Author: RaChaCha

RaChaCha is a Garbage Plate™ kid making his way in a Chicken Wing world. Since 2008, he's put over a hundred articles on here, and he asked us to be sure to thank you for reading. So, thank you for reading. You may also have seen his freelance byline in Artvoice, where he writes under the name his daddy gave him [Ed: Send me a check, and I might reveal what that is]. When he's not writing, RaChaCha is an urban planner, a rehabber of houses, and a community builder. He co-founded the Buffalo Mass Mob, and would love to see you at the next one. He represents Buffalo Young Preservationists on the Trico roundtable. If you try to demolish a historic building, he might have something to say about that. He is a proud AmeriCorps alum. Things you may not know about RaChaCha (unless you read this before): "Ra Cha Cha" is a nickname of his hometown. (Didn't you know that? Do you live under a rock?) He's a political junkie (he once worked for the president of the Monroe County Legislature), but we don't really let him write about politics on here. He helped create a major greenway in the Genesee Valley, and worked on early planning for the Canalway Trail. He hopes you enjoy biking and hiking on those because that's what he put in all that work for. He was a ringleader of the legendary "Chill the Fill" campaign to save Rochester's old downtown subway tunnel. In fact, he comes from a long line of troublemakers. An ancestor fought at Bunker Hill, and a relative led the Bear Flag Revolt in California. We advise you to remember this before messing with him in the comments. He worked on planning the Rochester ARTWalk, and thinks Buffalo should have one of those, too (write your congressman). You can also find RaChaCha (all too often, we frequently nag him) on the Twitters at @HeyRaChaCha. Which is what some people here yell when they see him on the street. You know who you are.

I’m forever grateful to a Rochester friend for key insights into gentrification a dozen years ago. At the time, I was working on a vision plan for her neighborhood, around the Susan B. Anthony House, just west of Nick Tahou’s of Garbage Plate fame. This intense, gray-haired woman had a fierce commitment to improving her neighborhood, once plagued by disinvestment and blight, without gentrifying it. Barbara Hoffman was also a Buffalo gal, Polonia raised, whose first job was at a Broadway-Fillmore department store. If you were involved in the short-lived Buffalo Neighborhood Alliance, and attended the Rochester field trip, you…

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It’s been a sad week at Buffalo Rising with the passing of Fausto. That four-legged bundle of energy was so much a part of the Buffalo Rising family, I once suggested he should have his own byline. The last time I saw him was at a summer meeting with “Queenseyes” (Newell Nussbaumer, co-founder and editor of Buffalo Rising). Because a former resident had a dog that was a noted escape artist, we have a soundly dog-safe, escape-proof backyard that can do double-duty as a dog park. I told Queenseyes that Fausto could come along and have the run of the…

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Throughout a year filled with its share of planning and development controversies, a very important planning effort has been quietly, without drama, moving right along in the background. In that way, it is not unlike its study springboard, Buffalo’s MetroRail system. In the three decades since it was built, MetroRail is perhaps most notable for being un-notable. Mostly underground, so literally out of sight, it keeps rolling day after day, largely on schedule, with only the occasional disruption in service – mostly due to deferred maintenance. For the most part, it works the way it’s supposed to, on time, reliably,…

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Note: This is the Fifth In a Series. If we remove the west end of the 198, what would the restored landscape look like? In the last installment, we looked at the feasibility of removal, and hopefully made that case. This post and the next will look at options for restoring the landscape along the creek west and east of Grant Street, along with a Scajaquada Drive. As throughout the series, we’ll look to Olmstedian principles and landscapes for inspiration and what the good folks at the UB School of Architecture and Planning call “precedent studies.” The last installment hinted…

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Note: This is the Fourth In a Series In this series, several times I’ve mentioned replacing the Scajaquada Expressway with a “Scajaquada Drive.” But did you know there was once an actual Scajaquada Drive, that was obliterated to create part of the expressway? There’s something ouroborosian about the idea of a drive replacing an expressway that replaced a drive. But as Buffalo knows from the Commercial Slip, sometimes things come full circle, and sometimes the past points the way to solving the problems of the present for a better future. Essentially that is what remaking the western end of the…

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Yesterday marked a homecoming of sorts for Sean Ryan. As founder of the Buffalo Neighborhood Stabilization Corporation (BNSC), PUSH Buffalo’s housing arm, he frequently found himself walking past 65 Grant Street, fretting about its dilapidating condition and blighting effect on the street. As Assemblyman, he found himself with the opportunity to be part of returning that building to productive use, after a long community effort we wrote about over the summer. Now, from his new offices, instead of keeping an eye on the building, he and his staff can provide eyes on the street. Before cutting the ribbon, Niagara District…

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This year’s devastating series of weather disasters, energized by warmest-ever ocean temperatures, may go down as a milepost on the path to a Frankenstein climate on the only planet most of us will ever call home. As we struggle to aid those most directly affected, environmental activist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben will be in Buffalo Friday to talk about how we can get ourselves out of this mess – if we can at all. His talk, “The Desperate Climate Fight: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Moment,” is a highlight of the Buffalo Humanities Festival. The last time McKibben was…

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Update: The “BuffaLovejoy” fundraiser to help this wonderful church repair its roof has been extended through October 21! Please see below for details. Hidden away on a side-street in the Lovejoy neighborhood is a treasure I could scarcely believe existed a month ago. I had to go see with my own eyes. As I walked down one of Lovejoy’s loveliest residential streets, with an uninterrupted tree canopy overhead, I thought surely I must have the address wrong. But then, looming up chock-a-block between houses was one of the most simply elegant and beautiful churches I have seen in Buffalo. I visited…

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Note: This is the third in a series. If the DOT’s plans for remaking the Scajaquada Expressway have given you a sinking feeling, you may be on the right track. As I pointed out in my first post of the series, one of the original park design concepts of Olmsted and Vaux was to put transverse roads in sunken ways through their parks. That might not completely screen out the visual, auditory, and olfactory impact of the road, but it did so enough that the cooperative mind of the park user could complete the illusion. After all, as Olmsted and…

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Note: This is the second in a series. Earlier installments are listed at the end. In considering whether the 198 corridor could be redesigned using Olmstedian principles, the easternmost end would seem to be the easiest. After all, the first half mile or so, from the 33 split to Parkside Avenue, was once Humboldt Parkway. So for the first half mile, simply eliminate the expressway, and return the parkway. All done planning. Good riddance, Robert Moses! Welcome back, Olmsted! If only it were that simple. Some have called for the same approach for the section of the 33 that also…

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