fix buffalo today: January 2006

Woe is Moi...

1 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/31/2006 at 4:48 PM.

Love the French. Celebrity rock-star intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy (BHL for short...sounds like a delivery service, I know...like he's going somewhere, really fast!) visited Buffalo, NY recently and had a few things to say about what he thought of the Queen City. Below is an excerpt from an Atlantic Montly article which appeared last May. I've archived it, over here. That article is also the basis for his recently released book, American Vertigo where he retraces Tocqueville's steps as he races around the country with his French driver.

And here's what BHL had to say about Buffalo, NY....

http://images.salon.com/books/int/2006/01/23/levy/story.jpg

They Shoot Cities, Don't They?

That a city could die: for a European, that is unthinkable. And yet … Buffalo, a city that was once the glory of America, its showcase, where two presidents once lived (and where one was shot and another inaugurated), a city that on this late-July afternoon — the anniversary, by the way, of Tocqueville's visit, in 1831 — offers a landscape of desolation: long avenues without cars, stretching out to infinity; not one good restaurant to dine in; few hotels; fake gardens in place of buildings; deserted lots in place of gardens; trees that are dead or diseased; boarded-up office buildings, disintegrating or about to be torn down. Yes, a city where you can still find some of the finest specimens of urban architecture in America and some of the earliest skyscrapers, is now reduced to destroying them, because an unoccupied building is a building that is breaking apart and, one day or another, will fall on your head. The library is on the verge of financial collapse. There are streets that seem not to have any running water or mail delivery. Even the main train station, which during the era of the steelworks was a major hub, is now only a shell, an enormous abandoned sugarloaf, with rusted metal signs, wind howling, crows flying around it, and, in big letters, THE NEW YORK CENTRAL, RAILROAD, already half effaced.

A recent review of his American Vertigo revealed something about his journalistic style...

“The trip was under three shadows,” BHL explains. “The shadow of the war in Iraq, the shadow of an election, and the shadow of Katrina,” although the hurricane hadn’t struck at the time he wrote the book. “The anti-ci-pated shadow of Katrina, as you see. I was in New Orleans four or five months before Katrina, and I more or less foresee what is going to happen.”

This review of American Vertigo by Garrison Keillor in Sunday's New York Times, archived copy - if you're not a subscriber. Let's just say it was good that I wasn't drinking milk when I read that review. Keillor is a blast...I wonder if BHL ever ended up on Elmwood Avenue or maybe in total Jayson Blair mode, looked at my blog a few times saw all the pictures of abandonment, decay and vacancy and simply passed Buffalo by. Will we ever know? Do we care?

You gotta love the French. I still do.

Here's Part-II "More Moi" ---- with podcasts and additional reviews...

__________________________________________________________________________
Artspace Archive • Annals of Neglect • BAVPA • Where is Perrysburg? • Broken Promises...
Writing the City • Woodlawn Row Houses • Tour dé Neglect - 2006

In Today's Buffalo News...

0 Comments Published by fix buffalo on at 1:32 AM.

In case you missed it, Mary Kunz Goldman's column in today's Buffalo News has a great piece about Buffalo's Richardson Complex, right here.

In the on-line edition, there are two hyperlinks to two of my favorite asylum sites on the Internet. I think it's one of her first articles containing embedded hyperlinks.

http://static.flickr.com/18/23931641_fa445f27c0_m.jpg

Too bad there's no mention of Buffalo's other asylum. No, not what goes on in City Hall. But that all but forgotten place down in Perrysburg, NY that I first reported on in January 2005. Totally insane.

Artspace Investment Impact - Part III

1 Comments Published by fix buffalo on at 12:51 AM.

I've been keeping track of Artspace announcements over here in the Artspace Archive for the last 14 months. Recently I posted some breaking news about how the City is treating related planning efforts in the Artspace Impact Area and I followed it up a few weeks ago with Part - II.

Here's Part III. It relates directly to housing, planning and investment opportunities in the area surrounding Artspace. I met über urban planner Stevan Stipanovich in the computer lab at BSC today. He passed along a few files including this poster outlining what's coming down...(it's not even back from the printer yet!)

click to enlarge - choose 'all-sizes' for the largest image

Stevan has invested dozens of hours to get this poster together. When you see him at meetings make sure to ask him about light-rail transit ideas and their longterm implications for smart urban growth here in Buffalo. When you read the report - Midtown - Poised for Renaissance make sure to pay special attention to the row house development Stevan outlines in the section about 'Alvin's Alley' a short connector between Dodge and Southampton. Way cool...

