Lately I have read a bunch of interesting articles but I can't talk about them all and give links to them all. So I will briefly mention them (the ones I remember). I think the article I have below is the most interesting one. I think it brings up a good question. Is preservation a good thing. I understand that there are historic bulidings that have a lot of history and should be kept. But what about new buildings that could add revenue for the city and make sense for Buffalo to move ahead in time. Some people belive that preservationsists keep companies from moving to buffalo by not allowing new buildings to replace old ones I don't agree with that but it is interesting to read.

I read two articles in todays Buffalo News about The Silos and the Casino. Apprently the Sencas have had plans made up for the new Casino that include knocking them down and Keeping them and working them into there plans. I think the fact that they at least are considering keeping them may be a good sign who knows what will happen there are still legal battles going on. The other article was about those legal battles and that was interesting. It was about how cheap the indains got the land and that if they got more land then they needed for the casino that it could violate the state compact with them.

I Have read about a couple of possible constrution projects. One was about the New Burchfield Penny Center. They make it sound as if it is a sure thing. I guess one complaint is that there wasn't much community invovlement in it and it isn't predestian friendly. The other article was about how the person who owns the buildings on Elmwood near forest where Skunk Tail Glass, Mondo video and a few other places wants to turn that area into a Hotel with underground and ground level parking and shops. They didn't say if all those houses would come down or if they would be built into it. I assume that they would be torn down. I guess calling this post Changing Buffalo isn't really correct yet because none of these projects has started officaly yet. For example Niagara Falls has supposed to have gotten I'm guessing about 30 differant big time devolpments that never happend.

In sports local boy Travis Meyer from the Meyer Brothers family didn't medal in the olympics. That is to bad. I was hoping he would. There is a real nice article about him in the paper. When I have more time I want to talk about the Google and Yahoo issue of helping China Sensor there web use there are a lot of issues there to be covered from the few articles I have read about it, but I want to hear some thoughts on TV about it also before I chim in. I want to know all my facts before I talk about it with the computer savy people on this site.





FOCUS: PRESERVATIONISTS
Preserving or obstructing?

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Saving historic buildings is a fierce passion for some, but others feel an 'everything must be saved' philosophy is hindering Buffalo's growth

By MARK SOMMER
News Staff Reporter
2/16/2006



The historic value of the H-O Oats grain elevator has been a subject of debate, with preservationists touting the tourism potential of elevators near the Erie Canal terminus.





Preservationists in Buffalo can be found in the trenches, trying to stop 19th century buildings from being torn down, or saving hulking grain elevators from meeting the wrecking ball.
But not everyone applauds such efforts.

From average citizens to developers, some local people see preservationists as obstructionists who want to save every blighted building in an aging city. They do so, critics charge, without regard for feasible reuse, prospects for restoration funds or how their actions discourage investment in the city.

"There is definitely a school of thought - and quite a large contingent of people - who very openly take the position that everything must be saved. I don't think that helps the city in terms of moving forward," said Richard C. Baer, a member of the Buffalo Preservation Board, the city agency that considers changes to historic structures.

"I think preservationists are choking the city with the things they are doing," said Ernestine Aberle, a Buffalo native who lives in Clarence and opposes spending $76.5 million to restore the historic H.H. Richardson complex.

"I'm all for preserving things from the past, whether it be family customs or buildings, but it can get way off balance."

Critics point to several buildings they believe preservationists have gone overboard to save: the Vernor Building in the Theater District, the Balcom/Chandler House on Niagara Square and a 19th century building next to Pano's restaurant on Elmwood Avenue.

Preservationists are hardly a monolith. Some focus on buildings with clear historical value, such as the Richardson complex, while others are concerned about maintaining the historic integrity of neighborhoods that include structures less highly regarded.

But all believe the city's future can be found, in part, in its past.

"Preservationists have visited other cities and know that quality economic revitalization occurs when the fabric of the built environment is invested in, rather than demolished in the name of progress and easy profits for developers," said Dennis Galucki, executive director of the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier.





The Pano's battle

A recent battleground between preservationists and those who think they go too far is the building next door to Pano's, a popular Elmwood Avenue restaurant. The 1893 structure is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

Restaurant owner Panagiotis Georgiadis applied for a demolition permit in September 2004 to tear down the building. He wanted to replace it with a dining patio and more parking, and later offered to incorporate design elements from the building.

Preservationists insisted that the building was essential to the Elmwood Avenue streetscape. They pressed their case with picket lines and at public hearings, attracting the support of some politicians.

Georgiadis said his supporters voted with their feet, boosting his business during that time to all-time heights.

The case is in the courts, but the experience, Georgiadis said, landed him in the hospital.

"I got a bleeding ulcer, and since then, I don't care about this house anymore, or this city. I just go to work every day. I think [preservationists] are parasites," he said.

Baer, the Preservation Board member, is another critic.

"I think of those of us on the Preservation Board as being pragmatists," said Baer, who works as a construction consultant in Angola.

Baer said he is sympathetic to developers because he recognizes obstacles and delays can make redevelopment of historic buildings untenable.

"They just drag out beyond the developer's patience or ability to financially make it work," Baer said.

Tim Tielman of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Architecture and Culture, can recite dozens of downtown buildings torn down through the years, most prominently, Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building in 1950.

Tielman blames the city's failure to penalize irresponsible owners and its lack of interest in citizen concerns for forcing preservationists into action.

"These complaints about "preservationists' are not about preservation. They're about power," Tielman said.

"For 50 years, the decisions about the future of our city and how our money was spent was the exclusive province of the business and political elite," he said. "Today, on the margins, citizens are making themselves heard. Hooray for them."

Preservationists also point to many run-down buildings that were nearly demolished in recent years and are now success stories.

