A post by Richard Florida (who I at times agree and disagree with) highlights what I think a lot of us feel. Drop the massive "Urban Renewal" schemes and instead focus on giving us the power to direct our own prosperity and growth:
...Needless to say, there aren’t any. The record of schemes to revive cities by assembling and remaking neighborhoods is littered with disastrous unintended consequences. People thrown of out their homes, neighborhoods destroyed, historic structures leveled, and the community fabric of too many once great cities ripped to shreds....
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...The most successful efforts of renewing old urban neighborhoods don’t come from top-down reclamation schemes but from organic, bottom-up, community-based efforts to strengthen and build on neighborhood assets. Many of today’s great urban neighborhoods from New York’s Greenwich Village to Boston’s North End to Columbus’s German Village were those where residents successfully blocked top-down renewal schemes.
Instead of handing over neighborhoods or even whole sections of cities to city hall or private developers, we’d be much better off enabling residents to take control of and build on community assets, engaging them in community-based organizations that can spearhead revitalization and build real quality of place...This is what I, and I believe a lot of others would like to see. A forward thinking plan to engage the residents in rebuilding and directing their own future. Help us by giving us the best chance at a decent return on investment (both direct and indirect) an in the long run we will give back to the city a healthier and larger tax base.
The city lacks a housing/taxation policy to turn around it's slow downward slide. Some risk needs to be taken to turn it around. Home owners will follow by taken bigger risks themselves in reshaping where they live.
34 comments:
Housing development and renevation is a multi layered problem. Consequently there is no simple fix.The housing core of the city has been deeply damaged by decades of bad decisions. Too many subdivided multi family dwelling have stripped the city of it's original identity. At the heart of the problem is the absentee landlord.They have no skin in our game. They only play the money game and they do it long distance. It's difficult to critisize progress regardless where it's coming from. If anyone really cared the most immediate impact would be realized from a general clean up. It doesn't cost anything to pick up garbage, yet some many people are just fine with just letting some of these houses sit and rot. Do you want to do something for the city that has great value and little cost? demand that people keep there property clean, and drag hem into housing court if they don't comply. All of this fretting about where the improvements come from...when is important not from where it originates.
Bravo sir...sometimes our fair city looks like one big trash can that's been turned over leaving the content to blow in the wind. We have more mattresses on display than Metro Mattress.
So I say...pick up your trash...join the crusade
but why are we then encouraging an out of town owner (HV) to renovate more houses on genessee st, at the same time increasing the density of apartments on the street by adding more units? The city carefully added zoning codes to at least make sure that apartment houses had enough parking which they are even waiving for this project. This is not renewal at all!
But Sir..you can't be serious.. Codes??There are homes here where you can extend your hand out of a window and shake hands with your neighbor while he remains in his house! I don't recall anyone rushing to the front of the line to renovate Genesse before HV could get there. My goodness all of this hand ringing over HV...adequate parking is not problem number one when I think about Lockport's housing issues..Housing codes? Bah..humbug.. some of the houses have been boarded up for so long you would think we have a parade for HV....
good day sir....
Mr. Fawkes, Sir - I believe you are correct.
There are several programs operating, or soon to be up and running, which will be able to help home owners financially with maintaining their homes.
The Historic Preservation Commission will soon be able to do this, as well. As long as the homeowner does their best to maintain the home in the condition that best suits the home's original look, there might be help available.
Curiously (not?) the area which has been chosen to be first by the City and preservation professionals is the area in which HV is intending to locate. Coincidence? No. Reality.
I believe the city should take the foreclosed homes and GIVE them away to people to be owner occupied and renovated. Give them 5 years of tax breaks and to get them back to acceptable standards after 5years they will be taxed at market value and the owner could either sell and move on or continue to live there, there would be a 10year inability to use the property as income it would need to be owner occupied.
Anonymous,Xavier, Anonymous and Anonymous. all brillant ideas!....but we need somone to "kick-start" all of these initiatives...as I so eloquently stated earlier the housing problem here is a multi layered problem, governed by political nonsense, and a lack of a real desire by the home owners in the city to force action now! You want change? You want to protect you property value? Then organize a rally to take place in front of City Hall in early may. The problem is too many home owners ignore the worst looking areas of the city so to them, it really doesn't exist. Demonstrate that your tired of waiting for things to happen while the GLDC hand's out grant money like M&M's. Diane Toughy made an excellent point at the last Wednesday night "Inqusition". In her own way, Diane basically suggested to the Common Council that we direct more of the GLDC Monopoly Money "inward" toward local business. The same should apply here. Why ladies and gentlemen does it take so long for local politian's to do more than pontificate? We want action..and we want it NOW! "Strength Through Unity"
First come jobs then housing improvement! The gldc money needs to go to kick start jobs.
