The East Side

[therising]

Biker, I just scanned back to see what ideas you may have had in this post, and the best i could find was:

Originally posted by biker

You're not going to re-engineer the East or West Side. The best the City can hope to do is make it stop getting worse. For the past forty years, it's been getting worse. Just clear out the abandoneds and let the market decide what should be done.

Which may be nothing for a few years.

Your solution is to just wait for things to get better?

And YOU, call MY idea "bone-headed"???

My idea may be far from perfect, but I think it's a lot better than your lack of one.

[biker]

Originally posted by Linda_D

I think that rather than simply auction these properties, the City should look at its foreclosed homes and decide what's the best use of the property given the location, the size and type of the home, and the cost of repair.

Even with the new fees which landlords must pay, the City doesn't have the personnel or time to do these types of inspections/management.

From my own personal experience, here's what the City inspectors are doing to preserve the housing stock.

I was cited for having a garage in poor condition on my property. I didn't have a garage; bad address.

I was cited for having a cracked window in my garage window at one property. The house next door had an abandoned truck in it, so old that a twelve foot tree was growing out of it.

The latest was this June, when I was cited for needing some tuck pointing on one of my step piers. There are six abandoned houses within eyesight on this block.

This City will continue to decline while moron politicians put in more taxes to harass the citizens over chickensh*t stuff while the City implodes.

[biker]

Originally posted by therising
Biker, I just scanned back to see what ideas you may have had in this post, and the best i could find was:




Your solution is to just wait for things to get better?

And YOU, call MY idea "bone-headed"???

My idea may be far from perfect, but I think it's a lot better than your lack of one.

My idea doesn't call for new loans to more deadbeats and doesn't pretend to know which are the mythical, saintly, responsible poor.

I gave you an idea: use your own dough and time.

[biker]

OK the rising

How many low-income loan programs have you administered?

What experience do you have that tells you anything about what's involved.

Do you actually think this hasn't been tried in Buffalo, New York before.

Do you think my idea for clearing out 2,000 abandoned buildings wouldn't be a major step forward?

You must not live near any.

[therising]

Originally posted by biker
OK the rising

How many low-income loan programs have you administered?

What experience do you have that tells you anything about what's involved.

Do you actually think this hasn't been tried in Buffalo, New York before.

Do you think my idea for clearing out 2,000 abandoned buildings wouldn't be a major step forward?

You must not live near any.

First off, I know you're on your way out the door - so we can resume this later.

Anyway, my responses:

How many low-income loan programs have you administered? Withgout getting into too much detail, I was in banking/lending in a previous life. Part of my job entailed working in conjunction with the CPC (Community Preservation Corporation), and the Bank's CRA Officer. It was a thankless task within the company, and no one wanted to be bothered with it (Low-income lending is not much of a income generator, after all), but I enjoyed it. I did NOT administer any low-income loan programs, but I was very involved in CREATING a few.

What experience do you have that tells you anything about what's involved. See above.

Do you actually think this hasn't been tried in Buffalo, New York before. I have no idea. Has it? What were the results?

Do you think my idea for clearing out 2,000 abandoned buildings wouldn't be a major step forward? First off, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, so please let me ask you - What experience do you have in clearing out 2,000 homes?? (It seems we have a new rule, imposed by you, that requires us not to have new ideas unless we have experience in implementing them.)
Having said that, YES, demolishing 2,000 homes would be more productive than doing nothing. I still think my idea of having these homes rehabbed, and occupied by owners is a better solution.

You must not live near any. You must not live near any. Good guess, you're correct. If there was an abandoned house on my block, I would make an attempt to buy it. Are there many abandoned houses in Parkside??

[therising]

Originally posted by biker
OK the rising

How many low-income loan programs have you administered?

What experience do you have that tells you anything about what's involved.

Do you actually think this hasn't been tried in Buffalo, New York before.

Do you think my idea for clearing out 2,000 abandoned buildings wouldn't be a major step forward?

You must not live near any.

First off, I know you're on your way out the door - so we can resume this later.

Anyway, my responses:

How many low-income loan programs have you administered? Withgout getting into too much detail, I was in banking/lending in a previous life. Part of my job entailed working in conjunction with the CPC (Community Preservation Corporation), and the Bank's CRA Officer. It was a thankless task within the company, and no one wanted to be bothered with it (Low-income lending is not much of a income generator, after all), but I enjoyed it. I did NOT administer any low-income loan programs, but I was very involved in CREATING a few.

What experience do you have that tells you anything about what's involved. See above.

Do you actually think this hasn't been tried in Buffalo, New York before. I have no idea. Has it? What were the results?

Do you think my idea for clearing out 2,000 abandoned buildings wouldn't be a major step forward? First off, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, so please let me ask you - What experience do you have in clearing out 2,000 homes?? (It seems we have a new rule, imposed by you, that requires us not to have new ideas unless we have experience in implementing them.)
Having said that, YES, demolishing 2,000 homes would be more productive than doing nothing. I still think my idea of having these homes rehabbed, and occupied by owners is a better solution.

