today was quite interesting. To be honest, I knew almost nothing about the neighborhood before today. It is located directly next to the Peace Bridge. You probably see it everytime you go to Canada. It has been and is in serious danger of demolition via eminent domain because the government wanted to expand the Peace Bridge truck plaza to be like 5 football fields big.Its kind of sad how the Peace Bridge Authority has purchased properties along Busti and just let them decay. The whole neighborhood was kind of decaying because for years no one knew what the fate of their houses would be. I mean who wants to invest in home improvment like roofs, paint, etc when you don't know if your home is going to be demolished any day now.
The really interesting part was learning about the major health effects from idoling diesel trucks on the bridge, even at its current size. Apparently, studies show the air is toxic. The one woman we visited was just recovering from breast cancer, she said she was one of 9 out 15 women on her block that had breast cancer and they blame the epidemic on the toxicity. Apparently, all of her kids had asthma too. Here is a PDF with findings and info about the situation
I also ripped the PDF here ::READ PDF::
While on the tour we also joined Preservation Buffalo Niagara
as a family and bought ticket for the upcoming Lincoln Parkway tour this week. Family membership is $50. The tickets for the tour were so expensive ($45/per) but I figure it is a once in a lifetime chance to see the fanciest houses in the entire city and the money is going to the preservation group.Well, here are some pictures. I couldn't believe I took 129 of them. It was hard to decide which to post.
These are examples of the boarded up houses owned by the Peace Bridge Authority.
While there were a lot of awesome houses with really intersting and amazing woodwork, one of my favorite was the home of local artist Julian Montague
I really enjoyed both the house and his very interesting graphic design.The blond colored wood was so nice looking and the windows were amazing though the house needed a lot of work. It made me really appreciate how well the people that lived in our house throughout its lifetime, really took care of it.
Another interesting find was this. A women was excavating a wall in her home and found a beautiful pocket door with a brick wall behind it. On the other side, a previous owner had building a modern 70s swank lounge room. Its so weird to see it that way. I would have to knock the brick down althought I kind of like the look of that room on the other side.
One of my favorite parts was the stairwell of this house. Theo outside did not match the inside at all to me. I mean I like the outside but I would not have expected the inside it had. The stairwell was one of the nicest I have seen. I wish my stairs wraped around like that.
The last house we saw was the gigantic mansion originally owned by one of the Jewett's. The house looked so amazing, especially the leaded glass on the front door, but the amount of work it required actually made me feel sick and I don't even own it. Almost all of the original woodwork had been painted over and the main staircase and much of the original design had been removed or remudled beyond recognition. I don't evny the people who live there and are trying to restore it.
In Terms of all the Peace Bridge stuff I think that was why Ted's closed... They didn't know what land was going to be used or if people to get there so that is what ultimately did it.... What got weird was after they closed and someone else opened it up and there was part of the grass that was just fenced off I wonder if the government took it.....
In terms of the homes it shouldn't be an issue but Buffalo is so fucked up and so political maybe other cities are two we just don't see the process... There was a business man who owned land on the us and Canada sides who was willing to build his own Private Bridge and they told him no you can't... Now how tolls and customs would have worked I have no idea....
Now in terms of building another plaza that is a dumb Idea just make the peace bridge for trucks only both ways and make the new pretty Bridge for cars only... If you need more room build on top of the water expand the land.... Don't take away houses ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very Nice house pictures... Just an idea you said you took 125 pictures I think you are on G+ maybe if you haven't done so download the pictures and upload them there to an album and then give a link to the pictures.... Just an idea of course there is no story to them but just an idea....
Most interesting post! I don't know if I would ever consider living in such massive old houses. Something about the whole "needs work" aspect seems like such a time and effort drain for nothing much. If you have generations that will take care of it or just people who are under your command to do the maintenance after you are gone, it could be worth it. Otherwise, think of what will happen to all these restored homes if the owner passes on.
I guess everyone's tastes are radically different. I would rather live in a completely empty (except for kitchen stuff) tiny new flat with major access to sunlight (possibly glass ceilings and a couple complete glass walls) any day than an million $$ mansion. Also, something about how one was brought up affects choices. I never actually lived in a big house, never had a lawn etc. So may be I don´t know the value of it all. It's somewhat late now to go back and change experiences. :)