fixBuffalo

1/12/2006

Transfiguration, SNAFU...

I've tried engaging William Trezevant - the wizard behind Paul Francis Associates, Inc. and the owner of Transfiguration Church - in a civil e-mail exchange. I've failed terribly. I asked him recently the following...

Meanwhile, if there is a material mis-representation in my posting about Transfiguration here or more recently, over here let me know. I will gladly post your corrections.

He only responded with bombast and hyperbole that seems to be characteristic of his dealing with folks from the Inspections Dept. who are trying to get these matters resolved. He didn't offer a single correction.

In a second round of e-mails I asked Bill Trezevant the following:

1. Does Paul Francis Associates, Inc., a Delaware Not for Profit corporation still have its principal office as 1834 Ontario Place, NW Washington DC, 20009-2109?

2. What is your relationship to the the above mentioned corporation?

3. Does Pauline Nowak [your mother] know there is an outstanding housing court warrant for her arrest here in Buffalo, NY issued by Judge Fiorella on September 25, 2002?

4. If so, can you please explain why she hasn't turned herself in? If no, will you kindly provide her address so the warrant can be served. As an officer of the court, I know you know these are important matters.

5. Are you Pauline Nowak's attorney?

6. What are your plans for Transfiguration? You've seen my photos and other people's photos of the church's interior. Will you make yourself available for an interior inspection? Specifically, I like to know what your immediate short term plans are and secondly what your longer term plans may or may not include. Be specific, and remember that "hope is not a plan."

7. Who are the other officers of Paul Francis Corporation?

Same bombast. He did suggest that I go to law school. I laughed. I know Bill reads this blog on a regular basis now and I imagine one of these days I'll have the opportunity to meet up with him in Judge Nowak's Housing Court.

click to enlarge

Today I took the opportunity to check out Transfiguration once again. I took the following shots. Note the condition of the slate roof. I found a few pieces of this slate very close to the Mills Street sidewalk. I picked one up as a souvenir. I'll bring it to court and return it to him, rather soon I expect.

I did offer to remove his name from my blog and any reference to his dealings with Transfiguration if he could assure me that the residents of Buffalo would not be hit the demolition bill for Transfiguration. He gave me no such assurance.

Part of the problem these days is that Buffalo will soon have a surfeit of old churches on the market with the Bishop Kmiec's Journey to Avoid Housing Court in full swing. The churches like Transfiguration that were dumped in the Diocese's first round of church flipping 10 years ago, will face the wrecking ball. The only question remains is who is going to pay that Bill?

Interesting stuff from the Erie County Board of Elections the other day regarding campaign contributions to his recent bid for the Ellicott District Council seat...developing...

See also, Sign of Things to Come? and More Trasfiguration.

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

1/11/2006

Michigan Avenue - Sidewalk Markers...

My friend Tara snapped this pic over the weekend. This afternoon I counted four of these markers freshly embedded in the sidewalk between Broadway and William. Each marker is approx. 2' x 2' and lots of other site improvements on the block, too. New sidewalks with this gravel texture, new curbs and old fashioned street light standards. Looks like the former police precinct building has a new owner, too.

Local attorney, Loran Bommer just purchased the place and moved his law practice from Court Street to Michigan Avenue. He can be reached at 842-1222. Great attorney and awesome piano player! He knows realestate better than most attorneys I know. I refer friends to him all the time. Call him, preferrably before you get stuck...

If you know more about the Michigan Avenue Historic District which is taking shape here along Michigan Avenue, please let me know...I'd like to add more to this post...thanks.

1/08/2006

Artspace Investment Impact Area...

I had the unique opportunity to sit down and talk with a few people yesterday and discuss the Artspace project. Frequent readers here will remember the Artspace Archive. Certain people in City Hall are developing a comprehensive investment impact manual for the area surrounding Artspace. I hope to make this manual available here in .pdf format real soon. This is a positive development for the City's near East-Side. Rumor has it that Strategic Planning Guru Timothy Wannamaker has placed the Artspace project on the top of his list.

