9/13/2006

Forging Buffalo

Visited the Buffalo Forge demolition site this afternoon. Big City block. Chris, aka WestCoastPerspective, did a BR piece the other day, right here. Great comments...
We walked around the entire block and observed the "urban prairie" right next door. I had posted about this earlier in a series called Sickamore Village, here and here last April. That "urban prairie" pic is what's happened since my last visit. Seems like it's the largest undeveloped chunk of land in the City.

I've written about the Willis Carrier legacy that was forged here in Buffalo, back in 1906, over here. Links to a wonderful slide show that the Carrier Corporation - owned by United Technologies - has about the Willis Carrier legacy, too. Carrier Corporation currently employs 45,000 people, globally. One that got away...

Word is that this site is being primed for residential development. Hardly the highest and best use, when we are still losing 50/week. What sort of City are we forging? One filled with heavily subsidized suburban styled "Vinyl Victorians" or something more transparent, less expensive and better suited to the urban landscape. Certainly, lining long commercially oriented streets with poorly built homes hasn't returned, by most metrics, any vibrancy to the City's East side. Reminds me rather of those centrally planned Potemkin Villages. They failed.
__________________________________________________________________________
Artspace ArchiveAnnals of NeglectBAVPAWhere is Perrysburg?Broken Promises...
Writing the CityWoodlawn Row HousesTour dé Neglect - 2006faqmy flickr

No comments: