Buffalo impound lot in need of makeover

By Heidi Friend and Kristine Starkey
Bengal News Reporters
 At 166 Dart St., the City Impound lot is unassuming. In fact, if you don’t live in the neighborhood and have never had your car towed, you would never know it was even there.

City of Buffalo Auto Impound lot located at 166 Dart St.

 Travelling west on Letchworth Street from Buffalo State College, the lot immediately comes into view. Its pale, cold exterior is generically unidentifiable beyond the small sign near its entrance.  Driving along the Scajaquada Expressway it becomes clearer what the lot itself is, and for many in the community, that is precisely the problem.
 In March, Buffalo Parking Commissioner Kevin Helfer announced plans to change the appearance of the lot because there have been complaints from drivers that from the expressway it looks like a junkyard.
    “We want to rearrange the space so that the most damaged cars are moved to the interior lots, where they are less visible to the surrounding areas,” he said.
    Helfer also says there are plans to use steel vertical panels in the interior of the parking centers to block the view.
He said that the cost of this project would be minimal.
    These changes may not even matter in the long run however, according to Councilman Joseph Golombek Jr., whose district includes the impound lot.
    “For quite some time they’ve been talking about getting rid of the impound lot and moving it to [another] site,” Golombek said.
    This move, he believes, will be good for the neighborhood. Right now, it looks “terrible” and is not very secure. Because of its size and lack of adequate security measures, it is often broken into and vandalized.

 North District Councilmember Joseph Golombek Jr. talks about Buffalo State College purchasing land where the Buffalo City Auto Impound lot is located:


    A major reason for moving the lot, Golombek said, is Buffalo State College.  He said Buffalo State is very interested in the current property, which they have suggested they could use to build a stadium.  However, with the state’s budget crisis, he believes it will be at least two or three years before the college can seriously consider this move.
    “It all boils down to money,” Golombek said. “The school can’t be spending that kind of money and raising tuition at the same time.”
    This is exactly the sentiment that the college itself is expressing.  Stan Medinac, associate vice president of facilities planning for the school, confirmed that at this point in time the school has no plans to acquire or renovate the Dart Street property.
    The city is open to cooperating with whatever plans the college has and will entertain offers at any time, said Helfer.
 In the early 1900s, the site was home to the Buffalo Structural Steel Company.  According to “A History of Buffalo: Delineating the Evolution of the City” by J. N. Larned, the plant had a capacity to produce 8,000 tons of structural steel per year and supplied for most of the large commercial properties in the city at that time.
    After the property was foreclosed on in more recent history, the city took it over and turned it into the impound lot that stands now. 
Plans are still up in the air, however Helfer says, “The city is remaining hopeful.”

