Olmsted's Front Yard Competition @ MLK

what an incredible event, idea and community effort. This is the kind of initiative that makes me so proud of Buffalo.

This neigbhorhood desperately needs the makeover too. It's a shame that many of these grand old homes (simular to those in the Elmwood Village) are just left to rot away and sometimes demolished. If cleaned up and cared for, THIS could be the next hot neighborhood to live in.

I love the houses along Parade Street and am very excited to hear about this project. This is one neighborhood that should receive a lot of emphasis and care due to the proximity to the History Museum and MLK park.

There are a number of beautiful houses not only on North Parade but on East Parade and West Parade. It would be great if some house painting could be worked into this effort. The Pink house in Picture #2 could use a couple of coats.

I would like to see someone from the City or a licensed Realtor in the neighborhood to give guidance to anyone who may be interested in one of the vacant houses in that block or nearby neighborhood. It would be a shame to miss this opportunity.

North Parade is actually the most stable streets in that neighborhood in terms of home ownership. There are some residents who've lived there for almost 50 years! The majority of the homes are beautifully maintained and the new landscaping will just be icing on a glorious cake. The small number of vacant homes is not an example of absentee landlords. The neighbors simply would not tolerate it. Also, many of the owners are elderly. Lots of these homes will be on the market within the next decade. Now that the spotlight has been shown on this Olmstead created gem, perhaps those vacant homes will be occupied and restored to the standards of the other homes.

from a broader point of view, i am lucky enough my job has taken me to the east side neighborhoods consistently over the last 15 years, and i have noticed this year more than ever how much these neighborhoods are changing, and not always for the worse...this particular neighborhood still maintains much of its stucture and plenty of faded glory including best street, the parade streets and even norway along northampton...

take a ride around the neighborhood, and you'll notice many gardens already,and exterior work being done...of course if you go in looking for the dilapidated houses, scary lookin dudes, stray animals, poverty, drugs and neglect, that's probably the first thing you'll see, no doubt...but don't miss what's happening there. many neighbors are of modest means, but some homes are recently painted, some are being sided, the landscape is being tended to, roofing repairs...not always up to code, or the most expensive materials but i believe these residents really love their homes and neighborhood...

some neighborhoods may even raise a few eyebrows...one in particular is the muslim community moving in to the sycamore neighborhood around sweet and sobieski streets, right around the corner of MLK park, where these families are constantly rehabbing the homes that survived, churches and community center rehabs, and this is also true in pockets along the neighborhood that shares stanislaus st...still a bit rough but very silently making a comeback...

this garden competition is such a great idea in order to reinforce the sense of dignity that is alive and well with these neighbors...

wouldn't it be cool if the junior league followed suit and chose a house on this street for its annual decorator showplace?

Great to see another project in an area that has long been overlooked. The East Side is as varied in housing as the West Side and has many pockets of quality housing that few in WNY are aware of. I have explored this entire city and it is the East Side that offers the most surprises. Even in the roughest parts pride is evident in the way some of the beautiful old homes are maintained. Gardens from fancy to humble grace many front yards bringing a little beauty into the most blighted blocks. This project will help bring some attention and hopefully investment to the area.

and this really irks me too!

The suburbs were not created to flee african americans!

The suburbs were created for a confluence of reasons such as:
1) Our nation was well aware that an entire high density city and all its logistics could be destroyed with a nuclear bomb. Suburbs were a way to decentralize the population away from ground zero.
2) little housing and apartments have been built since 1929 and there was an enormous housing shortage for returning WWII veterans. Suburbs were one solution.
3) war factories had to be converted back to consumer goods for returning WWII veterans and the years of high production of war machinery allowed big advances in cars for the masses. Models expanded rapidly and obsolescence was designed in.
4) the sexual crescendo of the marriage/baby boom made those 1950s suburban cape cods with backyards (instead of apartments and duplexes which were common prewar) what everyone wanted
5) advertising, marketing, mortgages...all made it sell and affordable...

Actually african american neighborhoods were very livable, entrepreneurial and prosperous when they consisted of the poor, middle class and the wealthy. Much like the other ethnic communities around the city. The stories passed on to me were that for the most part people got along and there were leaders in the community, neighbors knew each other and there was a great deal of self policing of neighborhoods.

Civil Rights was caused more by unfair business practices like redlining, the migration to suburbs from cities and abandonment of mass transit for cars...much of which was government policy. Unfortunately government policy in the Great Society of LBJ made things worse not better.

Oh yes, its so easy to just blame the whites...blame the christians...

While we are on the topic of the role of racism in suburban expansion, do we see this being a similar catalyst for reinvestment and migration to the cities? I was just wondering, because one report that I saw stated that more minorities are living in the sububrs than ever before, and a different report said that they expect the census to show more whites living in cities now than in the past 50 years.

Could racist undercurrents actually drive whites to move back to the cities as the try to escape more minorities in the suburban neighborhoods? Will this be more prevalent if limits are put on sprawl in rural areas? Are we looking forward to this migration and will we see it as a success?

I find it hard to believe the same few people here still have the energy or interest to have yet another identical commentary about the same identical topics over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. It's notable.