Tonight I was uploading a video to YouTube and stumbled across this from someone in Cheektowaga…when I watched, I could only think of B-F…this is what the B-F neighborhood looked like 10-15-20 years ago…a few vacant and abandoned properties here or there…do you think anyone at that time would have thought the problem would escalate to the degree in which it has…probably not…if anything, I think this video is a harbinger of things to come for inner-ring suburbs, other parts WNY and the city if Buffalo and region doesn’t take a comprehensive approach to deal with a declining population base in relationship to its housing stock, suburban sprawl and growth…a few weeks ago I was driving through Niagara County…Wheatfield specifically…and marveled at the new subdivisions going up…I wondered about where the people were coming from to fill these new developments and what they were leaving behind…in the inner-ring burbs, this problem is already starting to take root…places like Amherst, Tonawanda, Kenmore and Cheektowaga are starting to see a rise in vacant properties…are we as a region going to step up to the plate and deal with issues of smart growth or are we going to see the mistakes made repeat themselves throughout the area.
A good place to start would be really start implementing plans like “Blueprint Buffalo.” It lays the groundwork to deal with these issues and is being being facilitated locally by LISC Buffalo.
The cancer will continue to spread until we have some real economic development.I have also noticed that some known flippers are flipping in Cheektowaga and it will only further its decline as we already know all too well.
What’s really disappointing is that I haven’t heard any of the 3 County Executive candidates talk about one of the biggest problems this county has: SPRAWL.
If they’ve talked about it and the media have ignored their message, then I apologize.