Edited by Jessica Chetney and Allyson Trolley

Rivera takes lead on hydro-fracking legislation

By Paul Kasprzak and Chris Koss
Bengal News Reporters
 Imagine turning on your water faucet and then holding a lit match under the running water; naturally the small flame would be extinguished. However, in areas where natural gas is abundant underground, and gas companies are using hydro-fracturing, commonly known as fracking, to mine it, people could have a very different reaction to this experiment: their water could start on fire, if a YouTube video is to be believed.
 Fortunately, the West Side doesn’t have to be concerned with this extreme scenario, which affects people with well water. However, the danger of pollution in the lakes and rivers surrounding the area is very real.
 According to FrackAction.com, hydro-fracturing  is a process where water, sand and chemicals are injected into the earth at high pressure. The aim of hydro-fracturing is to fracture rock formations deep underground in the hopes of liberating natural gas that would be otherwise inaccessible, and to bring it to the surface.
 “The Environmental Protection Agency is largely powerless to do anything about pollution caused by fracking. A provision of the 2005 energy bill, inserted at the behest of then Vice President Dick Cheney, stripped the EPA of authority to regulate the process,” according to FrackAction.com.
  The energy bill passed in 2005 does not require gas companies reveal what chemicals they use in the process of hyrdo-fracturing, according to FrackAction.com.
Frack Action Buffalo, led by Rita Yelda, Niagara District Buffalo Common Councilmember David Rivera and North District Councilmember Joseph Golombek worked this past fall to pass Buffalo’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance. This bans hydro-fracturing in the city of Buffalo, as well as the use of wastewater from the process.
 The ordinance passed by Buffalo does not allow the the Buffalo water authority to except any fracking water in the future. According to the Erie County Water Authority it is almost impossible to know what to test for when treating wastewater from fracking.
 Kirk Laubenstein,  legislative assistant to Rivera asked, “Once you screw up your water, how do you unscrew it up?”
 Laubenstein said that the council passed the ordinance knowing that gas companies weren’t particularly interested in the West Side, but because it was the right thing to do. Laubenstein said by passing the ordinance in Buffalo it gave smaller towns and communities more leverage to also ban it. The traditional form of vertical fracking has long been used in New York and now horizontal fracking, which is more controversial because of the amount of water, sand and chemicals needed, is being developed and implemented, according to FrackAction.com.
 “Vertical fracking has already been happening in the Collins area, just 40 minutes outside of Buffalo. There is also an investigation into the acceptance of fracking waste in the city, where it is ending up in local waterways,” Yelda said. “When public health and the environment are on the line, that outweighs any of the supposed economic benefits.”
 Laubenstein said he felt the same way, comparing fracking to the tobacco industry in the way that it may create jobs for people while at the same time it creates a huge health risk for the public.
 “Along with protecting its residents by passing this law, Buffalo is also sending a message to Albany that New York does not want hydro-fracking,” Yelda said. “We will stand up for our communities if New York State will not.”
 Yelda is referring to the moratorium that is currently banning horizontal hydro-fracturing in New York State. That moratorium is set to expire this summer, and if no laws are created banning the practice, statewide gas companies will be free to continue to drill vertically as well as start drilling horizontally. This will allow gas companies to challenge Buffalo’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance, and possibly over turn it, which would allow them to drill for natural gas under the city as well as send wastewater to water treatment plants in the area.
 Since gas companies by federal law are not required to list the chemicals that could be in the water, it becomes a guessing game for the water treatment facilities.
 “National Resources Defense Council said they would work with us to fight the case if we need to,” said Laubenstein.
 Frack Action Buffalo is going to continue to back legislation to prohibit hydro-fracking on local and statewide levels. The organization does community outreach and education, and every second and fourth Sunday at noon they  hold open meetings at Lafayette Presbyterian Church in Buffalo.

            Edited by Paul Giazzon and Jennifer Waters

Pridgen sees need to coalesce city leaders

By Jeffrey Heras and Kevin Hoffman
Bengal News reporters
 The Rev. Darius Pridgen of the True Bethel Baptist Church is no stranger to the political scene in Buffalo as he recently has been elected to a seat in the Buffalo Common Council taking leadership of the Ellicott District. As a former member of the Buffalo Board of Education he is aware of what it will take to bring positive renovation to an area that is craving change.

New councilmember coming to City Hall

 “I wish I could just talk about the Ellicott District, but I see my role as being so far beyond Ellicott,” Pridgen said. “The issues that are facing Ellicott are the same issues facing everybody and because we don’t have the at large position in the council most people are concerned only about their district, but that hasn’t done us well,” he said.
 Pridgen also stated that issues such as employment, enforcement of the laws, crime and the education system are important to Buffalo’s development for the future. He added that Buffalo is losing people who graduate from the area’s colleges and universities due to the low employment opportunities available.
 “If we don’t give them opportunities to stay by really connecting city and the colleges together we’re done, and we’re going to continue to see people use Buffalo as a pipeline to their future and never it being the future.”
 He said that the city of Buffalo should reach out to higher education institutions in the area to help with identifying the issues that are facing Buffalo. Together they should try to articulate these issues to the residents of Buffalo in order to get everyone engaged in helping to fix them.
 Pridgen has proposed a G4P summit, Government for the People Summit, in which the elected officials that represent buffalo, whether on the state level, federal level or county level get together and have to decide together on what the priorities are and begin to partner resources and energy in order to accomplish these priorities.
 “Right now we have government going into all types of directions, everybody stays in their own little office, their own little district and now people are suffering. When voters see somebody trying to bring people together you almost have to embarrass those that won’t participate,” he said.

