January 1, 2005

Here's the view from the Masten Avenue entrance to Performing Arts. You'll notice that the site work is just about complete for the new youth center. More about this later in the month.

January 1, 2005

This second floor window shot seems to indicate a moisture problem in the building. Perhaps an interior inspection will suggest otherwise. Just in case perhaps Lou Petrucci could make arrangements with the Mayor's Impact Team for a few 5 gallon buckets!

January 1, 2005

The front steps at 147-153 Woodlawn Avenue. Place your bet, I think I'll be picking up pieces of this of this front porch off the front lawn before the first mowing!

New Home for the Buffalo Academy for Visual & Performing Arts

This is the view, January 1, 2005, from the Woodlawn Row Houses facing the entrance to the newly relocated Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts on Masten Avenue. Buffalo Traditional is moving to a recently renovated spot on Northampton Street, the old East High School. The complete(?) story about Buffalo's Joint School Construction Project can be found here, I guess. The new Buffalo Traditional High School, or the old East High School is part of the Phase I of this building project. Phase II and III have some unspecified connection to the Buffalo Fiscal Control Board and the fact that we do not have a Superintendent of Schools.

The Woodlawn Row Houses are one of 13 abandoned, derelict or boarded buildings located within one block of the Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts. This is not a unique situation in this neighborhood. There are an additional 70 derelict and vacant buildings in the 25 block neighborhood between Main/Jefferson & Ferry/Utica. Eight of these abandonded, derelict or boarded houses are located along the Michigan & Utica Avenue walking route between Performing Arts and the NFTA stop that many of the students use at Utica & Main. Crime and assault are frequently associated with vacant & boarded houses here on the East side.

While looking for official news of this move, I searched the city’s site and found that only two of the 21 city high school’s have active websites. Four of the high schools had dead aol links on the city’s website. Does anyone downtown monitor the website? If I were moving to Buffalo. If your child attended one of these schools, would you wonder why the school doesn’t have a website, that works? Maybe my expectations are too high.

Finally, I’m sure Principal Kevin Kazmierczak will be interested in the safety of his students and might be helpful in holding the city accountable for this property they own. If anyone knows members of the Parents Group at Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts, please let me know.

Update...

...via Buffalo Alerts -- Hank Bromley a BAVPA parent has just informed me that the move might not happen. The move is still a long ways off, and in fact it may never happen. Check this out for the most recent update about the game the might be called "musical chairs!"

In the same e-mail from Hank, I learn that Chris Byrd is head of BAVPA alumni association and Drew Kelley is head of the PTO. Incidentally, Chris runs the phenomenally successful Buffalo inspired site, In Da Buff, Naked Words from the Naked City!

Read all about the Joint Schools Construction Project and the news regarding BAVPA's move, here.

Property Values and Race Riots

The Consequences of the 1960's Race Riots 
Come into View -- Looks Like Buffalo

The structure of a store that burned in the 1968 Detroit riots was standing several decades later. A study says the riots depressed incomes and property values for years.

full text - archived here at Fix Buffalo ArchiveFull story by Virginia Postrel December 30, 2004 NewYorkTimes

Nostalgic pop culture recalls 1969 as the Summer of Love, but it was also the summer race riots burned through Detroit and Newark, to name only the deadliest incidents. Back in the '60s, inner-city property values were the last thing opinion elites were concerned with. But the riots of the 1960s had devastating long-term effects on the most significant assets owned by urban blacks: their homes. Those effects may still exacerbate the so-called wealth gap between blacks and whites. Her latest NYT column looks at research on the 1960s riots' long-term economic impacts. 

If anyone has information about how the riots here in Buffalo, NY have negatively impacted property values on the Eastside, please contact me.

Virginia Postrel writes the "Economic Scene" for the New York Times. Some of her recent work is archived on her blog. The full text of Virginia Postrel's article in the New York Times is available here.

The National Bureau of Economic Research picks up this thread and arrives at these conclusions. 

• The riots had economically significant negative effects on blacks' income and employment. Further, those effects may have been larger in the long run - from 1960 to 1980 - than in the short run - from 1960 to 1970.

• The riots significantly depressed the median value of black-owned property between 1960 and 1970, with little or no rebound in the 1970s.

Make sure to check out this related article in The Wall Street Journal.

The full text of Vanderbilt University economist Dr. Robert Margo's research on race riots and property values is available for your review. His work forms the basis for Virginia Postrel's article which appeared in last week's New York Times.

Finally, it looks like the Houston Chronicle has just picked up Virginia Postrel's article in yesterday's paper. Check it out, "Riot's of the 60's Still Impair Home Values".

