Fruit Belt/UB Medical campus question...... (Buffalo, Syracuse: apartment complex, rent, townhouse)

[ckhthankgod]

Is this proposal a good idea for that area of the city? Spirited development - Buffalo - Business First

I ask that question because of these articles: http://www.change.org/petitions/univ...lt-residents-3

The City of Backdoor Deals

A similar plan is occurring in Syracuse too.

[genoobie]

You mean is gentrification a good idea? Depends on if you're in the group being kicked out or in the group moving in. Personally, Buffalo needs smart growth. Is the medical corridor sustainable? The answer is only partially yes. The funds to keep people alive in their last years are going to dry up over the next 10-20 years. That will make the medical establishment a bit less lucrative.

[JSmith11]

I don't think it's gentrification when an apartment complex closes and the tenants are offered first dips on new housing a block or two over. I get that nobody likes to be forced to move, but when you rent your home, sometimes these things happen.

The McCarley Gardens are a suburban apartment complex plopped in the middle of downtown. The architecture and form do not fit the site, and this is a logical place for the medical campus to expand. I would rather see the residential streets of the Fruit Belt strengthened with new housing.

That said, UB and the BNMC have done a pretty terrible job communicating and being transparent with the residents and other stakeholders, and there are insinuations of some back room deals that involve conflicts of interest, if not outright fraud.

[BuffaloTransplant]

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

Is this proposal a good idea for that area of the city? Spirited development - Buffalo - Business First

I ask that question because of these articles: http://www.change.org/petitions/univ...lt-residents-3

The City of Backdoor Deals

A similar plan is occurring in Syracuse too.

I would like to comment on the Backdoor Deal article.... seems like the author dislikes being shoved out of the area.

My husband's one line had grand and great-grandparents (on one side) get off the boat and settle in those little houses in the Fruit Belt that were working class... then they were shoved out because the neighborhood that "was no longer nice" ...going all the way to E. Ferry / Fillmore ( it was nice before WWII). Then that went down the tubes and it was over to other streets, eventually moving out to the burbs after several robberies in the early 1960s.... Point being? You have to have someone or something push out the original residents and then have the area be to a problem area before it "gentrify". Why? It makes those who want to live in a gentrified area feel "cool, in, special" -- like they saved something. What did they save? They sure didn't save any person pushed out so they, in hipness, could move in -- near the new Medical Campus to be coming.

Here's to anyone with guts to stand in the way of gentrification. Personally, I am sick of seeing people ( ANY PEOPLE) shoved out of the homes because someone wants to make it something else. It'll happen, if only by eminent domain... who loses? The current residents who want to stay.

[gwgirl80]

The real issue is the current resident's want to stay is because their rent is currently subsidized. I know of a woman who pays 225 a month for a 2 bedroom townhouse in the complex and she has lived there since the 90's. She is of course stressed about her unit being torn down. Their fear is that once the new units are built, they wont be selected and will be forced to pay higher rents elsewhere and worst of all will be forced into not so desired neighborhoods where the current similar style subsidized housing is offered. The current complex area is nice, quiet and the residents in those units have a close bond, many are 2nd generation residents raising their children there. The Church who owns the complex has great plans for using the funds for redevelopment, and their track record has been pretty good so far. If the tenants were smart, they would trust in them. I'm not big on Church's using Federal funds but I have seen so many great things in that area happen because of St. John's using Federal funds to better the area through various programs.