Paul, congrats to you and your fine neighbors for not letting the fabric and heritage of your neighborhood - and city - be shortsightedly destroyed. I stopped by Saturday morning and got to chat with some of your neighbors and your very engaged Common Councilman Rivera. But I didn't see (or hear about) a petition, or would have been glad to have signed it. Is there by chance an online petition--?

Also, for petition signatures: Campaign For Greater Buffalo is putting on a major event Tuesday evening (from 6PM to 8PM) in the Commercial Slip/Central Wharf area (Newell may post an article). The event will be full of preservationists and community leaders, so should be fertile ground for getting petition signatures and talking with potential supporters. If you go in with a team of a half dozen or so, you should be able to get to everyone. The event includes a program that starts at 7PM, so your troops may want to "hit the beaches" early.

I wish I could be there to help, but it looks like I'll be tied up here Tuesday night with several others speaking to our City Council against my City's plans to fill our old subway tunnel downtown. We'd kick serious butt on that campaign if we had a bunch like you and your activist neighbors involved!

Very best wishes.

totally agree with tj here. The city and us citizens needs to learn from this process and problem and take it one step further and FORCE the city to actually take measures that would allow make property owners maintain their structures.If we don't change the system all the fighting for this structure, old harbor in, FLW martin house, AM&A's etc etc etc would all be for naught.

Then again until there is a mayor in office that cares about preservation nothing is going to change. I don't even know where to begin the process of changing the way the city works to save these buildings. A very complex issue. Do the taxes need to be restructure, new laws, different zoning codes, different building inspectors, property court judges, commissioners, us citizens. Everyone is to blame a little bit for this problem but where does one begin to solve it.

It is obviously something that needs to be overseen by people outside of government. They have proven unresponsive and generally uncaring in the whole ordeal.

A friend of a friend tried to buy this building a few years ago --- the guy was a complete ass and didn't even try to work with her on the price... slumlords.

Bob's a Bum!

The bases are loaded for Team Demolition, David Oriz is up to bat, and Byron Brown was just called in for relief...

There are three things to save, that I can see. The first is as much of the building as we can. The second is the idea that a landlord is responsible for his property. The third is the idea that the city should enforce its laws.

blackrock, when you say old what's the minimum age?

1. People did "actually want to be in" the livery. People tried to buy it, but were turned down by the owner, who preferred to let it rot.

2. Where do you get the idea that an empty lot will somehow spur development? The landscape of this city suggests that you're wrong.

Beautiful building. It will be a shame if it does indeed go.

I couldn't help but to notice that on the website, it says that the "Save the Livery" people want to hold the current owner responsible for 20 years of deterioration. While I agree that the owner should ultimatley hold accountibility for this structure's current state, what about the City of Buffalo? Where have the code officials been? This building is merely one, among many buildings within the city, that code has not been enforced throughout the years. If it had, thsi building would not be in the condiditon it is today. Countless other buildings that have been razed in the past, would still be here today as well. Simply put, where has the city been?

Now, here we are, at the last minute, trying to save a building that, unfortunately, may be unsavable. The city must start to crack down on building owners before their properties become so dilapidated. The old AM&A's buiding downtown has toxic and explosive chemicals stored within it's walls, which is, and has been a clear violation of city code. Instead of fining relatively small amounts of money, the city need to take possesion of, and auction off these properties, before they fall into massive disrepair. I feel confident that the current owner of the AM&A's building would fix their code violations, before they would allow themselves to lose a building that they have millions invested in, to the city. In the end, wouldn't it be better to have the city take possesion of the building before it falls apart, as opposed to having them invest thousands in demo costs, and have only own an empty when all is said and done? In eother case, the owner losses their property.

So yeah, I really feel like the city needs to bore some of the blame here, and that if we can get them to enforce code, going forward, we will have fewer and fewer of these last minute vigils to save historic buildings. The Livery building is important, but let's step back and look at the bigger picture!

Stan are you for real or just trying to be cute? Either way, it isn't working.

Okay, I'm going to try a sports analogy for this. (Being more a baseball fan than a hoops fan, I'm hoping the analogy works....)

If it's true that there is a team of folks making their money by letting their old buildings degrade to the point where the city has to pay to tear down the building, then they have the pro-old-buildings team beat on a man-to-man defense, because there are just too many of them.

The team working to save the city one neighborhood, one classic building at a time, are running around, getting beat to the post almost every time.

It's time to switch to a zone defense.

Uh didn't they like tear off the roof of this thing? What is there to be saved here? Are you idiots fighting so hard to save a piece of a wall???? The building is toast, get over it. Jesus couldn't even save it. Once they tear down this old piece of crap, then they can build something that people actually want to BE in. Oh, but the building is *historic*. Look, if you Buffalosers ever want to join the 21st century, you have to accept the 19th century is over. Gone. Fini. Livery??? Gimme a break. Even Buffalo is advanced enough to use the automobile now. Take a few nice pictures for posterity, and then TEAR THAT MOTHERF****** DOWN!!!!

Colin, that sh*t is history. Yes, maybe in the past there was hope for this broken down chunk of bricks. Maybe this guy was a jackass for letting the building die so the city would pay for its demolition. But now it's over. There's nothing to save. Not even your pride. MOVE ON!!!!

Buffaloboy14- Do you laugh when old people fall down?

Bye Bye eyesore!

Duh, thanks, KLW, I will start right away.

I also heard that a monkey's uncle put in an offer, but that too was declined...

Has anyone tried contacting developers/owner and see if we can get some interest in this building? If anyone wants to take photos and send me some info, I'll be more than happy to post it online to sites in different cities as well as ours to hopefully get an interest here/ just email at: g_centurione@yahoo.com

"Colin, that sh*t is history. Yes, maybe in the past there was hope for this broken down chunk of bricks. Maybe this guy was a jackass for letting the building die so the city would pay for its demolition. But now it's over. There's nothing to save. Not even your pride. MOVE ON!!!! "

We can see how the Webb buidling with its hole in the roof and collapsed floors would have been much better off as a long term vacant lot.

Or the old Mansion on on Delware that was a burnt shell with no roof or rear wall that is now beautifully rebuilt. That would have been much better off being added to our endless supply of shovel ready lots.

Or the Elk lofts. I mean who would want to live in an old food terminal for $1,000->$2,000 a month a month? Right?

If anyone here has a solid plan to build something of value on this site then demo may be a good option. But there is not. Many thanks to those fighting to save a part ofwhat makes the neighborhood unique. There are more than enough empty lots around for all these glass towers and factories that for some unknown reason are waiting and waiting and waiting to pop up.