Buffalo Rising Online

What an a$$hole(s). This person/people should have a gang of sword swinging ninja's unleashed on their lame ghetto ass3s.

F**k whoever did that. If caught, they should spend the next year cleaning around the city for free. If it were up to me, I'd either brand or tattoo a big A for a**hole on their forehead, but that's cause I'm a sadist.

Meth went to Jail for his tags, that type of punishment should be consistent. The stereotype for graffiti taggers are young men from the suburbs who grew up in privileged homes. They cry for attention, but they also don't have respect for others or their property. Its unfortunate that the city becomes the victim of these circumstances.

I all for public floggings...in fact, hold them right before the headlining band at Thursday at the Square. I'm sure there are a few hardware stores around the city that can point some of these folks out. How many young people buy spray paint constantly? Scumbags.

how pathetic. its like egging a funeral home.

The park needs a big statue of Bob Marley to tell these kids to stay off the grass. As Ali G says, "respect".

To say that I hate Graffiti is an understatement... The state should drastically increase penalties for the scumbags who deface public property. In all honesty, I think there should be mandatory prison time and a 10 fold increase in the fine. The only way to stop these individuals is to show them that we take these crimes seriously and aren't going to let some punk ruin everyone else's quality of life...

Another area where there was graffiti(not sure if its there anymore) was on the nice stone bridges at the western end of Hoyt Lake near the on-ramp to the 198... It's just so frustrating.

Atak and Hert should go to jail for about 20 years, in my opinion, for the destruction they've caused all over this beautiful city of ours...

Not sure if this idea would help, but what if a park was made on an old industrial site where these vandals could go and spray paint things to their hearts content... Maybe build some concrete walls and let them go to town... This way they would have a place go and do their "tagging" without defacing public property...

I especially like how some cities have designated areas where you're allowed to paint graffiti. The powers that be in those cities obviously have no idea what it's all about. Regardless, what kind of sissy city would let these mongers win by giving them a new area to themselves (which didn't help).

Find them. Make them clean.

just clean it up and while youre doing that, maintaining this beautifully delicate japanese garden, ponder the vastness of the universe and then how many young people buy spray paint constantly. Scumbags!

while pondering the vastness of the universe and the complexity of a fruit fly, I began to question: Why can't there be a Teflon-like clear coat that spray paint won't stick to??

So has this been fixed? theres no money to fix the damage done? I sure hope its not still there when all those visitors roll into town for the walk

I guess I don't understand some of the punishment for taggers isn't cleaning up what they destroyed. I know there's some community service imposed at times, but I would sentence them (along with fines, etc.) to cleaning up their own messes - to the owner's satisfaction. Of course, if it was up to ME, I'd break their hands, first. Luckily, it's not up to me.

These little effers are good.. I do not know how they get away with some of the things they destroy. My schedule is nuts.. I am out all different hours all different days I never catch anyone doing graffiti. God forbid the day I do.. I have a plan.. im going to hit the bastards with my car (just tap them) get out and break their legs, and then cover them head to toe-er um head to waist with whatever color that happen to have on them. Pheww damn I feel better already.

Interesting. No comments from posters who supported ATAK, HERT, and other graffiti artists?

I guess it is only "ART" when someone spray paints a bridge, water tower, or vacant building. It is vandalism when they hit something that is near and dear to the people of Buffalo.

Why don't you give ATAK and HERT a public a$$ whooping instead of a slap on the wrist for all the damage that they have done around the city. I guess I am not understanding how their work is different than this work.

RaChaCha, Hoss, IamBuffalosfuture, al-alo, Sbrof, and Carl can fill us in on the finer points of graffiti and how it can unify the city. Take a look at the 800 pound gorilla marketing post from October 2007 for more details.

I hope that the graffiti supporters chime in to tell us about how this is just a misunderstood form of artwork that should be celebrated as part of the urban landscape. I'll wait for your replies.

