fixBuffalo

10/15/2005

Demo Season Ends...

Here's the last one of the season, I think. 1470 Michigan Avenue was in good structural condition. The mechanical systems needed to be replaced, yet for 20-25K of materials it would have made a good home for someone. Another missed opportunity.

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I was just clicking thru my Flickr and noticed these 1470 Michigan pics from a few months ago. The one on the left was taken in January '05 and the other one is from August '05. What's the rush in replacing a random sidewalk when other priorities, properly securing the Woodlawn Row Houses, should be higher on the list of things to do and fund.

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Related Posts: It's Demo Season in Masten and 23,000 and Still Counting

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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

10/14/2005

Partners for a Livable WNY

Here's the latest from George Grasser, the October 14, 2005 Report. Make sure to check out the Partners Archive for additional information.

Tuesday - October 18, 2005 - Nichols School

James Eppink is a retail economic consultant, town planner and landscape architect. He is the president of J. Eppink Partners, Inc. of Clarkston, Michigan. A native of Tonawanda, he has an established reputation for providing practical and creative solutions to improve developments and neighborhoods. He started his planning career with The Gibbs Planning Group, a national town planning and retail design firm, where he worked on projects in more than 25 states. He often provides the retail component on planning teams headed by Victor Dover, a nationally known planner who was a keynote speaker in Buffalo’s “Smart Growth Tuesdays” series of programs in 2003.

Tuesday - November 15, 2005 - Nichols School

James Charlier, a transportation planner and consultant has served in senior management positions for the Transportation Departments of Florida and Iowa. He served on the Florida Governor’s Task Force on Urban Growth Patterns and he helped write the State of Iowa’s first multi-modal transportation plan. He has written progressive multi-modal transportation plans for many cities and towns including Denver, Fort Collins and Boulder, CO, Flagstaff, AZ, Honolulu, HI and Jackson Hole, WY. His current clients include the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the cities of Redmond, WA and Nashville, TN, and the Departments of Transportation for the states of Colorado, Minnesota and Hawaii.

Thursday - December 8, 2005 - Albright Knox

William Fulton is a journalist, urban planner, researcher, pundit, best-selling author and nationally known speaker and lecturer on land use planning and economic development issues. He is President and Director of Research for Solimar Research Group and a member of the City Council of Ventura, CA. He is the author of “The Reluctant Metropolis”, the “Guide to California Planning”- a standard textbook for many urban planning classes, and “The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles” and he is the co-author, with noted architect Peter Calthorpe, of “The Regional City- Planning for the End of Sprawl”, a pathbreaking work that has helped reshape understanding of how metropolitan regions should be planned and designed. He is the economic development columnist for Governing magazine and the founding editor of “California Planning and Development Report”, a monthly newsletter covering land use issues in the State of California. He has also authored many important studies and treatises on land use and growth policy and his seminal report “Who Sprawls Most? How Growth Patterns Differ Across the U.S.,” published by The Brookings Institution, has played a key role in changing the way urban and metropolitan growth issues are now debated. As a native of Central New York (Auburn), a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and a former intern at The Buffalo News, he is familiar with the land use and economic development issues confronting upstate New York regions and communities.

Gossip and a 'little love' - you decide...

This morning, between classes, I checked in with my Activemeter.com account and noticed a hit that looked interesting. I found this. I get wierd ass e-mails all the time, questioning my sincerity and wondering if I really live in the 'hood. But this one got to me. Because it just doesn't add up. It appeared on a blog that I first learned about today, Soul of Buffalo.

While I do know that there may be serious differences of opinion regarding how Buffalo should dig it's way out of the hole and return to a more productive place to live and work, I've never taken this blogging thing and the issues that I've raised as a "Joke." I've always thought about the east-side and the west-side as being part of the same boat. We are all pitching in to bail the water that is swamping us. Maybe not. Seems like the "soul of Buffalo" is torn, in spots.

Some of my best teachers always reminded me that "people with great minds, talk about ideas and find ways to solve problems." "People with small minds talk about people, and gossip."

Related Posts: Blogging Etiquette especially #'s 2 & 3

From the Oracle at Delphi?

Alan, over at BuffaloPundit, picked up on a few questions I put out there yesterday about the $15,000,000 taxpayer sponsored subsidy of Artspace over here on this side of Main Street. Interesting set of comments from his readers.

