1/21/2005

Required Reading...for Elected Officials, too?


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Image Hosted by ImageShack.usAs we begin to develop plans for the future preservation of the Woodlawn Row Houses many people have expressed concern about the "perceived declining" of the surrounding neighborhood. (I'm addressing this as I present an 8 part series of Neighborhood Assets.)

This afternoon, while I sat at my desk,
buses pulled away from Buffalo Traditional High School for the last time. Many of my former students continue reading...

Excellent series of interviews about urban planning you shouldn't miss!

1 comment:

Craig Howard said...

The rowhouses you write about are fascinating. And what's even more interesting is that I've never seen them.

I've lived in the City of Buffalo since 1991 but my knowledge of the East Side is nil. Even by the time I'd moved here thirteen years ago, the East Side had deteriorated to the point that I've never had any reason to go over there.

There aren't any stores or garages that I must patronize. I don't have any friends there, being new to town. And since the last time I was approached on Genesee St. to buy a hot laptop by a guy knocking on my passenger window, I don't just drive around over "there" for something to do.

It's interesting that Hank Bromley would be the one who's trying to turn you on to Jane Jacobs. Good ol' Jane (my heroine, by the way) can be interepreted and misinterpreted depending on one's agenda. Mr. Bromley would not, I expect, pick up on her insistence that economic activity is the precursor to a neighborhood's eventual success.

Until New York State allows its citizens to try and make a profitable living without asking permission, the East Side (and Buffalo) will just continue to expire -- short blocks, old buildings, and mixes uses aside.