Lockport NY

LUSJ is reporting that the city counsel is looking to bid out the city wide reassessment.

Macaluso, who works for the city on a contractual basis, has already told Tucker that revaluation services by a private appraising firm could cost $200,000 to $250,000. Updating the city’s property inventory, which is known to be rife with inaccuracies, and checking/adjusting the assessed value of every parcel is expected to take about 18 months.

Adjustments have been nominal since mid-2006, when then-Assessor Vince Smith quit the post in light of widespread public outrage over his proposed value hikes. His successor, Peter Galarneau, quit earlier this year, after informing Tucker he could not manage revaluation without some outside help.

I can guarantee there will be outrage again. ;)

The city would be wise to find ways to make the assessment positive. No one likes to be penalized for upgrading their properties while others get "rewarded" for neglect. Case in point being the reduced assessment on the F&M building because of water damage and no tenants.  In most instances the system is backwards.

The truest value is sale price. What about setting the assessed value at what the the house was purchased for and keeping it there for that owner? Find a way to reward those who stick around and those who take run down houses and invest in them. Next time it is sold the assessment will automatically bump itself up to the fair market value. (of coarse loop holes would have to be closed) As for DT, how about some partial land based tax components to deter parking lots and sitting on empty buildings?

The assessment process should be another tool to promote investment; not to deter it. The citizens would be much happier.

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.

I've been busy around the house and enjoying the end of August so the posting has been slim. Will get back to posting today.

Anyone notice the lack of on-line material from the LUSJ lately?

The 9th annual Taste of Lockport (Official Site) is tomorrow Aug 16th at Ida Fritz Park. There are 33 vendors including restaurants and 8 wineries with 10 new vendors present this year. Sales are on a cash basis (bring lots of dollar bills) with no tickets needed.

The LUSJ and Buffalo News have a few articals on it:

TASTE: Garlock’s Restaurant has deep roots in the City of Lockport
TASTE OF LOCKPORT: Awards to be given to the best in several categories
TASTE: 2009 Taste of Lockport will feature new vendors, more wineries
In ninth year, festival has grown in size, popularity 

Last year we had some kind of rueben egg roll. If anyone remembers who was offering it, please let us know!


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A thank you to LockportGal for the comment giving the heads up for the current movie lineup at The Palace

UP
ANGELS & DEMONS
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: Battle of the Smithsonian
THE PROPOSAL
ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS
TRANSFORMERS:REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
G-FORCE
MY SISTER’S KEEPER
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE
JULIE & JULIA
ALIENS in the ATTIC
G.I. JOE THE RISE OF COBRA

All shows are $5 and run in various blocks up until the beginning of September.

It looks like my opinions over the downtown wine shop will stand as is...

Questions raised over wine store - US&J

Important quotes for the skimmers out there:

“I have no desire to help bring people to this town any more,” Martin said. “I think the mayor made the biggest tactical error ever by screwing with me. I will never, ever, lift a finger for the city again, that’s my bottom line.”

and

Bittner said her business will be different from the one Beautiful Visions proposed in several regards. Theirs was a cooperative and hers is to be controlled solely by The Winery At Marjim Manor. Theirs envisioned making shelf space available to all Trail wineries to display as little or as much product as they wanted. Hers will invite Trail wineries to showcase one or two products a month based on themes. Both incorporated local, packaged product displays and a local tourism-promotion component, but Bittner said she intends to create event and education centers as well.

And the Mayor seems to be guilty of trying to get something, ANYTHING into canal street at any cost.

So what's the end result?

• Pissed off a well respected local busnessman and property owner downtown who was known for their charitable work, to the point that they have pulled back from the City and the County, and might just move somewhere else.
• Allowed Margo Bitner to take the idea and distort it to the point that the winery will be all about her, and in order to make it seem like she's playing nice she's allowing one winery a month to sell one or two wines.

Good job!

I just hope Martin reconsideres his decision to pull out of the area. He just got screwed over by a greedy busnesswoman, and the mayor was just too willing to turn around and give full support for someone else with the same project.

-Erik.