Regarding government sponsored gentrification programs we've got a great example here in Buffalo. Heading down Michigan Avenue make a left on William Street. Here you will see a classic example of government sponsored gentrification and "blight busting." Here you've got dozens of subsidized 'in-fill' houses built along streets that used to be a thriving commercial district. It's highly unlikely that commercial development will ever return to this neighborhood, in part because the high traffic streets are now full of houses. Imagine, for a moment Elmwood Avenue lined with houses...and the commercial development on the side streets.

I mean, couldn't the houses on William have been built on the side streets, instead?

The design work from Hamilton, Houston & Lownie is fantastic, for Artspace and this isn't my point. I'm a huge fan of adaptive re-use. My point is simply, why should we, the taxpayers, pay for it?

At this point I'm wondering if Artspace has used this "no-money-down" approach in other cities, too.

When Alan says...

While I think this Artspace will be a nice addition to the area...

I'm beginning to wonder if alternative uses of the $15,000,000 Artspace "gift" couldn't have helped better stabilize the neighborhood in the form of a revolving loan fund for rehab and mortgage financing.

And then there's the entire issue of presenting the un-veiling of this project during an election cycle as if Hillary and Byron are giving us a gift they bought with our credit card. Maybe Christmas will come early this year in Niagara County and somebody will buy a bail-out, again using the same credit card...what will the Oracle at Delphi reveal?

Related Posts: Artspace Archive and Making One's Mind Up

$266,666 Artist Lofts...

Do the math. Buffalo Blogger, Craig Howard - America's North Coast - just filed this post about the new Artspace project opening soon over in this part of town. Here's the map for other arts and education happenings here on this side of Main Street. I guess his favorite Senator was at Kleinhans yesterday and formally un-veiled Artspace's plans here in the 'hood. Well readers of this blog knew about this development 8 weeks ago in the Artspace Archive.

Here's Craig...

And really, what other economic development could anyone expect from artists? I know, I know this is all due to Richard Florida's ideas to which Buffalo clings like fleas on roadkill. The hope is that ultimately, given a hip Buffalo arts scene, that the real movers and shakers -- engineers, software designers and the like -- will be attracted here to start some actual, economically-productive businesses because Buffalo's cool -- and damn the taxes, regulations and unions.

Florida came up with his theories during the high-tech boom of the late 90s in an attempt to explain why the young entrepreneurs that were building the "new" economy located where they did. But ultimately his whole theory doesn't matter because those crazy 90s dudes blew all the money they were given, their businesses died, and they left places like San Jose worse off than they'd been before.

I've been linking to Richard Florida's nemesis Joel Kotkin, historian of 'the city,' for awhile...his work is worth revisiting, especially Kotkin's Rise of the Ephemeral City , a must read.

Perhaps most important, an economy oriented to entertainment, tourism, and "creative" functions is ill-suited to provide opportunities for more than a small slice of its population. Following such a course, it is likely to evolve ever more into a city composed of cosmopolitan elites, a large group of low-income service workers, and a permanent underclass--or into what San Francisco is already becoming, what historian Kevin Starr describes as "a cross between Carmel and Calcutta."

I just did the math for Artspace. Wonder what the construction cost/unit is over at BMHA. And after seeing a few viable houses come down in record number here in Masten this week - right behind the new Artspace area - I'm left wondering if the money $266,666/unit would have been better spent in establishing a revolving loan fund to rehab some of the existing housing stock...and create a few incentives for the artists, too...lending at prime, perhaps...

Seems like we are seeing the first signs of 'gentrification' in Buffalo...clear out the 'slum and blight' and build something (subsidized, Buffalo style) new.

And so it goes. See also....Urban Legends by Joel Kotkin

10/13/2005

23,000 and Still Counting...

While perusing the National Vacant Properties Campaign website I found this item which may be of some interest to readers of Fix Buffalo Today...

