fixBuffalo

7/14/2005

109 Days to Go...

The Buffalo blogosphere has lit up once again and is making its first steps in shaping the outcome of the 2005 Mayoral race. The issue is "old style politics" vs. transparency and accountability. Its really that simple. When asked by Figmo at BuffaloRising the now top mayoral candidates Steve, Judy and Kevin each responded in no uncertain terms, Ray McGurn has got to go!

Meanwhile Byron Brown appeared content reading, "My Pet Goat" to a group of kids in a summer reading program. He took some time later to respond to Figmo...

Byron Brown reading from...."My Pet Goat"

According to Figmo, the conversation about Ray McGurn went like this...

So here it is. The Byron Brown SAMO Waltz:

Step 1. Indignantly deny:

“I have nothing to do with Ray McGurn.”
Step 2. Immediately appear to back up the claim with emphatic but irrelevant facts:

“McGurn was appointed by Masiello. He is Masiello’s Commissioner.”
Step 3. Begin to obfuscate the allegation with a carefully phrased and incomplete truth
“...who happens to be a member of a large organization in South Buffalo holding a fundraiser for me.”
Step 4. Finish it off with all the pharisaic spin you can muster:

“He is not the head of the organization and he is not the chair of the fundraiser.”

But Byron lost it at Step 3. What could have been a masterful waltz right past a rank and steaming pile turned into a sloppy bellyflop right in the middle of it. In short, to claim that Ray McGurn is just “a member of a large organization in South Buffalo” strains all credibility.

So, Buffalo Bloggers...lets get some "press passes" and keep striking out at the politics of the status quo...

Related Posts: They Get Phone Calls via BuffaloPundit and From the Mayor via Revitalize Buffalo

__________________________________________________________________________
Artspace Archive • Annals of Neglect • BAVPA • Where is Perrysburg? • Broken Promises...
Writing the City • Woodlawn Row Houses • Tour dé Neglect - 2006 • faq

7/13/2005

Preserver of the Status Quo...Part II

Byron Brown just got Figmoed! Read all about it. This guy can't be Mayor.

Short story. When I bought my house over in Cold Springs, 9 years ago, I spent part of the first summer painting it. One summer evening Byron Brown was walking the neighborhood and collecting petition signatures. He spotted me on the ladder from the side walk and quickly told me that my house was out of compliance. I scrambled down the ladder and expected him to say, "hey the place looks great...I know it's been empty for the past 15 years..." He didn't. He looked me right in the eye and said, "You are out of compliance because you don't have any house numbers on the place."

I had just purchased the place two months earlier and settled a housing court case with violations that pre-existed my ownership. I even paid $1500.00 of fines in Judge Manz's Housing Court.

I glanced at the steps and the new package of brass numbers and told him to get the f--- off my front step. I told him, "I don't know where you come from, but from where I come from people admire hard work." He left.

As far as I'm concerned he can stay away...9 years later, the house isn't completed. I work on it a couple days a week, my neighbors love the way it looks...now how about that set of row houses just down the street.

Preserver of the Status Quo...

While the Buffalo blogosphere heated up this week and shed light on the impoverished political practices of certain city hall Mullahs...an on going struggle is coming to a head 40 miles away in Perrysburg, NY.

I've been writing about "The Deal" down in Perrysburg for the past 7 months. And while vast sections of Buffalo's east-side continue to be neglected and historically important builidings owned by the City of Buffalo continue to be demolished by neglect, Council President David Franczyk seems to have a different set of priorities. He just received the award for Conservationist of the Year by the Niagara chapter of the Adirondak Mountain Club.

And this is what David Franczyk had to say recently about the JN Adam site down in Perrysburg, NY....

Hell will freeze over before I urge my colleagues to vote for anything that doesn't preserve the buildings and respect the integrity of the natural landscape.

You can read the rest of the story over here, courtesy of the National Trust.

This morning I had an opportunity to speak with Scott Cannon, Tom Trathen's attorney in this matter. I'll have motion papers and affidavits here on the blog very soon...the next court date is August 18th. If anyone is interested in driving down to Little Valley, NY seat of Cattaragus County Supreme Court, let me know.

