fix buffalo today

Visited St. Matthew's on Sunday afternoon. A neighbor told me that the grass had been cut earlier in the week for the first time in years. I've been playing phone tag with the building inspector all week.
Heard from one fixBuffalo reader that the ministry that seemed to vanish from St. Matthew's - after stripping out the architectural detail, pews, alter and stained glass - has set up shop just north of Atlanta - Vision of Faith International

Spoke with a neighbor on Moselle Sunday afternoon. She recounted attending mass twnety five years ago when St. Matthew's was still open and from her second floor porch has watched the Church descend to its current state. She smiled when she'd heard that the church was no longer being flipped on Ebay.

Here's the expanding post regarding - St. Matthew's History

And a close up of West Genesee Street...that is actually more secure than it has been in a long time.

Memorial Day river trip...
We put in down on Ohio Street and paddled to the recently re-watered Commercial Slip. Perhaps the first canoe in the slip since 1917.

Here's the slide show - Memorial Day 2007
Labor Day 2006 was the last time - right here and a few days later here. Some similar views in 2005, right here. Great views of the Canadiana's wheel house.

Last weekend Aaron Ingrao and I toured the 50 High Street demolition site on the City's near East side [google map].
Chris Byrd was there on Saturday morning...
Remember this from last October's demolition nearby by at the Hamlin House. Loved this pic!

See - Kaleida Archive for additional information.

Remember Woe is Moi? from January 2006? Love knowing how others see us here in Buffalo.
This morning woke up to this article - Buffalo Bets on its Waterfront - from Sean who observes Buffalo from his perch 100 miles away in Toronto. Frequent fixBuffalo readers also know him as the founding member of DK Photo Group.

Some of the lines in Buffalo Bets on its Waterfront just sort of jump out grab hold.

As Toronto continues to creep steadily forward on its waterfront redevelopment plan – the master scheme for the foot of the Don River and Portlands, released just a month ago, is still several years away from starting – Buffalo has already begun building what it hopes will be the anchor of a reinvigorated waterfront.

Robert Shibley is the director of the University of Buffalo's Urban Design Project. The city's wounds may have been cauterized, he says, but it's not done bleeding. "We're still losing population. We have a huge infrastructure of vacant land and weak neighbourhoods. And the demographics aren't great."

Shibley was courted from Oregon in 1982, when Buffalo was bottoming out. "The pitch to me was to come here because it has every problem in the world you'd ever want to study. It's small enough to get your arms around and you're only an hour and a half from Toronto," he laughs.

"Every day you'd pick up the paper and there'd be another insurance fire on the east side. We were losing housing stock, and population, very, very quickly. It was grim. It was very grim. But at the same time, it was challenging."

Here's the link to Canalside and some recent links - Role Reversal and (B)ass Pro

Smart City is a weekly, hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life, the people, places, ideas and trends shaping cities. Host Carol Coletta talks with national and international public policy experts, elected officials, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others for a penetrating discussion of urban issues.

This weekend...

• It's a question Steve Babitch and Clint Barth have been wrestling with and they'll tell us what they've learned. Both gentlemen just earned Master of Design degrees from the Institute of Design in Chicago. Steve's area of focus is innovation strategy and planning, and his work includes a stint at Doblin, Inc. Clint is a designer who has worked with small start-ups, nonprofits and Fortune 100 companies and is currently a consultant for Gensler.

• Also with us is Dr. Heather Weiss who founded the Harvard Family Research Project to support the successful development of children from birth to adulthood. Heather is also Senior Research Associate and Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

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Artspace • BAVPA • Tour d'Neglect - 2007 • Woodlawn Row Houses • faq • my flickr
the creativity exchange • CEOs for Cities

In today's Buffalo News, Cynthia Van Ness has a piece about the Erie Canal site, Bass Pro and Florida residents Bob and Mindy Rich.

MJ recently flew over the site and submitted this picture.
And the good folks at Flynn Battaglia have provided a sketch of their work.
Remember this? Too funny!

Monday evening, the folks at the Greater Buffalo Savings Bank helped out with Queen City Farm's first fund raiser. Here's the cool graphic.
We were introduced to a short film by John Paget - John Paget Films - and heard speak passionately about the connection between sustainable neighborhoods, the farm - which will be one of North America's largest community gardens - and people's lives. Very compelling narrative provided by Cynthia Van Ness and Samina Raja. The 12-minute film is available on the Queen City Farm site.
Here's a few pix and link to a slide show from Monday's fundraiser. Make sure to check out Harold McNeil's piece that appeared in Tuesday's Buffalo News - here.

