The driveway of Rite Aid’s parking lot. Melrose at Seneca Street
A streetlight pole on Seneca Street wrapped with black electrical tape to cover up a missing plate.
Images are used with permission from SouthBuffalo.info
Submitted by: Cindy K
Part of Cazenovia Street is more than likely looking forward to a repave this year and it’s the best news to hear. For years we have watched Cazenovia Street deteriorate and for years we’ve been asking to have it fixed. When talking to different people I often compared this street to cutting down a tree to count the rings, you can count the years of patchwork the same way. The one thing I don’t get is the concept of putting concrete on asphalt and asphalt on concrete for quick fixes. Not only does it look ugly, I think it makes our city look ignorant. But that’s just my opinion.
Six months ago the Cazenovia Street Area block club met and the question came up: “what are we going to do about this street?” My thought was, if we’re going to talk to anyone about the street, why not take some pictures to have on hand?
That idea was taken one step further; those pictures were then uploaded onto the Internet. By doing so, along with a few emails linking to the pictures, it caught the attention of the media, as well as various City departments. Conversations with our councilman led to a greeting with the streets commissioner. He saw for himself the potholes, the patchwork, the broken curbing, no curbing, broken sidewalks, crooked and rusted streetlight standards, poor drainage. He got to see what we have seen progressively getting worse for years.
It was getting frustrating and for most of the residents, they had given up. By staying focused and having a positive perspective, it helped as a guide so that our patience didn’t run out.
On May 29th Mayor Byron Brown was scheduled to meet with block club leaders in South Buffalo. I asked, among concerns for other streets in the area, if Cazenovia is on the list for a repave. The Commissioner, whom was also present with the mayor had the chance to answer. “More than likely” is what he said. It wasn’t said as a “maybe” … it wasn’t said as a “possibility”. I am overly optimistic a repave will happen since the street has been marked by the City’s Department of Public Works. A partial repave for Cazenovia, from Seneca to North Legion, will improve significantly the worse of the street. Fixing one third of the street is better than nothing at all and we’re thankful to our city officials who have taken this problem seriously.
The biggest thanks goes out to Councilman Mickey Kearns who has sought this through thoroughly from the City’s end. Gratitude is given also to the streets commissioner who has taken the time to address this concern within the city as well. Lastly, much gratitude is given to the activists whom have supported our efforts. We hope sometime soon these pictures will become a memory.
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