Take a lon hard look at the significant damage being done to the City of Buffalo by D'Yoville College. This college is vandalizing the community on a scale never seen before in our cities history. D'Youville is buying homes on the West Side without a community involved master plan and allowing people to strip wood floors, copper plumbing, fire places, furnaces and hot water tanks from valuable homes that should be preserved instead of being turned into parking lots. Manu of these homes are being intentionallt destroyed by a college that puts Meth and Atak to shame.

Meth and Atak didn't surround two homes on Fargo Avenue with parking lots on three sides of their home.

How are these crimes against the community being allowed to go on unchecked?

Building parking lots behind ones garage is not the same as surrounding homes with parking lots that are in extreme close proximity to the homes of working class people who havce resdided in these homes for generations. To surround residential properties on three sides without berms and noise reduction fences is ramping up stress factors that contribute to causing disease in humans. D'Youville is part of the suburban disease that no longer respects the people living in this city.

287 and 285 Fargo Avenue were in immaculate shape when D'Youville College purchased them. They are historic homes that were built when Fargo was a dirt road. D'Youville College without approval of the community and the city has acted like the judge and jury and destroyed these properties. One might as well appoint Meth or Atak the head of D'Youville College development when they are allowed to destroy homes in perfect condition. This is the fact of the matter.

It is time to hold D'Youville College accountable for the destruction they are responsible for on the West Side of Buffalo.

Make D'Youville College construct grassy berms with sound reduction fences that are next to homes on the West Side. Make D'Youville College repair the destruction that was done to 287 and 285 Fargo Avenue. They have behaved like a Houston slum lord or a suburban white kid who has no respect for others property or lives.

Pass government laws that mandate parking lot codes to protect home owners living within five feet of proposed parking lots. Make parking lots withinh five feet of residential homes have berms and sound reduction fencing and make this retro active for the people who have been recently negatively impacted by this mindless behavior.

If you are a Buffalo attorney who can help some working people file a class action law suit against D'Youville College's harmful operations please visit home owners on Fargo Avenue between Connecticut and Vermont streets.

This city goes to the lowest common denominator when homes and public parks are destroyed by individals who fail to abide by laws and work within the democratic process of including the community in developments that errode and destroy their health and quality of community and life.

1. What that has to do with graffiti is beyond me . . .

2. D'Youville is good for the west side. It isn't a coincidence that some of the best neighborhoods on the west side are adjacent or near the school. Its continued growth is more important than two houses.

D'Youville is Dracula sucking the homes like blood.

Meth and Atak have done less damage to the people of the West Side. Ask home owners north and south on Fargo. D'Youville College makes them look like small time vandals.

285 and 287 Fargo were in mint condition when D'Youville bought them. Under their lack of care the houses have been looted and robbed to make them worthless. But they are still srtucturally sound and D'Youville College needs to be hauled into city court and have the book thrown at them and made to restore the damage they have done to these homes.

Outrage upon outrage for this college of locusts destroying the good housing stock on Fargo Avenue to make parking lots for people driving on the highways we built for them through our public parks to get in and out of Buffalo.

D'Youville College is no different than Meth and Atak when they destroy this community against the wishes of the people who reside here. They sneak around and do damage to the livges of the people who live here.

The three sided parking lots surrounding two homes on Fargo Ave and parking lots abutting up against another neighbors home has every justification for a class action law suit against a college that is harming the health and well being of the people living in those homes.

Colin you would be more sympathetic to these wrongs if the homes around your parents house were bought up by a college and parking lots installed next to three of the walls in their house. This environment is adverse to giving people good health standards they deserve on the streets they have lived in for generations. Meth and Atak spray painted graffiti that could be scrubbed off. Meth and Atak did not directly do harm to the health of the people on Fargo Ave. D'Youville College is harming the health of home oweners on Fargo Avenue. D'Youville College wrecks entire well kept homes and turns them into parking lots against the wishes of the people who live on the street. D'Youville College is acting neither christian or democratic when they harm seniors lives by surrounding them with parking lots and they are being autocratic and authoritive by imposing parking lots and empty lots on good streets in Buffalo against the wishes of the home owners on the street.

