Old vs New - The Saga of the Peace Bridge Houses

My grandmothers were about the same age, but led different lifestyles and had opposite opinions when it came to the subject of old versus new.

On one side of the family, that grandmother enjoyed rescuing antiques and refinishing them to their former glory. Interestingly enough,that grandfather enjoyed emerging technologies and they had an early color television., even though they were not wealthy. They respected the role of their past, but were not adverse to looking towards the future.

On the other side, my paternal grandfather was very, very frugal. This translated into that grandmother using a wood-burning stove into the 1970's. While it may horrify those into all things rustic, as soon as that grandfather died, grandma threw out that stove, along with the wringer washer, and other way out-dated appliances.  They represented "old", and she was eager to move on. No nostalgia there, because for her, it had not been an option.

Sometimes it seems that the current and long standing debate about the Peace Bridge area and the houses that have been left to rot is a lot like that...those who see beauty in things and places that have existed before the current generation (or early in one's own life), and those who have nothing but scorn for all things that are not shiny new, like they had been forced to wear second hand or homemade clothes growing up and are now hell bent on being consumers of the new, no matter what the price in heritage or real dollars.

All of that brings me to the saga of the Peace Bridge houses. I totally get that people outside the City may not care, either because it's not their backyard, or because thinking about anything city related brings stress (real or imagined). What I don't understand is outright hostility by some. If they're in the construction industry and are hoping jobs come their way instead of to out of state companies (as is likely), they have a stake in this, but most don't.

Let me reframe this in a manner that the people along Route 219 or anywhere near the airport already understand. Say that you live in a house that is located somewhere in the vicinity of a thruway or an airport or whatever, that may have had some distant disadvantages, but the pluses outweighed them. Everything could even have been peachy-keen with no storm clouds in sight, for that matter. Suddenly a government entity comes sniffing around.

This here "Authority" has decided to build, expand, or do something that will drastically alter the complexion of your neighborhood. The home that has been in the family for generations, or the historical treasure that you have lovingly restored, or the dream new build, or the merely comfortable home that you have come to love, is threatened. What now?

Selling out to the powers that be is probably not even an offered option. Selling it anyone at all is now problematic. The disruption, pollution, and what have you will now destroy your neighborhood and there's not a whole lot you can do about it but protest, and try to force people to listen and to imagine that it can happen to them...because it can.

Government can use eminent domain or the stealth approach, where it buys out properties that are in the way and proceeds through outright demolition or allowing decrepitation until some neighbors buckle under the stress, but the results are the same. The process can take many years, and for just as many years the interested parties keep going at it, while those on the "outside" roll their eyes and call out seemingly oppositional terms like "obstructionists" and "economic development", like they think preservation and progress can't go hand in hand.

In a (very large) nutshell, that's what the conflict about the Peace Bridge houses is about (that, and taxpayer dollars being used for private gain aka the Duty-Free store). This picture, which I just blatantly borrowed from Facebook, is version of the undercover proposed plans. Notice the Hutchinson Chapel being rendered inaccessible:

To quote from the Campaign 4 Greater Buffalo "There are alternatives. The neighborhood can be restored, the Peace Bridge can have more inspection booths and smoother flow, and everything can be linked to an enhanced waterfront and rebuilt Porter Avenue."

Where does it stop?  It CAN happen to you.

Rally for Prospect Hill (name of Peace Bridge area) Part II tonight at the Armory Restaurant (a former silent movie house until 1916), 311 Connecticut Street 6-7:30pm...come, listen, and learn!

771 Busti (part 2), A House by the Peace Bridge

Quite a while back I wrote about the Wilkeson House at 771 Busti, along with several other homes. They were purchased (after some browbeating and implicit threats) by the Peace Bridge Authority in order to build a parking lot, and then left to rot. So, of course they are vacant, boarded up, and deteriorating! That was part of the plan!

In 1980 771 Busti was lived in and loved...

...by 1996 it had been bought and boarded, with others soon to follow, and the rest is history, but not the good kind....A few weeks ago the chain link fences went up...

Just looking at the property records, it seems that there was quite the turnover in the effected houses starting in the late 80's to people who then sold out...wonder if they knew something in advance? No way of proving it, and real estate speculation is as old as the land the PBA covets.

Speaking of which, down at the end of the block at the corner of Busti and Massachusetts sits the former Episcopal Nursing Home.

Not all that long ago it was filled with people...than unfounded rumors started that the place was going to go down along with the houses. People panicked and didn't chose for their loved ones to reside there. Others moved while they still had a choice. Soon the owners were all stressed and declared they had to close...well...they managed to build a spanking new place out in the 'burbs, although I don't think many, if any, of their former residents followed.

And then they waited, and waited, waited for the buy-out that never came.  Meanwhile they quit paying on loans, taxes, and other financial things specific to that building.  But then the governor tossed some $15 mil in a Peace Bridge related pot and said use this for whatever (wink wink)...Wow...that just about covers any liens and a good chunk of demolition (people who think demo's don't cost any taxpayer money are sadly deluded)...Coincidence? I think not.

To the rescue came Mayor Byron Brown...thank you Mayor...urging restraint, however temporary that may be. Also, the Campaign 4 Greater Buffalo rode in and obtained a court order for a stay of execution, pending further review. Thanks!  What I would like to see is the PBA be held liable for the dereliction of the houses and ordered to restore them. I won't hold my breath though.

