Rust Belt Ruins: Flint, Columbus, Indianapolis and Buffalo

Has anyone compared the number of homes and condos built in places like Tampa, Vegas, and Tempe to the number of vacancies in places like Toledo, Detroit, and Buffalo? Just going off anecdotal information I'd say there is a good reason that there are so many vacancies in places like Buffalo.

When I read this article, I really resonated with Cindy Olejniczak. Having grown up in Buffalo's east side and now living in MA, I used to tell people about Buffalo in this way:

It's as if someone dropped a bomb in the center of the city and then no one ever came to help re-build it.

I feel often that Buffalo's abandoned neighborhoods are not much different than war-torn areas in other countries. The lack of easily accessible green space and urban sprawl is a dominant in the spatial landscape.

It's uplifting to read Buffalo Rising and seeing all the good things happening - people trying to make a difference.

When thinking about re-building Buffalo, it would be a mistake to just put new houses where old ones were without also re-designing the neighborhood and infrastructure to make the neighborhoods more livable. Think in a new way. Integrate walkable green space and gardens into neighborhoods. Plant trees. Think about the hard winters and design parking and streets in a way that doesn't overwhelm a neighborhood with pavement. It can be done.

Also, one big problem in the Buffalo area is the growing divide between rich and poor. This is an insidious problem. I was stunned when I was in Buffalo recently and read an article in the paper about new very expensive condos being built for those who could afford them. This type of development in the third poorest city in the nation..... What's wrong with that picture?

It would help if the city didnt have pigs feeling free to junk up the place, leaving things like "pizza boxes, liquor bottles, wrappers" and might I add sofas, abandoned cars, matresses, etc. strewn around.

I respect Cindy's efforts to try to improve her neighborhood and her quality of life where both have essentially vanished and I feel for her. At the same time I think its a damn shame she and her 80 year old mother are put in a position where they have to clean up after others who have absolutely no respect for the community and of neighbors. Considering this, is it essential that we need to move people who would feel free to dump garbage all over the place, strip homes of copper piping, illegally tap utilities from their next door neighbor, etc. into stronger more viable communities? Isn't that like transplanting cancer into another more healthy part of the body, just to bring it down as well?

No need to worry, mayor brown came out with the long awaited 'poverty'study'' about a week ago, so all these problems should be solved any minute now.

- We need to get the Cindy Olejniczaks closer to the heart of the city. We need to draw the existing population inward, toward the core -

This is a fairly broad statement when addressing a much more complex issue. Not everyone wishes to live in the core of any city...and it doesn't make them a bad person - that is a broad statement too, but I believe it's accurate.

flyguy - Couldn't of said it any better myself..

Peroit - "I was stunned when I was in Buffalo recently and read an article in the paper about new very expensive condos being built for those who could afford them. This type of development in the third poorest city in the nation..... "

"This type of development in the third poorest city in the nation..... What's wrong with that picture?"

Nothing is wrong, although I think everyone finds a problem in the divide between rich and poor in the city, downtown real estate will still grow to meet the demand if their is one. If you are speaking of Waterfront Place I believe they are not having any major problems selling units last I heard. But maybe someone with the lastest sales figures can chime in.

"Integrate walkable green space and gardens into neighborhoods. Plant trees."

I think thats a great idea and I wonder if it makes sense for some of these open/vacant lots from demolitions to simply be offerred to any residence in the neighborhood for a small fee; obviously this would only be in some situations depending on the property size, property location and proximity to adjoining homes. Increase the green space in the neighborhood and overall esthetics and hopefully eventually the property value. This instills a pride of ownership in the property and some tax returns to Buffalo as well. As opposed to an vacant city owned lot with little if any prospect of new development. I am not exactly sure but I think I see some of this happening in the Bab**** area of Buffalo.

Even if large swaths of Buffalo were demolished, who would it benefit?

The savings from fire, police, infrastructure maintenance, etc that comes out of the general budget would just get redirected...and most likely used to justify another deputy mayor for Brown (I think he has created 3-4 deputy mayor positions while in office), or union contracts, or whatever.

Look Buffalo isnt going to benefit unless City and County Hall get smaller....and both residential and commercial property taxes go down far enough to attract investment back into the city.

or if Buffalo can out-compete a suburban office/light industrial/warehouse park with an urban park via some form of development subsidy.