Buffalo LISC, with support of the city and county governments, submitted a request for a regional assessment of vacant properties issues including the depth of the problem and existing systems and policies in place to address it and is hoping to foster broad regional collaboration around finding solutions through the assessment process. There are approx. 23,000 parcels of vacant land and abandoned properties in city of Buffalo alone. In the region, there are another 16,000 vacant and abandoned properties. The Campaign will provide an evaluation of the existing policies, programs, and laws that are currently in place at the local, county and state levels, and provide constructive critiques of those practices and a comparison of the region's existing systems with proven best practices from other cities confronting similar vacant property challenges. The estimated value of this technical assistance is $50,000. (July-August 2005)

LISC - Buffalo under Michael Clark's leadership is stepping to the plate and offering assistance and expertise in helping the people of the City of Buffalo manage 'decline.' Make sure to visit their site and especially the LISC Online Resource Library for additional information about all sorts of important community development issues.

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Smart City Radio...
Buffalo's own Hyde family Foundation generously underwrites Smart City Radio. Über good guy George Hyde makes this possible. Here's what on Smart City Radio this weekend.

Can Business and Labor Work Together?

The continuing loss of manufacturing jobs in America seems inevitable. Some states fight the loss with tax incentives. Some communities are inventing a new high road approach to reclaim these jobs.

Dan Swinney heads the Center for Labor and Community Research. A former union organizer, Dan is convinced that business and labor, working together, can not only save but create new manufacturing jobs. His approach may be radical, but it seems to be working, and we'll find out more about it on Smart City.

We'll also talk to Peter Fisher, author of Grading Places: What do the business climate rankings really tell us?, about how to grade the business climate, which ratings are useless and which ones tell the real story.

10/11/2005

It's Demo Season in Masten...

The demolition contractors have been busy in Masten this week. Yesterday three different contractors were in the neighborhood doing what they do best...collecting payments from City Hall. I know, the owners of the house enter into an agreement to repay the City when they sign off on consent form. After making a few monthly payments...what happens next? Are judgements filed, wages garnished and money collected? I'll be looking into the payment record of 242 Koons Avenue. Located, like so many abandoned, boarded, derelict and vacant houses right next door to a recently renovated Buffalo City school, the house was quickly demolished after Artvoice Community Activist of the Year brought the condition of the property to City Hall's attention. Here's what I wrote in February, 2005.

I'll report back soon regarding the money the City has collected from Redwood City, CA investors Hamilton and Lydia Woods.

Meanwhile, these houses in this 25 block neighborhood of Masten District, boarded by Main/Jefferson and Ferry/Utica, were just demolished.

25 Woodlawn Avenue...One Block from 'Buffalo Traditional High School' was sitting abandoned and boarded for 26 months. It was demolished last Friday.

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This house at 1407 Michigan Avenue was demolished last Friday, too. It is located two blocks from 'Buffalo Traditional High School' and along the primary path Buffalo School kids walked to school from the Utica Station.

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The home that used to here, 38 Woodlawn, had a fire that ripped thru most of the interior back in May. So, all things considered it came dowm quickly. But check out the steel plates on the sidewalk. I don't think you'd see that sort of thing on Penhurst Park, do you? A law-suit waiting to happen.

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1464 Michigan Avenue has been abandoned, boarded etc...for 40 months. It was demolished on Friday. This house has been the scene of dozens of 911 calls for the past two years.

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After watching the water line gush water here at this location, I spoke with the demo contractor here at 1464 Michigan. He told that the City often fails to have the water service terminated at the street. As of this morning when I walked over to the site the water was still gushing from the service...and so it goes.

The same demo contractor is bringing down 1470, the building here on the right. The former owner, Paula Counts, has an outstanding warrant in Housing Court. ( She lives nearby.) I asked him about the new porch deck, 30 pieces of pressure treated lumber...it took me just 20 minutes to remove it. This morning I saw the guys, Jeff Weisberg and Co. from The Antique Architechtural Circus removing the windows, oak doors and various pieces of trim from the inside of the house. What's left of the house is headed to a land-fill in Pennsylvania later this week.

Vacant Houses, Broken Promises...

You may have seen the short article in Tuesday's Buffalo News about the refrain we've been singing for a few years. The problem is pretty much the defining characteristic about life in the urban core. The National Vacant Properties Campaign is coming to Buffalo to do a study...yes another one...on top of the one that was done last year and added to the entire shelf of studies that have been completed in recent years.

I first learned about the National Vacant Properties Campaign after a hanging out with Michael Clark from LISC last year.

Managing decline, one vacant property at a time, is tough business. It's what we do in Buffalo. No one here in Buffalo, NY has thier arms around the number and the true enormity of the problem confronting residents of Buffalo and especially the severity of public health and safety issues Buffalo School students face on a regular basis as they walk past abandoned, boarded, derelict and vacant houses on a daily basis.