And you are seriously underestimating the value of parking at apartments. I was a landlord. I don't care what HV says, if you don't have 2 parking sports per apartment so that people with jobs can rent from you you can not get get tenants! If you are building up an area you don't want to plan your future with welfare people in mind as the main tenants which they are doing by having 1 spot per apartment (especially with some 3 bedroom apartments). If you want an area to prosper why wouldn't you make it suitable for working people to live there?
I'll give you one good reason though - when you are building $1,000,000 apartment houses you realize that working people can't afford to pay the 'real' rent cost. So by filling them with welfare recipients the gov't subsidized rent will keep coming in. What a scam!
It's not always an easy correltion. Especially in America where our sprawl is subsidized and a great number of people do not work in the same municipality that they live in. And it's almost reverse nowadays. Outter ring 'burbs grow in residential first before businesses start to follow out to be near them.
The lack of regional planning hurts too since low paying manufacturing jobs etc are out in industrial parks where any workers need to take a good portion of thier meager pay to pay for crap transportation just to get there. If these businesses want the IDA help, they should be required to locate near thier target work demographic.
I feel the overall goal is to perserve and promote the older homes and walkability. Make it an easier choice through incentives. Once you get people vested and caring: they are the ones that will be willing to create start-ups within the city to foster a new round of job growth. Or be the ones to talk it up to others to come join in.
I don't feel we need protests etc at city hall, but we do need to communicate with our aldermen and the mayor. Not just to complain but to share ideas and sucess stories we find online. Then we need to back them in the risk of change by doing our part once it is initiated.
in the 8:25 am post I meant "without 2 parking spots per apartment you can't get GOOD tenants.."
MJ - thats a great point about IDA's being forced to create jobs within cities.
I don't like the protest idea either. All that does is tick them off, and if you have any hope of changing the status quo you're not going to get much help if you've picketed their homes.
The Historic Preservation Commission was the Mayor's idea. It's been in effect for about two years, but the paperwork and WORK involved in getting it off the ground is HUGE! That work needed to be done before it could even be recognized by the State - & the State is where the money is supposed to come from. We'll see considering the state of the State.
The first area addressed is the Genesee Street area as one of the oldest parts of the City. We WILL be able to get $$$ for people to fix up their homes - we just don't know how much yet &, of course, that will take more time. The survey is completed in case anyone saw a young woman wandering around taking pictures of every house in that area.
This Mayor IS thinking ahead. As I've said, we've had our differences, but if you knew what's going on behind the scenes, you might feel better. Most meetings are open and you're entitled to come. VERY FEW are closed to the public. The City isn't the School Board. Tucker is correct, in my opinion, to work on this, the Flight of Five & other tourism related ventures. Also think of Trek going into Canal Street and there's another business ready to go.
Harrison's will NEVER come back. The best you can hope for is "Light Industrial" and White Collar, etc. They're already coming. It will take more time but Tucker's looking ahead and has been! Look at Main Street for crissakes & Dutch's memorial to Dutch. You don't have to like the guy to give him props for what he's done for downtown.
"a desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy"
The status quo breeds more of the same. I've been hearing this same approach and we're still taking baby steps.Let's all hide in the corner and be afraid,and what you will continue to get is more of the same.Ladies and gentlemen I'm not suggesting that we "picket" anyone.However my good people I've witnessed the "UN-common Council" bend on an issue because 6 people came to the Council meeting and complained.The wheels of progress turn extremely slowly in the City. I'm a little confused however where job growth and the GLDC fit together. The only job creation I've wittinessed is an Over-Paid Real Estate Broker was hired as a leasing agent for Harrison Place, and the City likes to hire consultants to do their thinking for them, and then the city hired a lawyer to tell them not to believe the consultants we hire. Good friends...that's only 3 jobs! I respect everyone's opinion and hope you do the same for me.
Another consideration Please:
When HV starts construction where do you think the majority of the labor is coming from?
The answer is.......Lockport and Niagara County! Is it possible to find something negative in that eventuality? I think not! You want job creation?
How do you know that? How do you know HV won't bring their own favorites in from across the state? Supposedly they use open non-union bidding if you pay $300 just to get a bid packet.
I'm sorry, this project just seems to represent what is wrong with our country right now. What sane person would spend $9,000,000 of their own dollars to renovate 9 houses on Genessee St? What sane person would not provide enough parking to have working people rent the apartments? The answer is our gov't! They allow this waste of money, and they will subsidize the rent to pay the $9M loans. Plus the owners won't be paying city or school taxes to help the community. But yes, they will make 9 of the houses on genessee St look pretty!
Plus, I still don't see how they can physically spend $1,000,000 per house on that street, putting in all top level appliances and granite countertops~!
construction does not create jobs it creates work
two diff concepts
The GLDC is a joke. Their track record is proof of it.