Urban neighborhoods will not repopulate until urban jobs come back to the city.

QueenCity - "Urban neighborhoods will not repopulate until urban jobs come back to the city."

I agree and in my opinion Buffalo should put the be as aggressive as possible with conversion of as many brownfield sites to light industry and office park space. Using existing buidling/structures in some situations is great: New Era Cap, Trico Building for UB Health Sciences, and CobbleStone district developments. But also address the other side of the equation, land ready for large scale development. How many companys who want cheap acreage want to remediate their own property like Health Now; not many. Prepare as many sites for development and when and if the next prospect like the Geico Service Center comes to town be proacitve and have the property ready. Both Lake Side Commerice park and Steel Fields are the way to draw business to move back into the city of Buffalo. The proof is there those business corridors are attracting companies.

"both residential and commercial property taxes go down far enough" I don't buy that because the city already has some of the cheapest property taxes in the county... It sure hasn't helped much.

We need to work together as a region to fight against the quality of life issues that hold the city back. Poverty, Crime (real or not), vacancy (both empty buildings and land). We also need to work together with our region and others upstate to fight for better more equitable State laws that benefit our region and not laws that just benefit NYC. We also need to fight against unruly and stubborn unions that refuse to work with administrations to stabilize the city and their jobs.

If taxes were the defining choice then everyone would be living in Buffalo.

"both residential and commercial property taxes go down far enough" I don't buy that because the city already has some of the cheapest property taxes in the county... It sure hasn't helped much.

We need to work together as a region to fight against the quality of life issues that hold the city back. Poverty, Crime (real or not), vacancy (both empty buildings and land). We also need to work together with our region and others upstate to fight for better more equitable State laws that benefit our region and not laws that just benefit NYC. We also need to fight against unruly and stubborn unions that refuse to work with administrations to stabilize the city and their jobs.

If taxes were the defining choice then everyone would be living in Buffalo.

The thing I find difficult to fathom is how one abandons a home. Who owns these houses? I assume after years of defaulting on mortgages or taxes either the bank or city owns them. Where are the original owners? Have they passed away or moved away? It's crazy.

I was a little surprised to see Columbus on the list. I had this impression that were a growing, vibrant city the last 10 - 15 years.

Often the owners just left and moved out and are living elsewhere in the region... Other times the houses fall into the possession of children who want nothing to do with it and it just gets ignored until the city takes it over because of taxes.

I agree there is no excuse for it and it is a shame that people in the community would not care how their decision affects others around them.. but ohh wait it isn't their neighborhood anymore they live elsewhere now. So who cares.

Orlanmon, its more than old buildings...and its more than downtown.

Basically if you have been to some parts of Amherst, Lancaster, some parts of Cheektowaga, Lancaster, etc...you will see suburban style office, light industrial and warehouse developments.

Buffalo has enough empty city blocks and the city needs to figure out how to market an empty city block for those purposes.

I will go one step further and say that each member of the Common Council (except those representing downtown and the westvillage, westside and north buffalo) should have 1-2 such urban office/industrial parks. Black Rock, Riverside, West Kenmore, the eastside between Main and Kensington and I-190 should have 3-4 atleast, while South Buffalo could is already expanding out of Lakeside.

When politicians talk of using the Niagara Mohawk relicensing for the Erie Canal Harbor, now the bill by Higgins to sell un-used power for Erie Canal Development, and there is no talk of the day when Buffalo Seneca Creek profits are turned over....all these funds need to be put into office parks within urban neighborhoods.

Further...even if the city builds it or shares in its cost, every college from UB, Buffalo State, Canisius, Trocaire, Medaille, D'Youville, Villa Maria, ECC, ... all of them should have some form of small business incubator facility.

But we will not be able to save neighborhoods unless those jobs are put back into those neighborhoods...and that means head on head competition with sprawl and the outer suburbs. So if Buffalo has to offer matchin +10%-25% subsidy for builders who build within city limits...then thats how you break the city budget.

Everyone is listing symptoms and not the actual issue.

Even when jobs like american Axle were still in the city the neighborhoods around them continued to deacy right past them. Same with any parks or green space. Neighborhoods emptied out right past them.