School House Project was my first attempt to understand the city-wide nature of this problem and how it might be impacting the lives of Buffalo's students around city schools...

I snapped these pics yesterday. This house at 93 Riley Street is just a block from Main Street, or two blocks from Linwood Avenue...and has been owned by the City of Buffalo...for a long time.

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And how effective was Mayor Masiello's Neighborhood Watch program? Any Mayor Griffen signs up in your neighborhood...I thought so..

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Related Posts: Scourage of our City! and Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole and More City-Owned Property

I'm back...

After a little break and a re-orientation of life's priorites...regular posting again. Many thanks to everyone who dropped me a line in the past few weeks wondering whassup. As you will quickly see the pace of demolitions here in this little corner of Masten has picked up considerably. Yet, just down the street the Woodlawn Row Houses remain abandoned, boarded, derelict and vacant.

10/08/2005

Smart Growth, October 2005...

Here's the scoop on the October 18th meeting at Nichols School. "Creating Places Where We Like to Shop" is the topic. Über good-guy George Grasser, from Partners for a Livable WNY, is coordinating the event. Mark your calendar and plan to attend.

Here's the September 2005 Report, George Grasser prepared.

Related Posts: Partners for a Livable WNY - archive

9/21/2005

You Know You Live in the "Ghetto" When...

...Regulations and safety laws are not enforced on a regular basis. This afternoon I was walking down Jefferson Avenue to Tops. I saw what might amount to some sort of environmental remediation program across the street at an old gas station. I walked over to take a closer look and immediately noticed that the worksite was wide open and numerous dangerous conditions were just inches from the sidewalk...

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Ask yourself...If this sort of remeditiation work was happening on Elmwood Avenue...what sort of safety barriers would you see...Plywood or concrete? How about an 8' hole about 12' long next to a side walk...it wouldn't happen on Elmwood, would it?

When I took a closer look at the worksite I noticed that the list of nasty and dangerous stuff included open barrels of somthing that smelled like oil or cleaning fluids and of course a few large pits that were never properly fenced in. I don't know what the health code contains for this sort of project...yet is there no oversite or monitoring of these sorts of sites...

A few months ago while checking out the old "Sweet Kleen Laundry" site on Kenningston Avenue, I found that environmental clean-up project to be an invition to neighborhood kids, too. See those pics...Sweet Kleen(ed) and Sweet Kleen(ed) - FollowUp.

I know...It's only Jefferson Avenue...and so it goes.

Related Post: Am I expecting too much? The bench was never replaced!

Woodlawn Row House - Update 9/2005

Frequent readers of this blog know that the Woodlawn Row Houses sit diagonally across from one of Buffalo's public schools. The site is currently being used by Waterfront School on a temporary basis and will soon become the new permanent home of Performing Arts High School.

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This afternoon I re-boarded the Woodlawn Row Houses and took these pics that show the gradual decline of this "local-landmark" and City of Buffalo owned property. This is a text book example of "demolition by neglect." Masten District Councilman Antoine Thompson and Common Council President David Franczyk - who seems to be more interested in the "historic" property of Perrysburg, NY more than he is here in Buffalo - know about the condition of this building...and do nothing.

The complete archive containing monthly pictures of the decline of this City of Buffalo owned property that was designated a "local-landmark" by the Preservation Board is available here.

9/07/2005

Derelection of Duty...

The flood waters are still rising on Buffalo's east-side. No one seems to care that the levee ruptured years ago. The waters are rising so fast that the town of Perrysburg is now threatened 40 miles to Buffalo's south...

David Franczyk - Preserver of the Status Quo - Files Law Suit against the City of Buffalo

I heard today from Tom Trathen's attorney, Scott Cannon, that the City of Buffalo's Law Dept. plans to appeal the outcome of tomorrow's decision which most certainly will favor Tom Trathen. He wants to start paying Perrysburg property taxes and get along with some economic development 40 mile south of Buffalo.

To make matters more confusing our very own Common Council voted 7-1 early this summer to remove a clause from the property's title which prevented Tom Trathen from buying the property. Read that strange story here...David Franczyk, Common Council President was apparently enjoying the Italian Riviera while that vote was taken...go figure.

