I've had a few recent requests to re-post some of the most intelligent analysis of our current dilemma here in Buffalo, NY - you know the problems presented by abandonment and vacancy. fixBuffalo readers may remember - Getting Smarter about Decline - from November 2006. I've archived Blueprint Buffalo, both the action plan and policy brief.
In the next few days I'll be collecting a number of the other planning documents relating to various urban planning issues confronting our City.
__________________________________________________________________________Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC-Buffalo) and The National Vacant Properties Campaign have collaborated and presented a compelling set of documents that need to be critically read, examined and absorbed by the elected, annointed and community leaders in Buffalo and across the region. Moments ago I received e-copies of both reports from the folks at LISC.
The Blueprint Buffalo uses James Q. Wilson's work as a point of departure for this analysis. The full text of Wilson's article Broken Windows appeared in Harper's, March 1982.
...if the first broken window in a building is not repaired, then people who like breaking windows will assume that no one cares about the building and more windows will be broken. Soon the building will have no windows...A friend of mine, Lisa Schamess - post to Lisa's blog - was the project editor for Blueprint and works at The National Trust for Historic Preservation. She's currently managing the first-ever State of Preservation in America report.
In the next few days I'll be collecting a number of the other planning documents relating to various urban planning issues confronting our City.
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1 comment:
The best solution for most of Buffalo's collapsed east side is to accept "toothing" as a real fate for a city which will not grow back into the size it once was. Buffalo should triple its commitment to tearing structures down and encouraging the development of green space, not building new communities. Leave the building to social entrepreneurs instead of the bureaucrats who are out of touch with the real market for housing. Let the bureacrats do what they do best – destroy stuff. That is the real short term challenge is getting rid of obsolete and dangerous structures.
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