40 Miles Away...

...imagine that the tables were turned. Imagine that through some accident of history the City of New York held title to the Outer Harbor and refused to relinquish it unless and until it was developed in an environmentally-friendly manner -- oh, let's say a big park. The economic desperation of Buffalo would mean nothing, of course, because NYC rules.

Can you imagine what David Franczyk (and the environmentalists in Buffalo) would have to say about that?

Free Perrysburg! from Perrysburg Held Hostage - Day 4496

My Current Writing...

• 12/7/05 Perrysburg Still Hostage
  
• 8/18/05 Out of Town...Out of Touch...
• 7/26/05 Driving Perrysburg Crazy
• 7/19/05 40 Miles From Elmwood or 3650 Days to Close the Barn Door
• 7/13/05 Preserver of the Status Quo
• BuffaloPundit's rather awkward response
• Craig Howard's "Perrysburg Held Hostage - Day 4496"
  

• 7/5/05 City of Good Neighbors...Not & Cindy Lauer's letter from Perrysburg
• 6/13/05 An update
• 5/9/05 Another City Park
  
• 3/17/05 Introduction and additional background
• 2/5/05 City of Good Neighbors - Early History of the Site, Part II
• 2/5/05 A New City Park?
• 1/20/05 A Match Made in Perrysburg
• 1/19/05 Killing the Forest to Save a Few Trees
• 1/18/05 Who's Running This Place?
• 1/17/05 One Flew East, One Flew West...
• 1/16/05 Blogging from Perrysburg - Early History of the Site, Part I

Legal documents...

• Motion for Summary Judgement 6/8/05
• filed on behalf of Trathen Land Co., LLC #69906
  
• Supporting Affidavit
• Cindy Lauer, Perryburg Town Budget Manager and former Town Supervisor

Photos of JN Adam site...

• My Pictures 1/05
  
• Additional pictures Courtesy of Craig Clarke 1/05
  
• See my Flickr Slide show 1/05 with some older pics
  

Recent Buffalo News articles and letters...

• Julie Broyle's letter February 15, 2005
• Tom Trathen's response
• BN article February 22, 2005
• Dr. Beahan - Snyder, NY May 5, 2005
• BN article August 11, 2005 "City Gives Up..."

Misc...

• Lexis/Nexis search results

• SpeakUp WNY - Forum Thread - JN Adam & Trathen Deal

• About the Architect John Hopper Coxhead - Designed first buildings
  
• 2001 Masters Thesis, Nancy Mingus
  
• Timeline
• Coxhead in Buffalo
• Early pics JN Adam Hospital & here

• Friends of JN Adam & a petition to save the trees from the diabolical ax wielding Tom Trathen. PLUS new pictures showing very few trees on the site, back in the day.

• 7/8/05 Last Gasp for Hospital, by Elizabeth Benjamin

In upstate New York, the Adirondack town of Saranac Lake is synonymous with tuberculosis treatment. Patients with the disease came to the picturesque waterfront community, where TB research pioneer Edward Livingston Trudeau had his laboratory, to sit on the porches of massive Victorians and take “the rest cure,” a regime based on fresh air and relaxation.

But there were other lesser known TB treatment facilities scattered around the state, including one built outside Buffalo...

Will Buffalo Learn this Lesson?

With a parking lot between them, the Samuel Tredwell Skidmore House, right, stands in forlorn contrast to another landmark building, the well preserved Merchant's House Museum, left.

It would seem that the Landmark Preservation Commission in Manhattan was fed up with the delay tactics of the owners and ended up last week with a court ruling that might set a precedent. Of course the cool thing here is that they didn’t seek to create new legislation, they vigorously enforced current law. Whether the precedent is even considered here in Buffalo, NY is another matter. The hurdle of course for the Woodlawn Row Houses is that the owner is the entity that should be enforcing the law, the City of Buffalo.

The full text of David W. Dunlop’s December 28, 2004 New York Times article can be found here. The Samuel Tredwell House has been in the news before, here, here & here. Photographer and well known writer documenting New York's architechtural heritage, David's most recent work is currently on display at the New York Historical Society.

The Merchant's House Museum is located next door at 29 4^th Street. They are open Thursday to Monday 12-5pm. The museum's website has numerous links to preservation groups, local historic and smart urban issues in Manhattan.

And don’t forget to check out New York City’s Landmark Commission. Here, permit decisions are available online!!