What D'Youville College did to 285 and 287 Fargo is no different than Freudheim did to the garage on Jersey Street. Nobody should be allowed to wreck property in Buffalo with graffiti or by allowing homes to be stripped and looted into a state of neglect or to not maintain the properties they own. It's all about abuse of the people and community in Buffalo.

The two homes at 285 and 287 Fargo were in perfect condition when D'Youville College bought these two historic structures. These properties were not distressed or damaged in any sort of way until D'Youville College got their hands on them. D'Youville College gets the Vandal of the Century Award for what they did to these homes. It would take a thousand Meths and Ataks to equal the extent of damage that this college has done on Fargo Avenue.

If D'Youville College gets away with this vandal spree than we might as well give Meth and Atak 15 second sentences in jail. Destructive acts of graffiti sprayers are as destructive as a college that buys historic and excellent housing stock in Buffalo and turns it into parking lots. This is not how we advance the condition of this city for it's residents. I believe that Canisius and Medeille Colleges do not operate like this in the neighborhoods where they are located. D'Youville has become a gang of vandals on my community.

We want justice for 287 and 285 Fargo. We want the damage to be repaired and for these homes to remain as residential dwellings.

We want justice for the three neighbors that have parking lots up against the walls of their homes and only a flimsey fence that neither blocks the sounds of parking cars nor blocks the pollution from coming and going cars next to these homes. We want green berms and sound barriers installed between these homes and the D'Youville College parking lots.

We want an inclusive and open master plan for the neighborhood surrounding the D"youville College. We no longer want segmented college expansion plans that pit neighbor against neighbor and break the teeth of the housing on our street.

D'Youville College at the rate it is going will be helping open more law offices to sue colleges that unfairly and unjustly damage the neighborhoods we live in and cause stress and other disease through car pollution and noise. If people can sue drunk drivers and corporations for the harm they do to peoples lives than certainly there is more than probable cause to sue D'Youville College for the blatent harm it is doing on Fargo Avenue.

hmmm...somebody has a personal vendetta against dyouville

I live 2 blocks from the area you're describing. D'Youville was one of the reasons I decided to buy there, transforming a rental into an owner-occupied. That's a small example of the positive impact the school has on the neighborhood.

D'Youville is growing. That's good for both the neighborhood and the city, particularly given the number of international students -- new money -- that they bring into the area. The school's continued growth trumps the importance of a few houses on Fargo.

I didn't think that we would hear from RaChaCha, Hoss, IamBuffalosfuture, al-alo, Sbrof, Carl and others who supported graffiti in other posts. I wonder how we would respond if the tagging was done by METH or ATAK? I wonder how they would feel about the glorious artwork left by these vandals if they owned one of the properties hit by their artwork? We are condemn when it is a public site but support when the canvas is a privately owned building.

Colin you are new and do not understand what I'm communicating.

There are neighbor families that have been lving here for over 50 to 70 years. I myself have lived here for over 17 years. There are two block clubs on Fargo north and south of D'Youville College that have a big problem with D'Youville College destroying the excellently maintained properties at 285 and 287 Fargo. These two homes were recently renovated before the college took possession of them. Now they require to thousands of dollars of repair. D'Youville College had no right to destroy these properties.

Colin we are talking about three families being physically and mentally harmed by the parking lot sitution. These three familes have invested and worked long and hard to improve this street. For you to marginalize their rights to have the health standards they are accustomed to and to negate the rights of a community to have the homes on their street maintained and to have community inclusive planning that is democratic and to promote disobedience of housing laws shows a lack of understanding of the community where you live.

D'Youville College growth that rides over the fabric of the community justice and rights is flawed. There is no just reason that you can site or call up that will minimalize the vandalism being promoted in the name of growth.