Today, our very own Common Council President sworn to up-hold the City Charter and make Buffalo a safe place has filed a law suit against us, the City of Buffalo. The BN informed us of Common Council President Franczyk's dereliction of duty with this story today...

Cattaraugus County Judge Larry M. Himelein has scheduled an Oct. 6 hearing on the suit filed by several plaintiffs, including the group Friends of J.N. Adam, two residents of the Perrysburg area and Buffalo Common Council President David A. Franczyk. The skirmish puts Franczyk, an opponent of the sale, in the position of suing the city for which he works. Various state agencies and the president of the logging company are also named in the suit.

I don’t believe an elected public official in the history of Buffalo, while still in office, has ever been party to a law-suit against the City, the entity he is supposed to represent. On the one hand, now that he is back from Italy, he’s directing our Law Dept. to squander limited resources and file an appeal based on the most probable outcome of tommorow's Cattaragus County Supreme Court ruling in Little Valley, NY. On the other hand he's forcing the City of Buffalo to defend itself against a lawsuit that the so-called friends of JN Adam are forcing down our throats.

I've been reporting since December, the former JN Adam TB Hosptial in Perrysburg, NY has been closed since 1993. The City of Buffalo had a 10 year opportunity to do something about the place. They decided to do nothing. Yet when Common Council President David Franzyck heard that Tom Trathen, a logger from Livingston County, signed a purchase contract for the 650 acres he set in motion a strategy to try to "save" JN Adam. Common sense says that we have to save ourselves from David Franczyk.

click each Broadway/Fillmore pic and learn more

David Franczyk claims to be a preservationist, yet has done NOTHING to help save the Woodlawn Row Houses or the Wollenberg Grain Elevator. Both of these properties are located on the City's east side. The Woodlawn Row Houses were designated a local landmark in 1981 and the Wollenberg Grain Elevator was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Both of these properties are abandoned, boarded, derelict and vacant. There is no plan. The Woodlawn Row Houses sit 50 feet away from a Buffalo Public school and the Wollenber Grain Elevator is 100 yards away from the recently renovated Emerson school on Sycamore Street in the heart of Broadway Fillmore where David Franzcyk presumably still lives.

Imagine for a moment if Common Council President David Franczyk focused his attention on the Broadway Fillmore District instead of Perrysburg, NY 40 mile to the south. Maybe the Wollenberg Grain Elevator would be properly secured...and those Woodlawn Row Houses...across from a public school...perhaps Tom Trathen will donate some plywood to help us properly secure and protect them before they succumb to "demolition by neglect." I'll ask...

Meanwhile, please contact -- Brian Lipke - Control Board, Chairman to voice your dismay and disappointment at David Franczyk's dereliction of duty. Let him know that you think our Common Council President should be thinking of Forest Avenue here in Buffalo and not the forest in Perrysburg, 40 miles away.

Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority
Market Arcade Building, Suite 400
617 Main Street
Buffalo, New York 14203
716.853.0907
716.853.9052 (fax)

Plenty of Houses in the 'Hood...

Kristen Becker let me know today of her efforts at organizing a fundraiser for NOLA folks. I had an opportunity to sit down with her yesterday to review some of her new organizations preliminary plans. High on the list is housing...for displaced NOLA artist folks. And of course I started in on just how cool it would be to use the Woodlawn Row Houses for just such a mission. Proximity to Artspace and the future permanent home of Performing Arts High School...cool.

On Friday September 23rd, the newly formed not for profit New Orleans Lagniappe Association (NOLA) will hold its first monthly variety show The Voodoo VarietyHour at Nietzsche's in order to benefit those relocating to Buffalo. The show wil consist of a wide range of performers, from comics to spoken word to musicians,as well as an art auction, and raffle. All donations are welcome. Having lived in New Orleans and loved the people there, I feel a tremendous need to get involved. Living in Buffalo now, I feel a need to let all the great people of New Orleans know how great Buffalo is, so NOLA will try to offer incentives for people to move their southern based businesses into the city of Buffalo. This is a chance for our city to be forward thinking. There are alot of people who need a home and the one thing we have plenty of is buildings that need a little love, to make them a home.

Elizabeth over at BuffaloSpreeBlog picked up Kristen's announcement, too. Check it out, Kristen set up a new Buffalo based blog for this fundraising effort, Voodoo Variety Show!