Letters to Artvoice
Lights on the Peace Bridge
We have a new “feature” in the historic Prospect Hill Columbus Park district. The Public Bridge Authority made good on their plan to light up the Peace Bridge. A project that was announced by the authority last summer.
Spending over $1 million dollars to bathe the bridge in colored lighting demonstrates what is and what is not a priority for the authority.
Columbus Parkway residents have tried for 10 years to hold the PBA accountable for the nine properties they own on Busti Avenue. The PBA, in turn, has ignored and dismissed complaints from the community. They have intentionally blighted all but one (they lease it out to the Feds) of the properties including the historical S. H. Wilkeson mansion, ca. 1867.
Last October, a hazardous conditions complaint was filed with the Common Council to bring this issue to the attention of the full Council. Photos of the rotting houses circulated throughout the council. Several councilmembers were shocked at the deplorable conditions of the block of homes that were once vibrant owner-occupied residences. One councilmember branded the PBA “slumlords.”
The Council sent the hazardous conditions complaint to the Department of Inspections for further review. Commissioner James Comerford determined after the properties were inspected, that the PBA had failed to comply with city housing code.
Mr. Comerford directed the PBA to correct all housing code violations on all of the Busti Avenue properties by May 1, 2009.
Six months has passed since residents filed the hazardous conditions complaint. Several months have passed since the PBA was given a directive to fix the houses.
Where did the PBA end up making a $1 million dollar investment? On the bridge, of course.
Not one penny went into the rehabbing of the Busti Avenue properties. A promise made good by PBA General Operations Manager Ron Rienas, who has defiantly stated over and over that the PBA will never invest in rehabbing the Busti Avenue properties. The only money the PBA will dish out, said Rienas, would be to demolish the properties.
So where does this leave the residents who have been forced to continue to live with these hazardous conditions? Now they can look out their windows at night and admire the hues of color emanating from the bridge, which softly bathe the rotting roof of 757 Busti or the imploding walls of the once grand civil war house at 771 Busti.
What should city lawmakers expect when the May 1 housing violation deadline comes and goes? Not much. The PBA operates above the law. Why shouldn’t they? They are the untouchables in this town. They do what they want, when they want. If they chose to spend $1 million dollars on light bulbs instead of respecting the laws of the City of Buffalo—whose business is it?
Lighting up the Peace Bridge was another self-serving decision by the authority. It stands as a test to see which entity will cave in first, the city or the PBA.
Every single board member serving on the PBA is aware of the slumming conditions of the Busti Avenue. They all know about the directive Commissioner Comerford gave. It’s been a very hot topic at board meetings. The cost of fixing the properties has come before them at several of the meetings.
This could have had a different ending. The PBA board could have voted to rehab the Busti Avenue properties, thus voting to respect the quality of life here on the West Side. After all, we deserve no less than the residents of Fort Erie.
Instead, the board decided to continue to implement a process that has been dirty for decades. It pitt’s one side of the border against the other where one community wins and the other one loses.
The Public Bridge Authority has never been a public servant acting in good faith in this historic community. They have no qualms about abandoning their responsibilities as a public agency in our city.
So are we back to square one? Will the city go the distance with the PBA over the Busti Avenue properties? Will the Busti Avenue properties fall victim to demolition by neglect?
Will Prospect Hill Columbus Park residents continue to be victimized by an all-too-powerful public authority that seems incapable of applying the principles of good faith? Only time will tell.
Kathy Mecca
President, Niagara Gateway Columbus Park Association
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Reader Comments (posting new comments is closed!)
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kathy mecca 23 Apr 2009, 21:43
The members of the Columbus Parkway Association wish to thank Artvoice and staff for their continued support. The public needs to understand that the bridge authortiy is no different than the Thruway Authority or Power Authority in their mission to serve the public. All authorities are empowered to provide the highest degree of services which benefits the taxpayers not feather their own nests. The Thruway Authority and the Power Authority have been subjected to increased public scrutiny, while the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority has somehow been able to continue to operate under the radar. The PBA weilds so much power that even the Buffalo News is fearful of reporting the truth behind this half-baked "public works" expansion/bridge project. Artvoice is the voice of the public.
