If the new sign ordinance has not outright banned these elevated free standing pole signs in the city, it should. They add nothing in the urban environment and at best take away from the smaller human scaled features around them.
“Once you try it, you’ll know what ‘Indian’ is. And you’ll be back,” Singh promised....Indian Grill will serve Indian-American “fusion” dishes in a casual atmosphere at affordable prices, he said; “casual” and “affordable” are qualities that his Quiznos customers have told him they desire....“It’s Indian food made to the taste of Americans; it’s not bland, but it’s not too spicy. ... And, believe me, it’ll be heaven for vegetarians,” he said.
And it's short.
If someone is standing on the side of the road, talking rather loudly into my car telling me I will suffer for an eternity if I don't believe in the same thing as he does, is that a hate crime, or at the very least criminal harassment?
With all the troubles in the world today, it's nice to know that we have some hardworking members of the Amherst Town Board are looking out for your children, and protecting them from the evil Chuck E. Cheese. (I debated for a while if I was going to put a link up to the violence and filth peddlers Chuck E Cheese, but I figured that we are mostly adults here, and we know how to limit our exposure from such mind destroying products that they push on our unsuspecting youngins.)
Council Member Shelly Schratz said she was disturbed by several “action-packed shoot-and-kill games...When I see 6-year-olds, 8-year-olds playing those games, when all the time we’re opening the paper and seeing those stories on youth violence, do we need those games to make money?"
Schratz — who was the first to express concern about the appropriateness of the business’s arcade games — tried to change her vote after the fact and table the resolution.“I should have—and I didn’t — just table it from the start,” she said. “But I thought if I brought to the board’s attention the information about the games that I saw, that people would comment. But they didn’t.”
The city is asking Niagara County for $100,000 to help launch a Wine Emporium on Canal Street.
On behalf of Beautiful Visions LLC, the city earlier this month filed an application for a Niagara River Greenway grant to complete the purchase and furnishing of 79 Canal St.
Beautiful Visions, a separate company by J. Fitzgerald Group partners Jack Martin and Carmel Cerullo-Beiter, would rent the building to Margo Bittner’s Appleton Creek Winery LLC as a satellite winery.
According to Martin, the Wine Emporium would sell all Niagara County-produced wines and a host of other locally grown and created goods....Mayor Michael Tucker vouched for the project in the grant application, writing in a support letter that the emporium would be the “stimulus to entice other businesses” to the Canal Street block. GLDC has showed 79 Canal to several prospective buyers but is holding them off in the hope Beautiful Visions goes for the purchase; it has “first dibs” at the moment, he said, because its proposal satisfies two GLDC goals — recruiting retail and increasing downtown’s tourist appeal.
A proposed Lockport retail outlet that would sell Niagara County-produced goods, pegged by supporters as a potential center for tourists interested in the county’s Wine Trail, failed to receive the endorsement of the Niagara River Greenway Commission this week.
By a 6-4 vote, the commission found the Canalside Wine Emporium proposal did not meet the goals of a 2007 master plan for a Buffalo-to- Youngstown recreational trail along the Niagara River.
The Greenway Commission holds no power to award funding, but its denial raises roadblocks for the project receiving any share of the $9 million in annual funding dedicated to Greenway projects....Initially, the proposal from Beautiful Vision LLC called for the property at 79 Canal St. to be privately owned. The project, as presented Tuesday, had been changed — the City of Lockport would now maintain ownership of the building....The project will still move forward, and other funding sources will be sought, he said. Sponsors had been seeking $100,000 in Greenway funds for acquisition costs, according to their initial application.
Applicants who fail to receive commission endorsement are free to resubmit their plans, said Rob Belue, the commission’s executive director.
Some of the commissioners deemed the project inconsistent because they believed the project’s location was outside the boundaries of the Greenway, as well as the location having limited connections to the Niagara River, though some who voted in favor considered the project to have sufficient geographic ties with the Greenway....Lockport Mayor Michael W. Tucker said he was angered by the commission’s vote, but said the project will move forward. The city’s development agency, Greater Lockport Development Corp., might spend $100,000 of its own money to fix up the building and then sell it to Beautiful Visions, he said.
“There were some great projects, but ours was the best,” Tucker said of the projects reviewed by the Greenway Commission on Tuesday.
