fixBuffalo

Smart City is a weekly, hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life, the people, places, Create Documentideas 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...

• How can the design of physical space and public policy encourage creativity and high performance? We put that question to our guests Clive Wilkinson and Steven J. Tepper. Clive is principal with Clive Wilkinson Architects based in Los Angeles. He has many significant projects to his credit including the new headquarters for Google, where bringing employees together at the right time and in the right space was crucial. The challenge was to use the work environment to encourage creativity.

• Researching how to use the urban environment to encourage creativity is part of the work of Steven J. Tepper, assistant professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University. Steven is associate director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, where he has been documenting what makes cities creative. The Curb Center is a research center dedicated to designing a new roadmap for cultural policy in America.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • my flickr
the creativity exchange • latest blog comments

In January, Buffalo's mortgage foreclosure crisis hit the national newstands via a cover story in Business Week. I wrote about it here - Dirty Deeds & Toxic Title.

The problem of course is a total twister, some legal slight of hand and a sadder than sad housing market that has slipped to zero in some sections of the city. What happens when the bank initiates a foreclosure proceeding and - learning that the house has become a liability and has lost its asset value - never takes title, thus stranding the unwitting former owner with future liability for house that's no longer occupied and worth, most probably nothing. Strange, but true.

Well, I learned today from former Buffalo NY housing activist Richard Kern - now 'exiled' and living in Minneapolis - that the City of Buffalo is suing 36 financial and lending institutions in part to cover the cost of demolitions that it incurs when the 'bank' doesn't complete the foreclosure and leaves everyone hanging.

I've archived the 96 page Summons and Complaint - 'Buffalo & Brown v. 36'. I'll be following the case and tracking responding papers.

I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't an NPR or New York Times story in the making. Should be interesting.

I was in Housing Court this morning hoping to meet the owner of 1325 Michigan Avenue. She was a no show. Judge Nowak issued a warrant for her arrest. I wrote about this place recently here, Last Chance?
If anyone has cash and a plan for the last remaining cool commercial structure on Michigan Avenue - just a few blocks from Artspace - let me know. Housing Inspector Michael Schieber and I talked about before the case was called. He's agreed to allow access to anyone who is serious about rennovations at this location. I asked the Judge for 30 days.

Interested, let me know. I'll make arrangements with the City's third floor. Otherwise, 1325 is dust and another addition to the ever expanding and increasingly larger urban prairie.

I noticed this sign the other day, just a block south of Artspace on Main Street at the south east corner of Dodge.
Here's the site plan, too.
If anyone knows more about the construction schedule, let me know.

I'll be in Housing Court on Wednesday morning - 2/27 - asking Judge Nowak to stay the demolition of 1325 Michigan Avenue, a spot that I posted about last month and one that Chicago based architect and frequent Buffalo Rising contributor David Steele wrote about, too - Where is the Plan? - in January.

Well, last weekend I took a closer look at 1178 Michigan Avenue, a few blocks south. It was wide open so I decided to poke around.
Sure it needs work and the wooden shed structure (last pic) along the Dodge Street side has to go. Yet, on a cold and wet day in the middle of February the place was dry on the inside. I saw no evidence of any roof leaks. And wouldn't you know...the City of Buffalo has owned this building since November 2005.
Very cool spot as it's just around the corner from Artspace and a few blocks north of the medical corridor. Always thought it would make an amazing live/work space. Here a few more images.
Interested? Let me know. I may be able to help negotiate the maze down at City Hall.

Rod McCallum invited me over to 195 Glenwood Avenue on Saturday morning. He'd recently purchased this structurally sound 3/3 Buffalo double at the City's tax sale last Fall. I first met Rod and his family during the first scheduled Artspace Back Yard Neighborhood tour in November 2006. He'd learned about 194 East Utica - future home of Queen City Farm - from this post, Saying Goodbye. Since then Rod and I have spoken at UB and in front of a number of community groups about un-locking the potential of the City's near East Side.

During the past 12 months Rod has identifed numerous homesteading opportunities on what everyone is beginning to call the farm block.
I first mentioned 195 Glenwood two years ago - Wide Open in the 'Hood. Rod has spent considerable time and effort recently cleaning out and securing the house. His plan is to make this place home.
Rod's decision to move his family from the City's West Side should come as no surprise to fixBuffalo readers. 195 Glenwood is located - see map pic - directly behind 194 East Utica and his decision to fully renovate and invest in this property testifies to his commitment to greening and growing this emerging near East Side neighborhood.

I'll make sure to post information here about a series of 'work days' Rod is planning this Spring. There are a number of fallen trees from the October Storm that are still strewn about and of course, crops to plant. This is going to be amazing.

I spotted this sign the other day on the sw corner of Best and Jefferson.

That's the Stanley Makowski Early Childhood Center - report card - on the right and the crumbling 'Rock Pile' on the left.

If anyone knows more about this project, please let me know.

The full text of Cynthia's update is available, right here. If you're interested in learning more about Buffalo and the city's buildings make certain to visit Cynthia's site - Buffalo Research.

I've had a few recent requests to re-post some of the most intelligent analysis of our current dilemma here in Buffalo, NY - you know the problems presented by abandonment and vacancy. fixBuffalo readers may remember - Getting Smarter about Decline - from November 2006. I've archived Blueprint Buffalo, both the action plan and policy brief.

• Blueprint Buffalo - Policy Brief [.pdf]
• Blueprint Buffalo - Action Plan [.pdf]

The Blueprint Buffalo uses James Q. Wilson's work as a point of departure for this analysis. The full text of Wilson's article Broken Windows appeared in Harper's, March 1982.

...if the first broken window in a building is not repaired, then people who like breaking windows will assume that no one cares about the building and more windows will be broken. Soon the building will have no windows...

A friend of mine, Lisa Schamess - post to Lisa's blog - was the project editor for Blueprint and works at The National Trust for Historic Preservation. She's currently managing the first-ever State of Preservation in America report.

In the next few days I'll be collecting a number of the other planning documents relating to various urban planning issues confronting our City.

Details and stories from Cleveland and Baltimore are included along with Mayor Byron Brown's 5 x 5 demolition scheme. Buffalo's own Cindy Cooper is quoted in the article, too. She made the front cover of Business Week last month in a story about what happens when banks walk away from foreclosures - Dirty Deeds and Toxic Title.

fixBuffalo readers may remember a New York Times article from last September - Scourge of a Beaten Down Buffalo that showed Buffalo having more vacant houses - on a per capita basis - than any other city, except St. Louis. I first wrote about Cleveland's Housing Court in 2006 when local housing activist Michele Johnson visited Judge Pianka with über City Inspector, Tracy Krug and Judge Nowak - Housing Court in Cleveland.