Lockport NY

The Buffalo News had an article on the city partnership with Housing Vision LLC yesterday. While waiting for some additional information from Mayor Tucker I give this post as a lead in.

Mayor Michael W. Tucker announced at Wednesday’s Common Council meeting that Housing Visions Unlimited is buying 15 properties on Genesee and South streets. It will rehabilitate some and demolish others, replacing the demolished structures with newly built three-or four-unit housing.

Alderman-elect Jack L. Smith Jr., D-2nd Ward, said he and some other members of his United Neighborhood Watch Group recruited Housing Visions in an effort to clean up the neighborhood fast.

The mayor said, “These houses are like ours, Victorians. They’re immaculately landscaped. They don’t tolerate any nonsense. They’re very rigid. They interview people. Any police calls, they evict people. They go through the properties once a month.”

Tucker's been throwing hints about this project for a while and its great to see it reach this point. Some additional information on Housing Visions LLC:
- Housing Visions LLC Main Website.
-A Neighborhood Revitalization Plan that makes all too much sense.
-Pictures of past projects and the group's history and humble beginnings as a group of residents in a neglected Syracuse neighborhood.
-Past investments in Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton, Cortland, Auburn and Oswego

It's a welcome sign having an organization with a proven track record coming in to tackle what many consider to be Lockport's neighborhood most in need. The once grand houses which still sit on the street are an important part of bridging the recent investment dowtown with the adjacent residential neighborhood and halting disinvestment form further radiating outward. This is the type of project Buffalo needed 20 yrs ago before the string of random demolitions and scattered out-of-place new builds. Along with additional planning (infrastructure improvements, incentives for private owners to get on board, etc) and home owner involvement, this could end up being a model for the WNY area if done right. 

Public meetings involving the project are as follows:

The site plans will be presented to the city Planning Board at a Dec. 21 meeting, and the next night, the Zoning Board of Appeals will consider variance requests for multiple dwellings in a single-family zone.

I'll post more as I hopefully obtain more information. Thanks to Alderman-elect Jack L. Smith Jr., D-2nd Ward (United Neighborhood Watch Group), Mayor Tucker and all those involved in finally laying a foundation for what I hope to be long needed turnaround in the Genesee St area.

UPDATE: Write up in LUSJ 11/29

Both the LUSJ and The Buffalo News are reporting on County Manager Gregory D. Lewis' report on moving some county departments to Harrison Place (records and mental health).

The summary of the report in the articles reads as if the Lewis either has his mind made up on another location (or the existing one over at the Mountain View complex) or is unfamiliar with proven current day building reuses.

“I don’t know what they expected, if they expected to walk into the Larkin Building or the Rich Atrium,” Tucker said. “It is what it is, it’s an old industrial warehouse. It’s got mold, it needs a new roof in one place, but it’s structurally sound. I was unhappy the county manager would release such a scathing report about one of our assets.”

Tucker said the city has shown it can clean up and reuse old, run-down buildings, pointing to a former shirt factory that now is home to Niagara County Produce’s Lockport location, and the once-decrepit buildings on Canal Street that now await commercial tenants.
“It’s not like we don’t know what we’re doing. We have a track record,” Tucker said.

 While government has the responsibility to give us the best use of our money it goes beyond just building the cheapest buildings it can. Public buildings should be central and add value to the area around them. The Harrison complex would benefit from being a mixed use facility of commercial/residental/governmental. The mixed use would create a 24-hour building and would protect the shield the building from drops in demand in one of the sectors and the gov't sector could give it some needed stability.

It would give the "bad" area around it a boost and a reason for some investment confidence. You turn around a bad area by investing in it; not by ignoring it through disinvestment.

Similar to the old Larkin Factory on the east side of Buffalo (top image) the Harrison Complex could be the biggest jewel in DT Lockport. Recently all types of tax incentives/credits have been legislated for mixed use and historic properties. We just need some leaders with some forward thinking to help us on our way to a whole that is greater than it parts. I hope they keep pushing and succeed.

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.

This project along with a new YMCA [I know they are "too far along" ;)] and ice rink would completely transform the Union/Washburn/Chestnut area. If all were on a quest to move forward and reference each other it would have to help the chances of obtaining grants for each of them. A semi-coordinated effort would be nice to see. A reborn Union Station over looking a cleared Dessault site with playing fields onto the view off of the escarpment would be a beautiful thing.

This article also goes to show the power of raising your children to love and respect where they are from. Instead of raising them to loathe the place and flee forever, try the opposite. They may create something here; even if they choose to leave for a period of time.