We continue to promote flight and fight any regional planning. The safer bet on your investment will always be to move outward unless we make big changes. Any one who can afford to will pick up and move out. Putting up some business parks and recreation parks will not change anything in the forgotten areas. People will contnue to commute to their outward homes. Service industry and retail will follow the people. Buisnesses will then follow to be closer to the people and leave the "bad" neighborhoods they were left behind in. This wave has been in motion for half a century and will not stop at any municipal border. All leaving behind a wider and wider area of underused infrastrucutre and poverty to prop up with our state and federal taxes.

Greenspace is another falicy. I found plenty of places to play in the Clinton-Filmore area growing up. The actual stores, libraries, street life, etc were much more enjoyable and interesting that the park 5 blocks away which was pretty much always ignored by us. Boot your kids into the big backyard and watch the bordom on their faces. Stick them on their bikes to head off and explore and see how happy and exhuasted they come back. Assuming they can venture anywhere beyond a one outlet development with only houses and "greenspace" ;)

On the one hand, I think that Buffalo is soooo far better off than Detroit. We may be economically traumatized as a city, but we have NOT given up. I think what we need is an energetic, creative mayor who's a real believer. Byron Brown ain't that. But the rough and tumble politics of the city is not what's kicking us in the a** right now. It's the developers, bankers and the investors who are. The money people do NOT see any profit motive, i.e. "return on their investment" in the short term. They do not want long term returns. It's the financing that dictates what's gonna be built and what isn't. Even though private individuals prove them wrong through their own successful investments into neighborhood housing, it isn't enough for the money people.

On the issue of neighborhood dumping and littering, I think it's important to look at suburban contractors who are looking to avoid disposal costs for old building materials. It's pretty common knowledge that they've been dumping in the east side and the lower west side. Popular thinking seems to be that "those people" really don't give a sh*t, so why not. Neighborhood residents have been complaining for years about this stuff, but who's got the time to track down the contractor who dumped and who's got the interest in prosecuting them, because popular thinking is that "those people" don't care.

Peroit,

I hope you also mention some of the beautiful and unique things to outsiders about Buffalo, not least of which are the strong neighborhood movements, the robust cultural life, and people who refuse to embrace stale cliches about bombed out neighbrohoods, which could easily evoke dozens of cities across the country.

It's healthy to assess the reality of the entire city but it's just as important to use rhetoric that does not distort that reality. I am not sure how one could lament a lack of green space in Buffalo when its pioneering Olmsted park system is available on foot to tens of thousands of people, and by bus, bike or car to tens of thousands more. One might also notice that there are dozens of groups that have been planting community green space for many years.

Lastly, most mid to large cities in the U.S. have high levels of poverty and wide disparities between wealthy and poor communties. This is a national malaise, from bankrupt, dysfunctional California to foreclosed Nevada to crime-riddled Washington D.C. As Buffalo works to improve and restore some of its formerly healthy neighborhoods, as we try to undo some of the mis- and preconceptions fostered by a stupid media, we need people to speak about Buffalo as a place that's seriously wounded but still full of meaning and beauty. Comparions to war-torn countries simply do nothing to help.

This is an excellent post that deserves some rigorous debate. I agree with the statement "It's a creative process that involves figuring out which neighborhoods can be saved and remediated, and which can't".

There is only so much money for rehabilitation and demolition therefore the question of where the money is spent needs to be answered using an objective process which ranks neighborhoods on their "stability" and market viability. It doesn't make much sense to pour rehab monies into a neighborhood that is deteriorating or where there is little housing activity. Likewise demolitions should be limited in areas where it is more appropriate to stablize the neighborhood through selective rehabilitation.

I don't agree with the strategy of coaxing people to abandon properties and move them to a "core" area. I understand the reasoning but unless there are planned activities for a specific area, I don't think taking people's properties (even if it is for their benefit) is practical. This really needs to be more of a market-based approach that recognizes the value of properties in the context of specific planning or neighborhood revitilization efforts. I think it is impractical to assume the City could initiate a planning effort that facilitates the creation of a completely vacant section of the City.

I also disagree with the suggestion that this problem cannot be solved without National expertise. I read the Blueprint Buffalo report (suggested reading) and wasn't convinced that national experts would provide anything more than generic, intellectual recommendations which have limited practicality.

Finally, I would suggest to everyone who thinks that the problem can be solved either through a smaller or regionalized government that you need to be more specific with your solutions. Define the role of the government (big or small).

