fix buffalo today, archive

Michele Johnson is doing what we used to expect of city and church officals. Last weekend while waking through parts of the Fillmore district I was in stunned disbelief. I didn't think it could get any worse than it was a few years ago.
This is the house located at 242 Koons Avenue that Michele & co. were working on Saturday afternoon. It's located 50 feet away from the entrance to the recently re-novated Emerson High School. It's owned by Hamilton and Lidia Woods of Redwood City California. Housing Court Judge Nowak has issued warrants for their arrest. Graffiti gone....front door secured


And one street over from Goodyear Avenue on Titus Street I found these two houses. One wide open.
Private out-of-state owners are not the only owners leaving their property in complete distress.

Seems like the church is in on the "let's pretend the neighborhood residents don't matter game," too. These houses of worship are just a few blocks away from the new Emerson High School.

Well what about the city of Buffalo? Glad you asked. Seems like the Fillmore District is home to another piece of Buffalo's neglected architectural legacy, The Wollenberg Grain Elevator. Read about it and you'll see why I'm a huge advocate of the Perrysburg - Trathen deal. The city simply can no longer manage it's own architectural heritage. My initiative to save and preserve the Woodlawn Row Houses, a city owned "local-landmark" is another reason. Too many distractions close to home. Perrysburg knows how to handle its own business.
I think Michele could have used some more help this morning from our elected and anointed. Oh, that's right they were propbably busy preparing depositions and legal action against New York State Dormitory Authority.

Frequent readers here will quickly understand that our Council President David Franczyk seems more concerned with what is happening in Perrysburg, NY with the pending sale of the former JN Adam site than his very own backyard at 133 Goodyear Avenue.

Meanwhile, Michele knows what to do and is doing it. Just like Perrysburg Supervisor Myrton Sprague wants to do.

She is calling attention to what happens when our tax base has been whittled to the bone by useless local politicians (some of their staff read this blog) and has described how out-of-state investors maximize real estate deductions by gobbling up and shitting out the last remaining structures on long destitute stretches of our city streets. It's easy picking for these vultures. The tax code allows and encourages these sorts of deductions.

"Flipping" isn't new. I rarely meet people who never consider what the future re-sale value of their house might be as they are purchasing it and thinking, what happens if I have to move etc... Ebay and a rapidly growing number of other on-line groups simply make the process more efficient. The wider on-line audience means quicker turn over or "Flip" if that's your objective with your latest purchase.

The same on-line vultures rarely circle prosperous neighborhoods. They are pushed away from 14222. All that's needed is a phone call in "better" neighborhoods for just about any action plan for neighborhood preservation. In other words, the stablizing and positive socializing impact of home-ownership prevents the vultures from swooping in for a "flip."

Flipping houses on Ebay is not the problem. It's a symptom of a deeper problem. As I wrote last week, asking Eliot Spitzer, NYS Attornery General, to enjoin Ebay from realestate transactions in certain neighborhoods won't stop the bleeding. It's a band-aid approach to problem solving. It will lead the way to the taxation of on-line commerce. Ask yourself, why does Ebay "flipping" only happen in neighborhoods with the highest concentration of other failed social and urban policies.

Deep down Harvey Garrett and Michele Johnson know that their separate initiatives, one on the West side and her fledling organization deep on the East side are symbolic of a deeper movement and distrust.

People that we have elected and re-elected presented us with decades of failed policies. We are only know realizing that they never had our best interests at heart.