Here's a few additional links to 194 slide shows - interior pix and exterior pix. An earlier post - 194 East Utica...On Life Support - from last January, with plenty of links to additional posts.

I rarely repost, yet this set from MJ is really amazing. Very cool views of downtown, the urban prairie and Steel Winds.
Here's the link to the slide show in case you missed it last month - Air Buffalo

Spotted another trailer on the ever expanding urban prairie the other day.
This one is located along Genesee Street. Here the other ones I've seen recently. If you've spotted any additonal trailers just sort of parked in out of the way places, like to know...

Here's the expanding post regarding - St. Matthew's History

On our way over to St. Matthew's this afternoon, we spotted these pews at the corner of Fillmore and Winslow.
Wonder where they came from...

Just in from a loyal fixBuffalo reader...

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Artspace • BAVPA • Tour d'Neglect - 2007 • Woodlawn Row Houses • faq • my flickr
the creativity exchange • CEOs for Cities

In December 2004 an entity called Temple Empowerment purchased 202 Walden Avenue for $1000. As I mentioned two months ago in - What If? - a devestating fire ripped through the premises on November 6, 2006.

On Saturday afternoon the building remained wide open...
Check out MJ's slide show - Retreader
My earlier slide show - Fire in the 'hood...

Housing Court Index #1676/2005 details the continous inspection history of this building from September 2005 to the present. I'll be confirming this week with City Hall if a demolition order has been signed. Imagine that the City - you and me, folks - will be saddled with the demolition cost of this place.
Any one want to venture a guess as to the price tag?

Meanwhile the building has been wide open for the past 196 days...a few blocks away from a recently renovated City school and an Olmsted Park. If it were closer to Elmwood Avenue, think it would be properly sealed by now?

So it goes...

Plan on attending...

Smart City is a weekly, hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life, the people, places, ideas and trends shaping cities. Host Carol Coletta talks with national and international public policy experts, elected officials, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others for a penetrating discussion of urban issues.

This weekend...

• Mayors from around the world convened this week in New York to get serious about climate change. They have a growing number of examples to learn from and one of the best is Starbucks. Tony Gale, the company's Director of Design, is with us to share the ground-breaking work Starbucks is doing to make its stores green and how its work can influence others.

• Dr. Joe Schwieterman is Director of DePaul University's Chaddick Institute, which promotes effective urban planning. Today, effective urban planning means sustainable urban planning, and the biggest chits in play are transportation and buildings.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Tour d'Neglect - 2007 • Woodlawn Row Houses • faq • my flickr
the creativity exchange • CEOs for Cities

Just got this from LISC - Buffalo...

A few attachments arrived with the email. Two data sets and two maps.

I've merged both data sets into two shared spreadsheets. The first data set - Buffalo USPS raw data 2006. The second set contains the equally disturbing trend data - Buffalo USPS trend data 2006. Here's the interpretive dictionary [.pdf] from HUD describing the various numbers.

The maps are available via my esnips and available for viewing and downloading. The first map shows the 2006 Trend Data and the second map, the first quarter 2007 vacancy by census tract.

A cursory analysis of this data reveals by the end of the first quarter of 2007 (Q1 2007) Buffalo had lost 1,692 deliverable addresses since Q1 2006, representing a decrease of 1.4% of the city’s total addresses. During that time, the total number of all addresses fell 527, from 137,292 to 136,765 for a decrease of .4%. After accounting for demolition activity, then, this translates to 1,162 more undeliverable addresses than last year at this time.

Do the math...100 addresses/month are disappearing from Buffalo. Even if all these addresses represent two-family houses, that's 10 houses/week that are vacated every week!

Last month, I posted - Ouch! - regarding population loss here in Buffalo, NY. One of criticisms involved in using census data is that some people claim that it's not reliable and we should wait for the 2010 data to filter down. But, folks...the Post Office! These people know how to count...and the numbers are real...

Question of course remains why we are not adopting the best practices that are emerging in places like Youngstown, OH...

Byron?

Lots happening in City Hall. There was an investigation into various issues involving the Webb Building and alleged wrong doing. The panel included - Joe Golombek, Lavone Ansari, Richard Griffin and Denise Roche.