MJ Worthington, thanks for stating what I wanted to as I read down this chain. The things everyone mentions… crime, poverty, vacancy are the symptoms of a larger and more complex issue, our government. NYS and its city, town and village structure is one that is constructed so as to operate and function independently of each other, without consideration of each’s decisions on each other. The way the government operates in many cases here is municipal piracy, each one trying to steal the other’s businesses ad residents. And the larger government entity, in our case Erie County, does some things regionally (water, sewers, sheriffs) which is actually creating an incentive (and people react to positive incentives) for growth in the suburbs.

Looks at Clarence for example. This is the wealthiest suburb in WNY. It’s experienced explosive growth since 1990 and requires the services of the county to continue to grow, particularly sheriffs patrols. Now, as they grow, they need more coverage from sheriffs. And who is subsidizing Clarence’s coverage? Everyone in Erie County. So Clarence has no incentive not to grow because the county (and the NYS Troopers I believe in some cases) will provide the same level of service no matter what the expansion in cost is. And Clarence has refused to start its own police department. Why? They site the staggering cost, which they’d much rather pass onto the rest of the county. And they’re not alone, Grand Island, Newstead and many other rural areas that are experiencing growth are doing so with services provided by the county and subsidized by everyone else.

That’s just police coverage. The county has to continually increase the size of its workforce to maintain the new infrastructure built to service this growth.

Then you have small places like the villages of Hamburg, Orchard Park, Kenmore, Akron, etc. that have no need to exist as standalone, incorporated entities, each with it’s own staff. Think about the massive amount of duplication of staff that isn’t even necessary, particularly the higher level management duplication that could be eliminated under consolidation (police and fire chiefs; DPW, highway and sanitary superintendents, clerks, treasures, etc). You can keep the rank and file as a means to continue providing the services by management can be cut.

That bring us to school districts, all of them, including the 7 that fall within the borders of the Town of Cheektowaga. That’s right. In other parts of the country where there is one school district at the county level, we’ve got a fragmented system that’s extremely top heavy and inefficient. Just think, you could combine the 7 districts just in Cheektowaga and eliminated 6 of the 7 superintendents and save close to $1 million. Now imagine the savings region-wide just in school taxes.

We are operating under a home rule structure design hundreds of years ago when population was spread out and separated miles of uninhabited land. We’re now operating in close quarters and being lined by meaningless borderlines on a map. How stupid is that?

It’s a frustrating and disgusting joke.

Many of our (note region not just city) problems would be alleviated through regional government in a number of ways. The first and most important is the educational system.

People move for houses. They flooded out of the city because of forced busing. They moved to communities a couple blocks or miles away that did not have to desegregate. Basically allowing people to move from one segregated community to another. A regional answer to the desegregation ruling would have created a completely different solution and not caused the bottom to fall out of many neighborhoods.

Also this cycle of schools, flight, disinvestment was considered a Buffalo problem... for three generations now it was a city issue for 'them' to deal with. I mean 'they' created it. Now that cycle is leaving the city and setting up shop in Cheektowaga, Tonawanda, Amherst etc.

This plays itself out in the school districts. Sweethome, Clevehill, Kenton are slipping and people are no longer choosing to move into areas with those districts. Which is deflating their housing values opening them up to poverty and abandonment.

A regional educational system where money, resources and burden are evenly distributed would eliminate this variable and hopefully slow or stop new areas from rotting. I think we as a region should realize that the education of all of our kids is important and someone shouldn't be left to a poor school just because they come from an area with lower properly values. The fact that some money is distributed to the districts based on value slides the scale of education in the favor of the rich. Leaving those in poverty with little hope to break it. Education is the only thing that can provide people the opportunity to move ahead in life. But being born in the wrong neighborhood basically determines your outcome. It gets even worse if you look at the direction of the economy and globalization. We compete with the world and their educational system is light years ahead of us.. why? Because they don't battle over resources.

That is just one of many examples of how a regional government could change what we can all agree upon is a broken system and create a stronger region to for all families to live. Our archaic education system is our largest hindrance to growth.