These two pics are best viewed in my flickr photostream. Click on one of these pics. It will take you to my flickr account. Then click on "all sizes." You'll quickly have a screen sized image of the impact area.

click to enlarge

Before and After...

If you haven't stopped into to Delta Sonic yet, the newest Mid-Town retailer, you should. Right across the street from the Artspace location. Dunkin Donuts...the bomb! And the new cafe style restaurant has what I think is the only brick-oven pizza in Buffalo. It'll be a 24-7 spot as soon as Artspace happens...perfect for late nite collaborating...Maybe Buffalo's only pizza reviewer, Buffalo Pundit, will stop in for a few slices...

Poster photo credits to Tara. Her other snaps can be viewed here. Lots of cool Asian things.

1/05/2006

Woodlawn Row Houses - January 2006

Here the latest pics of the City owned property that inspired me to start blogging about my neighborhood here on the City's East Side. The Woodlawn Row Houses were designated a local-landmark in 1983 by the Preservation Board. They are directly across the street from the new and future home of Performing Arts High School.

Here's the complete archive of montly updates, from March 2004. Demolition by neglect, if you ask me. I think Byron Brown, Buffalo newest mayor lives nearby, here in Masten. I'll find out and do a google map depicting the proximity of the Woodlawn Row Houses to Byron's house. He used to represent Masten as a Councilman, just a few years ago.

Here's a few maps showing the location of the Woodlawn Row Houses. The first map is a Sanford fire map from the 1920's. The Woodlawn Row Houses are in the SE corner of the intersection in the map's middle. When you click and enlarge this map, notice how many row house clusters there were and how densly settled the neighborhood was. The map on the right shows the new home of Performing Arts High School in the middle. This replaced Offerman Stadium in 1962. The Woodlawn Row Houses are diagonally across from the school's main entrance on Masten.

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This is cool...

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Check out all the links...thanks Marilyn. I had the opportunity to visit Housing Court during lunch time today. Judge Nowak presents a series of informative talks on various aspects of housing in Buffalo on a monthly basis. Marilyn Rogers who provides some of the creative juices behind West Village Renaissance Group and a whole lot of the activism is Judge Nowak's coordinator for the increasingly more popular Housing Court Liaison program.

Summer Time Tour...

I've been placing the finishing touches on a Preservation Coalition sponsored tour of selected sites on the City's East Side for this summer. The bicycle tour will begin at the new Delta Sonic, opposite Coe Place and meanders through the East Side ending up at Old Editions Bookshop. Dates and times TBA. Chuck LaChiusa and I recently had the opportunity to take a closer look at three of the sites. Chuck snapped some significant shots of these spots and recently made them available on his site. Check it out...(the address link takes you to a google map).

We did have the unexpected opportunity to tour the inside of the German Roman Catholic Orphan Home as the maintenance guy from the CAO opened the place that afternoon for a real estate appraiser. I took various interior shots and put together two slide shows. Inside views and earlier in the year when I visited the site with another urbex partner I took these exterior shots.

Make sure to visit the rest of Chuck's work at Buffalo as an Architectural Museum.

1/04/2006

Flickr Meet-Up...

Mark your calendar for next Saturday! We'll be meeing at SPoT on Chippewa around 200pm. The rest of the details. Looking forward to meeting as many other flickr fiends from Buffalo and beyond...

Saturday - January 14th
200pm SPoT on Chippewa

New to Flickr, check out this..."Buffalo" And if you've been around for awhile here's a great list of cool new Flickr tools!

More Transfiguration Pics...

Thanks to Flickr member, AJ14201 I came across some recent shots along Genesee Street. I've been all over 669 Genesee and the City's complete lack of responsible ownership and management of the site. Right across the street from 669 at the Sol Lenzer building, another 500K demo job, that we'll be swallowing soon...I saw this political poste r from a recent Ellicott District wanna be...Imagine, running an entire Council District like he's done his business with the Transfiguration Church!

Frequent readers know that I've been following various chapters in the Annals of Neglect and especially how the 1995 sale of The Transfiguration Church to William Trezavant's shady shell corporation, headed by his mother and Housing Court fugitive Pauline Nowak is nothing but a harbinger of things to come with Bishop Kmiec's own journey to avoid Housing Court now in full propaganda mode.