The companion document to Steven's poster is Chris Hawley's definative report on Midtown and the area surrounding Artspace - Midtown - Poised for Renaissance. Check it out, book-mark it and share it with friends considering the move from the 'burbs back to Buffalo!

The plan has defined broad goals for the neighborhood to be pursued by public and private partners:

1. reinforce tightly-knit, urban streetscapes
2. provide gap financing for new home construction and rehabilitation
3. create new small business opportunities along walkable retail corridors
4. preserve and reuse resources important to the history and character of the neighborhood
5. enhance neighborhood densities through quality infill development
6. identify neighborhood regreening strategies and public space opportunities
7. add new and distinctive streetscape amenities
8. provide a staging ground for arts-related neighborhood improvements
9. encourage bicycle and transit use
10. solidify the unique image and sense of place inherent to the Midtown district

I'll be adding hyperlinks and working with Chris and Stevan adding pictures to this report. It's long, brilliantly written and provides the high level of detail that may trigger the addtional private sector investment needed today here in Midtown, Buffalo's newest destination on the near East Side.

Let me know if you want to join in the Saturday tour...Meeting across the street from Coe Place at the Delta....love the brick oven pizza!

Buffalo's 'Hamilton Ward House'

0 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/30/2006 at 3:48 PM.

Chris Hawley and Stevan Stipanovich, two of Buffalo's best and brightest urban planners have been doing a remarkable job detailing the City's newest hotspot for arts, education and residential development. Known now as Midtown, the are around Artspace, located at 1219 Main Street, stretches from Best Street to East Utica and Main to the increasingly more developed Michigan Avenue - see January, December and October.

Most readers of my little Masten neighborhood blog already know about my fascination with Coe Place. Chris Hawley has just completed the research on one of Buffalo's emerging historical land marks, the 'Hamilton Ward House' formerly known as 19 Coe Place.

Introducing the...'Hamilton Ward House'

photo credit - Aaron Ingrao

'Hamilton Ward House' - 19 Coe Place - Buffalo, NY

Here's what Chris has discovered about Coe Place's most famous resident, Hamilton Ward Jr. a Coe Place history maker. He lived a significant portion of early Buffalo life at 19 Coe Place, the Hamilton Ward House.

So, who is Hamilton Ward Jr?

New York State Attorney General from 1928 to 1930, only Republican elected statewide same year that Franklin D. Roosevelt elected Governor
Founder of Allegany State Park, longtime chairman of Allegany State Park Commission and considered one of New York's leading nature conservationist
Founder of Erie County Parks Commission, key leader in forming first four county parks after 1924: Como Lake, Ellicott Creek, Emery, Chestnut Ridge
Largely designed Chestnut Ridge in Orchard Park, NY and bequeathed several hundred acre portion of his property to county for Chestnut Ridge in his living will and testament
Was formidable candidate for governor in 1930, backed out early at urging of party
Founder and first National Commander of Spanish War Veterans, war hero Captain in Spanish-American War, single handedly oversaw construction of a 30 mile rail line in Havana Cuba at a young age
Made the address at Millard Fillmore's Buffalo memorial service in 1902
His father, Hamilton Ward also a prominent lawyer, wrote the letters of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson as congressman

The Republican Ladies Club of Erie County wrote this song in his honor, anticipating his run for Governor, published on June 9, 1930 in the Buffalo Courier Express:

There'sa place in our hearts no other can fill,
There's a chair in our state which is only yours still,
There's a spot in our mem'ry forever your own,
For dearer and dearer you daily have grown.

Sure, we love the dear bright light that shines in your eyes,
And the clever good nature we've all learned to prize;
We hope all the blessings sent down by the Lord
Will come to you and help you, our Hamilton Ward.

When he's not singing this tune - he actually called me last week and sang it over the phone - Chris has also drafted a comprehensive report detailing the housing opportunities and planning that he's proposed for the City's near East Side. He writes:

Coe Place is the most historically and urbanistically significant street in the Midtown neighborhood. At one time a brick pedestrian pathway, converted to a residential street by a quixotic nineteenth-century skating rink operator, Coe Place is a charming, very narrow street, originally no more than fifteen feet wide, lined with a collection of close-knit Queen Anne-style houses whose singular attributes are unmatched anywhere else in Buffalo.

