South Buffalo Blogger

By: Cindyk

For all the posts I’ve made and pictures taken about the need of fixing Seneca Street’s poor infrastructure, Councilmember Kearns was informed by the Commissioner of Public Works that the repave project promised for this year (just like last year) has been pushed to late next year. As if Seneca Street in South Buffalo can survive another long and heavily-salted winter.

I, for one, am fed up with the promises made and those same promises broken year after year. I am sick of the LIES our politicians have been telling us over the past 10 year to get themselves, or others elected.

From the top-down, I’d like to take this time to personally thank Congressman Brian Higgins for ignoring the emails I’ve sent begging for his attention to the infrastructure frustration facing his elected area. We could flood Caz Park like it used to be, perhaps maybe the Congressman will see our area is just as important as the waterfront. But I doubt it very much!

I’d like to personally thank Assemblyman Mark J.F. Schroeder for being non-existent in his district, and for the outstanding lie told 4 years ago….. “The money’s in the bank, folks”.

I’d like to thank Legislator Tim Kennedy for making promises that the Erie County Legislature can’t (or refuses) to deliver on. “South Buffalo deserves something better”, huh? Exactly how much of Seneca Street in the City of Buffalo is in the County’s budget? Not one red cent.

I’d like to thank Mayor Byron W. Brown who came to South Buffalo last year and again this year with his entire City of Buffalo staff, and who allowed his Commissioner of Public Works to outright lie to the people in this community.

All of these people elected by our votes have let us down. They play politics over what’s right.

News flash fellas….. it’s called a voting booth, not an ASS-Kissing booth! If you can’t live up to the promises you make in your districts, it’s time for the hard-working taxpayers to swing their votes in another direction, since it’s more than obvious the Congressman, Assemblyman, Legislator, Mayor of Buffalo and Commissioner of Public Works can’t get the job done!

Time’s up boys! We have serious problems with the infrastructure in Buffalo and we need serious people in office will to address those issues and actually make an effort to solving said issues.

Who’s tired of the “heads-they win…. tails-you lose” political game?

By: Cindyk. This is a topic that has been on my mind much lately. I wonder how people, including our elected leaders, could think we should spend millions in taxpayer money to tear the Skyway down when the Grand Island bridges are deemed structurally deficient?

If anyone can seriously answer that, then you’re smarter than I.

If to say it’s ugly, it’s a dinosaur, it just needs to go… keep in mind, it’s structurally sound and not in any disrepair, there is nothing calling the skyway an unsafe bridge.

Then you take a closer a look at the Grand Island bridges, and have to question such priorities of some politicians.

There’s a serious problem with the infrastructure in the Erie/Niagara region…. from Senator Stachowski’s district in Buffalo to Senator Thompson’s in Niagara Falls, and everywhere in between. Drive down the streets in every area to get the full effect in how badly politicians have neglected our streets. They are falling apart, potholes nearly the size of manhole covers, duct tape to cover exposed wires of a street light, patchwork on top of patchwork, and the best we get is (some other) elected representatives in Buffalo who think it’s more important to have the skyway gone, or others who continue to ignore the problems at the Grand Island bridges.

I’ll let these comparing images ask the real story of prioritizing:

Special thanks to Rus Thompson (Albany’s Insanity & No GI Tolls) for use of his pictures.

By: CindyK. There’s much hype and political propaganda about the idea of tearing the Skyway down. Politicians are using the idea as campaigning stepping-stones for themselves or others. In my thinking, it’s but one roadway in the City, and I wondered much about the rest of the streets around Buffalo. Or even just my area of South Buffalo.

I can’t see the investing of billions of dollars to take care of a perfectly good piece of infrastructure as the streets throughout the City of Buffalo continue to be neglected over the years. My fight for Seneca Street is just the tip of the iceberg, you could say. For anyone, even the politicians who want the skyway torn down, I ask that you take a good, long look around your own neighborhood and consider which would be a more benefiting priority…. the Skyway or the rest of the City of Buffalo?

Would taking down one perfectly sound bridge help the city more than the fixing of our streets first?

While these pictures aren’t all, it’s a good enough example in asking our elected leaders to take priority over the areas of which they are elected into. I’m sharing with you the neighborhood in South Buffalo, from Indian Church to Mineral Springs, and from Frank St. to North Legion (without reposting any pictures of Seneca Street, which is center-parallel with Frank & N. Legion)

From your own neighborhood or looking at these pictures, I wonder what part of infrastructure is really more important to a political agenda on “commitment to the City” and “working together with the people of Buffalo”… And providing our city with the best possible services to the neighborhoods, all of the neighborhoods, not just the areas that would help a congressman get re-elected.

Imagine having no skyway, but the same neglected streets which get worse after every winter.

How much federal money would it take to redo every street in the city first before thinking of spending all of our hard-earned taxes on just one road?

By: CindyK. It’s very simple, the City of Buffalo Comissioner of Public Works said in June (2008) that the new streetlights for Seneca Street would come “within” a month. He said this while Mayor Byron Brown paid a visit to the Irish Center in South Buffalo.

July arrived and it was said there was to be a 4-week delay. And here we are, the end of August stilling holding on to the promise Legislator Tim Kennedy made more than a year ago about wanting something a little nicer for South Buffalo.

May 2007:

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.

August 2008:
All of this talk about “commitments” and “working together” led to nothing but waiting, like we have for the past 5 years when the community was told by another politician “the money’s in the bank, folks“.

I suppose the taxpayers of South Buffalo can only assume the dozen or so primed streetlights are mere props for a few primary elections coming up.

From this picture, it’s dated from the City of Buffalo “12/04/07″ today’s date: 08/26/08

Compliments of the New York State DOT, Seneca Street in West Seneca is currently undergoing a repave project from the Buffalo cityline outward from the city. I’m sorry to report, the same Seneca Street of South Buffalo still remains untouched. I fear our State representatives saw it a need to fix the suburbs first, while the waiting continues here on this side of the boarder.

Looking in the opposite direction, towards South Buffalo:

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.

By: Cindyk

Today this stood out:

Look closer:

Now the question: If a bolt wasn’t holding in place, what makes workers for the City of Buffalo think a screw over the bolt would do the trick?

This is some good news to report. Various road & other infrastructure projects have been approved by the Erie County Legislature, including bridge (re)construction, and bike/pedestrian paths.

Over all, 14 projects were approved totalling $61,255,215.00 in cost (max) estimations. Of that, 10 projects had State & Federal Aid attached totalling $40,790,215.00 while $18,265,000.00 is in (Erie County) authorized bonds.

Maybe with money coming, Seneca Street might finally get some much-needed attention ….

By: Cindyk.

While details are limited, the good news, yesterday evening the City of Buffalo Dept of Public Works announced to South Buffalo residents that installation of new concrete-based street lights would begin within a month.