This evening I stumbed upon some additonal interior shots of The Transfiguration Church from a way cool urbex site, Undercity.org, which is worth checking out. Here the pics and two of my favorites.

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West Village Blog...Great Story

Just noticed this piece, What Price Abandonment? over at the West Village Renaissance Group blog. As frequent readers of this blog know, I've been covering this beat and drumming that drum here on this, the other side of Main Street, Buffalo's East Side since October '04. It's finally good to have some company in the local Buffalo blogosphere.

They Decrease Property Values...
In a 2001 study,
researchers from Philadelphia found that houses within 150 feet of a neglected vacant property experienced a net loss of value of $7,627. Those within 150 to 300 feet experience a loss in value of $6,819 and those within 300 to 450 feet of such a property depreciated by $3,542.

This full texts of these reports sited in the West Village Blog story can be found here at The National Vacant Properties Campaign.

I first learned about this national organization back in February '05, over here. Recently, I saw this on West Utica and have been very concerned about this beauty along Humboldt Parkway.

Check out this story that I covered in October '05 regarding the 23,000 vacant and abandoned properties in the City of Buffalo. Maybe we'll get a recount in 2006!

click to enlarge

On a more serious note, if you are interested in that Humboldt Parkway House, located at 2 Girard Place, that we finally got into Housing Court for the first time last August, check out the total lack of progress by clicking on the docket number:

Buffalo Housing Court Case #868/2005 on January 9, 2006 at 930am.

Wanna bet the defendent, Cedric Walker is another no-show. I'll be there, again. Stay tuned.

Performing Arts - Update

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Not much press recently in the Buffalo News or from local bloggers about the single largest construction project in Buffalo's history. I've re-printed a piece that just appeared in last week's Busines First, in case you missed it.

It's the latest about the game of 'musical chairs' that's happening with Phase II of the Joint Schools Re-construction Project, the one billion dollar construction project that's impacting neighborhoods all over the City and bringing schools inline with 21st century design standards. More importantly this project is having a major impact on kids lives here in Buffalo. It probably doesn't get the press or blog coverage that it deserves as the sites are scattered all over the City and the time frame is ten years.

The City is still struggling with abandoned, boarded and derelict residential and commercial property surrounding some of the City's newest schools. Here in Masten and especially around the future of home of Performing Arts High School, City Inspectors have been vigilant in getting property into Housing Court and getting some of the worst offending property demolished. We still have a way to go. Eight houses, within a block of the new Performing Arts location, came down in 2005. I've identifed another 6 houses that have got to go...and one major commercial building that is simply beyond repair. Another site would make an excellent location for a new Starbucks! A block from the new school.

I first began writing about these problems over here in The School House Project, last year. And before the semester begins, I promise to visit these same sites with an update.

Here's the latest from Business First, just last week.

Final bids being prepared for $22M school project
James Fink
Business First

In one of the most dramatic and high profile moves of Buffalo's $1 billion, decade-long public schools reconstruction project, officials are preparing the final set of bids that will ultimately see Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts move to its new home.

The construction bids on the $22 million project are slated to hit the street by within the next few months, said Heather Groll, Buffalo Public Schools spokeswoman.

According to construction industry documents, obtained by Business First, the project will see Performing Arts Academy move from its current home on Clinton Street to the former Buffalo Traditional School site on E. Ferry Street. Buffalo Traditional, which was constructed more than four decades ago, is built on the site of the former Offermann Stadium, once home to the Buffalo Bisons.

The project will see another 35,000 square feet added to the school, mainly to house a new entranceway, a classroom wing that includes science labs and art studios and a visual arts center. A 700-seat auditorium is also included in the project.

The current school has 178,500 square feet. Once the bids are reviewed, construction is scheduled to begin in June.

LPCiminelli is working with the Buffalo School District on the entire reconstruction effort while Cannon Design has been retained as the project architect for the Performing Arts Academy.

