South Buffalo Blogger

By: Cindy K. A few weeks ago I visited the waterfront downtown, I got to see for my own eyes the wonders of development that our taxes are paying for. It is beautiful, and for a time I felt like I was watching the sunset in a different city, that is, until I arrived back in South Buffalo, where the streets are filled with potholes and the streetlights are rusted beyond quick fixes, other than a couple cans of black paint.

I remember thinking that night about how second-rate South Buffalo has become, and I remember thinking how the Congressman & Assemblyman have put all of their eggs into one basket, as per the new Commercial Slip and other harbor projects. When you take a walk down any given street along Seneca though, we get to see vacant/boarded up houses, some empty storefronts owned by the Plaza Group, whom is asking for rents too high for any businessperson to consider. We get to see loss of business, loss of population, loss of pleasure & pride… because years of promises have turned this part of Buffalo into shambles. How much of South Buffalo’s look could be, would be tolerated if in Orchard Park or West Seneca, or Hamburg? Have our politicians created this second-rate South Buffalo?

We get to see a skirmishing to retain County funding for County construction projects never to touch the infrastructure in South Buffalo.

The look and the mood of the waterfront and harbor are furthering of Buffalo’s honor, a boost needed for a very long time, and yet I wonder about the rest of the city. I’d like to believe in the “commitment of working together” that our elected leaders use when addressing block clubs, I’d like to believe that one day South Buffalo will have earned it’s privilege to be among the same vigor and attention currently focused on the waterfront and other harbor projects. Perhaps one day we’ll have to see if a new set of lawmakers can make it all happen for the people of South Buffalo, because the future is looking more desolate than present.

Having lived in Buffalo all of my life, there’s love for this city…. compassion, understanding and sorrow in feeling like there’s so much to do in so little time. Of all though, there’s frustration from the (election grandstanding) lies, frustration from the waiting & wondering when our time will come for new changes, for new focus…. for that feeling of splendor I had as I sat on a bench down at the Commercial Slip.

By: CindyK.

When a County Legislator becomes a mouth-piece for a Congressman & an Assemblyman, only the obvious can happen, promises made quickly turn into promises unkept set for many years.

Legislator Tim Kennedy: (May 2007, Cazenovia Library)

But for the time being, there was one more step that needed to happen and the funding for Seneca Street development to surpass one million dollars that was $300,000 allocated from the City of Buffalo. That money is going to go to a specific piece of the revitalization of Seneca Street into the light standards on Seneca Street. Now when you talk about $300,000 and you think of light standards, we could have got the typical light standards that you see all over the City, or we could have gotten something a little bit better, a little more unique, and that cost over $300,000. But because of this Mayor’s dedication to this project, and because of the work of Congressman Brian Higgins, Assemblyman Mark Schroeder, and Councilmember Mickey Kearns working together this Mayor saw there was a viable project in the City of Buffalo that demanded attention and demanding commitment from his administration and that came in the form of $300,000.

When that Congressman grandstands on yet another “waterfront” project…..

In 2005 Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27) pushed for the creation of a board made up of local people who would be responsible for timely decision making and oversight of developments on Buffalo’s waterfront. Three years later we are making real progress on the inner and outer harbors thanks to the efforts of that board, the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC), in conjunction with those of Congressman Higgins.

Click here to read the full story…

From channel 4 news:

“Finally we are seeing real progress along our waterfront and this is just the beginning,” said Congressman Brian Higgins. “One generation built the canal, another generation buried it and this generation has created a redeveloped Erie Canal slip that pulls together our unique natural and historical identity providing an exciting destination for visitors and unlimited opportunities for associated business and job growth in the immediate future.”

When the Assemblyman is applauding the same event….

“There would be no City of Buffalo if it were not for the Erie Canal Harbor,” said NYS Assemblyman Mark Schroeder. “In 1825, Governor Dewitt Clinton, aboard the Seneca Chief, commemorated the opening of the canal with a ‘Wedding of the Waters.’ It was understood that a new city would rise from the banks of the canal’s western terminus - and that is exactly what happened. Seven years later, the New York State Legislature incorporated the City of Buffalo. Now, 183 years after Governor Clinton’s historic voyage, there is a new ‘Wedding of the Waters.’ And once again, a new city will rise from the Erie Canal Harbor. This new Buffalo will follow in its predecessor’s footsteps by honoring its waterfront heritage and recapturing the canal side environment that cultivated its rise to greatness.”

When it took several times (and in different ways) to ask the head of the City of Buffalo Dept of Public Works (at the Irish Center in South Buffalo, Monday, June 2nd, 2008) when things will begin for Seneca Street, his evasiveness finally led to “late summer” on the repave project, and “within a month” on those new street lights

The same promises from when the Asseblyman was a Legislator. When the Congressman was not but an Assemblyman. Those new “something better” street lights promised for more than a year from the current Legislator…..

Today, more than a month later, the street lights on Seneca St. are still “promises unfulfilled”

It’s been 5 years, the same promises are being made & those same promises are being broken….

yet Congressman Brian Higgins is living the lime-light of a brand new waterfront, Assemblyman Mark Schroeder is riding the congressman’s coat-tails and celebrating in the South Buffalo News on getting passed a law of County funding not being funneled via the control board for yet more County-wide construction projects. County of Erie construction projects that aren’t set to touch Seneca Street.

All this as Seneca Street suffers more & more everyday.

I really wish these people that keep getting re-elected would spend less time trying to save their job with political fundraisers & spend more time just doing their job, living up to the promises made during an election season.

It’s high time for the citizens of South Buffalo to call on our elected officials … and tell them to stop trying to bull-shit us!

Maybe, after all these years, maybe we need people in office dedicated to getting a job done vs. a job kept.