10/11/2005

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.
93 Riley - Masiello Legacy! Historical Row
click to enlarge
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
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Artspace ArchiveAnnals of NeglectBAVPAWhere is Perrysburg?Broken Promises...
Writing the CityWoodlawn Row HousesTour dé Neglect - 2006faq

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

each one of those demol;itions is a piece of Buffalo's future being flushed down the toilet. Too bad people do not ralaize the value of these unique old houses and neighborhoods.