Greater Lockport Development Corp. is taking action to ensure the Wine Emporium opens on Canal Street this summer.
GLDC’s board of directors this week approved spending the money to outfit 79 Canal St. as a satellite winery/marketplace for all locally produced goods. The agency will pay the tab for having the building interior finished, then lease or sell it to the company that pitched the Wine Emporium.
“Finally, we’ll have something on the block, and it’s the right thing,” Mayor Michael Tucker, GLDC president, said Friday.
Beautiful Visions, a separate company by J. Fitzgerald Group partners Jack Martin and Carmel Cerullo-Beiter, pitched the Emporium as a showcase for products created in Niagara County....Martin will negotiate with GLDC principals next week regarding whether his company will lease or purchase the improved building from GLDC...It’s using money from its revolving loan fund, which is considered private, not public, cash, [Attorney John Ottaviano] said. The agency may use the contractors that Martin already obtained estimates from.
A local winery owner plans to open a store selling Niagara County farm products exclusively, while the man who first broached the idea charges he was double-crossed.
Mayor Michael W. Tucker told the Greater Lockport Development Corp. board Thursday that the Canalside Wine Emporium is to open next year at 79 Canal St., a building owned by the city corporation.
Margo S. Bittner, owner of the Winery at Marjim Manor in Appleton, will be in charge, and her employee, Sara Capen of Newfane, will manage the store.
Jack Martin, owner of J. Fitzgerald Group, a Lockport ad agency, is out of the picture, Tucker said.
An angry Martin said, “I’ve spent eight months trying to do something for the city, and I’m done. We’re going to focus on our own business.”
He blasted Bittner for allegedly stealing his idea and going to the city with a proposal after Martin’s talks with the city broke down.
Martin said, “Margo’s name is pretty muddy around the area, and this is how she deals. She runs over people.”...Bittner said, “I guess everyone’s got their own opinion. I am quite frankly looking forward to working with the other wineries and the other businesses I have good relations with.”
“I’ll put our reputation up against anyone else involved in this debacle,” Martin said.
He and his ad agency partner, Carmel Cerullo-Beiter, came up with the idea of a retail store selling the wines produced in Niagara County and other local farm products. At first, their idea was to place it at 16 W. Main St., a storefront owned by J. Fitzgerald Group, two doors from the ad agency.
Bittner’s firm was asked to be the lead winery and to enlist the support of other members of the Niagara Wine Trail. Capen already manages Bittner’s satellite outlet, the Kempville Wine Shop in Olcott, and was to manage the Lockport store, too.
Martin then became interested in 79 Canal St., above the Erie Canal locks, but things started to come unglued May 19....The city’s development corporation then tried to work with Martin’s group on the project. But that went awry, too.
Martin said he had a verbal agreement with the city to buy the property for $95,000, but after a June 8 closed-door development agency meeting, the deal was substantially altered and became more expensive.
The city was to sell the property to Martin for $108,000, after a three-year lease with a balloon payment at the end. Martin also thought the property would be tax-exempt for five years, but it wasn’t.
“It’s kind of like the Wizard of Oz. We could never find out who was behind the curtain,” Martin said Thursday.
Tucker said, “I think the [development agency] board bent over backwards for Jack. The project kept changing. They didn’t have a business plan. They didn’t have any projections. They know Jack, or know of Jack, and his success in business and his desire to help our community. If John Q. Public had come in with the same proposal Jack had, he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere, but they had confidence in Jack.”
The negotiations foundered, and Martin decided to open the store at 16 W. Main after all. Bittner didn’t like that news; she said, “I think Canal Street is ideal.”
On June 22, she e-mailed Martin, “I was very surprised to read in the newspaper that the Emporium will be opening on Main Street. Which winery are you working with? By the way, before you use the name, you need to know that I have trademarked ‘Canalside Wine Emporium.’ ”
By July 7, Martin had learned that Bittner and Capen approached the city for a new Canal Street deal. “Unscrupulous,” Martin termed it.
Tucker said Thursday that the city has applied for another Greenway grant, this one $200,000. The city will keep the money to hire a contractor to make both floors of 79 Canal ready for occupancy, while Bittner works on obtaining a liquor license, which she said will take three or four months....Bittner said the Greenway commission is supposed to vote on the grant Sept. 22.
