Auction...behind Artspace

I noticed this auction sign here on Ellicott Street the other day - 1059 Ellicott (google map).

This two family house is located one block from Artspace and just around the corner from Coe Place. If you're interested in living in this emerging neighborhood - a block from transit - this is a great space.

Here the conditions, details and terms of the July 19th auction. Cash Cunningham - owner of St. Vincent's, less than a block away, is the auctioneer.

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The Numbers...

Frequent fixBuffalo readers may remember this story - 7/Day...1 Every Three Hours - from June 2006. Well yesterday's Buffalo News article about the hemmoraging of the City's population repeats the news that is becoming increasingly more familiar to Buffalo's residents and visitors. Here's the story. The growing commentary in the related B/N blog post is important to read, too - right here.

From Thursday's article...

The City of Good Neighbors lost 2,552 of those good neighbors between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007 — a 0.93 percent decline.

Let's see...that's the same rate of loss that we've been experiencing for the last few years. Still, 7/day. Do the math. If a bus load of people leave every week and a car load of people return - where's the trend? If you don't want to walk, drive or ride your bike through the neighborhoods and see the 'hollowing out' and the vacancy - what happens when people leave the area - just check out this recent story - Unstoppable? - and you'll start to get your hands around the problem.

When people move, houses are left behind. Houses stay vacant and eventually are trucked off to a landfill. See google's lastest - street view, Buffalo - and scroll over to the City's east side to take a look.

I've recently heard a number of people suggest by 2010, when the next census is completed, this part of the planet may lose yet another congressional seat. Some even speculate that Buffalo may slip behind Rochester and become the state's number three city.

Byron, what's the plan? Hope?

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Block by Block...more bad news!

The shredded urban fabric of the country's second poorest city is becoming visible for the whole world to see. Today's article in the Buffalo News - Neglected Homes and Vacant Lots - is the first in a three part series.

part II - Demolition Plan and the critics
part III - Youngstown, OH - Finds a Solution

Here's the B/N blog post.
Here's the video.

The Buffalo News has also compiled a useful vacancy data base - street by street - showing the extent of the decay. Staggering!

If you're reading this blog for the first time, make sure to check out the following posts - Unstoppable? and Al Jazeera comes to Buffalo.

Sometimes I wonder if our Mayor has ever thought about visiting Youngstown, OH - see, Learning from Youngstown - where Mayor Jay Williams understands what needs to done when half a city collapses before your eyes.

Byron?

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Queen City Farm - House for Sale...

This single family home, located at 165 Glenwood Avenue is for sale.

One of my neighbors has owned the house for the past 10 years and is interested in holding a small mortgage for the full sale price. It's a four bedroom house, assessed at 12K. It's located on the Queen City Farm block.

If you are interested, please let me know.

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The red mark of death...

While vacancies and the rate of vacany are increasing in most of Buffalo's neighborhoods - see, Unstoppable? - i've found it fascinating seeing the various notes city inspectors leave behind. Once a building is sprayed with the 'red mark of death' other people sometimes leave notes, too. Here's the slide show.

This shot is from 194 East Utica, prior to the formation of the Queen City Farm Project.

I'll be adding to the series. Interesting moment as our City is trucked away to a landfill in Ohio - right here.

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Seen on the Street...

A fixBuffalo friend has recently encouraged me to begin documenting another aspect of the city, street art. Here's the first installment of an emerging series of street scenes, projects i drive by everyday and have just begun to see. Here's the show.

These pics and projects are from the City's east side. If you've seen others, let me know. I'll keep this series going.

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Orphaned, Again...

We learned this past week that the tax-credit financing for the proposed St. Martin's Village, failed. Some of the commentary in a rather hopeful post that appeared a day before the financing flopped is important to read, if you haven't done so already - right here. Since 1874 this site has also been known as the German Roman Catholic Orphan Home. See this archive for additional information.

