Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.See My Vinyl Collection for additional inspiration.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. Mcguire: Plastics.
Abandoned homes are a big problem in Flint, Mich., a former manufacturing stronghold that is losing jobs and residents.Yesterday, in The Star I noticed this from our friends in Toronto - New Life for Neglected Buildings.In some neighborhoods five or more houses in a row are boarded up, as one owner after another packs up and leaves. Once they have sat vacant too long bulldozers come to demolish them.
A new group of housing activists wants the city to take over neglected and underutilized buildings and convert them into affordable housing. In other words, they want property owners to face a "use it or lose it" bylaw.Learned today that local congressman Brian Higgins has authored a new piece of federal legislation that might - huge maybe folks - help us deal much more effectively with that interseciton of urban policy, federal money and a much more effective strategy in dealing with abandoned, boarded, derelict and vacant property in Buffalo. You can track HR-3498 as it makes it way through the legislative meat grinder.
Word is HR-3498 probably won't make it out of committee. Well intended, but it won't get funded. Reason of course - we like re-builidng cities in the Middle East more than we do our own. Nice try. Back to the drawing board.
Full of abandoned post-industrial and domestic architecture, it's a black and white photographers dream. The usually rich fall colour palette of Buffalo's West side is pressed against an amazing array of buildings, from monuments of faith to those of industry, each layered with textures and cries of decay and decrepitude the rest...Dan Monceaux and Emma Sterling plan to be in the City at Squeaky Wheel.
Regular faces on the club and arts circuits in South Australia, the Supermarket team's live audio-visual show will launch this year in Buffalo, New York after a month long artists' residency there. more...Very cool...
We are having our first in a series of Grand Opening events at the new school. Having completed $35 million dollars worth of renovation, we wish to show off our professional stage and concert hall, art galleries and school. I am writing to artists, art organizations, fellow administrators, business people and friends in order to invite you to support our foundation by coming to this great concert on November 13. You'll hear some of Buffalo's finest musicians and some rising stars as well in a night to remember. We will have ample and secure parking.
All proceeds go to our Arts Academy Foundation, begun by Ani DiFranco with the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo. It is our vision that this foundation will support the future students of the Arts Academy by paying for guest artists to do master classes and be in residence; as well as purchase items for which the public school budget cannot provide.
Ntare Ali Gault, 40, is a poet and spoken word artist who has lived his whole life in Buffalo's Fruit Belt. He is reading from his poem "In This Life" during a video tour of some of the city's worst poverty.I know, by mid-week Sunday's paper will be in the trash, story and problems out of mind. Yet I'm left wondering. If this election cycle included the mayor's race this year, what sorts of questions would we be asking Byron or other candidates.
This year's program will focus on Buffalo's East Side. Youth producers will study the history, architecture, culture and civic issues of this overlooked neighborhood and make self-directed documentaries based on their own research and interests.
Buffalo’s control board is getting two new watchdogs — a longtime Niagara County banker and the head of one of Buffalo’s largest charitable foundations.I've been following some of Rev. Stenhouse's work around the neighborhood for awhile. City of Buffalo v. Richard Stenhouse for all sorts of background. Those houses are still wide open and totally derelict.
Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer named Paul J. Kolkmeyer and Gail E. Johnstone to the nine-member board overseeing city finances Thursday, a move that means the departure of the Rev. Richard A. Stenhouse. read the rest...
Just around the corner, this house at 121 Woodlawn Avenue is being re-done for a second time in the last five years by Rev. Stenhouse's organization, Bethel CDC. Up untill recently it was wide open and sits directly across the street from the new 35m Arts Academy.
The USPS has been sharing this data since the first quarter (the period of January 1 – March 31) of 2006 (Q1 2006), providing for a year-to-year comparison of current vacancy trends. However, longer term historical change cannot be derived from this data set.
A cursory analysis of this data reveals by the end of the first quarter of 2007 (Q1 2007) Buffalo had lost 1,692 deliverable addresses since Q1 2006, representing a decrease of 1.4% of the city’s total addresses. During that time, the total number of all addresses fell 527, from 137,292 to 136,765 for a decrease of .4%. After accounting for demolition activity, then, this translates to 1,162 more undeliverable addresses than last year at this time.
The data continues to reflect the uneven market conditions across the city. While some areas experienced a large number of new vacancies, other areas remained stable or experienced an increase in addresses in service. However, as the above statistics show, the aggregate gains are outweighed by the aggregate losses. For example, the district roughly bounded to the west by Fillmore Avenue, Bailey Avenue to the east, to the north by East Delevan and the south by Clinton Street, has shown a significant decline, with some tracts showing a year-over-year decrease in deliverable addresses in excess of 10% and overall vacancy rates of nearly 40%.
I've placed the corresponding data set in downloadable format right here that reveals trends in Buffalo by planning area from January 2006 - September 2007.
At the onset of the Great Depression, Buffalo had 573,000 inhabitants, making it the 13th-largest city in America. In the 75 years that followed, this once-mighty metropolis lost 55% of its population, a decline most dramatic in its blighted inner city but also apparent in its broader metropolitan area, one of the 20 most quickly deteriorating such regions in the nation. 27% of Buffalo's residents are poor, more than twice the national average...read the rest.
The best scenario would be for Buffalo to become a much smaller but more vibrant community—shrinking to greatness, in effect. Far better that outcome than wasting yet more effort and resources on the foolish project of restoring the City of Light's past glory.fixBuffalo readers no doubt will remember this related piece Richard Florida v. Buffalo, NY from last year and of course Beaten Down Buffalo from New York Times reporter Ken Belson last month.
