6 Secured 0n 19th
I don’t know what is more amazing – the house restoration work that is going into 19th Street, or the condition that 19th Street is currently in. How can a single street be home to so many derelict houses… one after another? After seeing the work that the WSCC has been doing on the West Side, to finally get to a street like 19th and see this? Now Harvey can thank a citywide organization called HomeFront for coming to the rescue of one of the biggest cleanups the West Side has seen to date. At long last, more than six houses are going to be restored – it’s the only way to do it. One isn’t enough when you look at a street like 19th – the entire street must be done if the hope is to attract future buyers who will live there.
I stopped by yesterday and found The Mayor’s Impact Team taking graffiti off the houses in preparation for a ribbon cutting to be held later in the afternoon. I spoke with ‘Big Gino’ who was talking to one of the neighbors about a couple of squatters in one of the City-owned houses. It was exciting to see the action taking place, but frightful to know what had become of this street. Thankfully, people like Harvey have already been improving the streets in-between 19th and Richmond - so as the westward advance continues, big victories like the one on 19th really send a signal in all directions that this has now become a group effort. From Harvey:
“HomeFront is using the Restore New York funds to rehab 6 houses on 19th Street - these are the same funds that the City has been seriously beat up on for exclusively making demo funding requests even though the funds are primarily meant for rehab (Brian Reilly assures us that this is going to change). PUSH (People United for Sustainable Housing) is planning on doing a few more so I'm hoping for 10 or so houses to be rehabbed on the short 2 blocks of 19th street this year.
19th street is where the WSCC (West Side Community Collaborative) won the national award a few years ago for clearing out all the major crime. This work on 19th street through HomeFront and PUSH follows all the rehabs and new homeownership on Essex and Chenango that have already been accomplished (and here). Although we've helped to identify the 19th Street houses and have tracked down some of the owners, the announcement yesterday is due to HomeFront's work and they are doing a great job.
All of the new investment we are seeing on the West Side right now follows the WSCC ‘block by block plan’ of moving the crime and blight off a few blocks one year, then continuing on to removing crime and blight from the next few blocks further west the following year. This is being done while attracting investment and homeownership on the previous blocks. The next block is 18th Street, which has already been cleaned up by Mike Brundidge. Then there is Brayton Street - also only two blocks (one of which is now almost 100% home ownership). Of course we have the 5 Corners area we cleaned up and are turning back into a commercial area - this is where we put the new Garden Center and are putting in the new park by Urban Roots.
All the work we are doing in the Peace Bridge area right now is to make sure that when we reach the water in a couple of years of our ‘block by block’ work we have a beautiful Olmsted Park, fully restored historic Columbus Parkway neighborhood and will have a thriving Niagara Street Commercial district (future project) rather than a 45 acre truck plaza. We expect to win this battle. Certainly a thriving D'Youville Campus is part of this project as well.
Our goal is to have safe healthy neighborhoods from Main Street all the way to the River within a few more years. I'd love to see West Siders and Elmwood Village and Allentown residents walking and biking through the West Side to the River and Front Park - this is our vision. We would love to start working with other groups on starting a similar project East of Main.
Although HomeFront is using public funds for their part of the project, almost everything else we've done on the West Side so far has been though private investment and neighborhood resources.”
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fredrico
This is fantastic!! This is the direction we need to go. Saving homes and thereby saving neighborhoods. This thinking of " lets find value in the materials and gems we have and save them" is so right. Lets not leave a bunch of gaping holes (where demolitions have occured) destroying our homes and neighborhoods. Each tiny step is important. Everything we do and don't do is important. I'm thrilled by this small step - because it is a sign of different thinking by the city from demolition to respect of the houses and neighborhoods that make up our city.
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stephenjames716
great news.
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sbrof
This is fantastic news and the perfect way to spend money to bring back a neighborhood. Neighborhoods are based around strong buildings, home ownership, pride and value. Renovating homes for home ownership brings all of these back to a street. Where demolishing homes removes everything.
People see 6 homes on a block being restored, then they feel that the neighborhood or at least their block is worth investing money themselves in. Seeing 6 homes being demolished only leads them to think about when it is time for themselves to move.
This is the exact recipe for neighborhood stabilization and revitalization. I do feel there needs to be some back pressure applied by police, inspectors and other agencies to assure that we don't just push the problems into other neighborhoods like Black Rock or Riverside but actually weed them out of the system all together. Police need to be involved in removing drugs and crime from the streets and inspectors to keep landlords maintaining the it homes. Other than that, this is a great project and look forward to the day that the west side no longer carries with it the stereotype of crime and blight.
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Harvey
We're getting there. According to LISC we are now the fastest growing Real Estate market in the City. One of the keys is to have a lot of partners each doing what they are best at - and no turf wars.
Harvey
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Joshua
This is an exciting section of the City. Along with the other streets mentioned above this is a recipe for something really great.
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Celia
"Then there is Brayton Street - also only two blocks (one of which is now almost 100% home ownership)..." I assume this means owner-occupied structures. Is this an anecdotal figure? Where can I find out the ratio of owner-occupied homes on any given street? Thanks.
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crisa
Home ownership is not the same as owner-occupied.
The laws for apartment buildings are solid laws never meant to apply to families' homes. When the laws for apartments was established long, long ago, no one in those long ago days thought that one- and two-family homes would fall prey to investments only ownership.
There are no effective laws that apply to ownership of one-and two-family houses by absentee-owners or even the new breed of investors.
Buffalo is in the demo mess today because of what absentee-owners, real estate agencies and banks practiced in the past.
And, besides that, it is a total surprise to people who do not go into one- and two-families (OR even the apartment buildings) form(s) of real estate investment to find out who the absentee-owners of old and the investors of today, ACTUALLY ARE!!
It is hard to find information about owners who are hidden and want to stay that way. The Internet, though, is changing that--but the change isn't happening as fast as the investors are able to move!
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crisa
What the Restarits brother and sister are proposing to do, and appear to actually be doing, in a different topic here today, is the beneficial kind of "flipping".
They sound like two wonderful INVESTORS! Yea for them! Buffalo needs more just like them and Buffalo needs more of them right a way!
If they carry through on what they say in their article, they are to be highly praised, and, sonofagun, the dire sort of "investors" will be hounding them to take over Buffalo- and suburb-wide rundown properties!
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sonyactivision
Harvey for Mayor!
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fredrico
I aplaud these two people who are saving homes. As I have said in the past - saving homes (instead of demolition) saves precious materials and more importantly - it saves neighborhoods.
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Jolopy
I think the key idea in this article is attacking one block at a time and building off that street. When you see progress moving towards your street its just the spark many owners need to make their houses look nice.
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