Last month I received a copy of the (now failed) proposed site plan in the mail. Here's the rendering. I've linked to the plan's text in the smaller pics.

click here for larger image


click pics to enlarge

One of the major problems here is that the Community Action Organization of Erie County has lacked the capacity and willingness to simply the secure the site, for the last five years. Lots of promises, no action. It's of course no surprise that politically connected organizations such as this are immune to Judge Nowak's Housing Court. The place is wide open, crumbling and quickly becoming the latest victim of this city's curse - 'demolition by neglect'. Since acquiring the property in 2003 from NY Liberty Homes LLC - the organization run by Houston based Scot Wizig - for $1 as part of the City's settlement, the CAO has managed to do nothing to the place, save mow the lawn on occasion.

Yesterday I spent some time at the former German Roman Catholic Orphan Home - see archive for additional writing about this place - took some pics and compiled this slide show. Really sort of wild, welcoming and forbidden place all at the same time. I remember meeting a former resident, an orphan who left the place when it closed in 1956 after a devastating fire. He hadn't returned in 50 years when I met up with him two years ago. He showed me traces of the fading line along a few of the buildings in the rear yard, a line that separated the boys and girls.

Two years ago Toronto based DK Photo Group arrived in town and explored the place photographically, see slide shows. Sean, from DK, compiled the above map of the site for the October 2006 show in Toronto. This 1915 map is a snapshot of the same area. The loss is staggering, especially when you compare that map with this recent satellite view that shows the proximity of the Buffalo Museum of Science across the scar.

As the 19th century fabric of this city continues to disappear at an ever increasingly faster rate, one wonders how much longer this catholic complex will last or if an invitation to Housing Court is even on the horizon. I'm remembering that boy/girl line that Ralph showed me two years ago. Today there are fewer lines. When you cross over from the side walk, bring a friend. In the country's second poorest City buildings collapse and are demolished on a regular basis. Check this one out, before it's gone.

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New Sidewalks in the Hood...

This neighborhood is continuously changing. This past week new sidewalks were installed along Woodlawn Avenue, double wide ones in spots.

The construction continued around the corner on Glenwood Avenue.

fixBuffalo readers may remember the 150 trees that were planeted in the neighborhood recently. New school, too!

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Animal Resuce - Here's Lucy!

Meet Lucy.

While taking pictures this morning i spotted Lucy tied to a fence near an abandoned house in the neighborhood. She'd been here for days, without food or water. I went over to see the McCallums who moved in last week and picked up some water. fixBuffalo readers will remember the McCallums from Queen City Farm. Meagan helped me track down some temporary housing for Lucy later this afternoon.

Lucy has a fine disposition for a young pup, probably a shepard/rottweiler mix. While she was really skittish at first and afraid of being touched, by this evening Lucy was rolling around having a great time with kids.

So...we need to find a permanent home for Lucy. If you're interested in taking her to the vet and getting her checked out and/or finding a permanent home for her, please let me know.

Update - 7/5/08 - 3pm.

While sitting with friends at the cafe, moments ago i spotted Lucy walking down the street.

Happy to report that Lucy now has a permanent home.

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City Honors - Reconstruction

The single largest construction project in the history of country's second poorest City is well underway. Phase III of the one billion dollar Joint School Reconstruction Project includes the two year long renovation of City Honors High School. This project brings to a total of 100m dollars in public investment to this emerging arts and education neighborhood. Recently completed projects include - Performing Arts High School, Artspace and the Merriweather Library.

Here's the plan.

Best Street is on the left. Click here for larger image.

Here's the first in a long series of weekly reconstruction pics.

The temporary two year home for City Honors High School students is School #8, pictured below on East Utica and Masten Avenue.

School #8 is a short two blocks away from the recently renovated Performing Arts HS and directly across the street from the Queen City Farm project. fixBuffalo readers may remember the year long series of pics involving the reconstruction of that school, here's the archive.

City Honors is a local landmark and is also on the National Register of Historic Places. Retired City Honors English teacher Chuck LaChiusa has documented the history - right here. Originally known as Fosdick Masten, this city high school also has a well loved local history museum - Hilltop Museum. One of the schools most famous graduates and best known intellectuals from Buffalo's East side, Richard Hofstadter (1916 - 1970), graduated from Fosdick Masten High School in 1933. Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878 -1969) son of Principal Frank Fosdick, went on to become the first minister at Riverside Church in New York.

