Yesterday I received and unexpected Letter to BRO that gave me mixed emotions. The writer expressed dismay in the condition of the Elmwood Village and Grant Street on the West Side, both commercial districts and residential neighborhoods. As I read the email that compared these areas of Buffalo to shopping districts in Rochester, I felt both defensive and sympathetic. Defensive because I have witnessed these neighborhoods rebounding over the years, and there were times when it looked as if Buffalo was about to give up the ship. And Sympathetic because there are people who visit this city who don’t understand the plight that Buffalo faced and the steady climb that we have been making to stand back up and dust ourselves off. With those sentiments in mind, I decided to grab my camera and put my own photos to the words that I had just read, in order to get into the writer’s head… to see if I could capture a few images that “inspired” the letter, while adding my own take on some of the issues that I feel are both being addressed and being ignored.
From Gary W:
I am writing to discuss Park Avenue in Rochester, along with many of its side streets.
Now certainly Elmwood is a much longer street than Park Avenue and therefore much bigger in scope. However, when I am in Rochester I am drawn to Park Avenue and when I am in Buffalo I am drawn to Elmwood.
Actually a fairer comparison would be comparing Park Avenue to Grant Street and Monroe Avenue to Elmwood but the condition of Grant Street is beyond a fair comparison.
My question is really about Buffalonians in general. Why do people in Buffalo spend such little money on the appearance of their homes and businesses. There are a few bright spots on Elmwood that are pleasurable and enjoyable… but much of Elmwood and Grant are incredibly decayed, dirty, rotted, unmaintained, ghetto graffiti.
Rochester keeps this wonderfully provincial perspective of well maintained homes and neighborhoods, clean streets, maintained sidewalks and curbs and lighting. It’s not perfect but the appearance is not alarming. The same cannot be said of Buffalo.
What can Buffalonians do to promote the visible appearance of city living and encourage people to maintain their homes and businesses. I had relatives from Buffalo visiting friends in Rochester and we had lunch on Park Avenue and drove down University and East Avenue and that general neighborhood. What comment did they make? Well if Elmwood and Grant looked like this then I wouldn’t mind living in the city. They immediately equated well maintained homes, sidewalks, streets, curbs, lighting and old growth trees (not forest old growth but growth old enough to create shade and start to arch over the street)…with safety and quality of life.
Heck you can’t even get a decent sized tree on Elmwood or Hertel because businesses fear it would block their business signs. The attitude in Buffalo is so far removed from what really creates quality of life and safety and a humanizing appearance. What can change it?
Buffalo is entering an age of prosperity. More growth now than ever before (almost on par with Rochester). Now comes a time for public education. If Buffalo is going to create a similar quality of life appearance to compete with Rochester then we have to start to value quality of life and get out of the rut that our downward spiral put us into for the last 75 years. We need to translate our new prosperity into little norms that every business owner and residence owner takes upon themselves to participate.
How can I explain it with an example? It’s like Rochester was spared from much of the downward spiral Buffalo went through and they always managed to eat with forks and knives. Businesses and high skilled value added employers chose Rochester because they too eat with forks and knives. Buffalo used to eat with forks and knives but its downward economic spiral people started eating with their hands. Forks and knives were unnecessary ‘expensives’ for frugal Buffalonians trying to make ends meet. Well, Buffalo is on the upswing and if it wants to attract top notch value added employers it needs to re-teach its citizenry those little quality of life appearance issues and expenses or it will not escape the national impression of a deindustrialized ghetto.
-Gary W.