Consider this — In her article about local artist Shasti O’Leary Soudant, Karen Monaco relates the following suggestion:
One of her ideas to invigorate the Queen City is to raffle off
all of Buffalo’s unclaimed properties to artists nationwide. “There would
be an influx of population in this place that you would not believe.
Artists are inherently entrepreneurial right? They’re inherently creative and
they will make anything into anything else. This is a perfect city for that
because it has the infrastructure to support that kind of lifestyle.”
And then, in a post about the Arts Council Awards, written by Queenseyes, commenter PaulBuffalo writes:
Buffalo
needs creative arts solutions like Houston’s Project Row.
In addition, advertise and encourage artists to take over
run-down houses for $1 and dismiss the idea of shovel-ready land in the city.
There’s already too much of it with no plans for future use.
Beyond that, in an interview Elena Cala Buscarino did with Bernard Zyscovich, the architect and city planner said:
“…Look, you’ve lost almost half of your population, and you seem to have an administration who’s in the business of taking down buildings. It hasn’t reached critical mass, but people aren’t flocking in and investing in the city.”
Finally, check out this link to an abc news story, from STEEL.
So, what of it? We have the houses; let’s go for neighborhood density once again. Why not rebuild the city as a cultural mecca with pockets of young bohemians?