The Canadian transient students do not vote for our representatives of this community. As a matter of fact a lot of them won't even use the parking lots that the college built for them instead they block up residential parking on the side streets. Canisius and Medaille College does not buy adjacent neighborhood homes and knock them down for parking lots because the people in those neighborhoods are as adament and opposed as I am to imposed parking lots being rammed down streets where our neighbors live. Instead they preserve these homes and use them for their students. Another thing other Buffalo colleges are doing rather than descimate owner occupied streets is having satellite campuses at various locations.

The NY University destruction of the neighborhoods in the big apple share the same heartless and detached reasoning that D'Youville College uses for it's expansion. One can become enlightened and inclusive of people in a democratic society or follow the ways of the oligarch planner. One can spray paint a building and say they have the right to make it more beautiful according to their selfish justification and one can buy up homes on a street and destroy the homes and harm the working class and retired neighbors with parking lots up to the walls of their homes and demolish their way to kingdom come. It's all vandalism no matter how you wash it. It still comes out stained and as an unfair and unjust action that was in an imposed manner upon this community.

Again 285 and 287 Fargo must not be torn down and D'Youville must be held accountable for acts of vandalism that are no different than the ones done by Meth and Atak or those who shamed our city at the Japanese Garden. The difference between the vandalism in Delaware Park and the decimation vandalism by D'Youville College on Fargo Avenue is exponentially far greater. Either way two wrongs don't make any of these acts of vandalism right or just. New money or old money does not replace our constitutional rights. No corporation or college should be above the law. Graffiti makers take the law in their own hands and must be held accountable just as D'Youville College must be held accountable for destroying top notch and historic homes on Fargo Avene. Incidently 285 Fargo was built when the street was a dirt road and was supposed to be on a list of historic houses that were up for designation as such back in 1977. 285 Fargo was supposed to be on the same Fargo Avenue historic list.

Lest we forget D'Youville College has allowed two homes that were recently renovated and improved to the highest standards to be looted at 285 and 287 Fargo. Parking lots do not make our community safer or more valuable. Ignorant taggers and D'Youville parking lot developments do significant harm to our community.

This is a new twist on problems properties and problem owners. In this case D'Youville College unleashed a vendetta upon good sound housing in Buffalo.

"These two homes were recently renovated before the college took possession of them. Now they require to thousands of dollars of repair. D'Youville College had no right to destroy these properties."

If they own the houses, they have a perfect right to remove fixtures, flooring, etc. As far as I know, they have a perfect right to level them. Let me know if there is some law or code that would be violated.

"Colin we are talking about three families being physically and mentally harmed by the parking lot sitution."

Then maybe they should move. There's no such thing as a right not to live next door to a parking lot.

"The Canadian transient students do not vote for our representatives of this community."

No, they just pump their money into the local economy. Increasing their numbers is in the interest of the neighborhood and the city.

"Canisius and Medaille College does not buy adjacent neighborhood homes"

It's hard for a school to grow without expanding its footprint. All those new people need someplace to go, and even someplace to park. A few houses isn't a big price to pay.

"Again 285 and 287 Fargo must not be torn down and D'Youville must be held accountable for acts of vandalism that are no different than the ones done by Meth and Atak or those who shamed our city at the Japanese Garden."

Building a parking lot on land you own is not the same thing as defacing someone else's property.

"New money or old money does not replace our constitutional rights. No corporation or college should be above the law."

Uhh, what constitutional issues are at play in D'Youville's decision to build a parking lot? How are they breaking the law by building on their own property?

They broke the law because there are housing codes in Buffalo. To destroy a well kept property harms the property, Maybe you think that it is all right to take the law in your own hands but this city has been civilized under laws for well over a hundred years.

If someone buys a building and they do not have city approval to change the zoning code than they are breaking zoning code laws.

The people who have lived in this neighborhood have constitutional rights which guarantees them the right to having self determination in matters concerning their streets and to have due process in decisons which directly effect their homes and neighborhood. The process D'Youville College has used is exclusive and repressive and not inclusive or transparent.

The democratic process has been subverted and trampled on by D'Youville College.

