Thumbs up for the most ignorant post of the week. Comments and posts by uninformed, ignorant people like you are a large part of the issue with Buffalo.
I know ColdAccord has made some posts, and they likely mirror what I am about to write, but I didn’t have time to read through the thread.
Everyone who lives in the city of buffalo has a stake in this demolition. It is the residents of buffalo who have to pay for the emergency demolition of structures that are let get to this condition. And why do they get in this condition?
It is a 50/50 blame in my book, of the owners greed and negligence, along with the city failing to hold property owners responsible for this type of demolition by neglect. We have a failed system where someone can buy a property like this, put it up for sale for an outrageous price, and just sit on it until it falls apart, causing a whole neighborhood to be negatively affected, and get a free demolition, care of the city of buffalo. The owner forgoes the costs to do this themselves and ends up with a “shovel ready” piece of real estate.
One additional fact you missed is that the neighbors surrounding the property make up the core group of people protesting the demolition.
These people live in one of the oldest and most historic corners of the city, completely hidden under the shadow of this enormous structure, which has led to it’s preservation and quiet, unique character. Quite simply, this neighborhood would not exist as it does today without the livery.
How does it not outrage you that someone like these owners can get away with something like this, yet there are people preserving and investing in the neighborhoods around this area that get cited for a single board being out of place? The neighborhood has been complaining to city hall for YEARS about this building, this is not simply a reactive measure.
There have been many buyers over the past few years willing to pay a fair price for this building, and the owner’s greed (or alternative motivations) have kept this building out of the hands of someone who could have restored it.
This is about something much bigger than one building. This is something that will hopefully lead to patching the hole in our city government that allows property owners to neglect properties at our collective expense.
And about those old grain elevators… I am glad that you mentioned them, as a whole new (or old?) industry has been born out of a couple of the abandoned grain elevators, an industry that will likely bring a good amount of money and jobs into WNY, and will expand to at least 3-4 other elevators. Good thing we didn’t take them all down.