Buffalo East Side Development

[Shovel ready]

I've noticed some of your comments over on BuffaloRising, Gabe. A lot of times you're the voice of reason there -- and take a verbal beating for it. I think that Achbek and I have seduced you over to the "common sense" side!!!

I will concede that you and some other posters on this board have beaten some common sense into me

Actually, It was probably me living in NYC for 6 months that helped me get over my love affair with extreme densities. Ofcourse I still love the concept of walkable urban environments, but on a much smaller, sustainable scale than a huge megacity. I think, in time, parts of Buffalo will come around to offering this very well.

Right now i'm most concered with Buffalo being able to stablize itself and become attractive to private investment once again--and most importanly have the ability to be somewhere where people want to live. Smaller projects like this 16 block redevelopment and the proposed Elmwood Hotel are the things that will help bring back Buffalo, NOT some ill-conceived, polit-endorsed silvert bullet project. I wouldn't shed a single tear if Bass Pro decided to pull out at the last moment. That $60 million could be much better spent heping prospective homeowners fix up another derelict 16 blocks on the east or west side. Buffalo will once again have a great Downtown when more of its neighborhoods are economically and spiritually prosperous.

[biker]

I took a look at the planning document someone posted a link to. It mentioned that one of the mosque's properties is on Best St.

Is this the organization that bought the former juveline detention center over on best street?

[Michele J]

Hi Biker, Yes I believe it is.

[WestCoastPerspective]

Hi Michele!

Was the information session held last night? Was that just to explain the process of obtaining city property? I read the planning document and I was impressed. It seems as though the City is actually working harder to get property into the hands of residents who can rehab, maintain or build new housing in the area. Can you keep us up to date on how many vacant homes have been purchased and rehabbed, and the plans for new construction on vacant lots, or new businesses opening? I'm keeping my fingers crossed! If the City/neighborhood redevelopment approach works, they should roll it out into other areas of the city.

[crlachepinochet]

Of course this story couldn't pass without someone raising the "Muslim" flag. I heard some of Bauerle this morning and it was really horrible. There was someone on from the Northeast Intelligence Network, whatever that is. It wasn't an interview as much as a double team.

[Michele J]

The Meeting was a huge success! Not only in relation to the Muslim community but renters in the area looking to become homeowners!
Over 60 people inquired about the 200 properties targeted in this project!( about 60 -70 are vacant lots, Things are really looking up and I am so proud to be a part of it!
Please take a look at todays artvoice article about an idea I had to help lower income families with materials to rehab properties etc....
I want to thank you all again for your support it really is heartwarming
www.artvoice.com ..........article salvaging a dream

[Linda_D]

Of course this story couldn't pass without someone raising the "Muslim" flag. I heard some of Bauerle this morning and it was really horrible. There was someone on from the Northeast Intelligence Network, whatever that is. It wasn't an interview as much as a double team.

Bauerle is a piece of work ... I'll leave it at that because my mama taught me that if you can't say some nice about someone, you ought not to say anything at all!

Anyway, here are two links: one to the Northeast Intelligence Network and the other to a Wikipedia article on it.

NEIN

wiki

All this "secret" stuff that the NEIN "analysts" uncover sounds exactly like the excrement from other nutwings trying to part the gullible from their $$$. Barnum was right.

[300miles]

well... look at it this way. If people are nervous about islamic terrorism, then having an islamic community within the city may actually make it safer. Would an islamic terrorist ever consider nuking Dearborn, MI? I doubt it.

[atotaltotalfan2001]

Of course this story couldn't pass without someone raising the "Muslim" flag. I heard some of Bauerle this morning and it was really horrible. There was someone on from the Northeast Intelligence Network, whatever that is. It wasn't an interview as much as a double team.

I heard that too. He made it sound like the community was a secret terrorist training ground. The day before, someone was claiming a school of some sort there engaged children in terrorist training, such as learning to scale walls. Weird. Very weird.

[300miles]

I heard that too. He made it sound like the community was a secret terrorist training ground. The day before, someone was claiming a school of some sort there engaged children in terrorist training, such as learning to scale walls. Weird. Very weird.

There were news stories about this a couple years ago, but I wasn't following it at the time... I don't know what the details were or where it was (and of course the snews doesn't keep their old stories online so it's difficult to research over the web)

[Michele J]

I spend about 20 hours a week in the Fillmore district and never have seen anything that scares me nor has anyone I know,
Believe me if my seniors in the district saw anything going on we would of heard about it!

[Linda_D]

I spend about 20 hours a week in the Fillmore district and never have seen anything that scares me nor has anyone I know,
Believe me if my seniors in the district saw anything going on we would of heard about it!

The Muslims creating a community of co-religionists around the mosque is an old settlement pattern in Western New York, and in fact, in many parts of the country. In Buffalo, ethnic Catholic parishes grew up around the parish church and school, but out in the hinterlands you find the same pattern; European immigrants brought their religious traditions with them and those traditions have stayed on surprisingly long. In the little town of Clymer, Chautauqua County, the earliest settlers were Dutch and they attracted more Dutch immigrants, and the Dutch Reformed Church is still right in downtown (probably the only one in WNY!). The tiny hamlet of Otto in northern Cattaraugus County was settled by staunch German Lutherans and still has its Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. The German Catholics seemed to have settled further north in Erie County in the town of North Collins along with the Yankee (New Englanders) Congregationalists, and later came Italian Catholics.

Of course, Jamestown has its Swedes and Italians, and most of the churches here are either Catholic or Lutheran (the Lutherans are split into two branches, the Swedes and the Germans)! Then we have the Amish, who don't have actually have churches, but who form congregations that share the old German Anabaptist religion, and there are several branches of those: very conservative Old Order Amish around Cherry Creek and Conewango and more liberal Amish out by Panama.

[Michele J]

Linda,
You hit the nail on the head! It makes you really understand what our immigrant forefathers went through when coming to the USA.

[biker]

The stories circulating a few years ago were about how the neighbors didn't much care for their new "neighbors" in the former Juvie Detention Center. More recent reports say the some of the people living around it are now paid to inform the new owners if any "outsiders" drive through the neighborhood. Resident complaints have ceased.

As far as feeling safer with them in your community, there were also reports a few years ago that many facilities of this type have been bought by mosques (or whatever org) across the country. Places with strong walls and sub-basements. Places that could be good refuges.

I'm not saying spurn the offers these folks make, but be vigilant.

I'm sure anyone publicly expressing concern about the Japanese in 1940 was derided as a kook or a racist.

[Linda_D]

I'm sure anyone publicly expressing concern about the Japanese in 1940 was derided as a kook or a racist.

The Japanese-Americans living the US were no more a threat to the US in WWII than Italian-Americans (both of whom weren't any kind of threat), and significantly less of a threat than some of the German Americans who spied for the Fatherland.

I'm disappointed in you, biker. Sometimes you sound as prejudiced as some of the rednecks down here in the boonies. FYI, many people from the Middle East live in walled compounds, so they may feel more comfortable with that type of architecture. In the US, many Middle Easterners may see the walls of places like the former detention center as protection, especially when they settle in high-crime areas.