View Wineries in Buffalo Niagara - Niagara Wine Trail in a larger map
Interactive Niagara Wine Trail Google Map taken from the Visit Buffalo Niagara Plotted Theme Maps.
I found this today during lunch and thought I'd share. Map based mashups are very useful from tracking crime to pointing out tourist stops. Hopefully more local entities will find their way to using them in the future.
Hopefully the Wine Emporium can be added to this map next summer.
...for new 8 million dollar facility next to original facility off Main St. in DT after 2 years of design and fundraising. Unfortunately it is the one in Hornell, NY not Lockport. I wonder why the process for our wonderful facility "expansion" isolated 2 miles away behind a soon to be vacated Wal-Mart is moving so slow? ;) Maybe a grander vision building off the recent growth in DT would inspire people and move it a little faster? I'm a little closer to getting the hypothetical DT Lockport site plans. Stay tuned.
Hornell YMCA Expansion Site Plans
Interactive Map of Hornell Location:
View Larger Map
Buffalo News Article
New small businesses in parts of Niagara County’s three cities will have a chance at tax breaks normally reserved for the big boys, under terms of a new policy at the Industrial Development Agency. At the County Legislature’s request, the IDA worked out a plan for “opportunity zones,” which gives eligible businesses five years of exemption from all property taxes.
In Niagara Falls, the opportunity zones are along Main and Niagara streets and Pine and Highland avenues. Peter Kay, the city’s director of economic development and planning, said under the IDA’s criteria, the zones could have been “practically the whole city, because it was [distressed] census tracts and census tracts adjacent to them. Even DeVeaux Woods would have qualified.” So Niagara Falls decided to limit the zones, too.
“By throwing the whole city into the mix, it would actually harm the intent, because people who were on those [designated] streets could say, ‘I want to go down near the water and I’ll get all these tax breaks,’ ” Kay said.
In Lockport, Tucker isn’t limiting the available areas, but he’s hoping the opportunity zones will help him fill Harrison Place, the former auto parts plant at Walnut and Washburn streets that the city owns after foreclosing on the previous owner.
“I think it certainly can’t hurt,” said Tucker, who also is vice chairman of the IDA. “In these tough times I think it gives us an edge.”
The LUSJ is reporting that I will continue to be spending my grocery money in Erie County for at least another year.
Legal papers filed this past Monday with the Rochester-based Fourth Department, Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, show Smart Growth wants a rehearing on a portion of its earlier appeal to that court, which claims the town planning and zoning boards violated various laws by approving the Supercenter site plan and associated documents.
If the Fourth Department declines to recommend the waiver question to the Court of Appeals, Smart Growth may then appeal to the court directly. An attorney with knowledge of the process said Wednesday that Smart Growth didn’t have to ask the Rochester court for a referral, but in doing so is able to cause a lengthier delay in Supercenter development.And so it goes. If it has been kicked out and the confirmed by the appellate court how can they ask for another rehearing? Maybe the town would have it easier just changing the law in question? ;)
Mark Davison, a motions clerk for the Appellate Division, said the court is in its summer hiatus and won’t consider the case until September. He said the soonest a decision could be issued is Oct. 2.
Town Attorney Daniel E. Seaman said that although Wal-Mart hasn’t moved to complete its purchase of the Lockport Mall on South Transit Road and is not doing demolition work, the retailer is working behind the scenes to advance the project. “Everything will come together at once,” he predicted
Davison said further oral argument in the case will not be allowed. The judges will make their call based only on the papers submitted by Seaman and Smart Growth’s lawyers, Daniel A. Spitzer and Jill L. Yonkers of Buffalo’s Hodgson Russ firm.“If they find something they’re interested in, they’ll just run with it,” Yonkers said
The plaintiffs zeroed in on two aspects of the June 5 ruling. First, the Appellate Division ruled that there was no need for Wal-Mart to obtain a variance from the town’s rule that no more than 75 percent of a lot in its commercial corridor may be covered with buildings, parking lots or “other impervious surface areas.”
However, Smart Growth asserts that the town and Wal- Mart agreed such a variance was needed, but the town never actually granted it, and neither side submitted an argument about it to the court before June 5.
The other point is that the town’s waiver procedure, allowing the Planning Board to give applicants a pass on certain requirements of its Commercial Corridor Overlay District, confuses the functions of the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals.
