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Video rental outlet getting bad reviews
By Brian Meyer NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 05/29/08 6:43 AM
A national video rental chain that is building its first city outlet is refusing to scuttle plans to create a commercial driveway on Sterling Avenue, angering some North Buffalo residents.
Family Video Movie Club has informed some residents and the district Council member that it’s proceeding with original blueprints for its Hertel Avenue store despite concerns that the driveway could cause traffic hazards.
The decision spurred some residents to place signs on the construction site that proclaimed: “Family Video is against families.” The signs were removed Tuesday, presumably by company representatives.
Todd Bezanah, Family Video’s regional director, has not returned calls to comment since the controversy erupted earlier this month. But Delaware Council Member Michael
J. LoCurto said Bezanah informed him that Family Video has reviewed the issue and decided to keep the commercial driveway on Sterling as part of the plan. LoCurto expressed disappointment Wednesday, adding that officials are now looking at other options.
“We’ve talked about a speed bump, or a no-right-turn sign to keep traffic off Sterling,” he said.
Meanwhile, LoCurto remains hopeful city planning officials will launch a traffic study to assess the impact the driveway will have on the neighborhood. He said if the data confirms some residents’ fears that Sterling will be turned into a busy street, officials might revisit the issue.
But city planners previously signed off on Family Video’s blueprints, so the video rental chain is under no obligation to change its design.
Sue Luciano has lived on Sterling for 16 years, and she said she talked with Mayor Byron
W. Brown about her concerns earlier this month. She said the mayor told her that because the Planning Board approved the design last September, there’s not much that can be done at this juncture.
“It just kills me that their name is Family Video, and yet they’re not concerned about family safety,” she said.
bmeyer@buffnews.com
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There has got to be legal options on this matter. Lord knows, every other project, commercial or public, has been scuttled in the courts!
Don't give up Mike- sorry Brown doesn't see it this way.
if we work REALLY HARD, we might be able to stop this store from opening in the city!
After all, they have no regard for families, and I heard they cook little kittens in the back; at least when they aren't busy torturing puppies.
God people are so melodramatic. Move to amherst, buy a fur coat, and hang out with the other bitter old ladies who shake their heads "no" the whole time they talk/whine.
The truth from a troll is still the truth.
You'd almost think their parent company was Wal-Mart!
More of the same old crap.
Buffalo wants more citizens. It should run a national add campaign to encourage all obstructionists to move to the mecca of obstruction.
Some whiners are worried about 'Family Video's' new store obstructing traffic-On HERTEL?!
Are they nuts AND stupid?
-Traffic on Hertel is usually INSANE with trucks constantly blocking the damned street as they unload freight to resturants and other retailers,
-The antique dealers in their big trucks unloading THEIR crap
-The drivers who make up their own parking rules;ESP on weekends with the bars bursting at the seams with the "cool crowd"
Hertel's already bedlam!
The Walgreens drive thru at Hertel and Parkside has a BIG blind spot, but I haven't heard any babys whine about that and Walgreens other exit onto Hertel has a big blind spot too!
Let a bunch of "we have no life and too much time" losers find a new crusade by picketing 'Family Video'
LHardy nailed it: Nation-wide advertising campaign for all bored obstructionists to move to Buffalo, we're they'll be welcome by their useless brothers and sisters!
Coincidence is the word we use when we can't see the levers and pulleys.
Emma Bull
If the protestors would prefer a vacant store front, they should move off of Seneca Street.
Helloooooo! This is what was written:
"A national video rental chain that is building its first city outlet is refusing to scuttle plans to create a commercial driveway on Sterling Avenue, angering some North Buffalo residents.
Planning Board already approved it - end of story. Planning Board meetings are open to the public. These neighbors could have had their say then.Originally Posted by OldTymeRevival
Now, a few schmucks on the block don't want a driveway, and you're saying the project should be "scuttled in the courts?"
Besides, hasn't there always been a driveway from that lot on Sterling? So, what's the difference now?
WE WANT VACANT LOTS!
Maybe they can chant that slogan while they picket outside.
This city is so screwed up it is criminal. It's either the fur coat/leather glove crowd who wants everything to remain as it was in 1950, or people in abject poverty struggling to survive.
Stories like this amaze me. EVERYTHING that a private enterprise tries to do in Buffalo brings protests, lawsuits, bad press, etc. Then these morons wonder why so many people leave and go elsewhere.
If I were a businessman, I'd say "screw it" and go somewhere more friendly to business.
The truth from a troll is still the truth.
trolls--would you like a commercial driveway on the sidestreet where you live, where your children play?
Cars going in and out, trash,(and believe me, I know that people don't respect nice lawns and swept grounds? Especially when the residents had every right to believe it would remain residential?
Speaker - the driveway is already there; always has been (OK, "always" may be an exaggeration.)
Secondly, the plan was already approved by the City.
Thirdly, if I lived next-door to, or just a few houses from, the site - you're right, I wouldn't be happy. But, then again, these people do live just off Hertel Avenue. They were lucky enough to have had a busy there that was only marginally busy (Martino's, I believe is the name). Now, that there will be a business there that actually attracts people to the property, they want to limit access to it. It just doesn't make sense.
Fourthly, it is a safety issue. If you only leave a driveway on Hetrel, it's surely going to be dangerous trying to make a left out of there, as it's very close to the traffic light.
commercial, rising?
And if it's established as a commercial drive way then a hoss of a different color.
That is the old Martino's and the very old Spohr's department store before that.
I don't understand your point. Are you saying that Martino's (and Spohr's prior to that) wasn't commercial?
Isn't there already a driveway coming from that property now?
First of all, let me say I thought the driveway was just being installed. I thought it was someplace down the block, and I wanted to know if the one that is the issue is already designated 'commercial'.
I drove by there today and there is only one driveway that I could see--not near homes. Or there is a place next to another residential driveway, still under construction.
The Martino's/Spohr's thing was just an observation that it has been commercial for a long, long time.
Clear?
I am just thinking that once a neighborhood has a commercial establishment placed in the middle of it, the whole place goes downhill.
I think they did that in Cheektowaga and it worked!
First Amendment rights are like muscles, if you don't exercise them they will atrophy.
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