Rez said: "Colin we are talking about three families being physically and mentally harmed by the parking lot sitution."

Colin said: "Then maybe they should move. There's no such thing as a right not to live next door to a parking lot."

This shows how heartlessly and out of touch you are with the neighborhood. How little is your concern for the residents who have lived here for generations. Shame on you.

Defacing a community with parking lots and empty lots is amplified destruction of property. I'm sorry that you hold these bitter and cynical opinions that you flaunt and elevate over the lives and homes of our neighbors are wanting and predatory.

Even in Canada the government wouldn't act as irresponsible as you want our government to act to this neighborhood. You would enslave us all if you were in power. I'm glad you have opened uo here and spoken your opinions so that we know where you stand and how willing you are to stab the community in the back for lots of loonies.

Thank You but we will never agree.

To destroy property in Buffalo and take the law in your own hands is not being a responsible citizen.

"If someone buys a building and they do not have city approval to change the zoning code than they are breaking zoning code laws."

Removing elements from a house isn't the same thing as "changing the zoning code." Do you even know what you're talking about?

"The people who have lived in this neighborhood have constitutional rights which guarantees them the right to having self determination in matters concerning their streets"

The constitution certainly doesn't guarantee anyone anything like what you're talking about. You're making this up.

"The democratic process has been subverted and trampled on by D'Youville College."

Bullshit. Noone is interfering with people's right to vote, or with any other mechanism of democracy.

"Even in Canada the government wouldn't act as irresponsible as you want our government to act to this neighborhood."

What's your beef with Canada?

"You would enslave us all if you were in power."

Please don't stop taking your medication.

First off I live a block from D'youville college. I hate D'youville but If they want to knock down houses to build parking lots they have the right to do so. If your neighbors don't like it then all they have to do is not sell them their property. Its that simple. I for one do believe that D'youville's expansion is improving the neighborhood though. Their new expansion towards Plymouth st and my house is great. I get an amazing view of the library and its stone work, York street crack heads are fewer and fewer everyday and yes my property value is going up. They put up a nice fence around their parking lots and plant nice greenery around them and maintain it. You can't say that for most yards or houses around this area. Also, the increase in foot traffic of students is a plus. People are less likely to sit on their porches and smoke pot like they used to when people are constantly walking around. I have seen the houses on Fargo and they don't seem to special to me. Even fixed up they have little architecture detail that I could see driving by.Maybe the inside was nice but once again its up to the owner of the house if they want to sell their gem or not. If your neighbors don't like the parking lots or noise. Complain complain complain to the buffalo complaint line. Noise, if the wood fence is within a certain distance to a house it is a fire hazard and anything else you can think of that is legitimate. But on a side note I am not surprised your neighbors are selling. When you can get prices for your house that you would see on Richmond or Elmwood I would sell too.

287 Fargo- assessed $50,800 Sold in 08 to D'Youville for $110,000 288 Fargo- assessed at $9,900 (just a lot) Sold in 02 to D'Youville for $ 38,000 294 Fargo- assessed at $11,700 lot Sold in 03 to D'youville for $60,500 291 Connecticut sold to Dyouville for $140,000

If your neighbor sells their home it is all right to coinstruct a parking lot within five feet of your home or surround your home with parking lots on three sizes. Instead of apples or oranges we get Hondas and Fords.

Let's look at Chenano Street where three, story and one half homes are being remodeled and rehabbed and the asking price is $190,000 and at 287 Fargo that had been just rehabbed before D'Youville had purchased the property. And lets look at a college that is over paying for homes that were bought by recent new owners who are playing the housing market for their own selfishness. Fine that is the American capitalistic system that operates in the American democratic process.

People who have lived on Fargo between Connecticut and Vermont streets have lived here for generations. They are retired and are unable to move into a better valued neighborhood even at the proces that D'Youville College pays. However the questions I ask are due to my feelings that people anywhere on the planet should not be forceable exploited or pushed out of their homes or community against their will when there are other ways to work as a commmunity and to advance a city without harming the tax paying residents who have occupioed their streets for more than ten years.