In effect, the plaintiffs argue, such waivers are variances given by a board that lacks the power to grant variances, and thus, they violate state law. That’s why the Court of Appeals should take the case, Smart Growth asserts.
Alderman Patrick W. Schrader, D-4th Ward, said he’d like to see multiple dwellings and businesses pay more than ordinary homeowners for recycling. The only legal way to accomplish that is to establish a city garbage district, a proposal that has been floated occasionally for two decades
I was surprised by how encompassing Lockport's garbage pickup still is when I moved here. It is nice but is it the right thing to do, even from just a cost standpoint? The costs have to add up. Also, with how liberal the pickup standards are, I am always curious why people still find a reason to dump things in empty lots etc.Other committee members said they want to work on making recycling the more attractive option to property owners. The city has no limits on what, or how much, trash it will collect or who’s allowed to dump; until it does, they suspect, the majority won’t have any economic incentives to recycle. Whether it’s limiting the number of bags per property per week, or requiring every property use a set-size trash can, or limiting municipal pickup for residences only, not businesses or tax-exempt entities, the city’s approach to trash handling needs radical change, they said.
“Where else do you see sinks, couches, mountains of trash set out to the curb and know it’ll all be picked up? It’s like anything goes,” said Dawn Walczak, Niagara County director of environment/solid waste management. “Recycling looks way better (economically) when reduce and reuse go alongside it.”
Image - Backyard Sundial - Lockport in Bloom Garden Walk - Jul '09
The Buffalo News has an update on the quest of the Davidsons to restore Union Station.
Some select quotes:
State agencies have rejected three grant applications for restoration of the fire-ravaged Union Station, but the owner said Friday he’s determined it won’t be a case of “three strikes and you’re out.”
Mark Davidson, of Los Angeles, vowed that the $3 million project will be completed under his ownership. “I don’t care if I’m 75 years old,” said Davidson, who’s only 44.
Davidson said private investors have offered him money for a piece of the project, but so far he has turned them down.
“I don’t want to take any funds unless the grants go through,” he said.
Davidson said he and his wife, a Lockport native, are moving here in a couple of months and will enroll their three children, a 6-year-old daughter and 9-and 11- year-old sons, in Lockport public schools. They’ve already bought a house on East Avenue.
“It’ll be more hands-on,” said Davidson, who is retiring from his job as a set decorator in Hollywood studios. However, he said there are a few projects he still needs to finish, so he will commute coast-to- coast for a while.
Buffalo News has a lengthy but interesting article
on how the Yahoo deal got done and eventually ended up here in Lockport.
Some quotes:
Now, BNE could propose six sites, and Yahoo! requested a seventh because it had read news stories about HSBC Bank USA’s now-abandoned data center project in Cambria. Besides that property, BNE offered up Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park, Eastport Commerce Park at Walden Avenue and Pavement Road in Lancaster, Riverview Commerce Park in Tonawanda, Buffalo East Technology Park in Pembroke, Medina Business Park, and Lockport Industrial Park.
The Lockport site was actually the last on the tour, which is usually an insurmountable hurdle since a site team is exhausted. What helped was goodwill from another business located in the industrial park, Exel Logistics of Ohio, which welcomed the group into its conference room for refreshments.
“It was a terrible day. It was raining, and cold. It was mid afternoon, and they went into this conference room, and there were snacks and coffee and soft drinks,” Kenyon recalled. “That extension of hospitality, at that point in their visit to Western New York, made a real strong impression on them.”
Yahoo! wanted a lot of power, but for fewer than 125 jobs, Kessel said. It wouldn’t work using the formula of jobs-for-megawatts, but “those ratios just don’t hold in this economy.”The questions that remain is what will the City do to make the most of this? Can a grant be found to wire up DT along with the Yahoo! Site? What can we do to get these "high tech" software workers to want to live in the city and become vested in it? When they start to branch off into their own businesses how do we make sure they want to (and are able to) set up in the city? The seeds need to be sown now.
So, he “put that to the side.” He credits the Power Authority staff for getting Yahoo! to increase its jobs projection, but admits that “I would have done anything to get this deal done.”
Image: AltroPark - Free Outdoor Movie Series - Jul '09Movie showings are paid for by sponsors including Reality Check, Dr. Louis Surace, Eaton Medicine and Accurate Computer Service Inc.