You must not live near any. You must not live near any. Good guess, you're correct. If there was an abandoned house on my block, I would buy it. Are there many abandoned houses in Parkside??

[WNYresident]

Having said that, YES, demolishing 2,000 homes would be more productive than doing nothing. I still think my idea of having these homes rehabbed, and occupied by owners is a better solution.

DOn't you get to a point where the rehab cost outwieghts the value of the home versus building something new?

[therising]

Originally posted by WNYresident
DOn't you get to a point where the rehab cost outwieghts the value of the home versus building something new?

Value of many of these homes "As Is" is probably no more than a few hundred dollars.
Average demolition costs including permits, turning off utilities, asbestos survey and securing the property afterward is $10k/home.
So the demo cost FAR outweighs the value of the property.
If you take that same $10k, put it into repairs, and have OWNERS occupy the homes, valuses will suddenly start to creep up to $20k, $30k, etc.

And yes, I do know that MANY of the homes would require much more than $10k in repairs. So maybe there would be a cut-off. Anything that requires of X amount of dollars gets demolished, anything under X amount of dollars gets donated.

Meanwhile, it's a beautiful day out - I'm outta here for now.

[NoCtUrNaL]

Originally posted by therising

Average demolition costs including permits, turning off utilities, asbestos survey and securing the property afterward is $10k/home.

[Shovel ready]

hahahahhaa.

seriously. How come the city doesn't just pay a few street thugs (with nothing to do anyways) to burn down the abandoneds.
I'm sure they would do it for like $100 bucks or even like an oz. baggie of weed.

The only costs this uhh...conrolled demolition would incur are those mentioned above (the paltry $100 per house), and paying firefighters OT.

[WestCoastPerspective]

Very true!
It may have something to do with asbestos. A few years ago Masiello floated the idea of having the National Guard use their equipment to take down buildings. I don't know if anything came of it. In the 'burbs, I've seen old homes donated to the volunteer firefighters and they burn them down as part of training.

[DT14209]

Trolls...

Great thread...I wish I'd joined it sooner.

I've been documenting and writing about the city's east-side and systemic problems for some time.

You can see some of my work over here at Fix Buffalo Today

A problem that has not been addressed is what to do with city owned property. And for forum folks I've got tons of pics over here City Owned Property

As I've posted here and elsewhere before about city officials such as David Franczyk that seem more interested in other areas than Buffalo. Best example is Perrysburg, NY

I agree with other forum folks regarding treating the east-side like a patient in a cancer ward. The problem is that there is no political will to do so.

And so it goes...

David

Fix Buffalo Today

btw...I run bike trips thru the 'hood on a regular basis following this route If you are interested, let me know.

[Linda_D]

Originally posted by DT14209
Trolls...

Great thread...I wish I'd joined it sooner.

I've been documenting and writing about the city's east-side and systemic problems for some time.

You can see some of my work over here at Fix Buffalo Today

A problem that has not been addressed is what to do with city owned property. And for forum folks I've got tons of pics over here City Owned Property

As I've posted here and elsewhere before about city officials such as David Franczyk that seem more interested in other areas than Buffalo. Best example is Perrysburg, NY

I agree with other forum folks regarding treating the east-side like a patient in a cancer ward. The problem is that there is no political will to do so.

And so it goes...

David

Fix Buffalo Today

btw...I run bike trips thru the 'hood on a regular basis following this route If you are interested, let me know.

DT, I've read in the Gowanda Pennysaver that the Town of Perrysburg is likely to levy taxes on the property if the property issue isn't settled. They've got legal opinions to support them. I don't know if this is part of what the August court case will decide. They want to the taxes to go back to 1994, I think.

The lady who's the "leader" of the group that wants to save the "Perrysburg forest" met with the Perrysburg town board in May or June. I don't know how big her group is (it might be just her and her cat for all anyone knows), but she did admit that she has no real plan for JN Adam -- just the usual vague "conference center" nonsense. She also has no money.

Finally, I have to laugh that this case is being heard by Larry Himelein. I went to school with him at Gowanda Central back in the 1960s (he's older!). Larry's family has been in Gowanda for several generations and his parents (maybe even his grandparents) owned Himelein's Department Store which was a fixture in downtown Gowanda. Since Gowanda is the biggest village in the area and includes parts of the towns of Collins (Erie County), Perrysburg, and Persia (Catt County), Larry knows knows very well what JN Adam meant to the communities in northern Cattaraugus County. He also knows that the "Perrysburg Forest" is just a figment of a handful of city slickers' vivid (and ignorant) imaginations. It will be interesting to see how the City's lawyers make their case for "saving historical JN Adam" to somebody who knows far more about it than they do. In fact, I might take the day off from work and check it out, especially if it's during fair week.

[Trolls_r_us]

I know!

CLOSE IT DOWN!

Just CLOSE the East Side

We CAN'T AFFORD it!

NO NEW TAXES!

[biker]

Troll

You've just won the "most consistent message" award across all the threads.