Niagara District Councilmember David Rivera

 Pridgen, along with his colleague David Rivera, a councilman for the Niagara district, face similar problems when it comes to their constituency, such as poverty and poor housing, as well as other economic pitfalls. Rivera states that he would like to collaborate with Pridgen on a number of projects, seeing as both districts share a common border, it would be beneficial for them to work with one another in order to help cultivate the lower West Side that extends into the Ellicott District.

Niagara District Councilmember David Rivera speaks on working with Pridgen:


 When discussing the economy of Buffalo and its future Pridgen said there needs to be a higher concentration on local and small businesses in order to make Buffalo a thriving and vibrant city. He added that he would like to see an Ellicott district that is growing to the point that there is a downtown like that of Toronto.
 “I have dreams about getting small businesses not just on Elmwood, not just on Allentown but the center of our city," he said.
 “I believe in listening to what people have to say and what they feel. If I don’t pay attention to the smallest business to the largest business the tax base is not there, the business community is so important and the I think they now that I really believe in the growth of small and large,” he said.
 Even with the optimism and go-getter attitude the 46-year-old reverend brings to office, he says that people have to work together in order to accomplish goals. He believes that one of the biggest things is that many have not collaborated in an effort to expose issues facing Buffalo and bringing people together.
 Though Pridgen was elected to the Buffalo Common Council on November 2010 he will quickly run for re-election in November 2011 and said that he doesn’t want to pretend that he can turn the world upside down in eleven months. In the next eleven months he wants to create community leadership groups within Ellicott, which will be made up of specific groups like block clubs, businesses, law enforcement specialists and those who can assist in educational and quality of life issues. He wants to put these committees together to turn around the paradigm of government as it is seen now.
 “I am a new kid on the block and this is largely a city that likes to operate by seniority and power and if you haven’t been around it is very difficult to break in, but this is one of the strengths that I bring to the table, I don’t care about losing. I am not a career politician, so I am not about to make choices based on, will I be re-elected, but based on what the people need and want,” Pridgen said.
 Pridgen foresees being able to motivate people to be more active and prideful of their community.
 “I expect for them to be as excited as I am and I am going to bring the excitement to the table. I expect them to keep up their neighborhoods and not to allow their neighborhoods to go down," Pridgen said. "I expect for them to make sure their children are educated and I expected them to be a part of this process of government.”

Edited by Kristine Starkey

Anticipated state award to improve Grant Street

By Mike Gambini and Ken Obstarczyk
Bengal News reporters
 The Grant Street business district has had its ups and downs over the years with storefronts closing and businesses moving to areas of better opportunity.
 Now, Grant Street has been given a powerful tool to bring those businesses back with improved facades and more attractive interior design of buildings for potential merchants.
 In late August, the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal announced a $500,000 Main Street grant to be used toward the revitalization of Grant Street.
 The grant was awarded to People United for Sustainable Housing, a West Side non-profit group aiming to create strong neighborhoods through affordable housing, local employment expansion and economic justice.
 “PUSH is proud to be partnering with the resurgent Grant Street business community to advance the revitalization efforts already underway,” said Aaron Bartley, executive director of PUSH Buffalo, in a statement after the award was announced.“Grant Street’s diverse character is its greatest strength and we expect these funds will assist businesses that have stuck with Grant Street for decades, through the thick and thin, as well as those who have jumpstarted the renaissance by starting businesses in the past few years.”
 The grant comes from the New York Main Street Program that provides financial resources and technical assistance to communities to strengthen business districts and surrounding neighborhoods.
 PUSH plans to use the award to help grow and develop small businesses, restore old storefronts, make streetscape improvements and give community organizations a financial boost to aid in the renewal.
 Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, on PUSH Buffalo:

