Buffalo Rising Online

Nov 30th 2007, 12:12am By Bill Zimmermann

Sam Hoyt made a great move this week to delegate into the Historic Preservation Registry to include the Pan American Exposition's Little White House (owned by Al Coppola) into its holds of regulation. This was likely both a valiant and a good intended move by Sam. As a friend and follower of both gentlemen, this suddenly feels like a Buffalo family heated discussion. Know this though--Al Coppola is not seeking help from Sam to make his own point.

I support Sam's move. How not to? But there's more. Sam’s a truly great guy but he just wasn’t there when Al bought and preserved the building for the past 25 years while valiantly supporting the Buffalo Preservation Board’s efforts.

And Sam wasn’t there when the Buffalo Historical Society turned Al down on his offer to pay to move and preserve the building at their wherever intended site five years ago. But Sam is there now, thankfully, and so are many more, now that the media has made Al Coppola a predator of what he’s only ever sought to preserve—his building, and our Buffalo. Somehow, a lot of people missed Al’s intended point.

This once prize fighter, Al Coppola, a total Buffalo advocate and ongoing best-for Buffalo fighter merely wanted to make some significant points about our preservation board choice format.

Al Coppola is a former state senator, a 17-year Buffalo Councilman, and a resident of Buffalo, New York, --indeed a long time political figure in the city, who served in the Senate at the turn of the century, who owns this building in question, which lies in front of his house on Delaware. He’s cared for it alone for twenty-plus years. He even offered it to the Historical Society five years ago as a gift for the Pan Am Centennial—even offered to pay to move it there, and even offered to remain in tact as its preserver. He loves the house. They weren’t whatsoever interested, however. Odd as that may be, he continues to maintain it and to love its heritage and meaning.

Now suddenly everyone is interested in Al’s decision about his little white building no one ever took proper notice of before. Al exclaims he only ever wanted to cite the ridiculousness of a Buffalo Preservation Board he’s supported for over 20 years not looking into the 120-plus properties of Buffalo’s historical waterfront significance being wiped away into oblivion by the Peace Bridge Plan.

“How can we or I or anyone properly care about a little white hut that is supposed to have historical significance when a city like Buffalo goes so un-attuned and uncaring into a hands down battle for the PBA to literally rip out heritage and current lives’ families from an area so rich in history?”

Okay, Al-- I said. You're upset about the PBA's rather imminent onslaught of the West Side's original waterfront Italianate heritage homes. That means a lot to you. Was that then your overall point, Al, I asked him? Did you really mean it when you said you’d tear down your precious Pan Am house?

“Listen," Al said, "It was the straw that broke my camel's back, really---I went to the cited Stillwater restaurant Presevation hearing for their simply most evidentally deserved, really simple canopy request—and I was totally unsolicited by the restuarant—I went just to foster a citizen care for their, what, canopy request --and also in my angst to surmise other ill-thought decisions the board was and has been making on behalf of quieting business opportunities.”

Their staunch response surprised you, Al. So what did you find out? I asked him.

“Here, there’s a board—it blows your mind--it's supposed to preserve heritage—but not freeze-frame it into non-commercial veritable breath for life!—the board was totally unfocused on their mission—totally selfish for ideals that don’t concern a business owner’s rights to co-exist in their presvervationist dreams-- it left me dumbfounded numb to see their lack of clarity of understanding.”

Al Coppola continues: “It really strongly got me thinking about our west side and my day to day after day efforts to save those great homes they’re about to tear down. They're supposed to care about them but the PBA has them blind-sided-- go figure that!

…And it got me ultimately upset over my little white house project I’ve cared for all those years. Do I want to tear it down? Hell no! And I won’t. But I tried to send a message…and here’s the message:

I’m tearing Nothing down—but neither are we letting the PBA tear down Buffalo’s gorgeous and historical first waterfront village that locks in the vestiges of Italian heritage from the city’s onset of the past century. THAT is real preservation—Is anyone listening? And why isn’t the Preservation Board listening???”

Al Coppola has a larger point to make...and asks everyone to help him make it, together:

“We’re going to have meetings in my little white Pan Am house—yes, and we’ll meet once a month there—and if the crowd of citizens is too large we’ll meet elsewhere. But we will meet, and we’ll meet to relocate a conscience in the Preservation Board of Buffalo.”

A new conscience for the Buffalo Presevration Board?...one led by all citizens?-- including those wanting to do business in Buffalo?...that seems an utterly new concept worth detailing-- together.

Suddenly Al Coppola seems more like a Sparticus seeking to enfree those held ignorant under an authority-like entity that holds esoteric ideals that preserve blindly without observe of the necessary community lifts to create necessary progress as well.

Al Coppola isn’t a rich politician and never was—he’s simply an earnest Buffalo neighbor, a man who early on lost his restaurant on Main Street to a ridiculous subway idea that killed the Main street of dreams, and who then went into politics and remained there valiantly always to make things better for his and his neighbors’ future, and who relished his only ever honest work among community endeavors, and who never ever veered from his earnest approach to make things work for his constituents.

The biggest blemish in Coppola’s career is also his greatest victory of conscience. There are those that say Al Coppola held back the progress of the Bison’s stadium. He certainly did. Bob Rich Junior wasn’t going to put any money at all from Rich Products into building the stadium. Coppola fought against that utter grab zeal and indeed held things up. He then forced Rich to at least sign a lease, which they weren’t eager to do—and in the end they did, but only because of Coppola.

Coppola went against every other councilman that time to make his point. There is no councilman in the City of Buffalo history who has repeatedly gone against the veil of the times to stay quick to his honor more than Al Coppola. It hurt him immensely, but he’s remained steel to the wind every time.

And when the Buffalo Common Council voted themselves a $10,000 pay raise one year, Al Coppola denied himself the pay raise. He could have used it too—sending kids to college at the time—but his wife Carol kept teaching, and Al kept working, for us—and there’s no man in Buffalo I’d rather give my thanks to. He is the pride of Buffalo history—and he is deserving of our respect.

Now we can see where Al is going… and we can hope our good-intentioned friend Sam Hoyt and many others are going to be on the Al Coppola team to regenerate an honest Preservation Board purpose and mandate as well.

Buffalo's Preservation Board is still the Best in the country-- preserving more of an historic city than any other Rust Belt locale ever enjoyed the protection by or thereof-- its legacy is streamlined with glorious wins of protection-- all along supported by Al Coppola and countless others. The good members of this board need our proud support, but they also need our intervention, and possible revisions to review their integral visions to co-create for the best for our city.

Al Coppola seeks to bring that vision forward-- this time as a citizen and with all the guts that takes. He's not running for any office this time-- but he's ably running for our community, and just wants a little help from each of us to pay attention to a an able board with mission and purpose that needs our involvement to share the good vision with.

Maybe this is a good Buffalo discussion. Maybe Al Coppola brought it on where it raised some startled eyebrows, but let that good discussion now take its even better steps.

And if there's anything we should preserve first and foremost, let it be Al Coppola's zest-- and add to that Sam Hoyt's as well-- for we've got a multifluous team here we need to keep the topics addressing to their fullest for our fullest.

That's the real Buffalo we're proud to be a part of.