05/11/07 06:06 - 74ºF - ID#39242

NIMBY'S!!!!!

Tying into my last post, I get downright FURIOUS when I read about people trying to stop development in Buffalo/Erie County. Already, a group has filed a petition and hired a lawyer to prevent the 22-story Gates Circle Condominiums from being built. Again, people, where do you think you live?! You're the reason the city has lost over 50% of it's population and is in such a downward spiral!! Developers are coming here with great projects we should feel very fortunate for and there's always some group of idiots to chase them away like the hotel on Elmwood!!!

jason writes at 08:36:18 05/14/07 - Comment #18431: As much as I don't like the suburbanization of Buffalo, I looked at the plan and I don't see why not. I mean, we do have upscale stores for them to shop in. The only thing I always say to Josh about this kind of thing is "Where are these people who can afford $400k-$2M condos going to work?"

james writes at 09:48:47 05/11/07 - Comment #18378: Oh ya, there are angry people in this town who will fight any sort of progress tooth and nail. The restaurant that sits where the oh so very expensive condo is going was built in the 70's.

Historical arguments aside, there seems to be a culture in this city that the way it was should be the way it should be.

For example, (e:paul) thinks central terminal should be brought down. But people speak of how we can turn it into... well.. something.

Or people who don't want the skyway to come down because it is part of our heritage.

Buffalo, you have so many wonderful beautiful old homes. But make a little room for some new development or there will be no development and we can just wait until lake erie swallows us.

tiburon1724 writes at 07:46:31 05/11/07 - Comment #18377: peter, good point about people maybe having to sacrifice for the greater good of the city. I can understand people being a bit apprehensive about certain development, such as say a Super Wal-Mart going in right behind your house. In Florida the only development that ever got fought was Super Wal-Mart. The idiots there don't even freak out like they do here over development.

But large scale development is what you get when you live in a CITY in my opinion. If you don't want possible development like the Gates Circle tower, move to the suburbs. What if the people of New York City had the Buffalo NIMBY mentality? I supported the Elmwood Hotel because it wouldn't have been like it's a Days Inn or Motel 6 bringing in the trash, it was going to be a more upscale, small hotel bringing in civilized people with money who would discover this great part of Buffalo and return home telling their family and friends all about it. Oh well. As for the politicians, yes it's frustrating but ultimately it's the people of a city who run and determine the fate of the city, not the politicians - standing around and waiting for them to "fix" Buffalo won't solve anything. We all need to do our part and take it on as our responsibility.

tiburon1724 writes at 07:40:58 05/11/07 - Comment #18376: carolinian -- very true, the taxes here are definitely out of whack with housing values, especially in the suburbs. A big reason I'm not in a huge rush to stop renting. Why pay for problems like broken appliances when I can get it fixed for free and I'm paying the same as I would for a mortgage? Sure, a house would be a big jump in living space, but then I'll be paying a fortune to heat the place.

carolinian writes at 07:30:06 05/11/07 - Comment #18375: Cheap land is great, but kind of pointless when property taxes don't really scale well with housing prices. I've seen on real estate sites houses going for $50000 with an estimated $2500-3000 a year in property tax. It doesn't matter how cheap housing is if your taxes are more than your mortgage. Especially true if you might wind up selling the house for the same price you bought it at.

metalpeter writes at 06:32:39 05/11/07 - Comment #18374: The hotel on Elmwood may be a bad example. But I do agree with you. The one advantage Buffalo has is that the the land is cheap compaired to other cities and so that can lead to groth. But if I was in the position to build a building I wouldn't come to Buffalo. The reason is that nimbyism. I do understand that residents don't want historic building brought down, and I do agree with that. I do understand that people who live where there are all homes may not want some huge looming building in there neihboorhood looming over them. I do understand that there have been some (in hindsight) some bad moves in Buffalo's history. Oh like say putting a highway through the parks. I don't remeber it but Humbolt and delaware park used to be all one park, I think before I was born. If it was all connected that could be the best city park on the east coast. I'm not saying it would be but it would be awesome. However that all being said there are a lot of people in this town who want Buffalo to develop and grow but not where they live. That is what Downtown or the waterfront is for. But what these people don't seem to understand is that if you fight things in your neighboorhood then it makes it hard for businesses to come to buffalo so then no one bothers and nothing ever happens. This city is to political a good example is that there still is no new peace bridge. Some of this comes from the politicans fucking things up so the people try to do things the right way. But the problem is that they don't agree so nothing happens. Yes there are projects that are bad and maybe don't fit the neighboorhood and those I can understand if people don't want them there. But I think that most of the time it is that they just don't want it in there neck of the woods. Sometimes people need to sacrifice a little bit so that we get more cool stuff in buffalo.

Permalink: NIMBY_S_.html
Words: 98
Location: Buffalo, NY

05/11/07 05:57 - 74ºF - ID#39241

Work & Tourists

So I'm currently working downtown, which has been a very interesting experience. I deal with businessmen/women, homeless, the literally insane and mentally challenged, welfare freeloaders.....basically every type of person imaginable. For lunch I've been shooting over to the Greenhouse Food Court at Main Place Mall, encouraged by the throngs of people there getting food but dissapointed by the 6 or 7 stores in the building, only one of which is a normal mall tenant (Foot Locker). I love looking over and seeing City Hall in all it's glory, nut shudder as I look at the boarded up buildings.

Twice this week while working my first week in Buffalo, I have been approached by tourists who couldn't understand what was wrong. One was a pair of European tourists and the other were two women from Pennsylvania. The Europeans asked if there was a curfew because everything was closed and everyone seemed to be vacating the streets. The other two asked where the stores were and said how depressing it is downtown, saying "this could be such a cool place," specifically referencing Main St. I was working and couldn't spend the amount of time I'd have liked to with either group, but I mentioned Chippewa St. and Elmwood Village as places to head towards. The couple from Pennsylvania asked if anything was planned to reverse the fortunes of downtown and I quickly mentioned Bass Pro, returniing traffic to Main St., the waterfront redevelopment, etc.

I found this personally to be very embarrassing to myself and to the city. These people will very possibly leave with the negative stereotype of Buffalo in their heads and spread it - "we've been to Buffalo, it's all true, depressing and run down!" I know downtown has some newer buildings and in the past decade has made a pretty good swing in the right direction, but clearly more needs to be done fast. And people fighting and arguing about Bass Pro, a Casino, or any other development downtown is only further damaging our city's future. We're not exactly in the position to be picking and choosing what comes to our city. It's not like there's a shortage of abandoned buildings and locales for businesses. I understand the need to preserve the city's historic buildings, but MANY of them are in such a state of disrepair they need to go. The others can be retrofitted, getting an update while still maintaining it's historic shell and significance.

To end my rant, Buffalo needs to do more to reach out to our tourists because they ARE here even though we think they aren't!!!!

Permalink: Work_amp_Tourists.html
Words: 433
Location: Buffalo, NY

05/06/07 08:46 - 54ºF - ID#39186

I have arrived!

Finally got into WNY on Wednesday, start work tomorrow (Mon). So far I definitely feel I've made the right decision. Already feel much happier in WNY.