Save cheektowaga

[mycrows]

Originally Posted by FedupWNY

This whole thread, from the very start is all about pointing a finger at Buffalo as the reason for all of Cheektowaga's problems. It's easier for people to sit behind their computer blaming Buffalo for the wrongs of their precious town over the internet than it would be for them to make a call to their town hall and make a reasonable complaint about a few concerning properties.

My posts haven't. Seems to me you're the one who wants this to be a petty competition between different municipalities within the metropolitan region. The salient point of the thread is that poverty is no longer respecting the imaginary line drawn between the city and the suburbs. Are you seriously suggesting that a quick phone call would be a good way to fix a problem in any of Erie County's townships? That's laughable. And even if Cheektowaga town hall magically became effective, citing some properties would not stop the encroachment of the East Side on Cheektowaga. And it certainly would not address any of the massive problems underlying the ghettos of the Buffalo area.

[FedupWNY]

I'll see if I can explain this another way. Houses with residents living in Cheektowaga who don't cut their lawns, shovel their sidewalks is not a problem of the City of Buffalo, it's of the Town of Cheektowaga.

If a neighborhood looks like a ghetto and the town doesn't do anything, it's still not at any fault of Buffalo, it is a problem that Cheektowaga must address.

Does Cheektowaga refuse to handle houses with code violations, or is it just the residents/property owners who don't file complaints to help their suburban neighborhood?

[mycrows]

Originally Posted by FedupWNY

I'll see if I can explain this another way. Houses with residents living in Cheektowaga who don't cut their lawns, shovel their sidewalks is not a problem of the City of Buffalo, it's of the Town of Cheektowaga.

Those are symptoms of the problem, guy. And fairly benign ones at that. The troubling statistics are the ones cited throughout the thread you claim to have read--the uptick in violence, the gang activity, the white flight, the vacant businesses, the lack of owner-occupied properties. It's not at crisis level for Cheektowaga yet, except at its western-most boundaries. We've seen this before, it happened in Broadway-Fillmore (which is indeed a slum, by the way) and it will indeed get worse in Cheektowaga.

By your logic the ghetto on East Side should clear up if the city just handed out a few more citations.

[MarineFromBuffalo]

Originally Posted by mycrows

I wouldn't really argue with anything in your Marine analogy. But this "every man for himself" attitude is very problematic when you're talking about regional politics. Just because you're fortunate enough to live in the Parkside district of Buffalo, you are not absolved of the problems of the East Side. This is just like the selfish "not my problem" attitude of Clarence/Amherst residents towards Buffalo. True, the "Buffalo Rising" groupthink has yielded some great things in the past few years, but their final goal is shortsighted. The majority of people who are working to improve Buffalo don't care about crime or poverty, they just want it to move out of the city so they can rehab the beautiful spaces of the city. This does nothing to solve the real problems of the region.

You're right, Buffalo did not ask poor people to congregate within city limits. It's absurd that the suburbs consider themselves as entities wholly separate from the city. If you look a few years down the line, this may reverse. If crime and poverty flees the city, and comes to be centered in first ring suburbs like Cheektowaga, the problems of regional balkanization will remain. We need a mindset that takes the whole metropolitan area into account.

Look at Chicago. The Downtown Loop and miles of adjacent areas are completely gentrified. Thus, the problematic areas of the inner city form a band along the outer portions of the city and some of the first ring suburbs (reading clockwise: South Shore, Englewood, Cicero, Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Uptown). It would not be an improvement for Buffalo to be completely gentrified with all the poor folks in the suburbs. This is how things are in most European cities (wealthy urban center, destitute fringes) and the inherent problems of a suburban slum are in some senses much more severe than an urban slum.

I'm sorry, as a Buffalo resident, it is your problem.

I don't take living in the Parkside area for granted. I worked to get there. I want to help Buffalo in everyway I can. It just drives me crazy when I sit here and listen to people say Buffalo this and Buffalo that, grow up people you aren't 2 anymore.

[Urban Peasant]

Originally Posted by mycrows

You're right, Buffalo did not ask poor people to congregate within city limits. It's absurd that the suburbs consider themselves as entities wholly separate from the city. If you look a few years down the line, this may reverse. If crime and poverty flees the city, and comes to be centered in first ring suburbs like Cheektowaga, the problems of regional balkanization will remain. We need a mindset that takes the whole metropolitan area into account.

Look at Chicago. The Downtown Loop and miles of adjacent areas are completely gentrified. Thus, the problematic areas of the inner city form a band along the outer portions of the city and some of the first ring suburbs (reading clockwise: South Shore, Englewood, Cicero, Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Uptown). It would not be an improvement for Buffalo to be completely gentrified with all the poor folks in the suburbs. This is how things are in most European cities (wealthy urban center, destitute fringes) and the inherent problems of a suburban slum are in some senses much more severe than an urban slum.