Elena>"...In some cases it will involve shutting down mostly vacated neighborhoods and..."
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That, right there, sounds interesting in theory but I think in practice it's next to impossible.
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What does "shutting down" a neighborhood mean - exactly, specifically?
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In what other city has "shutting down" neighborhoods according to your defintion actually happened successfully? Not talking about it, or planning for it, or considering it... but where has it actually happened and succeeded?
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Some counter-examples to Cindy Olejniczak:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/15/real_estate/Youngstown_plan_roadblock/index.htm

"You can't pay them enough to leave - A plan in Youngstown aims to move residents out of the city's most deserted areas. The hitch: Home owners won't budge - even for $50,000.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (CNNMoney.com) -- When the city of Youngstown, Ohio, proposed incentives to move people out of declining neighborhoods, it sounded like a good idea - in theory.

The city hoped to lure holdouts living on nearly empty blocks and relocate them to more lively areas, as part of its plan to remake itself in the wake of the steel industry's departure and the foreclosure crisis. It's already cleared some lots for things like playgrounds.

Now Youngstown wants to close entire streets and bulldoze abandoned properties so it can shut down city services like street lighting, police patrols and garbage pick-ups that it can no longer afford to maintain.

To do this on a large scale, the city needs to get about 100 residents to relocate. Each is eligible for $50,000 in incentives - plenty, in this town, to buy a new home and move. The hitch: Youngstowners don't seem to want to leave their homes, no matter how blighted or abandoned the neighborhood may be.

"I'm East Side born and East Side bred and when I die, I'll be East Side dead," said Rufus Hudson, a director of work force development at Youngstown State University. "We love our side of town. The same people who watched me grow are watching my children grow."
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Only one of the half dozen residents who have been contacted by the program since June agreed to relocate, according to Bill D'Avignon, the city's community development director.
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And in interviews with CNNMoney.com, another seven residents vowed that they too would stay on their deserted blocks. ..."

LandBank the most desolate areas. Put up wind turbines to take advantage of one of Buffalo's great assets. Then if the land is ever needed take the things down.

I'm familiar with a program in the city of Worcester MA - Earth Day clean-ups that have been going on since 1990. It's coordinated by the Regional Environmental Council with the Dept of Public Works and Parks sending trucks out to pick up the trash at pre-designated sites. National Grid is the event's lead sponsor providing financial support, trucks and volunteers. They've been keeping stats and found that each year, there's more volunteers and more sites cleaned but LESS TRASH! (ex: in 2004, 500 volunteers and 96 tons trash; in 2008 1,000 volunteers and 30 tons of trash) It seems like a very successful program and generates great community spirit. Does Buffalo have anything like this does anyone know?

Also, the REC has organized pick-ups for large items in key neighborhoods - items that might ordinarily be tossed. I believe that volunteers knock on neighborhood doors telling folks about the event. A fee is collected depending on the item. Pick-up is organized. It seems to be a successful program helping folks who don't have a car/truck to get rid of big items responsibly.

This just rehashes the whole tired "shrink to greatness" argument. Every city has distressed neighborhoods, even the so-called prosperous ones. What they all have in common is low educational attainment, under- or unemployment, and a host of other issues. Address these and a newly enfranchised populace will rebuild their neighborhoods. Continue business as usual and let the bulldozers roll. It's not about houses, it's about people.

Buffalo is not Columbus .

There are solutions to the poverty issue! Admittedly, to truly eradicate poor people, draconian means will be necessary. Sterilization, abortion, and merciful elimination are musts! To begin, all people who are products of multi-generational families in poverty need to be sterilized. Take public assistance and the earned income credit away from them. Thay might be joyous to learn that they can have sex like rabbits and not have to care anymore.

For high IQ families (let's face it folks, High IQ parents are usually the ones who have High IQ babies)they should be given annual stipends to actually breed in rabbit like numbers.

High risk pregnancies that might result in special need babies need to be terminated. If a defective baby is born, it will need to be smothered or injected. If, upon entering public schools, it is learned that a child has learning problems, he/she needs to be made into Soylent Green.

Babies who have babies need to be immediately sterilized. There's no unringing that bell for that baby mother.

One baby per family unless both parents are collecting the stipends.

It is the only way to nip poverty in the bud. Stop the likelihood of it even happening. When poverty is not allowed to exist, the high need for crime will vanish. This can be done in a generation or two.

Then, the schools will definitely improve (without all the concommitant problems poor kids bring to them). So, with crime wat down and schools way up, the two barriers to middle class families noving back into the city will be gone.

We have a plan!

BRAWNDO - It's got what plants crave.

wow...