I've placed the bulk of Chris's work about Coe Place in a separate report here: Coe Place. It's excerpted from his larger work Midtown - Poised for Renaissance, which is a definitive piece about housing, planning and smart urban design for the City's near East Side. It's a comprehensive document that we'll be adding hyperlinks and pictures to in the near future. So check back...

We wanted to make it available now as a major preservation struggle involving the "Hamilton Ward House" is ready to unfold....developing....

Little Interuption...

0 Comments Published by fix buffalo on at 2:43 PM.

It's good, I guess to have been missed from the local blogosphere. Dozens of e-mails and a few phone calls to see what's been going on. I've been dealing with the unexpectedness illness of a very dear friend, beginning a new semester and organzing a few neighborhood walkabouts here on the City's near East Side. I hope to be back to a regular blogging schedule during the next week.

Lots going on in Midtown especially some breaking developments with the pending demolition of an historic structure on Coe Place. A few "Near East Side" activists, including myself are coordinating a possible campaign to save this structure from the jaws of "demoltion by neglect." Some concrete news very soon...

Back to the blogging....

Artspace Area Auction...

1 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/22/2006 at 2:22 PM.

Just heard about this opportunity today from Ryan Pierce over at Polis Realty.

39 Coe Place will be sold at public auction. Jer Revenue Services will be conducting the auction on Thursday February 23 at 11am. Here's the City of Buffalo official property description for 39 Coe Place. Here's the Google Map shot.

Check the JER Revenue Services website for additional terms. I've known the property to be vacant for at least 10 years. Great opportunity for someone who is handy to make a serious contribution to this emerging arts neighborhood.

Pictures...tomorrow...I'm getting e-mails from all over regarding Buffalo's coolest street. Let me know if you want to meet-up for a weekend neighborhood walkaround...

2 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/17/2006 at 12:55 AM.

Along Michigan Avenue - Part II

Back in October I reported on a number of important developments taking shape on the City's near East Side along Michigan Avenue. In December I took a few snaps of Michigan Avenue's latest retail development and last week I hinted at Buffalo's latest historic district between Broadway and William again right along Michigan Avenue.

Here a few pics that show some more of the site work and how the grounds surrounding the Jesse Nash House and Buffalo's latest historic district are shaping up. Benches, walk ways, gardens, historic markers, period street lighting and these cool new medallions are part of the sidewalk planter boxes.

click to enlarge

My attorney, Loran Bommer (an excellent real estate and property attorney can be reached at his office, 485 Michigan Avenue or by calling him 842-1222) has just moved his law practice into the former police station here on Michigan Avenue. He's way ahead of things as downtown back office support work has no where to go but east onto Michigan. I learned the other day while standing with him on the stoop, that the fomer Spaghetti Warehouse is ready to go condo! Adding to the new mix of loft and apartment space downtown. And no matter what you might think of the new Casino, the only way to get there is by driving down Michigan Avenue. Think Starbucks or Tim Hortons coming to Michigan Avenue real soon.

There's not much yet on the Internet about the important development involving this new historic district and its relation to the civil rights movement and Buffalo's historical development. After speaking with a representative here the other day I was told the website is still being developed. There is an important link about the Niagara Movement and information about an upcoming lecture at the Erie County Historical Society that will be of interest.

Thursday, January 26, 2006
Lecture: J. Edward Nash and the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church

Time: 6:00 p.m.

Location: Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society
25 Nottingham Court, Buffalo
In Session VI of What Price Freedom? The Centennial Celebration of the Niagara Movement in Buffalo, New York, Felix Armfield, associate professor, History and Social Studies Education, Buffalo State, and Executive Director of the Nash House and Museum, will discuss Reverend J.E. Nash's prominence during the first half of the twentieth century. Jesse Nash, professor emeritus, Canisius College, will share his experiences growing up in the Nash home.

While checking out the site I quickly noticed that Dr. Felix Armfield from the Buffalo State College History Dept. has been pivotal in getting this historic district together and also Professor Kim Pearson from the College of New Jersey. The only Niagara Movemnet Board member with a blog. Check out her blog, right here. Pretty cool.

