fixBuffalo

Along Michigan Avenue...

Michigan Avenue is experiencing a series of transformative developments here on the City's near East Side. Lots of residential demolitions, new residential and commercial developments that seem to compliment the growing number of formerly owner occupied and now empty houses along the avenue.

At 833 Michigan Avenue the new WNY Maritime Charter School opened on schedule in September. The only web information that I have found so far is this static site. A welcome addition to the growing number of educational opportunities here on the near East-Side for students, the WNY Maritime Charter School renovated an empty structure that was last occupied by Carton-Craft a few years ago. I've been a huge fan of charter schools since they first appeared on the local scene. Like many of my neighbors, I think that school choice is all about the new "civil rights movement."

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Right across the street from WNY Marine Charter School, I saw this sign...yuck! Maybe, Dennis Gorski has hand in this pie, too! Seems like the near East Side is getting slammed with suburban style design...this will be located adjacent to the 33 bridge that crosses Michigan Avenue. Click here, to see all the empty space...for parking! Perhaps someone could explain what is meant by "medical arts."

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Closer to Cold Springs, and driving North on Michigan...I took these photos of a new housing project that is being "photo-shopped" into the urban scene. You'll quickly see that directly across the street at Woodson Garden, a lovely development built in 1983 by the poverty pimps at BMHA, you will see a number of boarded buildings. I counted 30 units in the residential complex and 4 of them were boarded. Another 8 appeared to be vacant.

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Welcome to Woodson Garden! I've written a few choice words about BMHA before and the legacy of vacancy and neglect that former Executive Director Sharon West left behind. Now former good guy Gillian Brown is the Executive Director of BMHA and from conversations I've had with him he freely admits that BMHA wastes more per day than most Buffalonians make annually. Does anyone really think that Byron Brown is going to effectively manage BMHA...

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Continuing north along Michigan Avenue at Dodge Street, things are happening at a dizzyiing pace. Here's what the four corners looked like last week. That new build on the south east corner is a shelter for young mothers. It is opening this week. Make sure to click on this link. It shows that ever increasingly larger and growing "urban prairie." And here's the definition of the "urban prairie."

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Well late yesterday afternoon, and on my way home from some rather exciting "urbex" over on Dodge Street...(developing story)... I snapped these two additional pics of the north east and north west corners of Dodge and Michigan. Brand new residential development...Later today I saw this same piece of heavy equiptment breaking ground and digging a new foundation right where it sits in the pic.

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Along Michigan Avenue the mantra seems to be....out with the old and in with the new! Huge changes...no debate or public input...and our city is "photo-shopped" literally overnite. Lots of stuff going on further down on Michigan, too. Of course we have the new and recently "moth-balled" Erie County Emergency Services Building and the transformation of the area around Michigan Avenue Baptist Church and the Colored Musicans Club into a new historic neighborhood. I promise to have pics of these developments, soon.

I heard that the old police station adjacent to this historic district might be home to a new Tim Horton's Donut Shop! Love the irony....

And don't forget about Artspace coming to this side of Main Street, soon. Already, I heard that houses along Coe Place are beginning to experience the first signs of "gentrification" and did someone say....shhhh...rising property values. Can't be. It's Buffalo...and the East Side. Finally!

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