fixBuffalo

8/17/2006

Beirut 'n Buffalo

I've heard many people - at Elmwood Avenue cafes, suburban refugees and recently some Buffalo ex-pats now gainfully employed and loving life in Charlotte - describe Buffalo's East Side in terms reminiscent of bombed out Beirut, a world away in Lebanon. I've heard Postal Service employees refer to everything East of the Linwood Avenue line as "Beirut"...

So, here's a suggestion - thinking out loud now - why not contract with Hezbollah to rebuild the hollowed out portions of Buffalo's East Side? You know the urban prairie and 1000's of burned out, abandoned and vacant places that make the City's East Side a no-go zone for most of Buffalo. Infact the New York Times, yesterday, had a piece about the efficacy of Hezbollah's capacity to meet the needs of the Lebanese population. I also heard a real pundit, on talk radio today, suggest that Hezbollah should replace FEMA as the first responder to places like Katrina ravaged New Orleans...

If Hezbollah can rebuild Beirut, think of what they might do for Buffalo...

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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

8/16/2006

High Price of Red Tape...

They City took possession of this house at 125 Woodlawn Avenue last October. Sure it could be fixed and the owner, well he booked South a few years ago. Rather than pursuing the owner for the demolition, the City has contracted with an asbestos removal company (on East Delevan Avenue, yeah right...) for $8600 to remove some siding! This, of course doesn't include the price of the actual demo. I'll make sure to take pics of the remediation at 125 Woodlawn Avenue.

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Had this property been properly secured last fall, the copper plumbing and 5 year old heating system and new vinyl replacement windows wouldn't have grown legs and walked away. Why is the City taking over these sorts of properties and not pursuing the owner for the demolition cost. There's a really stupid pattern going on here where the City takes over a property liabilty and compounds the problem by spending tax dollars to remedy the problem. Doesn't the City have a Law Department that could pursue a few derelict property owners. Does the City of Buffalo need new laws to pursue old debts?

Sure, taxes should be paid. Yet in hundreds, perhaps 1000's, of situations like this here on the City's East Side, where the most the City could collect off a property such as this in a good tax year is $600-700, why are we spending 25x this amount (asbestos removal plus 10-12K in demolition costs) rather than pursuing these owners using existing means?

Last time I checked - last month - Hamilton and Lydia Woods of Redwood City, CA still haven't received a bill from the City of Buffalo for the demolition of 242 Koons Avenue - February 2005. City of Buffalo residents paid a demolition contractor $7800 for an emergency demolition at that address. How far would you go to collect? Most business owners I know would have filed a judgement long ago.

Kaminski Park

I checked out Buffalo's newest urban park yesterday afternoon. You'll remember Waldemar Kaminski and the millions he donated to Roswell Park. Well, there's a two-acre park here that's named after him on the City's near East Side. While walking through Kaminski Park I unexpectedly met-up with Chris Byrd, the guy behind the scene at Buffalo's other blog devoted to East Side events and issues, Broadway Fillmore Alive. Chris is also the pulse behind the Performing Arts High School PTO/alumni organization. He grew up around the corner from Kaminski's and recounted how the store was an everyday stop for people living in the neighborhood.

Waldemar Kaminski (1917 - 2006)

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The park is filled with wooden benches, a walking path and it's the sort of place where every tree and planting is carefully placed in memory of a loved one. Check it out during lunch and take your time to check out the surrounding area. I did that with über planner Stevan Stipanovich in March - Walking with Stip and in January near Allen Street - Connecting Both Halves.

Here's the statement from Roswell Park that appeared shortly after Mr. Kaminski died. Debbie Schussel, one of my daily reads - you'll only want to read her if you consider yourself open minded and tolerant - blogged about Waldemar Kaminski, too - An Unsung American. Buffalo's own BRO had a short piece last week about the Wellness Block Party in Kaminski Park, right here.

Make sure to check out Chris Byrd's first time at Kaminski Park.

8/15/2006

Byron TV

Cool new sign at Artspace. Buffalo's Mayor Byron Brown did his thing for the HGTV cameras last week and Mark Sommer from the Buffalo News covered the story, right here. The HGTV RestoreAmeric a site is worth checking out for preservation related events and issues. Cool videos...it's where Byron's video will be preserved for posterity!

I heard Buffalo's own Susan Hunt may have had something to do with this promotional event. Don't you think Byron looks as comfortable behind the camera in the Buffalo News pic as he did promoting a summer reading program last year. Remember?

St. Vincent's...again...

On the way to the post office - on Ellicott Street, as the 14209 PO at Main and Northampton is closing operations - this morning I checked out St. Vincent's again. Looks like at some point in the past 10 days another large chunk of the structure supporting the soffit gave way and collapsed. The portion of the structure on the far right, at the north end of the building, collapsed three weeks ago which promted the City to erect the sidewalk barricade made out of plastic tape, which of course is now long gone...

