A few months back, I met Bradley. He was living here at 85 Genesee Street. The boards were scattered around the sidewalk and years of neglect by Triangle Development LLC - aka Scot and Jessie Fisher, from Righteous Babe Records and Forever Elmwood fame - created a serious public health risk and made the place like total ghetto. 91 Genesee - also owned by Triangle - is featured here in a Charles Burchfield water color.
Well today I had a chance to stop by again after hearing from a number of fixBuffalo readers that the boards were down, again.
Any thoughts on how to proceed? Let me know. Will be finding out tomorrow if Triangle Development LLC has a permit to block the side walk. Seems like they should.
Link here to previous writing and article featured on BRo...
flickr slide show - 85 & 91 Genesee Street
__________________________________________________________________________Well today I had a chance to stop by again after hearing from a number of fixBuffalo readers that the boards were down, again.
flickr slide show - 85 & 91 Genesee Street
Artspace Archive • Annals of Neglect • BAVPA • Where is Perrysburg? • Broken Promises...
Writing the City • Woodlawn Row Houses • faq • my flickr
6 comments:
It's really hard to get worked up against the developer when I read about something like this. Yes, they should do something with the building. Yes it's a shame something on such a promising corner is left to languish in decay, sandwiched between banks, resturants, and successful concert venues.
However, in the meantime they replaced the boards as they were supposed to.
Odds are it's your friend Bradley, or someone like him who was staying there that pulled the boards off so they could regain access to the building. In a case like that what's the building owner supposed to do? Be on site 24-7 to defend it against homeless people who want a place to stay?
Kelly,
The first board up occured after two years of neglect and a slow campaign started here to get the owners to do the right thing and properly secure the buildings. That campaign culminated in a scathing BN article.
Again, now we are back to square one. Sources tell me that the boards actually blew off in a storm close to a month ago.
Guess regular monitoring - not 24/7 - is too much to expect.
Yes, Kelly, as a matter of fact, the privilege of private property ownership comes with responsibilities. Owners are required to protect the public from safety hazards, even if that means driving by every day to check on things. Owners are required to keep their property up to code. Owners are required to have proper permits.
If owners cannot do these things, they should sell to someone who can. And these particular owners should return the $50K that we City taxpayers gave them along with the building.
Is THAT true? If a person buys one of the buildings than the city gives them money to rehabilite? Sounds like a great deal for people looking to get a start. They'd make great homes like on hgtv turning old office buildings and stores into homes. What a waste of surplus nice property has rotting away.
Anon 1:44,
Agree.
Kelly...what say you?
I think its easy to get worked up about it. I often do. Its hard not to when you see what other peoples actions are doing to you neighborhood.
I've always wondered why it is legal to let a building sit boarded up with no effort to bring it back to use or to actively market it for sale.
Owning propery is a responsibility. If homeless people or anyone for that matter keep breaking in: secure it better than nailed and plywood, or sell it to someone who will do something with it.
Its really bad with houses, as can be seen through David's photos. Boarding up a place should be a temporary short term solution. Long term something needs to be done with buildings/homes to transfer them into someone else's hands for resuse and thus the growth of a neighborhood, instead of contributing to the decline.
It should be obvious to anyone in power that exisisting laws are creating/allowing mass decline instead of promoting stability and growth. The city needs to forclose on these places quickly, and then cheaply transfer them even quicker to people who will do something with them
Also, it should be obvious to anyone who owns any property that along with it comes the burden of having responsibility to the area where it is located. If you do not want that responsibility, do not purchase and/or sell.
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