Meet Ed Hogle. He’s the owner of Atlas Steel and EB Iron Art. Hogle either owns, leases, or has an option to buy over 30 acres on and around Tonawanda Street.In the past, Hogle had proposed a home for sex offenders on Tonawanda, that was subsequently shot down by the City. “Look,” Hogle says, “I have ten kids, and frankly, the thought of child molesters sickens me, but the more I looked into it, and found out they were living all over the city, the more it made sense that parolees be kept in one supervised area, with ankle bracelets.…
Author: JohnInCambridge
Why wait for death before rebirth? Though this concept isn’t one his religion beliefs for humans, it certainly holds appeal for Reverend Drew Ludwig where his church building is concerned. Ludwig, a regular BR contributor and reverend of Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, has plans for the reconfiguration and reuse of his church building, while his congregation lives on.Simply put, Ludwig’s congregation will be unaffected, while the 60,000 sq. ft. church will sustain its own costs through the renovation of two-thirds of the building into 21 apartments.”I love this church, both the architectural church building and the people that make it up,” Ludwig…
Talk about giving of yourself. Last Sunday, over 100 UB students, faculty and staff met at Hamburg Beach to brave the icy waters of Lake Erie for “Freezin’ for a Reason,” a stunt designed to raise money for Special Olympics New York.We caught up with Max Bacher from Orchard Park, a pre-med senior at the University at Buffalo, who went out the furthest and stayed out the longest. Max (top image, right), hardly needed to paint his body blue to show his UB colors, as he ended up that way anyway after his 5-minute wade into the chilly lake.”We went out to…
Back from a cruise, Sal Zambito and Tim Sick had a chance to catch up with BR concerning their wish to purchase the Fairfield Library from the City of Buffalo and restore it. They are the private developers who were mentioned in last week’s post on the Fairfield, but their names were withheld pending their return to town and confirmation.Zambito and Sick say they are “certainly interested in doing business again” with regard to the former library. “We’re interested in making a single family home with an in-law apartment,” Sick says. “Using the main building as the main home,laid out…
Joan and Joyce Zoerb, owners of Neo Gift Gallery, have an uncanny knack for filling their shop at 512 Elmwood Avenue with the most unique and sought after gifts, decorations, apparel, and so much more. In fact, a look inside is almost like a real-time trip through an I Spy book – filled with every little thing you want and some things you may not have even been aware off. When planning a trip there, be prepared to spend some time in Neo.The key to the wide inventory of unique and beautiful things, according to Joyce, is her twin sister Joan’s…
Today is the long awaited deadline, when the Olmsted Parks Conservancy is supposed to receive a term sheet from the City of Buffalo that will tell their fate for the coming year. But when Chair of the Board of Directors for the Olmsted Parks Conservancy David Colligan, called the office of Buffalo Corporation Counsel Brendan Mahaffey, he was told that Mahaffey is in Ireland and can’t be reached.These new terms between the City and the Olmsted Parks Conservancy come into question as the City accepts control of the Olmsted Parks this December 31st from the County of Erie, as proposed…
Everyone is for saving historic buildings, reusing historic churches and restoring historic parks, but what about a place that holds not only history, but the people who helped to make it? Concordia Cemetery is the final resting place for thousands of early residents of Buffalo, including over 450 war veterans of which 125 are Civil War veterans. Currently there are over 16,800 people in the 15 acres that forms Concordia. One of the oldest cemeteries in Western New York, it opened in 1859–two years before Abraham Lincoln became president, to give you an idea of how long ago that really…
It’s as if Extreme Makeover: Home Edition pushed the button on what we already had: volunteerism and a will to improve neighborhoods. Building on the momentum of Extreme Makeover, city and resident volunteers worked side by side yesterday to complete additional projects on Massachusetts Avenue corridor. The projects worked on Wednesday included major improvements to three community gardens, the construction of a new entrance to a city park, and the stabilization and mothballing of eight vacant properties. City departments contributing to the workday include Streets and Sanitation, Public Works and the Mayor’s Impact Team. AmeriCorps members from the Father Belle…
The Fairfield Library in North Buffalo has been standing vacant since 2005. Owned by the City, the former church-turned-library was passed up for a Restore New York grant the City applied for earlier in the year, and it looked like the slowly decaying structure would have to be saved by a private entity. That posed another set of problems, as the last assessment was done over 2 years ago, but the price tag of $75K has stood firm. See this Buffalo Rising post from Steel in July of 2008, in which he asks the question: Is This One Doomed Too?A…
Concord will manufacture new, innovative green products and equipment for the garment care industry, generating 80 new jobs with an average salary of $36,000. Concord Textile Care Products, Inc. will invest $1.14 million to renovate and equip an 88,000 square foot building at 144 Urban Street (at Kehr) in Buffalo to manufacture the company’s line of green “wet-cleaning” products, which will eliminate hazardous materials such as Perchloroethylene (“PERC”). Renovation of the building, which has been vacant for years, is expected to be complete by summer 2010. The new company, a partnership between Toronto businessman Boris Dawudian and Michael Quarcini of…