The picture above shows "recent" graffiti in the Genesee area. It has been there for several weeks now since it was reported in the LUSJ that city hall was also the sprayed down. Several other properties were hit on Genesse alone though I don't recall the paper mentioning any of it besides city hall.
I've always been pleasantly surprised by the lack of graffiti in Lockport (except for maybe the parking garage). This is quite sad to see that not one of these instances have been cleaned up yet since they have happened and it is quite concerning considering the governmental function of keeping the city clean and safe. And not just actual safety but also perceived safety which affects a lot of people's decision of where they choose to live and how they treat the area they live in (broken window theory/demoralization). It has been demonstrated that these small things correlate with higher rates of more serious crime.
Nice.
The city’s long-postponed property reassessment probably won’t happen until 2011, Mayor Michael W. Tucker and acting Assessor Joseph Macaluso agreed last week.Before it happens, the city needs to hire a private company to carry out field work on every property, Macaluso said.
I just picture someone clicking "No" while muttering "Hey you kids, stop having fun".
At the risk repeating myself (if you read comments), I have to say that this years fireworks were VERY impressive. Much better than the past few years.
All the better reason to stop them now, right?
(sigh)
Erik.
Hello.
When the Union Sun & Journal forms closed, I decided to take up MJ's open offer when he started this blog, that he was always open for more posters. So, here I am.
So let me give you a quick introduction. I've lived in Lockport all my life (some 30+ years), and within the past few years, I've been lucky enough to work in Lockport as well. I have also lived in a few different sections of the city. I grew up during the days of a vibrant active Lockport Mall, and an empty field where WalMart is now. There have been a LOT of changes to Lockport throughout my life. Sadly, most of them have been in rather recent history. Sadly, because it took a long time for someone to try to bring Lockport out from under the rock that we had hidden ourselves in. So it's been rather exciting times for a lifer like myself.
As a matter of fact, what caused me to finally register to the US&J forum was so I could be one of the few supporters (at least on that forum) of the Flight of Five project. Having lived along the canal in the 'touristy' section of town, it's amazing to see how many people come to visit the canal, and any money spent to encourage people to come, and anything we can do to make sure they spend more time, is money well spent.
Enough with my babbling, thanks for putting up with me, and thanks to MJ for getting this all started.
Erik.
Image - Photo merge of Outwater Fireworks and Main St. Jul '09 Image above is from a walk last night and the fireworks on Sat. Not much scenery at Outwater Park to compose around so I had the idea last night to merge a firework shot with a DT night scene.
Image - Fireworks at Outwater Park - Lockport NY Jul '09
Image: Clinton Building at Main and Cottage - Jun '09On one of our walks I noticed quite a few new signs around the downtown area. The Clinton building is a nice example of old and new. The learning Edge and John Sansone Law Office both have new signs based off of one of the iterations of the new DT sign law. Both look nice though the size/form of the law office one doesn't really compliment the shape of the area where it is mounted. Nothing majorly wrong, just a small point to note.
Tom's existing sign, while gimmicky (juke box) and not "historically colored", is nicely sized, painted and mounted perpendicular to the building (my preference for urban signage). I think it works well.
Scrito's current sign is a byproduct of 1950's signage based off of cars zipping by non-descript buildings at 50 mph instead of the current 25 mph posted on Main St. It overbears the building and takes away from it along with looking cheap. I think 9 years are left to replace it under the current law ;)
I felt the current sign law was a little restrictive in laying out colors, limiting logo's etc. I feel the key to a tasteful sign is the quality of construction and the sign's scale to the building frontage. Signs like Tom's and Chet's are not very historic and maybe would not even pass under the current law but still look great. Creativity and branding should not be stifled for the business owners. 20' golden arches should be a no-no where as 3' ones on a sign should be OK. The Elmwood Village Guidelines in Buffalo lay this out very well. Perhaps I'll get around to posting something on them.
I'm curious to see what the Aaron's signage will look like at Walnut and S. Transit.
It appears the LUSJ forums have been discontinued. The forums return an error and there are no "comment on this" links in the articles at the main LUSJ site.
A temporary"oops"? Or has Tim had enough of our "input"? ;)
Old Kenyon's work as of 6/29