 The organization has designated a portion of Grant Street between West Delavan and Auburn avenues to be the targeted area for upgrades. Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, said even though the three-block portion is a short stretch, it is in line with PUSH’s typical agenda: start small and grow from the inside out.
 One potential business hoping to benefit from the grant is April Flowers, located at 214 Grant St. near the corner of Lafayette Avenue.
 April Whalen, owner of the flower shop, said she talked with PUSH about improving the façade and planting trees on the sidewalk.
 “We also talked about updates to the building to make it more efficient,” Whalen said. “I’m still learning about all the options and the possibilities, but it’s exciting.”
 Hoyt was instrumental in helping PUSH get the grant and said he has complete faith in PUSH’s ability to make it a success.
 “I have been involved with PUSH many times over the years and I told them I’d do everything I could to help them get it funded,” Hoyt said.“I spend a lot of time trying to improve the economy and the quality of life on the West Side. There’s a good foundation going on over there with Sweetness_7, Guercio’s and so on. I thought the application would do great things for the neighborhood, so I supported it.”
 Though the grant was awarded in August, PUSH has not received any funds from the state to date. Hoyt expects PUSH to receive the money sometime around the first quarter of 2011.
 In the meantime, PUSH is teaming up with businesses like Whalen’s and community-related organizations to determine how to allocate the resources.
 A meeting was held on Nov. 9 to discuss the many issues related to the Main Street grant and according to Gary Welborn, vice president of Grant-Ferry Association, good progress was made and expectations were exceeded.
 The meeting was designed to bring together representatives for public and private interest of the district being served.
 Welborn said because of the positive developments that took place, representatives will be meeting on a regular basis.
 The three major issues discussed were design guidelines, allocation criteria and developing a contractor’s list. Welborn said they broke down how they want to spend the money, who may be eligible to receive assistance and who is going to do the work on these projects.
 Besides getting the money, Welborn said the next step is to get the community involved and excited about the possibilities a financial award of this magnitude could bring.
 “There is momentum going on, on Grant Street,” he said. “This grant only continues that momentum. Grant Street is the gateway to the West Side and improving Grant Street will help the entire community and surrounding neighborhoods.”

Edited by Kevin Freiheit and Taylor Steinberg

GPS tracking to enhance plow operations

By Kimberly Snickles
Bengal News reporter
 West Side residents know the routine: Monday through Wednesday park your car on the correct side of the road, Thursday and Friday make sure to be up at 9 a.m. to move your vehicle to the opposite side until 4 p.m. and on weekends feel free to park on either side.
 This can be a difficult task in the winter when residents have to brush off their cars, shovel the driveway and pray that the plow comes to sweep up the streets. That is why the City of Buffalo is incorporating new technology and parking time changes to make snow plowing more efficient.
 This winter, every snowplow will be connected to Buffalo’s global positioning system. It will allow supervisors to check the location of the plow, what speed it is going, how much salt is being used, and see if the plow is up or down. They will also be able to go back and see what location the plow was in hours before.
 Larry Panaro, superintendent of Public Works Parks and Streets, said “If the GPS systems and parking changes in the other areas work well, we will be able to use it more effectively to allocate more resources on the West Side.”
 The system will help supervisors track which streets have been plowed and which ones still need more attention. When the mayor’s complaint line receives calls from residents that their street has been left unplowed, the city can check the GPS to see if it has been there yet and where it needs to go next.