I do not have a grudge against Canadians and this is not the issue at hand here. But I reiterate that in Canada the government is compassionate to their people and does not behave in an autocratic government fashion like D'Youville College.

To use a justification to build parking lots around citizens homes based on citizens smoking marijuana on their porches is wrongful and heavy handed.

Yes there are D'Youville students walking around in the day. But I beg to differ that they are here at night or on the weekends at night. At night D'Youville College students and faculty are no longer lwalking around Fargo Avenue because they got in their cars and drove home on the freeways that we built to the suburbs to assist people to get out of the city. These highways were built through our parks and on our waterfront. Now citizens are denied access to the water by a freeway and on the east side there is a ditch in the middle of the community. Now the reverse logic that built the freeways is being used to build D'Youville College parking lots. Again life time residents who are not rich or powerful are being pushed and shoved out of their community without having a voice in how their community changes. We are told this is advancement of the greater good of the city. Jane Jacobs didn't see it this way and neither do we who reside here.

Again I write that the condition of 287 Fargo before D'Youville College ransacked it was in perfect condition.D'Youville College does not have a demolition permit to knock down the buildings I am talking about but small homes on Chenango street can list for $190,000. Than a restored 387 Fargo must be worth $300,000. Fargo Avenue between Hudson and Rhode Island streets has huge opportunity to be revived and be one of the best streets on the west side for working people. The prime objetion is that parking lots do not improve the city tax base or increase the value of my neighbors homes.

The real estate speculators who buy and sell off homes into parking lots are no different from absentee landlords who rent to drug dealers. There is a right to citizen self determination. It is a central thesis and principle of our constitution and if you can't see that you are totally blind. If you take a drive down Fargo Avenue between Hudson and Rhode Island you will see home owners repairing their homes and planting flowers. They aren't doing this to sell their homes to D'Youville College. They are doing this to have a piece of America and showing pride in this multi racial and ethnic comunity. Drive the parking lots makers off our block and this neighborhood will continue to regroup and retake the community from the exploiters of the community.

Much of the comments here are the opinions of those who promote anti city development that places the car in front of the community. You do not design a city for the car. You design a city for the residents who live there.

I do not think that wooden fences close to peoples homes are a fire hazard. The real hazard is health related stress when homes are surrounded on three sides with D'Youville College parking lots or D'Youville College parking lots are built directly next to homes. If D'Youville College was enlightened they would not act like an institutional tyrant and would be responsible to the legitimate health concers of their neighbors. It is just and right to place bermed green areas with sound prevention walls on top of the green berms next to parking lots adjacent to homes, or highways that run through residential neighborhods.

To drive by our homes is not the same as having been inside of 287 Fargo before it was looted. To pass judgement from afar on a community and down play the empirical knowledge of residents who have resided on our street is unfair and ignorant. One can either be an inclusive American and value the rights of all it's citizens or blitz krieg homes into parking lots. If you choose the tank so be it. We will oppose, rally, vote, and defeat you.

1. If people don't like living next to a parking lot, they can move. The lot is perfectly legal. It isn't a crackhouse or some other public menace.

2. D'Youville has bought houses in the area for twice their assessed value. The idea that people can't afford to live anywhere else is demonstrably false -- the school would be happy to cut them a nice fat check.

3. The idea that D'Youville students abandon the area after classes aare over is also false. They live in the neighborhood -- in the apartments on Connecticut, in Marguerite Hall, and in homes within a several block radius. Many an owner-occupied double has its mortgage paid by the rent of a D'Youville student.

4. "There is a right to citizen self determination. It is a central thesis and principle of our constitution and if you can't see that you are totally blind." No, you're making this up. If you actually believe the nonsense you're saying, file a lawsuit claiming that the school violated the constitution by building a parking lot on land that it owns. Let's see how long it takes before you're laughed out of court.

5. D'youville is a growing institution that anchors the neighborhood by bringing in new money and new people.

6. You're still nuts.