\u2014ODOT instead has refused residents as equals in the planning process. Rather, we get postcard invitations to scripted \u201copen house\u201d formats where citizens are told by ODOT executives and their consultants what is already predetermined, with no active citizen roles.<\/p>\n

This attitude of \u201cyou just must accept what we are going to do to your health, your property values, your peace in your own home\u201d is a consistent attitude nationally across DOTs. Yet, despite that attitude, citizens around the country are demanding that decisions about highway placement, expansion and alternatives must include their voices\u2014from the beginning.<\/p>\n

In growing numbers, citizen activism on this crucial environmental concern is winning resolutions from local government officials to oppose a DOT\u2019s status quo\u2014one filled with ossified perspectives from the 1950s instead of the critical demands of the future.<\/p>\n

We believe Toledo and Lucas County are overdue in passing similar resolutions opposing I-475\u2019s expansion. Both City Council and County Commissioners have influence in what occurs in our communities and they need to hear citizen opposition\u2014they need to hear it loudly. <\/strong><\/p>\n

So, if you or someone you know lives in this area, or you want to know more about this expansion, please feel free to contact Peggy Daly-Masternak or consider joining the I-475 Neighborhoods Coalition by sending an email with your contact information (email address, postal address and phone) to i.475group@gmail.com<\/a>. This is the third of five articles written by Peggy Daly-Masternak, the Coordinator for the I-475 Neighborhoods Coalition, that discusses the impacts of this expansion.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Barrios de Toledo bajo amenaza<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parte III<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Peggy Daly-Masternak, Coordinadora de la Coalici\u00f3n de Vecindarios de la I-475<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Si bien el Departamento de Transporte de Ohio (ODOT) no calcula los da\u00f1os a las personas, pero son reales.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ante todo, creemos que se trata de una cuesti\u00f3n de justicia ambiental para los m\u00e1s de 15,000 residentes del \u00e1rea de proyecto de la I-475 de 12 kil\u00f3metros cuadrados del ODOT. El propio ODOT informa sobre la demograf\u00eda de los barrios afectados de la siguiente manera:<\/p>\n

\u201cEl \u00e1rea est\u00e1 rodeada predominantemente por propiedades residenciales\u201d y \u201clos datos demogr\u00e1ficos del censo\u2026 muestran que hay un mayor n\u00famero de personas mayores (de 65 a\u00f1os o m\u00e1s) viviendo en las \u00e1reas circundantes del corredor; tambi\u00e9n hay algunas \u00e1reas a lo largo del corredor con mayor concentraci\u00f3n de personas de bajos ingresos, personas con dominio limitado del ingl\u00e9s (LEP) y poblaciones minoritarias.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hist\u00f3ricamente, la construcci\u00f3n de carreteras se caracteriza por la indiferencia hacia las personas m\u00e1s vulnerables, ya sea que se vean obligadas a desplazarse de sus hogares o a soportar la carga de la contaminaci\u00f3n atmosf\u00e9rica y ac\u00fastica. Adem\u00e1s, los residentes han sufrido los da\u00f1os econ\u00f3micos derivados de la depreciaci\u00f3n del valor de las propiedades o de la expropiaci\u00f3n de propiedades privadas, mediante dominio eminente si los propietarios de los terrenos se resisten.<\/p>\n

El Departamento de Transporte de Ohio (ODOT) ha continuado la planificaci\u00f3n del proyecto a pesar de la oposici\u00f3n vecinal que comenz\u00f3 en 2020.<\/strong><\/p>\n

De hecho, si bien los residentes han solicitado desde el principio su inclusi\u00f3n como participantes activos en el proyecto \u2014porque nos interesa invertir en nuestras viviendas y nuestro compromiso con nuestros vecindarios,\u2014 el ODOT, en cambio, ha rechazado que los residentes participen como iguales en el proceso de planificaci\u00f3n. En cambio, recibimos invitaciones postales a jornadas de puertas abiertas preestablecidas, donde los ejecutivos del ODOT y sus consultores explican a los ciudadanos lo que ya est\u00e1 predeterminado, sin que participen activamente.<\/p>\n

Esta actitud de “simplemente deben aceptar lo que vamos a hacer con su salud, el valor de sus propiedades y la tranquilidad de su hogar” es una actitud constante a nivel nacional en todos los Departamentos de Transporte. Sin embargo, a pesar de esa actitud, los ciudadanos de todo el pa\u00eds exigen que las decisiones sobre la ubicaci\u00f3n, la expansi\u00f3n y las alternativas de las carreteras incluyan sus voces desde el principio.<\/p>\n

Cada vez m\u00e1s, el activismo ciudadano en torno a esta crucial preocupaci\u00f3n ambiental est\u00e1 logrando resoluciones de los funcionarios del gobierno local para oponerse al statu quo del Departamento de Transporte (DOT), un sistema repleto de perspectivas anquilosadas de la d\u00e9cada de 1950 en lugar de las demandas cruciales del futuro. Creemos que Toledo y el condado de Lucas deber\u00edan haber aprobado resoluciones similares oponi\u00e9ndose a la expansi\u00f3n de la I-475. Tanto el Ayuntamiento como los comisionados del condado influyen en lo que ocurre en nuestras comunidades y necesitan escuchar la oposici\u00f3n ciudadana; necesitan escucharla con firmeza.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por lo tanto, si usted o alguien que conoce vive en esta zona, o desea obtener m\u00e1s informaci\u00f3n sobre esta expansi\u00f3n, no dude en contactar a Peggy Daly-Masternak o considere unirse a la Coalici\u00f3n de Vecindarios de la I-475 enviando un correo electr\u00f3nico con su informaci\u00f3n de contacto (correo electr\u00f3nico, direcci\u00f3n postal y tel\u00e9fono) a i.475group@gmail.com. Este es el tercero de cinco art\u00edculos escritos por Peggy Daly-Masternak, coordinadora de la Coalici\u00f3n de Vecindarios I-475, que analiza los impactos de esta expansi\u00f3n.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Peggy Daly-Masternak, Coordinator for the I-475 Neighborhoods Coalition The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) may not calculate the harms to people, but they are nonetheless real. First and foremost, we believe this is a matter of environmental justice for more than 15,000 residents in ODOT\u2019s five-square-mile I-475 project area. ODOT itself reports the demographics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[301],"class_list":["post-13267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16.jpg",700,294,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16.jpg",700,294,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16.jpg",700,294,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16-300x126.jpg",300,126,true],"large":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16.jpg",640,269,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16.jpg",700,294,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16.jpg",700,294,false],"rtcl-gallery":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16.jpg",700,294,false],"rtcl-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16-320x240.jpg",320,240,true],"rtcl-gallery-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16-150x105.jpg",150,105,true],"psacp-medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16-500x294.jpg",500,294,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Neighborhoods-under-threat-by-Peggy-D-16-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"LaPrensa Newspaper","author_link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/author\/laprensa\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Articles<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Peggy Daly-Masternak, Coordinator for the I-475 Neighborhoods Coalition The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) may not calculate the harms to people, but they are nonetheless real. First and foremost, we believe this is a matter of environmental justice for more than 15,000 residents in ODOT\u2019s five-square-mile I-475 project area. ODOT itself reports the demographics","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13268,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13267\/revisions\/13268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13267"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=13267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}