Vistula, the neighborhood in North Toledo with its aging yet still impressive mansions, has been a gleam in the eye of redevelopers for decades, but has been slow to respond.
The neighborhood boasts some of the most beautiful historic residences in Toledo but also has the highest concentration of subsidized housing and is the lowest-income neighborhood in Toledo.
Now a proposal emanating from city council and the Kapszukiewicz administration calls for the expenditure of $150,000 to pay a consultant to apply for a U.S. Housing and Urban Development Choice Neighborhoods planning grant.
The planning grant could be upward of $750,000. An implementation grant, which are highly competitive, could be as much as $35 million.
Already much work is under way on the commercial side of Vistula, along Summit Street overlooking the Maumee River. That beehive of activity is incentivizing investment in residential development in the once-opulent mansions that line Superior and Huron streets a couple of blocks back from Summit.