Here's the full report - Webb Inquest - May 11, 2007

It's 54 pages long and the link takes you to my esnips on-line storage site and then to a .pdf file. Read it, let me know what you think...

Spotted this City Playground over on Johnson Street - quikmap...

Will be keeping track of a number of City playgrounds this summer.

A fixBuffalo reader sent this in the other day...

• City Spent Millions... - Stefan Mychajliw, WGRZ

In April 2006, I spotted a convoy of dump trucks in the Sycamore/Jefferson area. Took a few pictures and posted - Sickamore Village. Did some more digging and posted Sickamore Village - Part II a day later.

In July 2004, Buffalo News reporter Phil Fairbanks wrote...

These partially completed homes on Sycamore Street were constructed on land contaminated with lead, mercury and chromium. City officials say contamination levels exceed state standards for new housing...read the rest...

Went over to take a look on Saturday afternoon...
Sickamore Village Slideshow...

Same fixBuffalo reader who sent me the WGRZ piece dropped this off the other day...

The goal of this project is to create a neighborhood that would incorporate the advantages of both city and suburbia...read the rest!

Here's the plan!

It certainly would appear as though Scott Weinstein and David Serota have lost their passion for St. Matthew's.
While the whole idea of locating a "community center" just a few blocks away from one of the City's most successful community centers - CRUCIAL, located at 230 Moselle St - is questionable, and I did give Scott the benefit of the doubt in our first email exchange and wished him every success in his venture, (yes, really...will share the email with anyone who asks for it...) I was rather dis-heartened to learn on Saturday afternoon that he still has not properly secured St. Matthew's.

Rather unbelievable as Scott had been concerned that the pews, alter and various architectural detail had been stolen at some point in the past few months.

Oh well. Wonder if he has a lawnmower...
Meanwhile, have always loved O - Scott's restaurant on Sheridan Drive. Was there a few years ago for the opening and have been back on several occasions. Rather transformative sort of place...feels more like NYC or Toronto. Amazing food...

Would like to think he'd bring the same level of passion to this project as he's done with O...

A few fixBuffalo readers have just passed on the following...

• Anti Flipping Fails? - by Josh Brose, WGRZ
• Buffalo Church Property Dropped from Ebay - Business First
  

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Smart City is a weekly, hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life, the people, places, ideas and trends shaping cities. Host Carol Coletta talks with national and international public policy experts, elected officials, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others for a penetrating discussion of urban issues.

This weekend...

• Eve Picker is transforming Pittsburgh's long-ignored downtown buildings into stylish residences and offices, setting the stage for future residential development in the heart of that city. Trained as an architect and urban designer, Eve has built an entrepreneurial real estate development business called No Wall Productions in Pittsburgh.

• Jeanne Goodman was the very first investor in Boston's Jamaica Plain Cohousing where she now lives. It is an unusual style of shared living with neighbors to fit today's busy lifestyles. Jeanne is a co-housing advocate with Ecodevelopments. Her newest project is EcoVillage.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Tour d'Neglect - 2007 • Woodlawn Row Houses • faq • my flickr
the creativity exchange • CEOs for Cities

This just in from the Anti-Flipping Task Force...

See the background - Flipping (off) Jesus!

EAST SIDE PROPERTY REMOVED FROM EBAY

BUFFALO— The Mayor’s Anti-Flipping Task Force today announced the successful removal of a Buffalo property listed on eBay. The property, formerly St. Matthew’s Church at 1066 East Ferry Street, was removed thanks to the collective efforts of the City of Buffalo, the Task Force and the property owner. The property was purchased at the City of Buffalo’s In-Rem auction in October 2006.

“The fact that the public is aware of the efforts of the Anti-Flipping Task Force and that they seek out recommendations on property sales shows that our message is getting out effectively,” said Mayor Byron W. Brown. “The community, the AFTF, the City of Buffalo, New York State, and the seller all came together to remove this property from eBay. This shows how serious we are about preventing fraudulent flipping in the City of Buffalo.”

State Senator Stachowksi, AFTF Co-Chair stated, "The AFTF has been very diligent and thorough in exploring ways we can prevent illegal flipping in the City of Buffalo. This is a perfect example of a potential illegal flip, but better yet, it's a perfect example of the AFTF's ability to respond to a situation of this nature."

“This decisive action is further indication that the AFTF is achieving the results that we hoped it would when we created the Task Force two years ago,” said Assemblymember Sam Hoyt, Co-Chair of the AFTF.