Further up Michigan near Dodge Street, and right behind the developing Mid-Town and Artspace neighborhoods, local developer Rocco Termini is building a couple dozen single family "in-fill" homes. Here's some early Termini that is still (barely) standing over on Emslie and of course we all know about the Ellicott Lofts, the more mature Termini.

Early Rocco Termini - Emslie St. Buffalo, NY

click to enlarge

The problem with these in-fill homes, though the new ones Rocco is now building have a better urban look and feel to them, is that they are heavily subsidized and have a much too frequent tendency to lose more than half their value when the second owner buys them from a bank after a forclosure. They have been selling 10 years ago for for 85-90K and just recently re-selling in the 20-25K range...developing....

2 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/15/2006 at 10:27 PM.

Connecting both Halves...

I've been interested in connecting both parts of Buffalo since I started blogging in 2004. I wrote about the transformational quality of the decision to re-locate Performing Arts High School along East Ferry Street. Here, I imagine arts and education to be the link between an emerging arts and educational community on the City's near East Side and the more popluar and frequented West Side commercial neighborhoods along Elmwood Avenue.

I've heard that there's a plan ready to go that will extend Allen Street across Main Street and place the east end of Allen somewhere crossing Washington and bisecting Ellicott street. So, earlier in the week I went to take a closer look at the Metro stop that would be radically transformed by the new street design.

Here's a snap looking east on Allen towards the subway stop. Roswell Park campus is in the background. And two close up views.

click to enlarge

This was the first time I've had the opportunity to walk through this pedestrian tunnel. This public poetry pannel is easy to miss if you are driving, which I find myself doing less of every month. Click on the series to see this public poetry. And if anyone knows who's responsible for this creation, kindly let me know.

click to enlarge

When you look east through the pedestrian tunnel - which sort of lines up with Allen Street - (google map), though I left my transit and protractor at home - you quickly see some really cool houses that have been converted to medical offices on Washington Street. Very slightly to the left there's a parking lot and looking a bit further there's a path that winds between another parking lot and a house that's even more impressive than these two brick places over on Ellicott.

Making the connection between both halves of Buffalo, East and West, is important yet the proposals flying around have included taking down these houses to make room for a "straight" road. Please, this is Allen town. If the street isn't straight and curves somewhat, does it really matter?

click to enlarge

If a right of way can't be negotiated with the property owner at 937 Washington, perhaps a more pedestrian and urban friendly subway stop, as in an underground one with retail redesigned on the street level is approriate for this connection to the City's East side. Maybe a well designed and smaller street connecting to Washington and a pedestrian zone to Ellicott is inorder here.

With the Preservation Coalition recently taking up residence in the Red Jacket Building on the corner of Main and Allen look for more creative designs and urban friendly planning in this East and West Side connector. It's hard to imagine a demolition of 19th century Buffalo residential property right on the door-step of these folks.

0 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/13/2006 at 2:54 AM.

Koons Avenue..."What's Happening?"

I re-visited a city of Buffalo owned property at 319 Koons Avenue just a short ways away from the recently renovated Harvey Austin School located at 1405 Sycamore.

Here's the google map showing the proximity of 319 Koons to the Harvey Austin School, one of Buffalo newest public schools.

click to enlarge

I first visited 319 Koons last April. I returned in May. In July I visited 319 Koons and compared the City's stewardship of this place with some more familiar places on the City's west-side. I was also reminded of the terrible quadruple murder on Koons...

It sits directly across the street from 320 Koons Avenue, the scene of a four brutal murders in April. It's still wide open in the back, 100 days after informing John Hannon, Director of Real Estate that the property needed his immediate attention.

So, will someone please tell me what's happening here on Koons Avenue? A new City school and at least two examples of abandoned, boarded, derelict and vacant City owned property in the immediate proximity of a center for education and learning. Think about it. If these properties were on Elmwood or in North Buffalo...would it take a year or longer for these properties to be properly boarded and secured? What's it going to take. Four more murders...a child being abducted before the condition of City owned property becomes a priority.

Meanwhile just a block away at 191 Goodyear Avenue, nothing has changed. Picture on the left is from January 2005 and on the right yesterday. See the relationship between 191 Goodyear and the Harvey Austin School, right here.

Check out the School House Project.