Here's the LPCiminelli site devoted to the Buffalo Joint School Reconstruction Project. I would very much like to hear how some of the other school projects have been managed and meet the needs of neighborhoods, parents, teachers and of course the students.

Special thanks to Chris Byrd over at the BAVPA alumni organization for bringing this Buffalo First article to my attention. Chris is also the creative juice behind IndaBuff, cool Buffalo things.

Here's an additional view of the new Performing Arts site. More views here at the BAVPA site.

click pic for additional info...

2006 will be an exciting year for the City's near East Side. Breaking ground for Performing Arts, Artspace, a new Post Office and the recent sale of Cash Cunningham's Packard Building at Main & Riley to a New York City developer (pics to follow) for additional cool apartments are adding up to a renewed interest and some serious development. Just alittle in to the East Side, along Michigan Avenue, don't forget this, or this earlier story about Michigan Avenue. And if you haven't set up an appointment with Polis Realty to see Coe Place, like what are you waiting for!

12/29/2005

Year end...

I apologize for like the total lack of posting here. I've been involved with a few academic projects recently and have spent considerable time thinking and planning this little Masten blog's next 12 months. The blog has grown, still the only one I know from the City's East Side. When I started blogging in September 2004 with my 3rd grade blog, I've seen it grow, spawn atleast one other blog, piss-people off and gather a subscription base of 101 readers and between 175 and 200 unique visitors on a daily basis.

On a personal level, this blog has compressed time and space and acted as an introduction to people that I've met in a few weeks and months rather than years. Some of my favorite posts still include:

The series of links I've collected in Writing the City contain so many nuggets of wisdom and make up some of the most searched items on my blog. Joel Kotkin's Rise of the Ephemeral City, though highly critical of some of the new sacred cows, in the end reminds us that when we think about urban design and planning we have to focus on the fundamentals; sidewalks, streets and schools. Simple. Well, sort of.

Lots of new blogs on the scene here in Buffalo in 2005. Craig and Jennifer do a much better job of keeping people up to date on these things than I ever could. A super snarky suburban blogger has now banned my comments, so high-school - I know. Yet, the blogosphere is a better place with dramatic changes and integration taking place. Some of these developments are collected under the expanding rubric called Web 2.0 applications. This next generation of web activity can best be viewed using the Firefox 1.5 browser which is totally compatible with the wysiwyg editor from Performancing, the coolest extension to the world's best browser. Bloggers, check that out!

Flickr remains the photo archiving and sharing site of choice. Some of the coolest pics of Buffalo can be found here while searching the tags for Buffalo. Riot Sauce and Cacemphaton are some of the most prolific posters. We're having a Flickr meet-up in January, let me know if you want to attend. Check this out, to learn more about what you can do with Flickr.

Two other Web 2.0 apps that I'm all over right now include del.icio.u s and Writely; on-line apps which are collaborative, productive easy to use and free. Del.icio.us is all about sharing bookmarks with tags and Writel y is a web based word processor allowing you to publish and share documents.

I made the decision back in September 2004 to start blogging about my neighborhood here in this little corner of Masten on the City's East Side. A totally abandoned City owned local-landmark still sits a block away. Not much has changed with that. Yet, there is now a new youth center across the street and the high school diagonally across from the Woodlawn Row Houses will be home soon to Performing Arts Hight School. So the Woodlawn Row Houses, I guess are officially on the local radar!

100's of posts and thousands of visitors later this blog has grown into a unique slice of documenting Buffalo's historic past, recent decline and pending reemergence as center of vitality. Consider a resolution for 2006! Focus on your neighborhood, something down the block, an aspect of Buffalo's local history that inspires you. Put it in writing or start taking pictures...and start blogging about Buffalo today!

Taking On Neglect...

Here's a new buffalo blog making a year end entrance. New Buffalo Enforcers is taking on problem property all over the City. They are starting with Carl Paladino...

Don't know who's behind Buffalo's latest blog, yet it confirms in my mind that there's a renewed optimism here in Buffalo for openly being critical of our sacred cows.

12/28/2005

Slumlord Extradition, Joy Drati...