Members of the community contacted the Mayor’s Anti-Flipping Task Force with concerns about the property listing on eBay. The AFTF then contacted the City of Buffalo Department of Economic Development, Permit and Inspection Services, the Department of Law and the Office of Strategic Planning to establish whether the sale on eBay violated provisions of the In-Rem contract. The City concluded that the proposed sale would violate the terms of the City contract. The AFTF notified the owner and he withdrew the property from eBay.

“We are very pleased that this process worked effectively and quickly. This experience demonstrates that the community, AFTF members, and the City of Buffalo, are committed to protecting Buffalo neighborhoods. We have succeeded in preventing a cycle of destructive flipping with respect to a significant East Side property” said Kathleen A. Lynch, Esq., AFTF Coordinator.

Monica M. Pellegrino

Community Development Project Manager

Assemblymember Sam Hoyt

936 Delaware Avenue

Buffalo, NY 14209

716.885.9630

716.885.9636

www.samhoyt.com

fixBuffalo readers have been learning that the folks at LISC - Buffalo are doing the heavy lifting and helping us understand what we should probably call Buffalo's Inconvenient Truth...we are shrinking, not growing. Blueprint Buffalo, first featured here - Getting Smarter about Decline, last November - was a collaborative effort in part between LISC - Buffalo and the National Vacant Properties Campaign. Here's the announcement from NVPC about the project here in Buffalo - right here.

And while no one in City Hall has their arms around the extent of the problem - denial perhaps? - there's an emerging body of literature and growing set of web based resources available to help citizens understand the extraordinary scope of the problem. While we educate ourselves...we can push the ball forward and help shape policy discussions here in Buffalo, NY. The truth is we are shrinking, not growing...the truth is that we are losing people and jobs faster than they are being replaced. The result - block upon growing block of abandonment and vacancy. Partially boarded and disastrously dangerous houses ready for demolition are so finely woven into the urban landscape that they are accepted as normal, especially around schools.

Wondering about the census data. So was I. Wrote about it - Ouch! - last month.

Last week we read about the Youngstown, OH model. Here - Shrink to Fit. This week, culled from the growing list of resources at the NVPC, we are introuduced to Vacant Richmond .

Richmond VA (PRWEB) April 27, 2007 -- In response to the recent attention of several high profile fires of vacant buildings in Richmond and the publication of more than 3,000 vacant properties on the city of Richmond's "blight" list, several bloggers from Richmond have created the web site "www.VacantRichmond.com" that makes it not only possible for local citizens to track and comment about troubled properties in their neighborhoods, but also for city officials and others to follow and keep track of neighborhood comments and concerns read the rest...

According to the site...

Vacant Richmond allows you to find vacant properties in Richmond, VA and discuss them with other concerned and interested citizens.

Exactly the sort of transparency that we need here in Buffalo. Click through Vacant Richmond and see for yourself. Amazingly simple as the google maps code is used to ease interactivity and understanding.

Knowing and quantifying the true scope of the problem is the first step. This will be established here in Buffalo with an extensive street level survey, Postal Service data - like just how many houses don't get mail? - and working with National Grid and National Fuel Gas. After the numbers are gathered regarding just how many houses is enough and decisions about mothballing Grandma's house or trucking it off to a landfill will have to be made. Then the real difficult choices begin. Imagine one of our council members standing up in Council Chambers advocating streets, sidewalks and sewers in his district be dismantled and dug up. Yet, this will have to happen.

From Youngtown, OH we learned...

"It's un-American. It seems like you're doing something wrong if you're not growing," says Hunter Morrison, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at Youngstown State University, who worked with the city to come up with its strategy. But he says the idea is "not really about growth or shrinkage, it's about managing change."

An Inconvenient Truth? Oh yeah. Get off the couch, walk the neighborhoods and see for yourself. We're shrinking, not growing. Question is will we bury our heads in the sand and deny this...or embrace the change as 35 year old Mayor of Youngstown, OH has.

Byron?

Was tipped off a few hours ago that the St. Matthew's auction - Ebay # 330117130628 has been pulled! Hoping to have further details some time tomorrow morning...

Here's the background - Flipping (off) Jesus - in case you are just tuning in...

