This demolition of Buffalo's oldest synagogue was an avoidable tragedy. The Jefferson Street Shul was structurally sound, with cosmetic repairs only needed on bricks that had become loose on the facade. It is unfortunate that officials in the Department of Permits and Inspections were not willing to consider reasonable alternatives to the destruction of this landmark of the city's Jewish history.
Saving landmarks like the Jefferson Street Shul always requires creativity, but by pursuing its destruction rather than its repair, the City took the easy way out.
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5 comments:
That hurts to see. 100 plus years of history, and now just an empty lot. It makes me sick to lose pieces of our heritage like this.
Not to mention yet another demolition that completely bypassed the required Preservation Board review. Sickening.
What are the consequences for the city if there was NO preservation board review?
Get real, David. If the Jews abandoned this place and didn't give a damn, why should we? Why call it something it isn't? It wasn't a schul or a synagogue anymore for decades, it had been simply an abandoned, black protestant church.
Western New York will ever never learn it has been half a CENTURY and this is still going on. They now talk preservation? After the fact, and far too loosely and late. I watch these demolitions with sadness and heartache. Take a look at photos of the glory of buildings that made up Niagara Falls from residential properties to commercial properties prior to 1915 and compare to today.
Residents of Western New York in my view allowed it and watched it, and while it continued to get worse and worse since the mid-20th century still voted the same often Democratic criminals and idiots into offices. In my opinion, continue to allow greedy, unsophisticated, often blue collar mentality people into positions of power and this is the end result.
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