Three weeks ago I posted - St. Vincent's...Falling Dow n - which was picked up by BRO writer and Chicago based architect, David Steele. He wrote - This Building Must be Saved - the next day. Make sure to check out the 50 plus comments over there.

At the current rate, St. Vincent's will collapse sooner than I expected. And so it goes...

8/05/2006

Hiatus...

I'll return in ten days or so. Nothing 'till then.

Meanwhile, think about what we can do about this totally awesome place? Any ideas?

BAVPA Reconstruction - End Week 6

August 5, 2006 - Day 41

This week a secure construction fence was installed site securing the site. Only works, I guess if the gates are secured - on Saturday afternoon no one was at the site and the gates were wide open. Additional work on the foundation and the emergence of the foundation work for the new performance wing - on the Ferry Street side - is taking shape. This addition is pictured in the above template pic and shows up as the darker brick following the roof lines of the existing auditorium. In this same template pic the new art wing is depicted on the far right and the science wing, towards the left, has the new second floor windows.

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See BAVPA Reconstruction Archive for additional details and updates.

Important - Emergency Relocation?

I received the following post card in the mail this week. And this afternoon - before jetting off - I handed my hold mail card to Marvin for the last time. When I return home, I will have to pick up my mail at Ellicott Station. Some retail mail services will still be available here, but commercial services, package pick-up and business services like certified mail you gotta go downtown beginning Monday.

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Last week I wrote about the Main Street PO moving...right here! Lots of good links there to the community discussion last year when I was tipped off to another PO relocation effort from 14209. Some detailed links to community meeting minutes and additional links to postal service regulations that suggest PO's are immune to local zoning. Lovely pics of Buffalo's newest 'suburban' post office buildings, too.

Last week station manager Marvin Randolph gave me a tour of the facilities at Northampton and Main. The cavernous parking area in the basement is rather unusual for Buffalo as there is room for the entire fleet of postal vehicles here. We felt some vibration - from the construction work happening right next door at Artspace. I've learned that Coe Place residents feel this, too. Marvin pointed out two spots on the ceiling where some surface plaster fell away from the concrete structure. I walked away thinking that this superficial stuff is totally the sort of thing neighbors to a multi-million dollar construction project might expect and have to deal with as good neighbors. Marvin had the air tested a few weeks back, too. Totally negative on the dust and any thing blowing around.

I'm certainly not a structural engineer...yet an Emergency Relocation....please. Seems like something else going on. I mean just when the neighborhood is beginning to really happen, the post office picks up and moves. Totally stealth. I believe it is was the only example of a unique urban post office that occupied an existing building here in Buffalo. Mark Pagano, the owner of the building, hasn't been informed of any move when I spoke to him last week.

Don't worry about Marvin. When I handed him my 'hold-mail' card this afternoon he assured me that he still had a job. He just didn't know where...

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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

8/03/2006

Pine Grill Jazz Reunion - 2006

Artvoice has a great piece about Buffalo's premiere jazz event of the year.

Back in the day, the Pine Grill Nightclub was the place to be, for many Buffalonians. Though it has long since been demolished, it remains legendary as a nostalgic hotspot. So much so that in 1989 a group of community leaders held the first Pine Grill Reunion, to reunite some of the nightclub’s favorite acts. Ever since, the event has happened annually on the first two Sundays in August, and has read the rest...

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The Pine Grill Jazz Reunion celebrates the outstanding jazz tradition here in the neighborhood at the former Pine Grill, corner East Ferry and Jefferson. The African American Cultural Center just around the corner on Masten is helping to sponsor the event. I'm certain that the life of recently departed "Dodo Greene" - remembered by Buffalo Bloviator, right here - will be celebrated. Read more about the life of Dodo Greene, here via Uncrowned Queens.

Philip Nyhuis has a piece in last year's Spree detailing the wonderful world of Buffalo's jazz heritage, right here!

This Sunday and next in MLK Park...4-9pm...

Woodlawn Row Houses - August 2006

Frequent readers of fixBuffalo certainly know - and appreciate? - my passion for this set of row houses owned and abandonded by the City of Buffalo. They were part of a series of row house developments tucked away in this little corner of Masten that was also home to Olympic Park and Offerman Stadium. Back in the day there used to be 21 sets of these row houses. Today there are only three. The one that I live in - down the street from these - the Emerson Row Houses and this set located at 147-153 Woodlawn Avenue. These were protected with "local-landmark" status by the Preservation Board in 1986 and are part of the unique urban fabric and architectural heritage of our City.

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I took these monthly pictures yesterday after mowing the lawn. The boards are nailed in place again - it's a weekly thing. With the series of arsons sweeping the City and a few bodies found in grizzly shape - here and here - in other vacant property on the City's East Side, it's no wonder why some of my neighbors would like to see the Woodlawn Row Houses demolished.

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Please take a moment to sign the Petition to Save the Woodlawn Row Houses, if you haven't done so already. Remember they are directly across the street from the new home of Performing Arts High School. Here's the map!

