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Common Council members Wednesday criticized the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo for its plan to close a number of city churches and schools, some of the lawmakers contending that it abandons city neighborhoods and appears “to have the whiff of ethnic cleansing.”The second article - appearing in today's Buffalo News with the diocesan "outrage (yawn) and response" is also archived.
When James Pitts walks around East Side Buffalo streets such as Woodlawn Avenue and Emerson Place, he doesn't see ramshackle, abandoned houses. He sees opportunity and hope. read the rest...fixBuffalo readers already know that this set of row houses sits diagonally across from the front door of the new Performing Arts HS, ready to open this September [map].
"This," he said while walking down Woodlawn Avenue, "Is my hometown."Pitts also wants to build homes and encourage small business development, using the September opening of the Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts along Woodlawn Avenue as the focal point. The $30 million school, located where Woodlawn Junior High School once stood and before that, Offermann Stadium, is designed to encourage private sector development in the surrounding neighborhood.
Pitts wants to lead that charge.
"Since the school's project began, we've all heard how one of the side benefits was the encouragement of neighborhood developments," Pitts said. "Well, I want this to be an example of what can happen."
Very interesting...Rev. Stenhouse from Bethel CDC, one block away from the Woodlawn Row Houses, is the designated planning agency for this neighborhood and simultaneously owns the largest collection of blighted property surrounding the the new home of Performing Arts HS. Yet no mention of Rev. Stenhouse in the Business First article.
I've praised Rev. Stenhouse - Getting it Done in Masten - and have weighed in with criticism - Boarding Control - over his lack of stewardship and neglect, steps away from his door. Remember he's also the Secretary/Treasurer of Buffalo's very own control board. No Housing Court Rev. Stenhouse. Ever wonder why?
Excellent news for the City's near East side, especially as Performing Arts HS opens in less than 75 days!
The second phase of Buffalo’s school reconstruction project is nearing completion, and it includes two spectacular elements to fuel the revival of city schools.
At the new Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, work crews have raised the roof of the auditorium to provide fly space over the stage and elevated and angled the floor for better sight lines. read the rest...
Buffalo News photo
A state government association released a report on New York’s demographic trends Wednesday in an effort to raise the level of urgency about the population losses suffered throughout the state.The policy brief issued by the New York State Association of Counties, an association of the state’s 62 counties, is an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau estimates released earlier this year. The numbers are sobering.
The Empire State saw its population grow just 1.7 percent since the start of the decade, compared with the national rate of 6.4 percent.
Twenty-nine of the state’s 62 counties lost population since 2000 — 28 of them from upstate. And no other county in the state lost more people during that period than Erie County — a loss of 28,875, or an average loss of 4,800 people a year. Read the rest...
If you believe that your population estimates are inaccurate, you should contact New York's population estimates liasison:
Dr. Warren Brown
Program on Applied Demographics
Cornell University
607-255-8399
Wab4@cornell.edu
The owners of Transfiguration Church, a vacant and deteriorating East Side landmark, are under pressure from city officials to better secure the sprawling property.
The Eastern European Gothic- style church at Sycamore and Mills streets, which opened in 1896, is one of only four remaining in Buffalo built before 1900. It was abandoned 14 years ago by the Catholic Diocese and purchased in 1994 for $7,000 by Paul Francis Associates, a nonprofit organization operated by Buffalo attorney William Trezevant and his mother, Paula Nowak...read the rest...
The Transfiguration Church, three miles from Elmwood, was first written for Housing Court on March 13, 1997. In the last 8 years Transfiguration has journeyed through Housing Court 61 times and the file, case #869/97 has seen four seperate Housing Court judges. Judge Broderick passed the file to Judge Devlin who tossed it to Common Council President David Franczyk's brother and finally Judge Fiorella issued a warrant for Pauline Nowak [no relation to Judge Nowak] on September 25, 2002. She's an officer of Paul Francis Associates, Inc., the party that bought the crumbling church from Bishop Mansell in October, 1995.