Another opportunity to see city hall Mullahs at work...and so it goes.

***Update***
7/19/05

Comparing the text of Elizabeth Benjamin's article in a recent edition of the National Trust's weekly e-alert about the JN Adam Site in Perrysburg and my own research about the early history of the site that I published here in February 2005, I can't help but see a reflection. Yeah, information is free. Yet the manner in which Elizabeth Benjamin presents her own understanding of the early history of the site, in style and substance, closely resembles my own. A little attribution would have been appropriate in this case. Yet, because I'm not a "preservationist" and have consistently advocated a private property solution to this matter, I can see why the editors may have wanted to keep my name and website out of the mix.

And so it goes...

Waiting to hear back from Elizabeth Benjamin.

7/11/2005

Meeting Harvey Garrett...

I met Harvey last year to discuss his west-side plans to see what I could steal and bring to the east-side. No, not the architectural detail from his house but some of the strategies that we might be able to use over here in this little 25 block area of Masten...Main to Jefferson -- Ferry to Utica.

Well it just so happens that some of the collaborative ideas that we talked about are just beginning to work...

You can read about it here...and from the President of Buffalo's Board of Education, Florence Johnson, too...over here at her way cool blog FixEducation.

In about an hour I'm meeting with the Masten District Housing Court Liaison in a neighborhood walkabout to prioritize and plan Housing Court strategy for the area immeadiatily surrounding the future home of Performing Arts High School. The meeting was set up long before the Mullahs in City Hall declared that housing activists and people who live in the neigbhorhoods should have limited access to Housing Court.

Meanwhile...ask yourself which place would you rather live next door to.

Downtown refuses to properly secure or proactively market one of the City's historical and architectural treasures. Talk about priorities...

If it takes Harvey another 9 years to complete the work on his house...so what. There's progress. Meanwhile progress in the other direction is accelerating across town on the city's east-side.

Ray McGurn...gets Figmoed, again!
Figmo at BuffaloRisin g has these words for Ray McGurn.

Amy Maxwell at Revitalize Buffalo posted this story, too! And Allen Bedenko, aka Buffalo Pundit jumped on the story yesterday, too.

Seems like we are now waiting for Byron Brown to distance himself from politics as usual in Buffalo. Can he? Will he? I bet you his strategists are telling him, "...rely on the collective short memory of the electorate, they won't remember this in November..."

7/10/2005

Retain Judge Nowak Petition 2.0
I guess the folks who started the first petition ran into some unexpected technical difficulties with Petition 1.0 and so have re-created the identical text here.

Petition to Retain Judge Nowak - version 2.0

For those of you are not familiar with the story behind the story you may want to get up to speed here:

Inspection Commissioner Ray McGurn gets Figmoed
Buffalo News Article Sunday July 10 - Gestapo visits Richmond Avenue Home
Prior Petition & Background
WNY Media.net - Ray McGurn Buffalo's Butt Plug

This morning Kevin Hayes forwarded this to me from the creators of the first and now second petition.

From: "Citizens for Accountability" < CFABuffalo@msn.com>
To:
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 09:58:10 -0400
Subject: Garrett Inspection timeline vs article and receipt of suspicious letter

Look at the timeline:

Article in Buffalo News comes out on June 22, 2005.

By the grace of the gods - a letter, whose author cannot be confirmed, whose address is ECMC, is received citing Mr Garrett's home as an eyesore the very next day.

The same day the letter is received, an inspector is sent out to Mr. Garrett's home.

Q1 - What time was the inspector at Mr. Garrett's home on June 23rd?

Q2 - Has anyone had that quick a delivery from the local post?

Q3 - Can the Department of Inspections show the original envelope the letter came in with the postdate of June 22?

Q4 - Even if a party used overnight delivery, could this letter have reached the Inspections Department, and could it have been acted on that quickly, especially in lieu of the fact that their administrative staff is overworked and doesn't have the time to cite the other 523 houses in the four month backlog?