I still worry about the Hutchinson Chapel too, connected to the Episcopal Home by a walkway...

Supposedly it will be saved, but moved. It's historic where it is, not somewhere else! Building the shiny new duty free store around it might be awkward though...sort of like Trico Plant#1 being built around the Weyand Brewery.  Maybe they'll move it next to its mother church, St. Mary's on the Hill...oh, wait...City took care of that already...maybe on the vacant lot where it once was. Meanwhile the Episcopal Church, one time owner of all, looks at the sky and whistles off key...

Despite what the unknowledgeable prefer to believe, there are a lot of beautiful sections of the City of Buffalo, some large and others small. Prospect Hill (the name of the area) is one of them...for now anyway.  By the time the PBA gets done it'll be a big parking lot and another duty free store. Is that number 3 or 4? The last one they built is only 7 years old...

...but that's considered progress, Buffalo-Style.

Discards - Part 1

Lately it has been stated via various sources that there are 12,000 vacant houses in the City of Buffalo. While not necessarily saying that the number is wrong, I'm somewhat curious as to how that figure was generated. Tax bills being returned as "undeliverable" may have an incorrect mailing address, as much due to an input error as unforwardable for whatever reason (those mechanical sorters are just soooo efficient *sarcasm*).  There are many homes with unpaid taxes that have people living in them, and many vacant buildings that are paid in full (one way around massive attention from inspectors/housing court for "investors").  Was a hand count done? Does it include apartments buildings/former hotels/rooming houses? Business type buildings?

Whichever method was employed, whatever the number, there are undeniably many vacant houses, and many vacant lots that used to have a home on them. Back in the early 1900's there were houses crammed into every available green space except in the more well-to-do enclaves (and where Olmsted carved out territory).

There were those with a storefront where the proprietor and family lived upstairs.  There were doubles that people built so family members could be close, not to rent to strangers.  Cottages were stuck behind larger homes as a place to live while building the main house, later for family or income. There were houses slapped up by factory/business owners so that employees could live nearby, transportation not being what it is today. Either they were rented or sold to the workers, with payments coming out of paychecks.  No one ever thought that they would still be standing more than 100 years later, but they are. That's not even getting into all hotels thrown up to house people during the Pan-Am Exposition that later turned into apartment/rooming houses, or those built expressly to rent to the masses.

Not everyone raced to the suburbs as a symbol of better financial circumstances, or to escape the "big, bad city" and its ever changing occupants (aka "those people" who could be a different race, ethnic group, religion, and just plain different).  Many times it was like a rolling wave as city planners in their "wisdom" declared vibrant areas "slums" in a bid to clear away the less well off with funds garnered via Urban Renewal to create "shovel ready" sites.  A still well-known mayor cleared out his entire childhood neighborhood, perhaps to erase the roots of his humble beginnings, perhaps to also show he wasn't being prejudiced when the black neighborhood was mowed down to...perhaps a little of both...near downtown don't ya know, and the powers that were wanted people downtown, just not those less fortunate people.

Housing projects were planned as a substitute (whoopee) and those that didn't like it could just leave, and so they did. Usually they just moved a bunch of blocks over to a different area, but in the process, people who were already there then also moved to a new neighborhood, and so it went, with spillover to the suburbs.  The I190 threw areas into disarray and the Expressways Kensington and Scajaquada ripped the heart out of some more. And then there were the riots that cleared out some more.  Many reasons, same results.

That's a lot of places that people called "home" and filled with their hopes, dreams, and later, their memories. Now many are abandoned or neglected, the discards.

More tomorrow....

St. Mary's on the Hill - The End

Somewhere someone is smirking, fully delighted that St. Mary's on the Hill is finally gone...Hey jerk, you can retire now...Yep, a lot more damage has been done since these pictures were taken a few days ago...

Once concern was documented that the rectory...that roof way in back to the right (above)...was in hazardous condition...

...the bulldozers were out in force knocking down...the church......and then the school...

...before finally getting to the rectory. No reuse plan good enough for naysayers, no investigation into the feeble handoff from one slumlord to another...Well, there were a few of those...good intentions, bad intentions (no, I didn't forget who gutted the interior), same results... Maybe someone has big plans.  Maybe make a duty-free on that corner, sell it to the PBA, or better yet, a parking lot for the armory people....nothing against the armory, understand!

The Connecticut Street Armory is right next door, which was rebuilt after a fire...lived a few blocks away when that happened....a little suspense wondering if there were explosives inside...

The remains of the bell tower from a different angle....(yes, I like those window-framed shots)...

More photos from Tuesday evening here...I was fortunate to be there at the same time as Stan and Beth, so I walked around a bit more than I may have on my own. If you ever wondered what a gutted church looks like...

Curious that there's no word from any of the former parishioners.  Maybe they were all in their 90's and their grandkids could care less.  Maybe they did the grief thing in 1995 when it closed and don't want to look back.  Turned the Church Home and Hutchinson Chapel on Rhode Island and Busti out to pasture too, with no grass...How cold.

Pity no one ever told all the people who gave their blood, sweat, and tears to build beautiful places of worship that in the future the church "leaders" would scoff at their efforts...."it's only a building"...

Pictures from a few years ago, through the demo of the bell tower in pouring rain to the above pictures are here, also with a link on the side.  I'll probably be adding a few more from the Memorial/Protest Art-In tomorrow morning, so check back.

Until then, hum along with the Doors...this is The End...