0 Comments Published by fix buffalo on at 1:57 AM.

Wollenberg Grain Elevator...One Year Later

Early last February I explored the Wollenberg Grain Elevator for the first time with Craig, my urbex partner. We had just explored the J.N. Adam TB Hospital site in Perrysburg a few weeks before. That's a long and unnecessairly complex story of municipal malfaesance that requires some time to fully understand. Required reading if you want to know just how f***ed-up things can get here in Buffalo. Anyway...

The Wollenberg Grain Elevator is located just 500 feet away from the recently renovated Harvey Austin School. Frequent readers of this blog may recall that I first met Michele Johnson, Artvoice Hero of The Year right here on Koons Avenue while trying to get the house demolished - a $7,000 demolition that Buffalo residents paid for - that sat just 50 feet away from the main entrance to the Harvey Austin School. Here's that story. The house is down...and the City of Buffalo still hasn't collected a penny from Hamilton and Lydia Woods of Redwood City, CA. Go figure...

Just over the tracks and 500 feet away is the Wollenberg Grain Elevator. It's the fourth stop on a Preservation Coalition sponsored Bicycle Tour - dubbed by some as the Tour de Neglect - that I'll be leading this summer. As you can see, the place is a total mess and under the City of Buffalo's ownership the place has continued to deteriorate. Last year there was only one opening that my urbex partner and I could access, yesterday there were two additional openings, one that you or any school kid mesmerized by this structure could simply walk into.

Wollenberg Grain Elevator - January 2006

The City of Buffalo is the legal owner of this place. And according to Stan who spent 5 years in housing court dealing with relatively minor code violations - peeling paint and a roof for his shed - he's lived in his home for 35 years and works part time and like many of us money is really tight (his case was dismissed in a jury trial!!!) he was quick to point out that the city of Buffalo also owns the house adjacent to The Wollenberg Grain Elevator. This house at 122 Koons Avenue.

click to enlarge

Make sure to click on these two pictures in this row on the right. That's 122 Koons Avenue. It's just 550 feet away from the Harvey Austin School and like the Wollenberg Grain Elevator it's owned by the City of Buffalo. Wide open...

Remember? This was last year...same place!

While Fillmore District Councilman - a.k.a Council President David Franczyk, Buffalo's number 2 guy, has been spending time, money and squandering City resources to "save" a forest down in Perrysburg, NY 40 miles from Koons Avenue...the residents of Koons, like Stan and the students attending the recently renovated Harvey Austin School are all joining in unison with a few rounds of... WTF...

Read all about David Franczyk's dereliction of duty over here...Perrysburg Follies!

Oh yeah...almost forgot. The Wollenberg Grain Elevator is on the National Register of Historic Places.

3 Comments Published by fix buffalo on at 12:27 AM.

Artspace Investment Impact Area - Part II

I've had the opportunity to tour the neighborhood surrounding the Artspace area on the City's near East-Side three times this week with potential investors and local artists looking for additional studio and living space. Every one has fallen in love with Coe Place and the brick oven pizza over at Delta Sonic, right across the street.

A few buildings that appeared on the City's poster have really captured the attention of investors and local artists.

click to enlarge

The former Joseph Denzel's Tavern at the corner of Riley and 1325 Michigan, would be a revitalized as a mixed-use project under the City's revitalization program. Google Map - location and City Property Description. This building has been vacant for at least the past 11 years.

The brick former livery stable at 65 Riley is a small building with vast potential as a placeholder for the corner of Holland and Riley. The City hopes to find an active reuse for the unique property, perhaps as a conversion to retail or gallery space. Google Map - location and City Property Description.

Additional opportunities include this HUD owned single family home at 73 Northampton. Here's the City's Property Description for 73 Northampton. There's a Cash Cunningham sign in the front window or you can see the property by contacting Polis Realty.

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Check out this City owned single family home at 93 Riley when you are in the neighborhood, too.

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Don't forget the Coe Place Slide Show and check out what Buffalo Rising has to say about Artspace, too. Great comments.

2 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/12/2006 at 12:03 AM.

Transfiguration, SNAFU...

I've tried engaging William Trezevant - the wizard behind Paul Francis Associates, Inc. and the owner of Transfiguration Church - in a civil e-mail exchange. I've failed terribly. I asked him recently the following...

Meanwhile, if there is a material mis-representation in my posting about Transfiguration here or more recently, over here let me know. I will gladly post your corrections.

He only responded with bombast and hyperbole that seems to be characteristic of his dealing with folks from the Inspections Dept. who are trying to get these matters resolved. He didn't offer a single correction.