Think about it folks. And, if your intelligence is as insulted as many others, and you are as enraged as many others, think about writing a letter to the editor of the Buffalo News. Make sure you end your letter with a line that consists of something akin to:

"I am sure my home with be scrutinized since I take my First Amendment Rights seriously. I will let you know when my home is cited for court."

And this as part of their original e-mail campaign.

From: "Citizens for Accountability" <CFABuffalo@msn.com>
To:
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 22:57:22 -0400
Subject: Keep Judge Nowak in Housing Court

Dear Citizens, for some reason or another, there has been a snafu in the original online petition to keep Judge Nowak in Housing Court. For this reason, a new URL is up and running. We should be able to retrieve the original petition in the near future and transfer the over 150 signatures and comments to this new site. Until then, please consider your entry to this new petition.

Judge Nowak has provided the citizens of Buffalo, NY with innovative programs to assure that quality of life issues are addressed for the community while also assuring the home owners are provided fair and impartial remedies for repair of their homes. Without these programs continuing past 2005, we may enter into the housing quandary experienced before his tenure thus far. If you have questions, please contact us by reply e-mail. Thank you for your consideration. Go to this site to sign the petition or e-mail us for a hard copy to distribute in your neighborhood:

http://www.petitiononline.com/CFABUFLO/petition.html

Once you are through signing, please consider forwarding this URL to your friends, family, and associates.

7/07/2005

14209 Post Office Re-Location

I received the following e-mail this afternoon from the 9th floor. There is a Community Meeting scheduled for July 13th at 6pm.

My name is Stevan Stipanovich and I am a Planning Intern working with Allita Steward in the Office of Strategic Planning, City of Buffalo. I am writing to inform you that there is a meeting scheduled for next Wednesday, July 13th, at 6pm, located at Belmont Shelter, 1195 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14209, pertaining to the Main Street Post Office relocation. I ask that if you have a list-serve or an upcoming meeting that you could announce this meeting at, please do so. There are, as of now, no updates in the status of the move. This meeting will offer the community the opportunity, once again, to discuss the relocation of the Post Office and give their input on the move. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact me at 830-4287 or at this e-mail address.

Meanwhile I spotted this Post Office near the Broadway Market yesterday.

7/06/2005

Keep Judge Nowak in Housing Court

Please take a moment to read and sign the following petition to keep Judge Nowak in Housing Court. There appears to be some significant and entrenched opposition to the innovative reforms he is instituting in Buffalo City Court. They would like to have him removed.

***Update***
7/11/05 230pm

The latest stuff about Harvey & the story behind the story

New Retain Judge Nowak Petition v. 2.0
McGurn Gets Figmoed!

***Update***
7/10/05 1130am

The petition appears to be short lived. It's down. If someone could contact the originator to get it going again...probably a good idea. I was asked this morning if I had started this petition, I can assure everybody that I didn't. I simply agreed with the sentiments, signed the petition and would like to see a proactive Buffalo leader - Judge Nowak - stay put and continue his work. And when I first heard about the petition a few days ago, I decided to promote it here as Judge Nowak had sent me a letter a few weeks ago asking me to participate in his new Neighborhood Collaborative, which I have also promoted.

I've been a keen observer of Housing Court for the past 10 years and have never seen a Judge take such a passionate interest in the built environment and pioneer so much needed reform. More needs to be done yet Judge Nowak is on the right track.

Consider calling or writing Judge Thomas P. Amodeo, the suprervising Judge of Buffalo City Court to express your support for retaining Judge Nowak in Housing Court.

Judge Thomas P. Amodeo
Buffalo City Court
50 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14202
716.845.2651

Related Posts:

Buffalo News Story - June 22, 2005
FixBuffalo respone to 6/22 BN story About Housing Court & the Third Floor
Judge Nowak's Neigborhood Preservation Collaborative

City of Good Neighbors....NOT!