I'll be following construction developments here at City Honors on a weekly basis. I'll also have some interviews from Board of Education Architect Paul McDonnell and City Honors Principal Bill Kresse about the plans to rehab and add a few major structures to the City Honors campus.

The school frames part of this East side neighborhood and is a very short 10 blocks from Performing Arts HS, just down Masten Avenue.

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Our Urban Prairie - Summer 2008

Buffalo's 'urban prairie' is growing at an ever increasingly faster rate.

The first time I started thinking about this amazingly complex phenomenon I started reading what Soundlab's Craig Reynolds had to say about this place.

THE ARGUMENT: Buffalo provides a challenge, not a legacy; it taunts the uninspired until they flee to a city where legacy’s flow will carry them along, like New York, San Francisco or Seattle. Buffalo requires a substantial commitment, like that of a drowning man to his condition. In Buffalo, we wrestle with God, Job’s God, and the fact of being is enough.

I begin to understand this after asking my 2 friends visiting from Seattle how they like the Albright Knox Art Gallery, the first stop in my weekend tour of Buffalo’s monuments to greatness. Pointing at Andy Warhol’s 100 Cans, they ask, “how Buffalo get a Warhol?” making me realize: 1) my friends aren’t exactly Peggy Guggenheims, but that’s perfectly a–okay; and 2) even after enjoying firsthand some of the greatest paintings anywhere, the misconception that Buffalo couldn’t possibly be significant remains even still.

Read the rest from Craig's 1997 essay How Buffalo Get a Warhol?

I've assembled some of my favorite pics of Buffalo's 'urban prairie' - right here.

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Undeliverable and Unbelievable - Unstoppable?

The latest data and maps from the HUD and US Postal Service mash-up arrived this afternoon from Anthony Armstrong over at LISC - Buffalo. He's been analyzing and synthesizing HUD and Postal Service data about "undeliverable addresses" - aka "vacant houses" - here in Buffalo for the past year. fixBuffalo readers may remember - Undeliverable, No one home... - from May 2007 and - Undeliverable or Unbelievable? - from October 2007. Today, fourth quarter data for 2007 hit my desk.

Today's numbers? No surprise. The trend here in Buffalo, NY? Things are getting a whole lot worse and neighborhoods that were once vibrant are hollowing out at an alarming rate. Click on the either map. The first one shows Buffalo at a glance today and the the second map shows the disturbing trend - change over time - for the past two years.

Click here for the first map and here for the second

Anthony shared the following...

In cooperation with HUD, the US Postal Service is now releasing quarterly data on vacant and undeliverable addresses by Census Tract. Where Buffalo and Erie County have been lacking a city-wide regularly updated primary data source on vacancy and abandonment rates, this data represents a powerful on-the-ground tool for tracking these trends at the neighborhood level.

This data does not represent structures, but separate mailing addresses. If there are two units in a house it would count as two addresses; if there are ten commercial offices in a single building, it would count as ten addresses. HUD has not yet been able to determine from its conversations with USPS how, if, or when PO Boxes are factored into this information. read the rest...

View the complete data set in this online spreadsheet, right here. The trend data has also been collected for the entire county and first ring suburbs - Tonawanda and Cheektowaga. An easy way to navigate this spread sheet is to find a census track in the first column and simply scroll over to the column "S" or "T" to see the two year changes. Simply staggering...

Both maps clearly show that Broadway/Fillmore and large sections of Masten are being swallowed up by the ever increasingly larger 'urban prairie'. Black Rock and Riverside are sliding, too. A fixBuffalo friend and I spent some time on Bailey Avenue recently observing the rapidly deteriorating urban landscape. There's a strong positive correlation here between our observations and the recent HUD/Postal Service data. It's simply staggering as people struggle to maintain their lives and dignity in neighborhoods that are hollowing out and where even a semblance of commercial and retail activity is slipping away.