In a second round of e-mails I asked Bill Trezevant the following:

1. Does Paul Francis Associates, Inc., a Delaware Not for Profit corporation still have its principal office as 1834 Ontario Place, NW Washington DC, 20009-2109?

2. What is your relationship to the the above mentioned corporation?

3. Does Pauline Nowak [your mother] know there is an outstanding housing court warrant for her arrest here in Buffalo, NY issued by Judge Fiorella on September 25, 2002?

4. If so, can you please explain why she hasn't turned herself in? If no, will you kindly provide her address so the warrant can be served. As an officer of the court, I know you know these are important matters.

5. Are you Pauline Nowak's attorney?

6. What are your plans for Transfiguration? You've seen my photos and other people's photos of the church's interior. Will you make yourself available for an interior inspection? Specifically, I like to know what your immediate short term plans are and secondly what your longer term plans may or may not include. Be specific, and remember that "hope is not a plan."

7. Who are the other officers of Paul Francis Corporation?

Same bombast. He did suggest that I go to law school. I laughed. I know Bill reads this blog on a regular basis now and I imagine one of these days I'll have the opportunity to meet up with him in Judge Nowak's Housing Court.

click to enlarge

Today I took the opportunity to check out Transfiguration once again. I took the following shots. Note the condition of the slate roof. I found a few pieces of this slate very close to the Mills Street sidewalk. I picked one up as a souvenir. I'll bring it to court and return it to him, rather soon I expect.

I did offer to remove his name from my blog and any reference to his dealings with Transfiguration if he could assure me that the residents of Buffalo would not be hit the demolition bill for Transfiguration. He gave me no such assurance.

Part of the problem these days is that Buffalo will soon have a surfeit of old churches on the market with the Bishop Kmiec's Journey to Avoid Housing Court in full swing. The churches like Transfiguration that were dumped in the Diocese's first round of church flipping 10 years ago, will face the wrecking ball. The only question remains is who is going to pay that Bill?

Interesting stuff from the Erie County Board of Elections the other day regarding campaign contributions to his recent bid for the Ellicott District Council seat...developing...

See also, Sign of Things to Come? and More Trasfiguration.

Michigan Avenue - Sidewalk Markers...

0 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/11/2006 at 11:58 PM.

My friend Tara snapped this pic over the weekend. This afternoon I counted four of these markers freshly embedded in the sidewalk between Broadway and William. Each marker is approx. 2' x 2' and lots of other site improvements on the block, too. New sidewalks with this gravel texture, new curbs and old fashioned street light standards. Looks like the former police precinct building has a new owner, too.

Local attorney, Loran Bommer just purchased the place and moved his law practice from Court Street to Michigan Avenue. He can be reached at 842-1222. Great attorney and awesome piano player! He knows realestate better than most attorneys I know. I refer friends to him all the time. Call him, preferrably before you get stuck...

If you know more about the Michigan Avenue Historic District which is taking shape here along Michigan Avenue, please let me know...I'd like to add more to this post...thanks.

2 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/08/2006 at 10:21 PM.

Artspace Investment Impact Area...

I had the unique opportunity to sit down and talk with a few people yesterday and discuss the Artspace project. Frequent readers here will remember the Artspace Archive. Certain people in City Hall are developing a comprehensive investment impact manual for the area surrounding Artspace. I hope to make this manual available here in .pdf format real soon. This is a positive development for the City's near East-Side. Rumor has it that Strategic Planning Guru Timothy Wannamaker has placed the Artspace project on the top of his list.

These two pics are best viewed in my flickr photostream. Click on one of these pics. It will take you to my flickr account. Then click on "all sizes." You'll quickly have a screen sized image of the impact area.

click to enlarge

Before and After...

If you haven't stopped into to Delta Sonic yet, the newest Mid-Town retailer, you should. Right across the street from the Artspace location. Dunkin Donuts...the bomb! And the new cafe style restaurant has what I think is the only brick-oven pizza in Buffalo. It'll be a 24-7 spot as soon as Artspace happens...perfect for late nite collaborating...Maybe Buffalo's only pizza reviewer, Buffalo Pundit, will stop in for a few slices...

Poster photo credits to Tara. Her other snaps can be viewed here. Lots of cool Asian things.

Woodlawn Row Houses - January 2006

0 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/05/2006 at 11:47 PM.

