Buffalo Sinking Homes

[Ragin]

Updated: 5/31/2007 4:38:27 PM

"We've seen the progressive decline in the front end of our house-slowly sloping off to the right."

That's Cheryl Sperling talking about the front of her home on Weyand Street in Buffalo. 2 On Your Side noticed it's especially apparent from the upstairs porch that slopes down.

And when she takes us inside to the basement...

Cheryl Sperling, Weyand St. Resident: "There's a tremendous drop off. This was all level at one point in time."

Other nighbors on Weyand tell us their homes art sinking as well.

Arlene Miller, Weyand St. Resident: "It's going down, down, down. Everybody's complaining about their houses being crooked."

Tom Espinoza says he's spent thousands on a new foundation.

Tom Espinoza, Weyand St. Resident: "It's still not all that great. You still have cracks all throughout. So it's gotta be something undermined."


Neighbors say the sink holes open on their street convince them there's a problem underground and tell us the city has been filling in others with blacktop on a regular basis.

And they claim there's at least 13 homes that lean in either direction.

Cheryl Sperling; "I really think there's something going on with the water or movement of soil underneath our homes."

Buffalo's Acting Public Works Commissioner acknowledges there may be some underground problems since the sewer and water mains here date back to 1900.

Mike Igoe: "What is the city going to do for the neighborhood?"

Dan Kreuz, Acting Buffalo Public Works Commissioner: "The waterline is on a capital improvement list. I don't think it will be done this year but it will be done in the next year or two."

Right now the city promises the sewer authority will be running cameras through the pipes to investigate what's going on underground. And the city will make its decisions from there.

http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_articl...?storyid=48555

[Linda_D]

Weyand Street was platted prior to 1894 (Buffalo City Atlas 1894) but was actually developed some time after that, most likely before 1930. Moreover, it's located very close to the meandering Cazenovia Creek, which might or might not have something to do with the "sinking" homes problem. If this is not a sewer or water line issue then it's unlikely that the city has any responsibility to do much since these home are mostly 75+ years old or more.