Common Council Report

On my way to Tuesday’s meeting of the Buffalo Common Council’s Legislation Committee, I stopped off at the office of my favorite highly placed informant, the Skeptical Authority of City Hall (SACH). The chief had sent me over to the seat of Buffalo government to monitor the committee’s deliberations over North District member Joseph Golombek’s proposal to have the city switch to a city-manager form of government. The chief thought something interesting might ensue during deliberations over the matter in the committee, to which it had been sent after its filing by Golombek a week earlier.

I gingerly broached the matter with SACH. I asked him what he thought of this proposal and its prospects.

“Oh, it’s mental masturbation,” he said dismissively. “Even if it went through, they’d just hire some numbskull to fill the position. It’s like the four-year terms for councilmembers they passed a few years ago. Did that make a difference? Everything around here is so cozy.”

Mulling over SACH’s rather severe treatment of the matter, I wended my way through the building to the council chambers where Golombek—who is also chair of the committee—was soon holding forth on the subject of police summons issued for city residents’ uncut grass and upholstered furniture on their porches, both prohibited by ordinances. South District member Mickey Kearns had questioned whether the police department should issue summons without first warning people. “I’m glad they’re giving out summons,” Golombek declared. “I’d like to see more of them.” He launched into a lecture of several minutes duration on irresponsible property owners and threats to neighborhood stability.

I had almost fugued out when I realized both of Golombek’s city-manager resolutions had been tabled.

Seated next to me behind the committee members was former councilmember and state senator Albert Coppola, and I heard him say softly, “They’ve given me an opening.” Ostensibly, Coppola was there to oppose the Preservation Board’s proposal to “landmark” his “little white house” on Delaware Avenue, a humble, over-100-year-old survivor of the Pan American Exposition. But there was another, higher-profile item on Coppola’s agenda: the stalled Peace Bridge expansion project. For years, he has been a seemingly tireless opponent of the Public Bridge Authority’s plans to demolish and expand into much of the far West Side neighborhood adjoining Front Park and the bridge entrances.

Recognized by Golombek, Coppola emphatically tied to the enforcement of housing ordinances what he described as the authority’s irresponsible neglect of seven homes on Busti Avenue, near the bridge approaches, that were purchased 13 years ago. He brought photos of several of these, including the circa 1865 Col. S. H. Wilkenson house at 771 Busti, which has fallen into such a condition of disrepair that its survival is threatened, he told committee members.

Coppola drew members’ attention to a picture of the house at 730 Columbus Parkway, once home to Mariano Lucca, who lobbied the US Congress to designate Columbus Day a national holiday. Lucca’s son has been trying to sell the house for a couple of years but has been unable to because it’s within the area designated by the authority for demolition of all structures. Describing the authority’s stewardship of its currently owned properties as “devastating to the neighborhood,” Coppola asked committee members “If we’re going to enforce building codes, why should we exempt the Public Bridge Authority?”

His words met with a sympathetic reception from several of the members. Council President David Franczyk, for example, said “I think Al’s one-hundred percent right,” , pronouncing himself “aghast at what’s happened to the Lucca house.”

Coppola told the committee, speaking of Peace Bridge officials, “They’re going to come to you for permission to take over city streets.” Niagara District member David Rivera advised his colleagues this will “probably be one of the biggest decisions council members will ever make.”

Bigger, presumably, than over-ten-inch-tall grass, but an issue that will confront the council with problems considerably more difficult to resolve.

—george sax