To answer your first question Mr. or Ms Anonymous
I had the opportunity to speak with one of the Principals at HV, and I asked him about what work force is going to be used to build the homes in the project, that's how I know. You make a good point about jobs vs. work, but if you're an independent contractor you always have a job you're self employed right?...it's work that you're looking to find...no? but ask a carpenter our an electrician that was working on new construction in this region if he's willing to turn down work because it's not a real "job".Aren't you the "anonymous" (there's so many) that said jobs before housing renovation?. Help me...what is the GLDC prepared to invest in that's going to create a large number of long term jobs for the city of Lockport? Maybe another $300,000 to a restaurant owner who didn't pay it back? As far as what's wrong with our country right now it not a renewal projects like Genese Street..but I respect your opinion.
anony 1:09 Where do you get your information from?
Anonymous...tell me about some good "bottom up" ideas and I'll be there with you sir..I'm not apposed to such projects. However, I personally don't have another 20 years to argue how it should be initiated...I still think it starts with property owners saying to city government that we want it and we want it now.
"The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time"
Are you asking me again where I get my information from?..what are you referring to?
I put 'supposedly' in there because I got it from earlier threads about HV on this blog. Go back to some of the original threads.
And I get real tired of being asked for better ideas - the Smith's constantly do that. I and others have posted better ideas than increasing the density of low income housing and relaxing zoning laws many times. They include large tax breaks to convert houses back to one or two families, more demo's, focus com dev money on upgrades, etc. Anything to lower the density of welfare families in the area.
and there you have it....not doing your homework!!!
If you're tired of relaxed zoning laws you should have taken Jim McCann to task. He single handedly put this city into Section 8 Hell, allowing over-the-top division of some of the homes into four and five unit apartments when they should have been two or three unit max. Who do you think is going to rent a $450 a month apartment? Did you speak up then??
and if you slow down a little bit you'll see I asked you for a "bottom-up" idea meaning working with the individual home owners rather than a corporate entity like HV. Better ideas? Better is subjective. I wouldn't ask you for a better ideas I have all of the good ideas I need. So instead of looking for a reason to disagree with me, I'm hoping at least within the realm of this blog we might find some common ground. If not..then we wont.
wow, you really like to hear yourself talk, don't you?
with all respect due.
The HV plan will work, if and only if, the surrounding neighborhoods are made to start complying. Drive down Genesee, ss far as I see even the houses that are occuppied are falling apart.
as a courtesy my good man..and for your edification, I'll stop here and try not to use such big words in the future.
" you really like to hear yourself talk" That's what you're offering after an exchange of ideas? A criticism of my extensive ability to articulate the housing challenges in the city of Lockport? Bravo Sir.... Bravo
as King James put it.."Fawkes...you're mad"
job = new long term position
work = something for someone who was already employed (although maybe not currently working) to do for a specific length of time
big difference
Typical Lockport debate. Do yourself and you kids a favor. Get out and as far away as possible. There is no quality of life here. There is nothing to do...well besides a few concerts in the summer.
"There is no quality of life here. There is nothing to do." typical lockport jack-off. do yourself and your kids a favor get out and as far away as possible
fawkes - you spout off points but don't listen to answers when you ask - that's what I mean by you like to hear yourself.
jobs don't exist if there isn't work - so projects do create jobs. Not a big difference in jobs vs. work.
never felt this way before, but at this time I totally agree, it's time to abandon Lockport. The only thing going on good in Lockport is the project to add low income housing. Thabks to Walmart there isn't even a movie theatre any more. Time to abandon ship, I know we will as soon as possible
Just don't try to bomb City Hall on your way out - even if it is the ugliest building in the World.
So much for Urban Renewal.
Bingo re: Jim McCann.
Anon...I think my questions have been mostly rhetorical...you know..like I'm not really looking for a direct answer... This is a blog not Yahoo Messenger.
The answer to the housing issue is as simple as the tax revenue issue, it's called paying your fair share, being responsible for your actions and for those of you who make a living as a landlord...make your tenants keep your property in compliance with all of the local ordinances. You can't be "hands off" under the current set of circumstances. Got a mattress on the front lawn?...you get a fine, park an abandon car in your drive?, you get fined, pile your garbage around your house, you pay the price.That sounds as simple to me as teaching your kids to wash their hands after they go to the bathroom, or teaching your dog to do his business outside. Yes citizens..... it's possible to bring this multi-cultural, diversified city under control. Unfortunately we don't have a good enough team to pull it off. As long as your Alder-person is paranoid about losing a few votes because they made a decision that might be right for the city but unpopular to a few, there will never be "peace in the valley". So if you're going to leave..do so Sir. I hope you don't we need all of the grey brain matter we can get...Stand your post soldier..!
even with after going through a lockport education, i know that there's a huge difference between work and a job.
you want work? rake my leaves this fall.
you want a job? mow my lawn in the summer, rake my leaves in the fall and shovel my snow in the winter.
see the difference yet?
Good points, all.
Nastiest piece of work is Duell whose own house is one of the dumpiest in town.
What ever happened to the proposition that all landlords register with the City an agent for Service of Process? At least then they could find somebody to cite.
The guy who takes the pictures is not qualified and many cases fail simply because the pictures and their dates are messed up - or the house number doesn't appear in the photo.
It's a joke.
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