If you still haven't seen LISC's Buffalo Tour - 2007, you should. Buffalo Rising's own Elena Buscarino interviews Michael Clarke and Anthony Armstrong in a short video that you won't want to miss.

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Sealed Up Spruce Street...

On Friday I met with City officials and explained the plight of the First German Baptist Church (1870) over on Spruce Street - see Death or Resurrection. I sat down with Council President David Franzcyk, Commissioner Rich Tobe and Michele Brozak, the secretary of the City's Preservation Board.

After discussing the situation with Rich Tobe and sharing with him that the stained glass, heating system and pews were still intact, we walked down the hall and he directed City inspectors - Mike Schieber and Tracy Krug to send out the City's board-up crew. Later, Michele Brozak assured me that she'd keep a watchful eye on this piece of the City's unique cultural heritage as the owners - Trinity Baptist Church 2926 Bailey Avenue - prepare to demolish the church.

I placed numerous calls to Pastor Jemmison on Friday and stopped over to see him. Still no word. Meanwhile if any fixBuffalo readers have additional historical pics of this church, kindly let me know. I'd like to share them here.

Yesterday, a fixBuffalo friend and I headed over to Spruce Street and noticed that Rich Tobe and third floor folks at City Hall had sealed the doors. I'll be keeping a close eye on this amazing little church.

Thanks Rich.

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Death or Resurrection? - You Decide...

While scouting the City today for locations with an indy film company, we took an opportunity to check out the First German Baptist Church (1870) at 41 Spruce Street, just east of Michigan Avenue (google map). I first posted about the church three months ago - Choir Lofts? - as I've become increasingly more interested in the reuse of these amazing buildings.

This afternoon, much to my shock, disgust and total loss of faith with this City's possible resurrection and how the progressive hollowing out is continuing to resemble the singular dimensionality of the suburbs, I noticed that this church had just been visited by the "red mark of death" - yes, off to the landfill for this one.

click image to enlarge

I pulled the door handle and much to my surprise the door opened. We went in...and found a church structure that is amazingly intact - save one hole in the roof - with eight 12' x 2' stained glass windows, pews and a choir loft that would make an ideal sleeping space and bells that still ring!

click image to enlarge

I'll be tracking this one for sure. If you're interested in making this place your home, I'll help you negotiate the maze at City Hall, point you in the direction of good legal and rehab financing. While the kitchen is laid out like any other church kitchen you might know, with all the appliances still in place, the rest of building appears to be in excellent structural condition. No falling bricks or collapsing walls! The parsonage appears to be in excellent condition as well - save it's own pending fate!

While the Livery on Jersey Street gets the spot light, over here on the City's East side the remnants of a once coherent and vibrant city are prepared for demolition without so much as a bang, or a whimper. They simply slip away 'till one day they're gone.

So...if you're interested in making this place your home, please let me know.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
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From the Streets of Buffalo, NY...Al Jazeera

I'm fascinated how other people see and understand Buffalo - the second poorest city in the country. Late last Summer New York Times reporter Ken Belson came to town and shared that Buffalo, NY has the second highest rate of vacancy in the country - see, Vacant Houses: Scourge of a Beaten Down Buffalo. French rock star intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy was here and wrote this about Buffalo, NY two years ago.

That a city could die: for a European, that is unthinkable. And yet … Buffalo, a city that was once the glory of America, its showcase, where two presidents once lived (and where one was shot and another inaugurated), a city that on this late-July afternoon offers a landscape of desolation: long avenues without cars, stretching out to infinity...

Today I found this video, courtesy of Al Jazeera, that was just released.

The sinking US economy is perhaps the most important issue in the presidential race. On this week's inside USA, we travel to the city of Buffalo, New York to see how the city is weathering the economic storm.

While tax breaks on waterfront condo development, the lure of casino development and $194,000 residential real estate on Chenango Street seem to prevail, entire sections of the city continue to fall off the radar.

Any surprises here?

Link to Al Jazeera story - Recession Blues for Buffalo City.

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