My East Side plan

[Trolls_r_us]

I don't know how feasible something like this is, but I don't see why it wouldn't work...

Of course, for every good idea there is a union or gov't entity making sure it won't happen, so who knows....

But here's the idea (picking up on the "ownership concept")

well, first, elect me mayor. a message board troll hardly has the platform necessary to pull this off....

*************************************************

other than that...

First and foremost, I think that CONCENTRATION is key... What we seem to be doing now in the 716 is doing a little here, a little there, but never effecting any real change ANYWHERE

Instead of doing ONE AREA really well, our efforts are being diltued

So your trollisH mayor would say:

Let's go to an East Side neighborhood that is still "saveable" and
"take it back"

IF this was a war, we'd call it a "shock and awe" strike against blight.

My army of volunteers and concerned citizens, along with sponsors and media, would literally DECEND upon the staked out area, join up with concerned residents, and re-engineer the neighborhood

During and after our work, police patrols would be increased, neighborhood watch groups formed, sidewalks, roads, and streetlights repaired, ect...

We would bascially "retake" an area which would be chosen based upon specific criteria:

1) Is the area "salvageable" meaning are the unoccupied houses in fairly good condition

2) Are the neighbors ALREADY there willing and ready to help take a stand and change their neighborhood for the better? Will my army of do-gooders be welcomed there, or ostracized? Is it a battle worth fighting in THAT neighborhood, or should we go somewhere else where it is? Is everyone there a gangster or drug dealer? That type of thing

3) Are there ALREADY neighborhood groups battling to turn their neighborhoods around? If so, GOOD NEWS, cause your TROLLISH mayor will fight right along side of you... If you promise to give me YOUR time and effort, I'll be right there swinging a hammer with my volunteers and all of you... We'll do it TOGETHER and we will SUCCEED

So, specifics:

First, we get the news and media outlets involved. Send out a press release 2-3 months in advance, probably during the winter, with "takeback" to begin in the spring/summer. This gives time to build hype and recruit volunteers and sponsors. Get a website up and running to document progress and (hopefully) build momentum. Build the PR needed to get people aboard. Publicize that the MAYOR himself with members of his staff will be there working alongside citizens....

Second, pick an area using the criteria above. Keep it to around 100 homes total, hopefully with at least 30-40% owner occupied, and hopefully around 20 or so vacant. Keep in mind, ALL of our redone places will be owner occupied, so it's OK if the neighborhood starts out with only 30-40%..... Through our efforts, we can increase that total to 50-60%

Allow citizens of the east side to submit their neighborhoods for consideration. Work along with citizen groups and planners to find a location where sucess will be VERY likely and make a LARGE difference at the same time....

Once we have "our area" we send out ANOTHER set of press releases, detailing the WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE and WHY's

We then line up sponsors. Find local businesses willing to donate lumber, windows, concrete for sidewalks, ect... We can then fill "slots" so that we can coordiante with willing volunteers when they can donate time and WAHT they can do to help...

And my personal, trollish touch, find somebody (Wegmans' Tops' ect.) willing to donate enough hotdogs and hamburgers to feed the crews... After the frist day of work, there will be a neighborhood BBQ with the mayor of Buffalo and his staff manning the grills! Maybe line up a way to get some music going for the workers during the day....

MAKE SURE THE PRESS is around to see this... a good "feel good story" and ALSO a GREAT PR and merketing tool....

"want to live in this newly re-engineered neighborhood?"

"want to be a PART of Buffalo's turnaround?"

"looking for a safe, friendly neighborhood where you KNOW your neighbors are working for the same goal?"

Then come join (insert name of neighborhood here)

Work with local lenders to secure financing, and keep these homes affordable...

If they are already a burden on the city anyways, let's sell them for 20-30K a pop, and hopefully come somewhat close to breaking even.... let the federal HUD monies and redevelopment budget cover the rest....

A decent sized house which is structurally sound, in a safe, liveable neighborhood, for under 30K?!

We could be onto something.....

IF these houses sell out, that adds to our tax base and SUBTRACTS from the properties we need to take care of

Since we already do alot of this kind of work, let's just take ONE YEAr and use our HUD monies, infill resources, and efforts, and FOCUS them in one place where we can acutally realize some benefits from them...

then, pick another neighborhood the next year, ect....

I don't think this is all "pie in the sky" thinking either....

Buffalo is full of hard working good people who are STARVING for a leader to show them the way, and give them a CHANCE....

My experience has been, when you show people a plan that CAN work, and say "you can have all this, all you gotta do is put in the effort" they are MORe than willing to help out and work to better themselves

So who is aboard the Troll for mayor campaign?

[ESP]

I fully agree that one neighborhood has to be tackled at a time. RESIDENT homeowners, who are willing to stay and help the rebirth of their neighborhood should be given incentives. Maybe a grant to get their house sided... a delivery of flowers to be planted on their lawn... New cement sidewalks... etc. etc. This makes the home much more comfortable and the homeowner can take pride in where they live.

Absentee landlords have to maintain landlord/tenant/neighborhood relationships to be able to continue to rent out their houses. They too must be willing to fix up their properties to suit the newer, higher standard of the neighborhood. If not, move on buddy.

Media definitely needs to be involved. Residents never want to be seen as being unsupportive, neither do local businesses.

Neighborhood stores which are prime hangouts for many of the area gangs have to be cleaned up or closed up.

Lots need to be turned into playgrounds where our kids can play basketball and baseball, swing on the swings or cool down in a sprinkler. I'm sick of basketball hoops in the street, but I feel sorry for the kids who have no place to go. Even with indoor gymnasiums available at community centers, kids do NOT want to be indoors during the summer any more than they have to be.

There's so much that can be done with the right people getting this organized and the right people putting the pieces together. The rest will eventually fill in, especially with the media hovering

There are alot of good suggestions here. With the right amount of people with the right kinds of attitudes, the options are unlimited.

[LaNdReW]

What worries me is that you would get absentee landlords taking advantage of the money being sunk into the area. So, what you would have is the gov't helping the have-mores.

Troll, Kinda follows the line of thinking I expressed in the "Ownership" thread.

Actually, I came up with my idea after going to florida and looking at all the gated communities. Expensive houses in one area, basically fenced off while there are more modest houses even crappy ones right outside the gate.

Like you said, Partition off one neighborhood, name it, make it a community, maybe with dues and a board made up of local citizens. (yeesh, more gov't)
Carry it one step further, get credit from the city, and maintain the areas yourself..plowing etc.

ideas, ideas.