Luis Clay 24 Apr 2009, 05:59
Dear Kathy, I so admire your determination. In reading this account of blight and slumlords I feel distracted from the scope of the challenge here. Unlike the Thruway Authority and the Power Authority which serve, ostensibly, the citizens of NY, the Bridge Authority serves New York and Ontario. So in addition to the routine arrogance of public officials so familiar to New Yorkers, the Bridge Authority also plays one side of the river against another. I have heard Reinas say in public that PBA is a bi-national entity so that "would not work in Ontario." I don't doubt he says the same thing in reverse on the other side of the river! But the slumlords with the pretty lights would not thrive without the trucking industry, without a City Hall bent on any business of any size at any cost and without the Buffalo News. The Buffalo News will die all by itself in due course. This town will be so much better off without their base headlines and their polite defence of the status quo. The truck business will suffer the vagaries of the energy markets as we all will. Probably only a carbon tax will render that business unsustainable and a carbon tax will require that rarest of commodities, political will. So Western New Yorkers better get used to the idea that we will be polluted with particulates, with blight and with contempt as long as we behave like doormats. Until City Hall, County and State legislators and bureaucrats are convinced that their jobs and careers rest on respecting the environment and the greater interest of taxpayers the PBA will cock snooks and pretend that trucking is a vital business to New York. The only responsible resolution for the Peace Bridge development is to reduce it to a retail, tourist, crossing, with lights, and to develop an integrated transport solution across the river balancing road, rail and air cargo and linking to Niagara Falls airport. This strategy would generate tens of thousands of jobs in Western New York and Southern Ontario. Problem is this would require politicians to think beyond their next election. It would require our smug local business leaders to think beyond their next profit announcement and bonus. And it would require more citizens to follow your example and just say "No!" Since it is so obviously unable to fulfil the public interest the PBA should be closed by New York and Ontario and the assets folded into a single Niagara bridge commission. Without a requirement to re-pay bonding their existence is constitutionally prohibited. Pricing on all bridges across the river should be set to penalize inefficient and wasteful rush-hour transit (waiting = pollution) As you say, thank goodness that Artvoice "has issues." Kathy, you evidence so much faith. You are such an example for the rest of us to follow. Keep up the good work. Luis Clay
Kevin Yost 24 Apr 2009, 13:26
The lights on the Peace Bridge and the idea to expand it are both wonderful and the facts that the expansion has dragged on for so long, the proposed demolishions of those historic buildings and their current deteriorations are indeed deplorable. Instead, the second span of the Peace Bridge and the new ramps and plazas to and from both spans need to be built NORTH of the current span, not south and those historic buildings need to be sold by the Peace Bridge Authority and then restored and preserved. The Peace Bridge also needs to be privatized, perhaps also owned by the Ambassador-Niagara Signature Bridge Group and both the new span of the Peace Bridge and the Ambassador-Niagara Bridge must become reality and maybe another bridge from the western end of Sheridan Drive in the Town of Tonawanda as well. The Ambassador-Niagara Bridge must not be for "trucks only" as currently proposed and should be for all kinds of vehicles and the same with a bridge from the end of Sheridan. Perhaps, the Peace Bridge, with or without any changes to what it is currently, could be for non-commercial vehicles-only. Maybe a new ferry on the old route of the former Canadiana could start and be for all kinds of vehicles as well.
John Q Blogger 24 Apr 2009, 16:26
The good fight goes on thanks to people who want to continue to reside on the West Side and care of their families and neighbors, fix up their homes, plant gardens, and improve the city. There is not one member of the Buffalo and Fort Erie Peace Bridge Authority who lives in the neighborhood surrounding the Peace Bridge. This shadow government is bad for community self determination and preservation. Their quick buck and slip shod decision making process harms our community like a community invasive species. There must be a shared border, management plaza built in Fort Erie. Buffalo's densely populated West Side must be safe guarded and preserved for the thousands of residents who are not the government by this imposed authority. |
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