Salt in storage at the Broadway Garage

 The city is also changing the parking regulations on streets where vehicles are required to be on the other side by 4 p.m. on Sundays by moving the time to 6 p.m. on Mondays.
 Since the West Side allows for parking on both sides of the streets on weekends, it limits the city plows effectiveness in those residential streets.
Blair Woods, West Side resident and member of the City Bicycle Pedestrian Committee, said: “The biggest problem for this block is that if you happen to have a snowfall on Wednesday, then one side of the street never gets plowed. And the fact that if someone sleeps in or just doesn’t move their car, it ruins it for the whole neighborhood.”
 Panaro felt the same way about the West Side weekend parking.
 “The West Side has by far the highest concentration of streets in the city. The best we can do is go through the middle of the street but we can’t plow through the curb. The change in day and time in the other areas and the new GPS will help us facilitate our operation better,” he said.
 Buffalo has 67 truck drivers and equipment operators to control the 56 snow plows and 16 high lifts that are ready for this winter.
 Larry Panaro, on the salt supply for coming winter.

 According to Panaro and a press release from the City of Buffalo, the Department of Public Works'Broadway Garage is also in the middle of constructing the streets operations office that will serve as the control center for the streets department during snow events.
 “We will have a monitor up for each section of Buffalo. So if the West Side is having a snow plow emergency, we will be able to see it immediately,” Panaro said.

Edited by Tony Fiorello, Steven Jagord and Natalie Lleras

From old to new: West Side soon to recycle

By Allison Jagow and Patrick Simons
Bengal News reporters
 Throughout the past few years, the West Side has undergone numerous changes to help improve the community.
 From Extreme Make Over: Home Edition’s visit last fall, to the influx of new, youthful businesses, to the growing presence of grassroots organizations like PUSH Buffalo and the Massachusetts Avenue Project, the West Side is enriching the community one step at a time.

Larger recycle bins are expected to eliminate clutter on the street

 Another change that looks to continue to improve the West Side, as well as the rest of Buffalo, is the way the city’s residents will be handling their recycling.
 The City of Buffalo is about to enter a new agreement with Allied Waste, which will change the scheduled pickup of recyclables, as well as change the amount and content of what can be recycled, said Paul Sullivan, director of street sanitation.

Paul Sullivan says the city will try to make recycling more convenient:


 Some residents may be recycling for the first time, but the new changes will help the city save money and make recycling a little easier, he said.
 “If you make bringing your recycling out to the curb as easy as it is to take your garbage out to the curb, people will actually recycle more,” said Kirk Laubenstein, legislative assistant to Councilman David Rivera.
 The recycling initiative will offer new, much larger recycling totes that will allow for single stream recycling. This means that residents will now be able to put all of their recyclables, including paper, plastic, glass and aluminum all into the same receptacle. Materials such as pizza boxes and plastic caps from bottles and cans will also be able to be recycled, Sullivan said.
 The totes that will be distributed to the residents will be very similar to the bins designated for trash.
 As an incentive to recycle, Rivera’s office has put together an annual “recycling challenge” for the last few years. Each year, different neighborhoods and streets throughout the West Side participate. During the challenges, a representative from the Department of Public Works goes to the participating neighborhoods and counts how many recycling bins are out at the curb. Whichever area has the most recycling out, wins the challenge.

New bins will be as large as garbage totes

 There has been some controversy regarding the size of the new recycling bins. The current containers have a volume of 18 gallons, while the new bins will be able to hold 65 gallons. With the extreme size difference, some residents might not have enough room on their lots to store a large trash bin as well as a large recycling bin.
 It is understood that some people don’t want the new containers because many people have limited space to store them, said Sullivan, so with the new program, the city is trying to be as accommodating as possible.
 “Most of us have figured out a way to get these things in and out,” said Ellie Dorritie, member of the Cottage District Association. “I have to move my car every time I want to pull the garbage out.”
 Residents have been and will be given waivers to opt out of receiving the new bins. If a resident feels the bin they have is sufficient, they are not obligated to get the new container.
 Recycling pickup will also be changed from weekly to biweekly.
 “We’re going to put as much notification on the tote itself as possible, and then we’re going to advertise like crazy too,” Sullivan said about informing the public about the biweekly pickup. “It’s the right thing to do for the community. It’s the right thing to do for the environment,” Sullivan said.
 Although Buffalo hasn’t had the best track record when it comes to recycling, Sullivan said, this new initiative to the public works program hope to steer residents in the right direction, improve recycling, and improve the city.