I first started covering the Joy Drati case rather late in the game this past March. He bounced from Buffalo, on a reduced bail that was secured by a property bond no less, and seems like he's been hiding out in San Francisco recently, according to this San Fransisco Examiner story. One local community activist told me this evening that the extradtion of Drati back to Buffalo sets a new high water mark for Judge Nowak in Buffalo City Housing Court. "It's a warning," she said.

Here's a list of current Drati property in the City of Buffalo. 27 at last count. They are all titled under JDMAX Homes, LLC.

I spoke with Michele Johnson this afternoon. You'll remember that she's the Housing Court Liaison for Broadway/Fillmore. She repeated the sentiment of the one housing activist that praised Judge Nowak's efforts in pursuing this extradition. From what I've learned about this for an extradtion to proceed it requires the support of two governors. So kudos to the Terminator and our very own Pataki in helping to get the job done.

There is another Fugitive from Judge Nowak's Housing Court living in Redwood City, CA where Drati was living. Here's the story. Last time I checked, Hamilton and Lydia Woods are still fugitives and haven't paid a penny yet for the demolition of their house at 242 Koons Avenue. Perphaps a friendly reminder here on the Redwood City, CA portion of Craigslist is in order.

Here's the Lexis Nexis search that takes us back through the Buffalo News stories about Joy Drati's drama in Housing Court. Here. It unfolds on September 9, 2004 with the condemnation of four Drati buildings on the City's west side.

Armed with a battering ram, a strong police presence and a court order, Buffalo housing inspection officials took on an accused slumlord Wednesday by forcing tenants from four of his West Side properties.

The presence of West Nile virus in stagnant basement water, an infestation of cockroaches and rats, rotting floors and broken plumbing prompted City Housing Court Judge Henry Nowak to order the immediate removal of residents from apartments in the buildings at West Avenue and Maryland Street.

More than a dozen tenants found themselves out on the street and temporarily homeless on a gray, rainy Wednesday as police went from door to door enforcing Nowak's "order to vacate" the 21/2-story, brick and wood structures that are carved into 32 tiny dwellings owned by J.D. Max Homes of San Pablo, Calif. "To put us out like this is not fair. We didn't get a warning. I've got two children. I think it's crazy," said Desiree Ford, who pays $250 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. "It's not up to par here, but it is livable."

Assistant Corporation Counsel Peter J. Savage III disagreed.

In October, expressing his relentless optimism for getting things done, west side "actionist" Harvey Garrett told a Buffalo News reporter:

"I just want the properties fixed," said Harvey Garrett, the West Side Community Collaborative's co-coordinator on crime and safety.

Worst case scenerio, Drati gets jail time and 27 properties come down. At the rate of 10K/demolition that's a cool quarter million we are going to fork over to a demo contractor to clean up this mess. That's less than half the estimated cost of demolishing the Transfiguration Church.

Let's hope that Judge Nowak places Housing Court fugitive Pauline Nowak (no relation) extradition on his list of problem properties!

Let's not forget the other grab this year in Housing Court. Fugitive and notorius Venere Hutchinson and his wife Dana Upcher were picked up in Tenesee by a former classmate, now state trooper. I covered that here (with property descriptions) and a follow-up here.

Mike Calanan, Marilyn Rogers, Dick Kern and the tireless Michele Johnson provided additional background on this post. Their commitment to making this City a better place to live is wildly inspirational. Thanks.

12/11/2005

A Sign of Things to Come...

Bishop Henry Mansell sold the Transfiguration Church for $7000.00 in 1995. Properties on the City's East Side are often sold or "flipped" to unsuspecting buyers at substantially discounted prices. Why? It's obvious. No one wants to get stuck holding the "hot potato." The church made a business decsion and passed the looming deferred maintenance and crumbling structure to some one else. It's happening again, this time abit closer to the heart-beat of New Buffalo. The Immaculate Conception was shuttered last July on Elmwood and Edward with Bishop Kmiec declaring that it was structurally unsound and in urgent need of $800K of repairs.

