fix buffalo today, archive

a view from recently demolished 669 Genesee Street

School House Project

0 Comments Published by fixBuffalo on Friday, March 11, 2005 at 8:29 PM.


School House Project - A Preliminary Report
The following is a portion of a larger study that examines the current condition of residential and commercial property that is adjacent to some of the recently renovated Buffalo Public Schools. These findings are not conclusive. Some of the policy changes are still suggestions and do not represent a definative assesment of the problem.
I have spent long hours and a few days in city court, the third floor city hall and Erie county hall chasing down ownership information, inspection and housing court records on 54 abandoned, boarded, derelict and vacant (ABDV) houses surrounding three recently renovated city schools.
I focused on the immediate 1-2 block area around four recently renovated Buffalo Public Schools. Data from the neighborhood around the Emerson School on Sycamore near Walden is forthcoming.

1. School #19
2. Sedita School
3. East High School
4. Emerson High School

Each one of these Buffalo Public Schools was recently renovated under the Joint School Construction Project. Many of these houses will not be inspected for 6-9 months. Many of them do not have a current "housing court" file. Many of them are city owned properties.
My intention is not to trample on anyone's "turf" in the housing activist scene. Many people here such as Michele Johnson and Harvey Garrett are doing extraorinary work on a volunteer basis. I believe and after my assesment, the situation on a macro and city wide level is a whole lot grimmer than I first imagined. This is just a preliminary study limited to the area immediately surrounding three recently renovated city schools. I have every reason to believe the situation is just as rampant and may be even worse in areas somewhat further away from these schools and close to schools that will not be the recipient of funds under the Joint School Construction Project. For example this house located at 212 Best Street, directly across from City Honors represents the blighted conditions surrounding many of our other schools. This case is particularly poignant as it is directly across the street from the "best" high school in the city. Wide open and waiting for something like this...
212 Best Street

click to enlarge
This "study" originated in part because of my growing interest in my own neighborhood in the Masten District. In particular I was concerned that the Woodlawn Row Houses, a local-landmark, and architecturally significant late 19th century builiding is owned by the very entity that is charged with the correcting and improving neighborhoods; the City of Buffalo.

This set of row houses is abandonded, boarded, derelict and vacant and sits 100 feet away from the former Buffalo Traditional High School. This will be the future site of the Buffalo Academy of the Visual & Performings Arts, in 2008. My additional concern is that there appear to be an ever widening disparitiy between the rhetoic from public officials and the reality of the "lived" neighborhood. Here, I am drawing a specific reference to the strong public policy announement that the Masiello administration made in July 2004 regarding the quality of neighborhoods that surround schools renovated under the Joint Schools Contruction Project. This policy is called The Mayor's Livable Communities Initiative and was published by Tim E. Wanamaker, Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Planning in July 2004.

Policy Suggestions

The list of growing concerns regarding how these ABDV properties are being (mis)managed by the people and departments that we have entrusted to remedy the problem, include some of the following findings:

1. The 6-9 month inspection cycle. When there is obviously no intention on the owners part to fix the problems why is the cycle so long. This runs contrary to the policy set forth in the Mayor's Livable Communities Initiative, July 2004.
2. The total lack of enforcement with regards to serving the 100's perhaps as many as 900-1500 outstanding housing court warrants. Capt. Rozansky of the Erie County Sheriff's Dept is responsible for bringing these people to court. I learned this afternoon that one obstacle standing in the way is that the Dept of Inspections does not have the money in their budget to purchase a color ink cartridge to print the necessary paper work to facilitate the legal process.
3. The apparent lack of communication and coordination between Taxation, Housing Court and the Real Estate Office is bordering on the pathetic. For example 390 Vermont had a demo consent order signed by the owner. This relieved him of Housing Court obligations. The city then took possession of the house and sold the house at the City property sale in October 2004. Like 242 Koons Avenue, 390 Vermont sits 50 feet away from a recently renovated school.
4. Despite the policy claims of The Mayor's Livable Communities Initiative which clearly states that ABDV property around schools has top priority and will be strictly monitored on a monthly basis, I found no evidence of such planning, concern or monitoring of these properties. In five cases, my own documentation recently prompted 4 emergency board-ups and in one case at 352 14th Street - city owned since October 2002 - a place on the demo list. Here, the appropriate documentation had been overlooked and no one on the third floor knew it was a city owned property until I brought it to their attention this afternoon.

Additional Material
I will also include two additional sites. The ABDV property around the Emerson School site and here in the Masten neighborhood surrounding the site of the new Performing Arts High School scheduled to open January 2008. This of course includes the "poster child" of ABDV property, the Woodlawn Row Houses. This is an historic local-landmark and owned by the City of Buffalo. It sits 100 feet away from the school's main entrance.

Short Term Policy Recomendations
Eventually I would also like to include a more comprehensive critique regarding how the various agencies, departments and housing court might improve code enforcement. This would help restore a sense of sanity to our neighborhoods. This critique might include the following suggestions:
  1. Pro-active inspections
  2. Use of UB Law School student interns for Inspection and Housing Court research
  3. Integrated policy enhancement between Real Estate, Inspections and Housing Court
  4. Shortened inspection cycle
  5. Publishing the warrants
  6. Enhanced collection procedures for demos
The "broken windows theory" of crime, crime prevention and neighborhood decay was first made popular by James Q. Wilson in 1982. Wilson is often quoted:
  • if the first broken window in a building is not repaired, then people who like breaking windows will assume that no one cares about the building and more windows will be broken. Soon the building will have no windows...
The consequences of having such large number of ABDV property clustered in neighborhoods deserves further study. The primary concerns continue to be:
  1. A criminal safe haven surrounds many of these properties
  2. Negative econmic effects - excellerating rates of dis-investment
  3. Public health and safety
Cities with similar problems experience horrendous events such as this. In the mean time perhaps we should be fortunate that we don't live in Detroit, yet.

I'm left with the unsettled thought that we are now accustomed to living with neighborhoods that have dozens of abandoned, boarded, derilect and vacant properties. This is our reality. Can we expect more from our elected officials?

I am monitoring these houses on a monthly basis. I will have an update in 30 days.
__________________________________________________________________________
Artspace Archive • Annals of Neglect • BAVPA • Where is Perrysburg? • Broken Promises...
Writing the City • Woodlawn Row Houses • Tour dé Neglect - 2006 • faq

0 Responses to “School House Project”

Post a Comment

about fixBuffalo


buildings & issues
contact & intro
main page

fixBuffalo delivered - enter your email address




recent posts

archives

buffalo

other places

    a daily dose
    cascadia scorecard
    city comforts
    cool town studios
    National Trust
    peter gordon's blog
    planning livable communities
    smart city

    Featured blogger at Sustainable Cities Collective

    Locations of visitors to this page
    www.flickr.com
    fixbuffalo's photos More of fixbuffalo's photos



There is a quality even meaner than outright ugliness or disorder, and this meaner quality is the dishonest mask
of pretended order, achieved by ignoring or suppressing the real order that is struggling to exist and to be served.
- Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) from The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961.

The views expressed here are mine and shouldn't be confused with the mission and statements made by others.
This site is best viewed using Firefox. © 2010 fixBuffalo today