Edited by Patrick Martin and Cierra Richardson

West Side goes green to fix sewer problems

By Amanda O'Leary and Sametra Polkah-Toe
Bengal News reporters
 Buffalo is known for its winters, and residents become accustomed to the typical winter activities: shoveling snow, building snowmen and playing the rain. For those on the West Side, however, there’s an even more fun element involved: flooded basements and bacteria-filled sewage overflows.
 Having been a publicly documented problem for years, the city of Buffalo’s weak sewage infrastructure has allowed for the combination of large quantities of sewage and storm water runoff that backs up the pipes and drains, which eventually spills the untreated wastewater into neighborhoods and basements. This has been especially problematic for the West Side, which sits at the lowest point in the city and therefore receives the bulk of all polluted water that flows into the Niagara River all the way from Cheektowaga and the East Side. It also does not help that the West Side is so populated, because there are not many vacant lots that can absorb the rainwater, as is the case for the East Side.

Buffalo's sewer system allows for sewage to spill untreated into the waterways. (Environmental Protection Agency diagram)

 

 Partially because of its problems regarding sewage, the West Side has been chosen to participate in a series of Mayor Byron Brown’s “Green Rain Water Management” pilot projects starting this fall. The program, in conjunction with Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, aims to study the use of green rainwater techniques to reduce rainwater flow to the city’s combined sewage systems. Specific to the West Side, “green streets” will be created featuring rain barrels that collect and preserve rainwater.
 There will also be rain gardens to absorb storm water instead of letting it flow into sewer drains, and ultimately, sewer separation operations which will create one pipe for sanitary waste and another pipe for storm water.
 Niagara Riverkeeper executive director Julie O’Neill has expressed her delight at the partnership and insists that the project is necessary for the protection of the West Side community.
 “People really have not been paying attention to the ways sewer overflowage has been affecting our communities,” O’Neill said. “Not only does it introduce ...bacteria to our waterways, making them unsafe, but it also leads to trash and odor problems, and not to mention, its contribution to bird and wildlife problems along the creek. People just don’t think of these things.”
 O’Neill also said that the “green” aspect of the project is a smart move for the city of Buffalo both health-wise and financially.
 “Green is the way to go for the future,” she said. “It beautifies our neighborhoods, returns water back into the ground and its cost-effectiveness ensures that green projects can be implemented during my lifetime.”

Premium Services's Dave Majewski and a green drainage project

 Dave Majewski, president of Premium Services, Inc., is a long-time project collaborator with Niagara Riverkeeper. So far this year, Majewski and his company have constructed a “green” driveway for a church on Lafayette Avenue that has absorbed over 9,000 gallons of water so far. Majewski and his company have planted trees in West Side parks and streets and installed green roofs, which also absorb rainwater and prevent it from flooding the drains. Majewski’s latest project has been a plant bed at the end of a parking lot with native plants that not only absorb the water but also break down the oils from cars, thereby keeping these chemicals out of the city’s sewers.
 “There should be more focus over here on the West Side to address that runoff and the cause of it,” Majewski said. “I can recall a Saturday where three and a half inches of rain fell and all the sewers were backed up going into the lakes and into the streets. That didn’t happen on the East Side or in South Buffalo, but it happened here.”
 Although the pilot sites are still undisclosed and no construction has begun yet, Majewski insists that the city will be successful in turning its infrastructure into a more environmentally friendly system.

Edited by Melissa Kania and Paul Kasprzak