The Transfiguration Church, three miles from Elmwood, was first written for Housing Court on March 13, 1997. In the last 8 years Transfiguration has journeyed through Housing Court 61 times and the file, case # 869/97 has seen four seperate Housing Court judges. Judge Broderick passed the file to Judge Devlin who tossed it to Common Council President David Franczyk's brother and finally Judge Fiorella issued a warrant for Pauline Nowak on September 25, 2002. She's an officer of Paul Francis Associates, Inc., the party that bought the crumbling church from Bishop Mansell in October, 1995.

Transfiguration Church - Interior
click pic to see additional images

Pauline Nowak's son, William Trezevant the (lack of) brains behind the 1995 purchase is an attorney licensed in New York State. He also owns a house here in Buffalo at 247 Georgia in the heart of the West Village. Here's that property record and a google map to help you locate both properties. According to über-West Village Activist Marilyn Rogers, 247 Georgia is in immaculate condition. Pictures soon.

In almost two years on the bench, Housing Court Judge Henry Nowak has not seen the Transfiguration Church file #869/97 in his court room. Why?

When I stopped down to City Hall last week to investigate I had the opportunity to chat with Tracy Krug, the same Buffalo Building Inspector who wrote the property for Housing Court seven years ago. He's inspected the property continously, 26 times since March of 1997, and told me about a new series of complaints, including mine, that will take him back to Transfiguration Church this week. Remember, Tracy is the same Building Inspector supporting Michele Johnson's work in the same Broadway Fillmore neighborhood, the same one where we think Common Council President David Franczyk still lives. Here's a post about their wor k from last April. Tracy Krug has the security fence installed around front of the property to protect pedestrians from falling debris. Who paid the bill?

It's very unlikely that Transfiguration Church will be saved. I've had numerous conversations with people in the know, who point to the obvious neglect in the larger neighborhood and more specificaly the lack of any meaningful density that might support a resurected church in the neighborhood. The question quickly becomes, who is going to pay for the demolition?

And the larger question, as that unsettled recognition continues to seep into our thinking about where Buffalo and the City's East Side is headed, just how do we manage the second phase of the Catholic Church's downsizing. How do we prevent Bishop Kmiec (don't kid yourself, the decisions have already been made) from simply walking away from buildings. The familiar question, "What is to be done?" is never asked when it comes to the Church and Church property. Possibilities include:

Selling 79 Oakland Place, the largest and most expensive residence in the city.
Taxing church property that sits vacant for more than 6 months, like they do in Mass.

"We'll have to be transparent, to make people feel
as if we're not concocting something behind their back."
- Bishop Kmiec

Should we let them engage in the Ebay like game of "flipping" their properties to unsuspecting and unqualified buyers. If, I think of 93 additional pro-active things to do with the soon to be abandaned, boarded, derelict and vacant Church properties - I may just march over to 79 Oakland Place, with my "95 things" and nail it to the Bishop's door.

Jim Ostrowski pointed out the most recent casulty of Diocesan Downsizing with his analysis of why Villa Maria High School is closing. Anybody want 75,000sf of loft space on Doat Street? Didn't think so...

Announcement

Next Summer, The Transfiguration Church will be the third stop on a Preservation Coalition bicycle tour I'm leading, on what some have already called the Tour de Neglect. We will begin near Coe Place and peddle down Dodge Street to the German Roman Catholic Orphan Home - lunch in Buffalo's own MLK Park with park news from the Olmsted People and after lunch we'll head down Sycamore where a local artisan and one of Buffalo's Historians will present the early parish history of Transfiguration church.

12/08/2005

Buffalo Flickr People...
In the past few days there's been a renewed interest in the H-O Grain Elevator here in Buffalo, NY. I'm a big Flickr fan and just noticed that a few fellow urban sleuths were snapping pics, too.

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Make sure to check out other photo's in this series from The Urbanation.

And believeinbflo has some cool urban shots, too.

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Playing around with Flickr always turns up surprising pics. Check out the latest in the category tagged 'buffalo'.

I almost forgot these images. A few weeks ago, while doing research about Coe Place at the UB's School of Architecture and Planning, I spotted this model in the hallway.