Remember - Boarding Control, Part II and Part III - a series of posts depicting the neglected resisdential property owned and managed by Bethel CDC? This is the organization run by our very own Rev. Richard Stenhouse who doubles as our City's Secretary/Treasurer of the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority, aka - our Control Board.
Well, the Spring and Summer...seems like we'll have a sequel...Was poking around these same properties on Michigan Avenue earlier this week. They are directly across the street from the new home of Performing Arts HS, a 30 million project helping to establish this neighborhood as an arts and educational center.
As you will see...all the houses remain wide open. Wonder if there are any houses like this on Jewett Parkway, near the Darwin Martin House, where Rev. Stenhouse lives? I mean if we can't get a City leader to take care of his own house...what hope is there for this emerging neighborhood. Bethel CDC, aside from the City itself, remains the largest owner of residential property in the immediate area, surrounding the new home of Performing Arts HS.

Any suggestions? Let me know...

Let's see...presumably Scott Weinstein and David Serotta signed the following statement upon receiving word that St. Matthew's would soon belong to them.
Will the City's new rules be enforced? Wait and see. Here's all the background and links - Flipping (off) Jesus - Part II.

Special thanks to a fixBuffalo reader...for faxing the above statement to me, just moments ago.

Just back from St. Matthew's...with this pic!
Here's all the back ground.

• Flipping (off) Jesus...
  
• St. Matthew's, (lack of) Passion?
• Selling Jesus...
  
• Disfiguration - Part II
• Disfiguration?

Take a moment and kindly let Scott Weinstein know what you think. He's owned St. Matthew's for less than 30 days - entered into an agreement to buy it from the City of Buffalo last October - and is now selling the Church on Ebay.

His e-mail address is - widgetfactory@msn.com

I know...will mow the grass again this year...

Cool Flickr tool from pictobrowser...

From The Creativity Exchange, Richard Florida's blog, just read through Soul of the Cities. That jumps to a series of articles that appear in the most recent issue of the The Economist.

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Very nice tour of the Artspace Backyard Neighborhood this morning...

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Smart City is a weekly, hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life, the people, places, ideas and trends shaping cities. Host Carol Coletta talks with national and international public policy experts, elected officials, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others for a penetrating discussion of urban issues.

This weekend...

• Why do great strategies fail? That's the question Michael Raynor asks in his new book, The Strategy Paradox. Michael says the job of leaders is to embrace the inherent uncertainty of strategy and recognize that the future can't be predicted. Instead of making choices, leaders create options. Michael is a Distinguished Fellow with Deloitte Research in Boston.

• Our second topic this week is a strategy critical to cities - how to leverage universities and other anchor institutions to contribute fully to urban success and, in turn, to their own. Dr. David Maurrasse of Marga is with us to talk about the challenges and rewards of these partnerships. David is on the faculty at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Tour d'Neglect - 2007 • Woodlawn Row Houses • faq • my flickr
the creativity exchange • CEOs for Cities

The approach is controversial. Encouraging and accepting the hollowing out of neighborhoods will, by default and design, hit Youngstown's poor and minority residents the hardest. About 45% of Youngstown's residents are black, another 5% Hispanic, and the blight is heavily concentrated in minority neighborhoods, which are slated for the biggest makeovers.

Youngstown, which has lost half its population since the 1950s, says it needs a radically different approach to halt decay. It's pointless to try to revive certain neighborhoods, the city's leaders argue, since the exodus of residents often makes those areas unpleasant and dangerous places to live, leading to further decline. "The concept of trying to grow out of economic malaise is just not realistic for us," says Mayor Jay Williams, 35 years old. One of his first official acts after being elected in 2005 was to apply surplus money to demolition in the city.

Very cool interactive maps available in the on-line version of Shrink to Fit. Podcast, too explaining the mayor's approach and rational for changing the way we think about decline.

"It's un-American. It seems like you're doing something wrong if you're not growing," says Hunter Morrison, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at Youngstown State University, who worked with the city to come up with its strategy. But he says the idea is "not really about growth or shrinkage, it's about managing change."

Imagine...cutting out large chunks of the urban landscape here in Buffalo - neighborhoods that are no longer thriving, that are dead. Imagine removing sidewalks, schools, streets and sewers. Does Buffalo have the intestinal fortitude to make the sort of changes necessary to right-size the City?

Knew it wouldn't last...less than 30 days, list to sell! That's Artspace impact! Heard from Ryan that 10 Edna Place just sold for $15,000 -
Ryan has extensive knowledge of the Artspace Backyard Neighborhood. He'll keep you posted regarding additional listings.