Here the latest pics of the City owned property that inspired me to start blogging about my neighborhood here on the City's East Side. The Woodlawn Row Houses were designated a local-landmark in 1983 by the Preservation Board. They are directly across the street from the new and future home of Performing Arts High School.

Here's the complete archive of montly updates, from March 2004. Demolition by neglect, if you ask me. I think Byron Brown, Buffalo newest mayor lives nearby, here in Masten. I'll find out and do a google map depicting the proximity of the Woodlawn Row Houses to Byron's house. He used to represent Masten as a Councilman, just a few years ago.

Here's a few maps showing the location of the Woodlawn Row Houses. The first map is a Sanford fire map from the 1920's. The Woodlawn Row Houses are in the SE corner of the intersection in the map's middle. When you click and enlarge this map, notice how many row house clusters there were and how densly settled the neighborhood was. The map on the right shows the new home of Performing Arts High School in the middle. This replaced Offerman Stadium in 1962. The Woodlawn Row Houses are diagonally across from the school's main entrance on Masten.

click to enlarge

This is cool...

0 Comments Published by fix buffalo on at 11:03 PM.

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Check out all the links...thanks Marilyn. I had the opportunity to visit Housing Court during lunch time today. Judge Nowak presents a series of informative talks on various aspects of housing in Buffalo on a monthly basis. Marilyn Rogers who provides some of the creative juices behind West Village Renaissance Group and a whole lot of the activism is Judge Nowak's coordinator for the increasingly more popular Housing Court Liaison program.

0 Comments Published by fix buffalo on at 10:43 PM.

Summer Time Tour...

I've been placing the finishing touches on a Preservation Coalition sponsored tour of selected sites on the City's East Side for this summer. The bicycle tour will begin at the new Delta Sonic, opposite Coe Place and meanders through the East Side ending up at Old Editions Bookshop. Dates and times TBA. Chuck LaChiusa and I recently had the opportunity to take a closer look at three of the sites. Chuck snapped some significant shots of these spots and recently made them available on his site. Check it out...(the address link takes you to a google map).

We did have the unexpected opportunity to tour the inside of the German Roman Catholic Orphan Home as the maintenance guy from the CAO opened the place that afternoon for a real estate appraiser. I took various interior shots and put together two slide shows. Inside views and earlier in the year when I visited the site with another urbex partner I took these exterior shots.

Make sure to visit the rest of Chuck's work at Buffalo as an Architectural Museum.

0 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/04/2006 at 10:29 PM.

Flickr Meet-Up...

Mark your calendar for next Saturday! We'll be meeing at SPoT on Chippewa around 200pm. The rest of the details. Looking forward to meeting as many other flickr fiends from Buffalo and beyond...

Saturday - January 14th
200pm SPoT on Chippewa

New to Flickr, check out this..."Buffalo" And if you've been around for awhile here's a great list of cool new Flickr tools!

More Transfiguration Pics...

1 Comments Published by fix buffalo on at 5:34 AM.

Thanks to Flickr member, AJ14201 I came across some recent shots along Genesee Street. I've been all over 669 Genesee and the City's complete lack of responsible ownership and management of the site. Right across the street from 669 at the Sol Lenzer building, another 500K demo job, that we'll be swallowing soon...I saw this political poste r from a recent Ellicott District wanna be...Imagine, running an entire Council District like he's done his business with the Transfiguration Church!

Frequent readers know that I've been following various chapters in the Annals of Neglect and especially how the 1995 sale of The Transfiguration Church to William Trezavant's shady shell corporation, headed by his mother and Housing Court fugitive Pauline Nowak is nothing but a harbinger of things to come with Bishop Kmiec's own journey to avoid Housing Court now in full propaganda mode.

This evening I stumbed upon some additonal interior shots of The Transfiguration Church from a way cool urbex site, Undercity.org, which is worth checking out. Here the pics and two of my favorites.

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West Village Blog...Great Story

0 Comments Published by fix buffalo on at 4:19 AM.

Just noticed this piece, What Price Abandonment? over at the West Village Renaissance Group blog. As frequent readers of this blog know, I've been covering this beat and drumming that drum here on this, the other side of Main Street, Buffalo's East Side since October '04. It's finally good to have some company in the local Buffalo blogosphere.