Well said in a way. Buffalo has not gotten to the point of widespread gentrification yet but in the event it does, some oter city or town will be left with the crime. It happened here in Boston. Neighborhoods at one time seedy and dangerous have been largely transformed into safe popular destinations for newcomers, especially young people. I have seen neighborhoods such as Mission Hill and the South End transform to such a degree that I now see upscale restaurants and luxury condos where crackhouses and run down tenements once stood. Where did the poor people and the drug dealers go you might ask? To poorer suburbs and outlying exurbs such as Lynn, Lawrence, and Brockton and lately Randolph and Malden where demographics have changed, crime has gone up, and neighborhoods start looking worn out. To combat this, Cheektowaga would need to employ immense community action. Lockport and Niagara Falls look vulnerable too because they are outlying exurbs of Buffalo.

[MamaFish]

Just came across this thread and really feel the need to comment... I am a 27 year old owner-occupant landlord in the 'questionable' part of Cheektowaga on the other side of Harlem. I grew up in Cheektowaga near the airport and never felt unsafe. To be perfectly honest, I never knew this part of Cheektowaga (where I am now) existed. My husband and I bought this house in 2005 after living in both the Allentown area of the city and then Kenmore for a few years. After a few months of living here, it certainly didn't feel like the Cheektowaga I had known... and now being a property owner I figured we could do something about it, right? Wrong. It seems when you file a complaint, you are just a nuisance to the code enforcer...who then actually has to do thier job. And the more you complain, the more you're ignored. The town also wants to offer quick fixes for everything. There is a severe rodent problem (which I had thought we left far behind when we left Kenmore) that the town REFUSES to addres. We went out and purchased $50 garbage totes but later found out that it wasn't our garbage the rats were getting into. Our neighbor refuses to put their trash in lidded cans. Instead they keep it in their garage, uncovered. And the rats would then bring THEIR garbage into OUR yard since they have dogs. How did we figure this out? My husband found chicken bones under our grill (we keep it covered) one day. We hadn't had chicken with bones in WEEKS and had been using the grill probably every few days that summer. When we tried to ask our neighbors (who also own their home) they made jokes about it and said casually how they need to get new garbage cans. Since they're kept in the garage, the town cannot do anything. To me its not a joke, its absolutely disgusting.
Out of town landlords are another issue this area is becoming plagued by. You know who owns their property over here and who doesn't. Schools are yet another issue directly related to the cheaper housing in Cheektowaga. we're moving in a couple months and it only saddens me to leave because our home is nice. We've updated it and taken care of it. When we tried to sell it this past summer, we learned its pretty much fruitless unless we would like to give it away. There is little that property owners can do. I don't think the town is interested and is hoping somehow all the streets past Harlem near Walden will be annexed into the city someday. Another huge frustration of living in this area is also having a city zip code. Yep, all the streets past Harlem share an east-side zip code. Which means our car insurance is higher since we're lumped with the demographics for the East Side of Buffalo. I couldn't believe when we bought the house that the zip code we have isn't even recognized by the USPS as a valid zip in Cheektowaga. All I know, is I can't wait to leave. I will not raise my kids here. We're embarassed to admit we live here, let alone own a house. Its my experience over the past few years that the town doesn't care one bit about the taxpayers in the border-area.

ETA:
It's definitely not the city's of Buffalo's fault that the town is incapable of holding its property owners to higher standards. Rules should be enforced, its the only way to keep a town looking nice.

[BuffaloGoo]

I'm sorry to hear about your situation MamaFish, where will you be moving to? I live in Cheektowaga by the airport, I like living here now but if this area starts going downhill I will move, how did you like living in Allentown and Kenmore?

[MamaFish]

Originally Posted by BuffaloGoo

I'm sorry to hear about your situation MamaFish, where will you be moving to? I live in Cheektowaga by the airport, I like living here now but if this area starts going downhill I will move, how did you like living in Allentown and Kenmore?

Goo, we're going to East Aurora, after researching for months we decided that would be best for us and our kids. I wouldn't raise my family in Allentown, lol. But I lived there during college and of course it was perfect for me at the time. My husband bought the house in Kenmore shortly before we got married. We were there for 2 years and really loved it (except for the rats!!). He grew up there (in Kenmore) and we only sold the house because it was too small and we decided to start having kids. We had always thought we would move back, but after our experience in Cheektowaga we wanted to be further from another border area. Plus I wanted a better than average public school system. But Kenmore does have a real nice neighborhood feel.

[BuffaloGoo]

I'm sorry that your leaving Cheektowaga, this town needs more good people like you moving in rather than moving out but I can defiantly see why you're leaving. I think East Aurora will be a good fit for you, whenever I go there I feel like I'm going back in time but in a good way. Good luck with your move and please let us know how you like it there.
One more question if you have time :0), did you feel safe in Allentown and Kenmore? I'm going to be turning 25 soon and I think either of those areas might be a good place for me to rent an apartment but feeling safe is important to me.