Artvoice ran a great piece last week - The City Bountiful - about Queen City Farm. And as fixBuffalo readers know, I've been drawing attention to this site on East Utica for over a year.
Read this "Dear Artvoice" letter the other night...
__________________________________________________________________________Read this "Dear Artvoice" letter the other night...
ASK THE NEIGHBORS
As a long-time resident of the East Side, I can say my reaction to Rod McCallum’s project was mixed (“The City Bountiful,” Artvoice v6n13). In a nutshell the problem is that every aspect of the project is exciting and progressive, but I fear that this is just going to be the first wave of the “progressive” middle-class types who come from West Side Buffalo, North Buffalo, Amherst, Clarence, Tonawanda, etc. who don’t live here now but will very soon and who actually will succeed in getting a lot of great things done, while the long-time residents who live here now will get pushed out as you all buy up the houses we can’t afford to keep up with. I don’t think Mr. McCallum is a sinister person or has sinister motives but gentrification is a reality. One big criticism I have, for instance, is how the first news of this happening is in the Artvoice and not the Challenger! It was encouraging that you mentioned how the spot in question is right around the corner from the African-American Cultural Center but it would be nice to know if he plans to have any community information meetings at the center about what he’s doing—or, even better, at the brand new library on Jefferson.
Many current residents on the East Side would like to see a project like this actually come to the East Side and invest in it to make it a reality. Hopefully Mr. McCallum will look for some people from the neighborhood to invest in this worthwhile project.
George WinfieldBuffalo
Dear George,
The City's near East side needs innovation. The first news of this "happening" occurred on my little Masten neighborhood blog - fixBuffalo. I encouraged Artvoice reporters to bring this exciting news to a wider audience. Many of the new and exciting developments, on both sides of Main Street are first organized on-line as it's an amazingly efficient way to communicate. The Challenger, as far as I understand, does not have an on-line presence.
You've addressed and danced around a couple issues that need to be addressed. First, gentrification. Can't happen here. By definition gentrification occurs when there is a housing shortage. Last time I walked down East Utica, I identified three houses on the new farm block that were vacant and owned by the City. Around the corner on Glenwood, twice as many. In Buffalo, we have a housing surplus! Your fear that people are going to be somehow "bought out" of their house I believe is unfounded. Rod and the people I've met associated with the farm project are more interested in homesteading existing vacant houses that are owned by the City. Stabilizing the neighborhood in such incremental ways adds value all the way around. This is a good thing.
I've lived here - on Woodlawn Avenue - three short blocks away from the farm site for almost 11 years and was chair of the social studies dept. at Turner/Carroll High School until it closed. There, I encouraged my students to investigate the neighborhood and on several occasions Geoff Kelly from Artvoice led reporting sessions with my students.
I'm sending this letter to you via email to Artvoice and will hope that you have an opportunity to read it. Rod reads this blog and will try to reach you as well. He works at the King Urban Life Center on Genesee Street and will most probably add the Merriweather Library to a list of sites for community informational meetings. Your participation and involvement will be most welcome, I'm sure.
Best,
David
The City's near East side needs innovation. The first news of this "happening" occurred on my little Masten neighborhood blog - fixBuffalo. I encouraged Artvoice reporters to bring this exciting news to a wider audience. Many of the new and exciting developments, on both sides of Main Street are first organized on-line as it's an amazingly efficient way to communicate. The Challenger, as far as I understand, does not have an on-line presence.
You've addressed and danced around a couple issues that need to be addressed. First, gentrification. Can't happen here. By definition gentrification occurs when there is a housing shortage. Last time I walked down East Utica, I identified three houses on the new farm block that were vacant and owned by the City. Around the corner on Glenwood, twice as many. In Buffalo, we have a housing surplus! Your fear that people are going to be somehow "bought out" of their house I believe is unfounded. Rod and the people I've met associated with the farm project are more interested in homesteading existing vacant houses that are owned by the City. Stabilizing the neighborhood in such incremental ways adds value all the way around. This is a good thing.
I've lived here - on Woodlawn Avenue - three short blocks away from the farm site for almost 11 years and was chair of the social studies dept. at Turner/Carroll High School until it closed. There, I encouraged my students to investigate the neighborhood and on several occasions Geoff Kelly from Artvoice led reporting sessions with my students.
I'm sending this letter to you via email to Artvoice and will hope that you have an opportunity to read it. Rod reads this blog and will try to reach you as well. He works at the King Urban Life Center on Genesee Street and will most probably add the Merriweather Library to a list of sites for community informational meetings. Your participation and involvement will be most welcome, I'm sure.
Best,
David
Artspace • BAVPA • Tour d'Neglect - 2007 • Woodlawn Row Houses • faq • my flickr
the creativity exchange • CEOs for Cities