They Decrease Property Values...
In a 2001 study,
researchers from Philadelphia found that houses within 150 feet of a neglected vacant property experienced a net loss of value of $7,627. Those within 150 to 300 feet experience a loss in value of $6,819 and those within 300 to 450 feet of such a property depreciated by $3,542.

This full texts of these reports sited in the West Village Blog story can be found here at The National Vacant Properties Campaign.

I first learned about this national organization back in February '05, over here. Recently, I saw this on West Utica and have been very concerned about this beauty along Humboldt Parkway.

Check out this story that I covered in October '05 regarding the 23,000 vacant and abandoned properties in the City of Buffalo. Maybe we'll get a recount in 2006!

click to enlarge

On a more serious note, if you are interested in that Humboldt Parkway House, located at 2 Girard Place, that we finally got into Housing Court for the first time last August, check out the total lack of progress by clicking on the docket number:

Buffalo Housing Court Case #868/2005 on January 9, 2006 at 930am.

Wanna bet the defendent, Cedric Walker is another no-show. I'll be there, again. Stay tuned.

Performing Arts - Update

1 Comments Published by fix buffalo on at 1:15 AM.

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Not much press recently in the Buffalo News or from local bloggers about the single largest construction project in Buffalo's history. I've re-printed a piece that just appeared in last week's Busines First, in case you missed it.

It's the latest about the game of 'musical chairs' that's happening with Phase II of the Joint Schools Re-construction Project, the one billion dollar construction project that's impacting neighborhoods all over the City and bringing schools inline with 21st century design standards. More importantly this project is having a major impact on kids lives here in Buffalo. It probably doesn't get the press or blog coverage that it deserves as the sites are scattered all over the City and the time frame is ten years.

The City is still struggling with abandoned, boarded and derelict residential and commercial property surrounding some of the City's newest schools. Here in Masten and especially around the future of home of Performing Arts High School, City Inspectors have been vigilant in getting property into Housing Court and getting some of the worst offending property demolished. We still have a way to go. Eight houses, within a block of the new Performing Arts location, came down in 2005. I've identifed another 6 houses that have got to go...and one major commercial building that is simply beyond repair. Another site would make an excellent location for a new Starbucks! A block from the new school.

I first began writing about these problems over here in The School House Project, last year. And before the semester begins, I promise to visit these same sites with an update.

Here's the latest from Business First, just last week.

Final bids being prepared for $22M school project
James Fink
Business First

In one of the most dramatic and high profile moves of Buffalo's $1 billion, decade-long public schools reconstruction project, officials are preparing the final set of bids that will ultimately see Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts move to its new home.

The construction bids on the $22 million project are slated to hit the street by within the next few months, said Heather Groll, Buffalo Public Schools spokeswoman.

According to construction industry documents, obtained by Business First, the project will see Performing Arts Academy move from its current home on Clinton Street to the former Buffalo Traditional School site on E. Ferry Street. Buffalo Traditional, which was constructed more than four decades ago, is built on the site of the former Offermann Stadium, once home to the Buffalo Bisons.

The project will see another 35,000 square feet added to the school, mainly to house a new entranceway, a classroom wing that includes science labs and art studios and a visual arts center. A 700-seat auditorium is also included in the project.

The current school has 178,500 square feet. Once the bids are reviewed, construction is scheduled to begin in June.

LPCiminelli is working with the Buffalo School District on the entire reconstruction effort while Cannon Design has been retained as the project architect for the Performing Arts Academy.

Here's the LPCiminelli site devoted to the Buffalo Joint School Reconstruction Project. I would very much like to hear how some of the other school projects have been managed and meet the needs of neighborhoods, parents, teachers and of course the students.

Special thanks to Chris Byrd over at the BAVPA alumni organization for bringing this Buffalo First article to my attention. Chris is also the creative juice behind IndaBuff, cool Buffalo things.

Here's an additional view of the new Performing Arts site. More views here at the BAVPA site.

click pic for additional info...

2006 will be an exciting year for the City's near East Side. Breaking ground for Performing Arts, Artspace, a new Post Office and the recent sale of Cash Cunningham's Packard Building at Main & Riley to a New York City developer (pics to follow) for additional cool apartments are adding up to a renewed interest and some serious development. Just alittle in to the East Side, along Michigan Avenue, don't forget this, or this earlier story about Michigan Avenue. And if you haven't set up an appointment with Polis Realty to see Coe Place, like what are you waiting for!