South Buffalo Blogger

By: CindyK. I almost wasn’t going to submit this post, but after reading the blogspot on Buffalo Rising, I thought some things needed to be addressed where Seneca Street is concerned.

While it’s being hailed as good news in South Buffalo, what appears to be really is not. The article in yesterday’s Buffalo News only confirms the obligations of our elected leaders have to the City of Buffalo’s infrastructure. Should there have been a grandstand of what our elected officials say they are going to do? No. After all of this time, all I can really say is: Just get it done already!

Streetlights:

Road conditions:

From a previous post, note the dated paperwork of this “project”. 2000, 2004, 2005, and my blog post from 2007.

Yesterday morning I wrote to the author of the article: (in part, here is what I said)

I was informed of [yesterday’s] press conference after the fact. I’m also a picture-taking blogger who has been out-spoken about the conditions of Seneca Street for more than a year.

I wrote a post following the story on channel 4 [yesterday], in the post you can see the dated documents of this “development” project as far back as 2000, and Seneca Street has only gotten worse.

The dated documentation goes back to the $2 million promise from (then) Congressman Quinn while Mark Schroeder was just a County Legislator, and Brian Higgins was our representing Assemblyman. (Then) Mayor Anthony Masiello in 2004 came to Seneca Street with all the same “leaders” pitching the same project, the results… Seneca Street only got worse. Today it’s 2008 and you can change the names of the “leaders” or their titles as “lawmakers”, but the dates in which these so-called “revivals” come every 2 years… when someone is running for re-election. In the meantime, Seneca Street gets progressively worse.

I’m sorry to say, in my opinion, not all “Neighborhood leaders” are paid via a goverment job.

In the post that I wrote on the internet, there’s a link to pictures that I took of the actual street… pot hole after pot hole. I tell everyone that Seneca Street has more patchwork than a granny quilt, and it’s so very true.

The loss of business is everywhere, but the infrastructure is much more important. Motorists have all but stopped coming down Seneca Street because they feel like they are driving on the moon.

In the article though, one thing stood out:

Other planned or recently completed improvements include upgraded crosswalks, sidewalk repairs and new landscaping.

The new sidewalks being talked about was from the grant to fix Cazenovia Street last year.

Any new sidewalks for Seneca Street came in 2004 when (former councilman) Jimmy Griffin pledged the City of Buffalo would fix any broken sidewalks. And he followed it through.

As per the blogspot on BRO, it’s nothing short of praising our politicians for a job (not) well done. For those of us who live our lives in South Buffalo, we see it everyday…the good & the bad, the changes (if any), the broken promises, the political press grandstands, the political elections and we see a street being neglected by a touting albeit rehashed version a “redevelopment” from last year, and the year before, and the year before and the year before that even.

As I began this post, what appears to be is really not, because after years of waiting, the people of South Buffalo are at the point of “seeing is beleiving” because we’ve been promised all of this before and nothing was delivered. It’s time for these politicians to put their (our) money where their mouths are, otherwise we should look to elect new people, quality people to take their place in office. Seven years is a long time in waiting for their words to materialize into something good for a change.

I wrote the post yesterday “at the end of the day” because the end result is all we really want and need for Seneca Street. Not political grandstands, not shaking the Mayor’s hand, not politicians being hailed as “neighborhood leaders” when the hardworking citizens have done more for this community, as per.. the proof is in the pictures.