Recent examples include: the 1863 George Squier mansion on Main Street, now home to Literacy Volunteers of Buffalo & Erie County; the former Holling Press on Washington Street, which opened last year as mixed-income housing; and The Church, the former Asbury Delaware United Methodist Church, at Delaware Avenue and Tupper Street, now reborn as an art gallery and, soon, a performance hall.

That's why Baer also said a debt is owed to activists like Tielman.

"I've always said I couldn't be a Tim [Tielman], but I think of the Erie Canal Harbor and [buildings being rehabbed at] Main and Virginia, and I'm sure many more that would probably be gone if he hadn't jumped into the fray, as mad as it makes developers," Baer said.





Developers aren't fans

Not surprisingly, many developers see preservationists as impediments to progress.

"There are a lot of projects people would like to see saved that are not saveable and may ultimately be a hindrance to development," said Benjamin Obletz, president of First Amherst Development.

The company owns Lofts at Elk Terminal near the Cobblestone District and is restoring the row of mostly 19th century buildings at Virginia and Main streets.

Carl Paladino, chief executive of Ellicott Development Co., who was vilified by preservationists for demolishing the Harbor Inn in 2003, is more blunt.

"I think the preservation effort is tempered by the Preservation Board. Beyond them, you have a bunch of extremists who have no appreciation whatsoever of how to help our city move into the 21st century," said Paladino, who has converted two historic downtown buildings into housing and is planning others.

The fate of the H-O Oats grain elevator, on Seneca Nation of Indians land near the Cobblestone District, has stirred perhaps the most recent controversy. Preservationists have promoted tourism potential in the collection of grain elevators near the historic terminus of the Erie Canal and suggested the H-O Oats silos could be turned into a hotel.

Paladino, who sold the grain elevator to the Senecas in October, recommended that the silos be used for signs, and was told the idea would be considered.

But he fails to understand what preservationists see in them.

"We have enough grain elevators to show the next few generations," said Paladino. "There's nothing particularly unique about the H-O grain elevator compared to the 17 other ones in town."


e-mail: msommer@buffnews.com

I hope that everyone has a great valentines day. If that means running your self a bath and lighting 1,000 candles after you give your self 5 orgasims or if it taking the hunny out to dinner and giving them a great gift or if it buying a cute bear in a balloon and seting the Bear on fire then stabing it through the Hart with a spike. However you deal with the holiday I hope everyone enjoys it. It has never been a holiday I really cared for. Why should you treat someone special on a certain day and be oblogated to just do special things for them all the time when you feal like it, not because it is a holiday. I not sure whare the meaning of valentines day is or what it is, but what ever it is was lost a long time ago. Ok enough of my rant.


One Anti-Valentines day site you may enjoy



Below is some art work I found on line doing a google search. I think they are preaty cool looking.











Another interesting site.

That reminds me about this really cool lady I knew online. I can't remember how we met exactly. She seemed preaty cool and we got along great. She was having some problems. So I being a Nice guy thought I should send her some roses. I almost did then talked to her on line a few days later. Turned out she hates roses, good thing I didn't send them. Another strange story was a guy at work in a training session mentioned he sent his wife flowers but they put the wrong name on the card. People at her work know him so they had no idea who this other guy was. That must have been very interesting and a little humilating but still funny. Hope eveyone has or had a great day.

That is right today is the eve of that evil holiday Valentines Day (maybe i'm over doing it a bit but oh well). I'm supposed to be going out with the family for desert or something but have no idea what time. I wish I was artistic so I could draw a black heart with some black Roses and maybe like a bloody dagger or something. Then I could post it here.

Onto better things so far I have really been enjoying the Olympics. I look forward to seeing Womens Half Pipe on TV tonight it should be awesome. Granted they don't go as big as the boys but still good stuff. I may have missed the ski jumping. Luge is interesting also along with Bobsleigh.

Here is a concert that I may wind up going to.
There is a third band at this show also whos name I just blanked on.



I know there was something else I wanted to talk about but I can't remember what. Was it the hot ness of all the (e:peep) ladies in the pics. Was it that sleeping on sunday nights is diffacult sometimes. Was it that I still set off those scaners they have by the doors at Walgreens, Tops, Eckard, Rite aid and Target. Was it that I really need to find some great concert to go to. Someone at work is going to see Motley Crue friday that would be awesome.

I woke up this moring and watched the Mens snowboard superpipe this morning it was verry good. I thought I would put up some pics from the web but I didn't want to put up any competition shots that might give away results. Right now Canada should still be playing Russia in Womens hockey and later the Americans play someone I forget who.

Well for somereason I can't up load pics here using firefox or internet explorer it must be something on my end I lost a post earlier to this. The page opens but no media files show up well onto my point. I saw some of the peonig ceromines last night at home at Preal Street Bar and grill. I went there after the Bandits beat the Luberjax it was a great game. Man there where some hoties there. None of them noticed me unless I was in ther way going somewhare. I went there to see a band I saw the night before at cozumel. I belive the name of the band is Mark Wisnick. I knew the guy playing drumbs. On thusday I got to watch the sabres lose it ot but at least they got a point. Back to the olympics I saw a little bit of them live this moring they where good. One good website is cbc.ca/olympics. If you are going to watch them taped on NBC only then you may not want to go there. I will be watching some of the taped coverage but then I need to watch the sabres to, and I have some shows to catch up on that I taped. Plus I have to pick up pictures and put them in an album. I really want to see the freestyle moguls that is fun to watch and maybe some womens hocky not sure what other sports are on. I'm sure there was more I wanted to say but can't think of it. Oh yeah I'm also really looking forward to seeing the snowboarding and mens hockey. If I get more info I may talk about the Gambiling ring that the great one may be invovled in; that may really make for an interesting olympics.