-MJ

The old Wintergarden is being dismantled with an initial goal of allowing reuse elsewhere.

Buffalo News Article

What about a Wintergarden Lockport? Keep this pseudo-historic structure in Niagara County. Tie it into the parking ramp project and create a year round park with views of the canal lower locks below. Fill in one of the missing teeth on Main St? Use green geo-thermal etc to get state grants? Perhaps a preservation grant?
Does the H.S have a horticulture program. NCCC? Maybe they could take part in this type of structure. Maybe even have a location in it for a small tree farm to re-tree our streets? Get residents vested in it.
Any other ideas?

Just thinking.....

Buffalo News had an Update on the Flight of Five project today.

“The stars are in misalignment. The stock market is in the tank, and the state budget is nowhere,” Welsby said. “Perhaps for that $1.8 million we can restore two complete locks. We can work our way up. In the meantime, we don’t give up our hunt for money.” The current investment woes hurt the availability of money for foundations, just as Flight of Five decision makers were planning a push to solicit grants from Erie County foundations. Toward that end, the city hired Full Circle Productions for 7,500 to produce a seven-minute promotional video, which was shown at Monday’s meeting.

This tiered approach makes sense to me. Even two locks would work well in defining the lower approach to the locks and showcasing how the older manual locks worked. I'd think locking through all 5 would be tedious and time consuming for a tourist anyways. This also puts off having to immediately deal with the flat concrete access bridge over the top lock.


I'll also try to see if it is possible to get a copy of the video or get a link to it if it ends up posted elsewhere. I'll have to ask later though since the delegation is of to Albany today:

The recommendation from Welsby’s engineering firm, Wendel Duchscherer, to limit the project comes as a city delegation drives to Albany today to meet with officials of the State Canal Corp. to try to settle a wide range of issues that have impeded the project, the city’s top tourism development priority.

The delegation includes Mayor Michael W. Tucker, Corporation Counsel John J. Ottaviano, City Treasurer Michael E. White, Welsby and David R. Kinyon, chairman of the Flight of Five Committee. One of the issues to be debated is a legal tangle over whether the city needs a long-term lease to gain access to the state property for the restoration work, or whether a short-term permit will do.

Original post here:Flight of Five 2011 Opening?

"Although questions about funding and construction access to the Erie Canal
locks have yet to be settled, program manager Peter J. Welsby last week offered
a new timetable showing a June 2011 opening for the Flight of Five project.
Welsby, of the Wendel Duchscherer engineering firm, said arrangements have
been made with the state Canal Corp. for enough access to carry out a pilot
project next May, restoring masonry and railings near the bottom of the five
19th century lock..."

Of all the projects going on, this is one of the most exciting to me personally. It's a blessing and a great responsibility to have one of the great engineering feats of the 19th century still in tact right in the middle of our downtown. Over the years I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of vehicles with out of state license plates parked around the locks on any given day.

I'd guess there are many out there who pry question the value of spending a large sum of money on a project like this. Most would submit that the money would be better spent elsewhere, etc. But here we have one of the most notable structures on one of the most notable human works in the early history of the United States. this should create the ability to secure funding on all levels. (the economy will return someday ;)

Other areas on the canal are in process of rebuilding their portion of our history:

Camillus is in process of restoring the Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct to working status
http://www.eriecanalcamillus.com/aqueduct.htm
City of Buffalo commercial Slip unearthed and functioning as docking:
http://buffalowaterfront.com/Erie_Canal_Harbor_Officially_Opens.php

Lockport has the advantage of still having their notable structure still on the functioning canal system and dead center of DT businesses/other activities for actual spin off through interaction. Park once and walk to numerous other places. Add to it a new :hidden parking structure with surface park and overlook, possible "Upper Marina", great start/end point for the wine loop etc and we will have a critical mass to build up visitors and residents. We should be proud of what we have from those before us and do our best to preserve and use it to our best benefit.

For more year round interest: I wonder if we could do something similar to Ottawa who turns their DT locks into the "world's longest ice skating rink"?
http://www.ottawa-information-guide.com/rideau-canal.html
Ottawa is on my list of "have to visit" weekend road trips.

While poking around I came across this site, which is wonderfully laid out for Lockport Tourism.
http://lockportontheeriecanal.com/welcome-erie-canal-lockport.html. A really really nice layout. Send it to everyone you know and post it everywhere ;)

The article also stated:

For $7,500, Full Circle Studios is producing a five-to seven- minute video to be
shown next month to the foundation and perhaps to other funding sources later
on.

Will check to see if this video gets posted somewhere and if not I will see if I can get my hands on it to post.

How do you feel about this project?