Craig, over at America's NorthCoast and west-side Buffalo resident, has quoted in full the letter written by Cindy Lauer of Perrysburg regarding Council President David Franczyk's and the Masiello administration's complete disregard for our neigbors 40 miles to the south, in Perrysburg.

I've had extensive conversations with many of the players in this fiasco, including the Perrysburg Town Supervisor Myrton Sprague and Tom Trathen who wants to buy the place. I would encourage every reader of this blog to e-mail, call and write their Council member, Congressman Higgins and our two Federal senators Clinton and Schumer to express your outrage regarding the handling of this matter and your desire for a rapid conclusion.

For back ground information, please read this.

Remember, we can't even properly secure the Woodlawn Row Houses, repair the Wollenberg Grain Elevator, or deal effectively with the H. H. Richardson complex on Elmwood Avenue. How, tell me are we going to ever develop a "City of Buffalo Owned" 700 acre complex of buildings 40 miles away?

This is the organization Friends of JN Adam that Cindy Lauer is referring to in her letter. Go ahead check it out and see who got the award...you are not going to believe it.

The solution is simple: Sell the property to Tom Trathen and put it back on the tax rolls for the people of Perrysburg, NY. It's really that simple.

7/05/2005

Woodlawn Row Houses....Update

Mowing the lawn, picking up debris and checking the building on a regular basis and re-boarding the back windows on occasion...

Just a reminder, this building is a local-landmark that is owned by the City of Buffalo and sits directly across from the the future home of Performing Arts High School. A $32 million renovation is scheduled for this new project and just down the street at Utica & Jefferson $4 million is being spent for a new state of the art Erie County Library.

Read about my initiative to call attention to the dynamic of "demolition by neglect" here in the City of Buffalo and my attempt to save this part of Buffalo's architectural heritage. It's why I started this blog.

"Flipping" churches...only in Buffalo!

In response to my previous post regarding the diocesen dis-investment plans, I received this comment from one of the most astute critics of Buffalo's mis-management and decline, Dick Kern.

Thanks for taking up my longtime concern about Catholic abuse of power & use of govt funds to dispose of surplus property. . . now proposing to build more "new" while abandoning "old. Go look at the new Catholic church on the site of the old German Orphanage at Dodge & Northampton, surrounded by "Catholic" blight, which they sequentially dumped to corrupt Mark Trammell, son of corrupt City Court Judge Wilbur Trammell, who dumped to the city of Hazelton as bum security for a HUD loan, then to Wizig of Houston, now to CAO. All while keeping the "shovel ready" center of the parcel for their own cheap use.

This is the McChurch the diocese built literally in the shadow of their former property on Dodge Street, which I wrote about last month. And I can only imagine that the diocesen real-estate office must be sharing resources with the US Postal Service to get building to look like this.

click to enlarge

While most eyes focus on the downtown core and maintain that resources should be made available for the west-side and that triage is what's needed most to manage a city in decline, let's remember that the catholic church just declared this place closed. It's located right on Elmwood, right around the corner from Betty's. This place used to be known as Immaculate Conception. Looks like the stained glass has already been removed.

click to enlarge

Other churches and schools will be closing, soon. Get ready...remember Dodge Street! I guess this "flipping" practice has been going on for some time.

Related Post: Shrinking City...Shirking Church

7/03/2005

While Walking Down Jefferson Ave...follow-up

Early last month I was walking down Jefferson Avenue checking out construction developments on the new library. I quickly noticed these new benches that Tops Market placed at various locations along Jefferson. In this post I didn't think much of the locations and actually thought they were placed way too close to the street.

Well it looks like someone else thought this bench was way too close...check out the skid marks!

Wanna bet the replacement bench is located the same three feet from the street?

WTF do I know...

Last month we learned that Bishop Kmiec was preparing to "rightsize" the diocese with regards to its realestate. Immaculate Conception located at Edward & Elmwood was the first closing in a planned and systematic response to Buffalo's shrinking population.

A week later we learned that people are not going to church as much as they used to. See this capsule history. Parishes buildings and schools throught out Buffalo are going to be closed. Here's the article , archived from the Buffalo News.

