The Central Terminal Neighborhood Association (CTNA) and Greater Eastside Block Club Fields of Dreams Buffalo recently came together to discuss the potential of a new City of Buffalo Animal Shelter at the former Plewacki Post, 379 Paderewski Drive.
After years of discussions, and identifying a potential new location on Niagara Street that never came to fruition, the City of Buffalo continues to weigh its options. In order to further advance the cause, Mayor Sean Ryan established the Buffalo Animal Shelter Advisory Committee, which will help to determine the real and practical potential of the shelter in years to come.
In the meantime, CTNA and Greater Eastside Block Club Fields of Dreams Buffalo are getting ahead of the game. They recently met to draft a proposal to the CIty, pushing for a significant investment to be made into the neighborhood – an investment that would ultimately better serve the animals that are stuck at the 30 year old Oak Street shelter, living in inadequate conditions. This is summation that the two organizations came up with:
Together, our organizations call upon the City of Buffalo and its partners to:
Locate the new City of Buffalo Animal Shelter at the former Plewacki Post, while designing it as more than a conventional shelter. Community activities and meeting space, affordable spay/neuter and vaccination services, animal training classes, a cat cafe, pet food pantry, and other public-facing uses can make this a truly mixed-use center of community life.
Personally, I think that it’s great that neighborhood organizations make these types of pitches to the City. After all, it’s all about putting the various pieces of the puzzle together. If they have identified a suitable building, in a neighborhood that could use a substantial investment, then why not broadcast the message outwards, instead of simply talking about the potential internally? I love the idea that the Animal Shelter can be a more rounded out facility, with all sorts of symbiotic amenities that could be of benefit the at-risk animals as well as animal lovers.
Of course funding will eventually be at the heart of the decision. But when great plans are hatched, sometimes the funding follows.