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

New Neighbors --- Artspace

The project site, is the historic Sarabeth Building, 1219 Main Street, in what was once called Buffalo’s Midtown. The building is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, and the site contains additional property to accommodate new construction behind the existing building. On Nov. 15, Artspace signed a purchase agreement.

As now planned, the project will consist of 55 live/work units in two buildings: the Sarabeth Building and a new structure behind it. There will be 30 live/work spaces in the Sarabeth Building and 25 in the new structure, ranging in size from 800-square-foot efficiencies to 1,700-square-foot three-bedroom units. In addition, 13,000 square feet of commercial space on the street level of the Sarabeth Building will provide offices and other space for arts organizations and arts-related businesses. The area between the two buildings will be used as a common space where residents can plant, work, and perform. Residents will have easy access to the Main Street Transit line, Buffalo’s only subway line, which runs directly in front of the building; the nearest station is one block away.

Check them out here and get their updates, too. You can view a slide show of ArtSpace projects around the country, too.

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

New street signs, pedestrian friendly lights, new cross-walks. This is the corner of Masten & Woodlawn. Buffalo Traditional High School is behind me. The fence on the left side surrounds the construction site for a new youth center that a local congregation is building.

A few weeks ago intersection improvements such as these were completed at various places along Masten & Michigan Avenues. Both avenues were converted to accomodate two-way traffic.

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

Close-up of new pedestrian friendly crossing lights at the south eact corner of Masten & Woodlawn.

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

Join the Conversation! Sign the Petition!!!

Lively debate here about this project. Seems like the good folks at SpeakupWNY attract a wide audience and not just the people who no longer patronize Pano’s. There are a number of other posts regarding additional preservation projects here. Registration is free and really easy. Join the conversation.

This month’s pictures will be up sometime tomorrow.

Still no county budget!!!
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Artspace Archive • Annals of Neglect • BAVPA • Where is Perrysburg? • Broken Promises...
Writing the City • Woodlawn Row Houses • Tour dé Neglect - 2006 • faq

Please take a moment to sign the Petition!

You can add your name to the petition online. Simply click here and add your electronic signature. I am posting up-dates on a weekly basis, so check back often.

To spread the word about this campaign please pass the petition along to friends, co-workers and other people you know who are interested in the preservation of Buffalo's local and historical landmarks.

Petition to Save the Woodlawn Row Houses

Progress...

Last Friday I delivered this letter to the Mayor Masiello, David Franczyk - President of the Common Council, Masten District Councilman, Antoine Thompson and Chief Building Inspector Lou Petrucci. Lou, as the city's represenative, has agreed to meet Architect Clinton Brown and Scott Field, Executive Director of the Preservation Coalition and myself for a much needed interior inspection and assesment of 147-153 Woodlawn Avenue.

I'll keep you posted with details as they develop. If you would like to be on hand and see the interior of 147-153 Woodlawn, let me know and I will keep you informed.

As expected Council President David Franczyk is very interested and supportive of the preservation of the Woodlawn Row Houses. I had an opportunity to meet with him on Friday afternoon to discuss the current condition of the row.

16 Harwood Place - Lyth Cottage Archive

Here's a number of posts and links about an architecturally and historically significant City-owned house, located at 16 Harwood Place - Lyth Cottage (see map). Records indicate that the city of Buffalo has owned the property since 1997. 16 Harwood is situated within the Hamlin Park Historic District - steps from Canisus College and Mayor Byron Brown's residence. For additional information about Hamlin Park see Mark Goldman's piece - Buffalo's Historic Neighborhood: Hamlin Park - that appeared in Spree , 2000.

• Little House on the (Urban) Prairie - 8/1/06
• Little House on the Urban Prairie - Part II - 8/17/06
• Lyth Cottage on the Urban Prairie - 8/20/06
• Lyth Cottage Inside - 8/23/06
• Lyth Cottage - Still Available - 5/28/08
• Lyth Cottage - Fall Update - 10/19/09
• City Abandoned - 1/31/10
  
• Reviving Lyth Cottage - 12/21/12 (seen in Preservation Nation)

Make sure to check out the latest pics of 16 Harwood Place - here.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the neighborhood

No Progress - October 2004

A few phone calls to the 3^rd floor this week (851-4949) regarding the building’s open exterior and an e-mail exchange with Chief Building Inspector Louis Petrucci (851-4935) yielded as you can see, no progress. You can compare these pictures to the pictures from March – October located in the previous posts.

In an un-related matter ground was prepped last week for a new youth center directly across the street from the Woodlawn Row Houses. You can see the site work in the second picture. This site has been "shovel ready" for a number of years. I'll update when I have additional information. Any thoughts on which project will be completed first?