I've written about what has happened in the past when the church leaves buildings behind. And if past performance is any guide to what's going to happen down the line, be prepared for additional bad management of local architectural treasures.

This week I re-visited the church at 768 Broadway that will be demolished later next week. I had also heard about the plans to build a new catholic church on the corner of Eagle and Hickory that were announced.

I know it's totally "politically in-correct" and some might consider it bordering on the profain...but I've often wondered how an organization with such a terrible record of managing old buildings might even be considered for a building permit for new construction. I mean we haven't even begun to hear from Bishop Kmiec the extent to which the Catholic Church will be abandoning property here in the city. And he just told us that the reason why Immaculate Conception must close is that the diocese can not afford to make $800,000 worth of repairs.

Meanwhile I always wanted to take a snap of this house at 79 Oakland Place here in the city. It's where Bishop Kmiec lives. The city assesses the property at a cool $916,000... with a spacious 11,000 sf interior. I just checked and none of the other properties on Oakland come even close to matching this place in size or assesment.

Here's the spin on Diocesen dis-investment plan for the city of Buffalo. Check it out. You might know one of the 25 committee members scheduling the closing and dis-investment.

"We'll have to be transparent, to make people feel as if we're not concocting something behind their back," the bishop said.

So, what do I know? Why not start by insisting that Bishop Kmiec devise a viable plan for the sale of its property. Instead of letting it sit and enter the initial phases of "demoltion by neglect" or flipping it to some un-suspecting inter-city congregation let's hold the church accountable this time as it prepares to continue dis-investing from the city of Buffalo.

Maybe I'm alone in my criticism here but couldn't a strong case be made that instead of building another brand new church in the city's east side, Bishop Kmiec should be convinced of the merits of rennovating one of the abandoned churches...three candidates come to mind.

click to enlarge

But then again, what do I know?

Kelo...comes to WNY

While the Buffalo Blogosphere is lighting up with various vociferous, vacuous and on occaision a valid review of what one of the latest Supreme Court rulings mean for the home-owners, planners and developers, seems like the good folks in the the Cedargrove Heights area of Cheektowaga are preparing to do battle. (see map)

Barbara Dunn, Cedargrove Heights Homeowner - Letter to the Editor ht..Craig

Stan & Barbara Dunn

Alan Bedenko aka BuffaloPundit has this to say about Kelo. "So: if you disagree with Kelo, I’m not the guy you want to be arguing with. Because I really really don’t care about it."

The Buyouts Versus the Holdouts New York Times article, June 30th (may require one time sign-up)

Craig over at America's North Coast has this to say about eminent domain abuse.

So, I thought once upon a time the Democrats were all in favor of the little guy. Where are they now for Susette Kelo in New London and for Barbara Dunn in Cheektowaga? Something tells me that Jim Ostrowski and Free Buffalo will be all over this case like real soon.

New Buffalo Post Office Buildings...

When news came that the 14209 Post Office was going to re-locate, I e-mailed and and encouraged everyone I knew who might have an interest in the future relocation to attend the first community meeting last month. Here's that stuff, all archived and ready to go...

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to cruise around and check out what the Post Office has been doing with new buildings in Buffalo. Here's what I found.

All of the new post office buildings have that familiar suburban style look and feel, huge set-back from the street and nice parking lots in front. The po behind city hall is sort of isolated, totally truck friendly with an attached parking lot. It was the only one built with a bike rack sort of sprinkled in as an afterthought.

If the past 10 years of "PO" construction is any precedent for the new 14209 building, it looks like we have our work cut out for us as we lead our elected and annointed to make the right decisions for a new urban post office that is pedestrian friendly and designed properly to fit the urban streetscape.

When I met with Allita Steward, from Strategic Planning, last week, she promised to let me know when the next round of publice hearings will be held.

A history lesson from Buffalo's past...

The Old Post Office was the subject of controversy before it was even built. The 1893 Tarnsey Act required architectural competitions for major federal buildings. The Buffalo post office was the first major government building to occur after the act became law. See the whole story.