Should the city have a better housing demolition strategy?

   In the eyes of many, there's no bigger threat to Buffalo's neighborhoods.

   The 800-pound gorilla they speak of is the city's vacant housing problem, a crisis that already has claimed large sections of the East Side and now seems headed to the West Side, Black Rock-Riverside and Buffalo's first-ring suburbs.

   Is City Hall equipped to deal with this problem?

   So far, the city's response has been to tear down houses. The goal is 5,000 in five years.

   But is that enough to save these neighborhoods from further decay, or is it simply a quick fix?

   It's no secret that many of these vacant homes are a haven to crime and that neighbors often plead for their demolition.

   It also is true that many experts see the city's demolition effort as short-sighted and destined to fail because it lacks vision on what to do with the nearly 7,000 to 8,000 properties City Hall will likely own by the end of this year.

   Is the city wise to focus on "stopping the bleeding," as one city official called it?

   Or does the city need to do more, most notably rehabilitating more than the seven vacant houses it now averages each year?

   - Phil Fairbanks

Comments

[takethemwithyou]

Karen, The landlords are NOT the problem. The slob tenants are. Do you think the tenants would actually rent a home if it were not habitable? Make them pay the taxes if they still want to live in a clean home or a subsidized home. Maybe that investment will help them care if they destroy anothers home rented through kindness or not. Or just send them all to Ft. Wayne and send the clean folk back to our city. You can keep the pigs at Ft. Wayne who want new but won't clean new or old.

[Karen]

oops...make that
http://www.rpointe.com

[Karen]

The city of Ft Wayne is helping home owners buy brand new homes, or renovate existing ones, through low interest mortgages, loans and grants. They have taken a bad area of town, torn down some homes that would cost more to fix up than they were worth, and are replacing them with new ones. I think the site is http:/rpointe.com
If it isn't, google renaisance pointe Fort Wayne Indiana for info.
I don't know if it'll go, but the housing designs and models are very nice, and very affordable. Maybe Buffalo should get tougher on absentee landlords, start seizing property, tearing down crack houses, and starting neighborhoods all over again.

[Pigstys]

As long as we subsidize low income renters the homes that they rent will be destroyed since the "renter" has no value of investment in them. If they cared a single bit about where they lived by keeping it clean and the outside kept up we would not have this problem. It is much easier to blame the absentee landlords who initially provided a lovely home to these pigs who destroy other people's properties because the pigs feel entitled not only to a cheap place to stay but one that the landlord has to maintain to their liking if and when they please. They don't feel compelled to keep up the property "because it isn't theirs" and sometimes don't bother to pay rent or leave without paying the landlord before he knows they have even left. Buffalo has let the low income population move into neighborhood after neighborhood slowly destroying once beautiful areas all under the umbrella of needing help yet fail to "pay back" society by even living as clean and decent neighbors. Maybe if people had to work for the same benefit as others they would appreciate it more but if you subsidize it, count on it being boarded up down the road. My bet is the exodus in Buffalo is partly because no one wants to live with the pigs. Some will complain they are low income and cant afford to keep up property but I hear water and soap are cheap these days.

[lanres]

Tear down the vacant death traps - reinstate a "Home-stead program" on those that can be rehabbed. People who "Home-stead" should have to live in the home they get for a minimum of 5 years - and be limitted to one purchase.

[Poor Richard]

In the wake of the news that UB has made an offer to purchase the McCarley Gardens Apartments and demolish them (over 150 units of OCCUPIES and UP TO CODE units of low income housing). Why divert our attention away from real issues of displacement toward tearing down abandoned board ups. SHAME ON YOU BUFFALO NEWS. Obviously you are covering up UBs tracks.

[R.F.M.]

People fear change, like the changes that are occuring in Buffalo. Change, in this instance, can manifest itself in many ways like the loss of memories of where you grew up, loss of an old neighborhood, and a sense of being part of or belonging (past or present). While change brings uneasiness and uncertainy, change is needed to keep up with the present and to prepare for the future. Right now is an emotional time for Buffalonians who are witnessing the falling of "their" city. Whether you still live in Buffalo or you now live elsewhere, Buffalo, the Buffalo we all used to know is still a part of us. As other have stated, cities go thru cycles of prosperity and disparity. Unfortunately, this low point of the cycle is now where Buffalo is at. As you would be taught in any addiction class, there is a step process that we must all endure. Denial, anger, data gathering, understanding, acceptance, and involvement. Yes our loss of these beautiful old homes is painful, but not every home will be demolished. From the dust will arise prized historic neighborhood districts that will still have old homes that will get snapped up and renovated to their former glory commanding top dollar, while leveled neighborhoods that were too far gone to repair and that became breeding grounds for drugs, and deviates will be gone, giving way to nice, new energy efficent homes with larger yards and less people per city block than industrial Buffalo. could ever offer. Gone is the abesteos, lead based paint, and delapitation that once resided in many communities. The sun will shine a little brighter for those who remain and with this rebirth, people will want to come to a shiney new city that still has kept in touch with its past history and the cycle will then swing to the age of prosperity once again. Embrace your mayor as a leader with vison, Mayor, embrace your city's history, Together, Buffalo will be Talking Proud and once again become the City of Good Neighbors! Just give it time.

[better days]

There is no easy solution to most of Buffalo's problems. I left over 10 years ago, and I thought it was bad then. I have read a few of the headlines over the last few weeks and I guess it got a lot worse there over the last decade. Cross burnings???????? Tearing down a house is a quick fix that keeps druggies looking for another empty house, but it does not help that neighborhood as there will just bet an empty lot of weeds (see Detroit). If Buffalo keeps losing population at the rate it has for the last 50 years the city better start tearing down houses like it's going out of style.

[zanna vaida]

Time has changed and housing around downtown Buffalo needs new development. This project was long overdue and the Mayors before Brown either ignored or postponed the issue becausep public projects are usually slow and take for ever to complete.

If I were a present mayor, instead of selling cheap land, I would shut down one block at a time, cleaned it, and built new housing communities around Buffalo. I would make one step at a time.

It's time for old houses to go. It's time for new development around downtown to grow.

Isn't cheaper to build a new house instead of rehab an old one over and over?

[Tom Zarek]

The cost of rehab is often 60k-100k per house. The average price of a house in Buffalo is far less. Also, the city is losing population. The only problem with the demo program is that it is too slow and not tearing down enough of the old houses. Like the mythological phoenix, it is time to tear down the dead city and raise a new one from the ashes.