Check out the archive to see demolition by neglect - it's a textbook case! If you want a tour...let me know. I've got this rechargable key that can get us in.

Merriweather Library - w/o fence

I've been posting about Buffalo's newest library since 2/2005, way before the Erie County budget crisis morphed into a diatribe about Erie County libraries in the Fall of 2005. Three months after the Merriweather Library opened, this past April, the construction fence still surrounded the place. Well you can see that it was finally removed. That happened last week. Something about the sealer used on the stamped concrete sidewalk - I heard. Still no plantings or benches.

Here's a related post about the Merriweather Library Opening. And another post about design issues - with all sorts of links.

Still the question remains what is to be done with the old library. In May 2005 I posted a few interior pics of the old library. Remember Bruce Jackson called the North Jefferson Branch (above) decrepit in February 2003. Which was hardley the case. Any suggestions? Let me know...

Hello, Rocco Termini?....About that new loft project - The Stacks!

8/02/2006

SOLD!

Late last week I posted about 111 Woodlawn Avenue. It just sold!

I believe this is the shortest list-to-sell time for any residential property on the City's near East Side, ever...less than 3 weeks! The other example is the house at 38 Northampton. Both houses are directly across the street from major developments - Artspace and Performing Arts.

Sounds of Vacancy

Like the cancer of Simon and Garfunkel's metastasizing silence, vacancy is growing. Cheektowaga, NY is now infected with the same "urban cancer" that has hollowed out entire neighborhoods of Buffalo's East Side. Here's yesterday's Buffalo News cover story, archived in case you missed it. Strange how the 367 vacant houses are concentrated in the western part of the town, the part closest to the dying patient - Buffalo's East Side...

Of course the cost of vacancy in Cheektowaga is not measured in terms of what the town spends in lawn mowing and board-ups. The real cost, which isn't mentioned is lost tax revenue to the town and declining property values for homeowners living next door. Here on the City's East Side the spiral of declining property values is so pervasive that property has taken on a negative value. Houses are no longer assets, they're liabilities. In many cases houses can not even be given away. Then again, cancer is free and nobody wants that either.

Strange...the last sentence of yesterday's BN article - "They may be taken care of...but are vacant." While I've identified a number of houses here in my little corner of Masten, that I've determined present public health risk - here's the map - there are dozens more that look occupied, because a neighbor mows the lawn and shovels the sidewalk in the winter - but no one's been home for a very long time...

Check out this archive - Broken Promises... - for additional information about abandonment and vacancy. Michael Clarke and the good guys at LISC are involved with the National Vacant Properties Campaign. More about their study and policy recommendations, soon...

8/01/2006

Little House on the (Urban) Prairie

This little house on the (urban) prairie caught my attention two years ago when I first started blogging and climbing through broken windows here in this little corner of Masten. Harwood Place is north of Ferry Street and just a few hundred feet from the Canisius College Kessler Center off Jefferson. Click on this map and you will see Harwood Place's proximity to Hamlin Park, the East Side's most stable neighborhood - where Buffalo's Mayor, Byron Brown lives.

On Saturday, Eva Hassett shared with me her deep appreciation for some of the little gems here on the City's East Side - Coe Place & Ada Place - including 16 Harwood Place, this little house on the (urban) prairie. I just had to take another look. So, Tuesday afternoon I pedaled over to Harwood Place and grabbed these pics...

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A quick check of City Records indicates that the City of Buffalo has owned this architectural treasure since July of 1997 and of course you wouldn't know as there is no 'for-sale' sign in sight! The adjoining lots at 12 and 20 Harwood are vacant and owned by the City, too. Right across the street is 23 Harwood - all boarded up.

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Now, for the urban soul looking for an extraordinary opportunity to participate in the revitalization of the City's near East Side...come on over and take a look. You're on the major transit line - subway stop two blocks away at Delevan & Main - Tops Market just down the avenue and across from the new Merriweather Library. Come on over and take a closer look...you know, deep down, that we really live in one Buffalo...not two!

update... Gabe just sent me this shot...

That house is a beauty! It looks older than anything else in the neighborhood. I'm guessing it was built as a farmhouse back when the area was still mostly rural. I'm thinking 1860s-1870s. Ironically the land around the house has reverted to a historically accurate state...

Artspace Construction Update

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Had a chance to grab a few minutes with Eva Hassett - Executive Vice President from Savarin o...the folks doing Artspace - at the Smart Code Conference last Saturday at the Saturn Club. I asked her about the big-dig going on behind Artspace. Seems like environmental remediation that's been happening behind 1219 Main Street was unexpected and most probably had to do with some industrial waste oil that was dumped on the site when it was home to a couple different manufacturing facilities, back in the day.

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Eva has responded promptly to a few requests to make sure the construction site is properly secured.

Mark Pagano, the guy who used to own the building that now belongs to Artspace, informed me recently that he's done some remediation the adjoining property. Mark also praised Savarino for doing what he termed a "high level" of remediation at the site.

More in Artspace Construction Updates...