Regionalism is not a four-letter word

The curse of Buffalo - aside from Wide Right, No Goal and the never-ending saga of the Peace Bridge - is the 1,001 cities, towns, villages and school districts that dot the landscape and suck the life out of taxpayers.

OK, 1,001 is an exaggeration. But not much of one.

Take Cheektowaga, home to one mega-mall, five school districts, a town government and, if that's not enough, a village government (Sloan).

We may have built grain elevators a century or so ago, but since then, it's been mostly silos, in the form of one duplicating government entity after another. It's rooted in a political culture that values turf above all else.

That mindset is arguably on display involving a bill passed by the state Legislature that would establish a countywide land bank to manage and rehabilitate vacant properties. Abandoned properties are a huge problem in the city and a growing one in the suburbs.

Expert after expert say that's the way to go, that it's worked in other states. Given that nearly one in every four properties in the city is vacant, they insist that it's an especially smart move here.

Byron Brown, however, is dead set against the land bank bill. Usually, it's suburbanites who oppose regional cooperation with the city. This time, it's the other way around.

Brown wants to start with a city-only land bank. I guess he thinks the suburbs can wait on their vacant housing problem. Phil Fairbanks had a story about it in Sunday's paper.

As Brown sees it, it's a matter of accountability.

"This bill is bad for Buffalo," he wrote in a letter to Gov. Paterson in which he asked him to veto the legislation. "These properties need the direct management and local accountability of the City of Buffalo."

Is it about accountability or control?

"Control is clearly one of the motivations," said Aaron Bartley, of PUSH, or People United For Sustainable Housing.  "No matter what the structure of this land bank is, politicians will seek to control that structure."

Given the city's sorry track record managing and rehabilitating abandoned housing, Brown's argument has a hollow ring.

Jimmy Griffin, Tony Masiello and now Byron Brown have had their chance to deal with the problem. It's only gotten progressively worse. People like Bartley are saying "enough is enough."

The bill is on Paterson's desk to sign or veto.

"This is a governor who's driven by good government and good public policy," said Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, the bill's prime sponsor. "I can't imagine a circumstance where he would veto this legislation."

We'll soon find out. 

Comments

[BobbyCat]

I'm suspicious. Mr. Hoyt has a history of sponsoring legislation that sounds good on a campaign brochure but is Dead on Arrival. I suspect that sponsoring no-chance-in-he** legislation in the State Assembly has become a growth industry, tailored to the folks back home. Assemblyman Hoyt is hearing footsteps behind him, methinks, and has gone on a legislative binge.

I wonder how many bill in Albany have no-chance from the get go, designed only to pump-up the old resume, and how many are serious efforts?

[WNYMind]

People should read the proposed plan for a regional land bank in Buffalo. In its present form it would leave a seal of land on the East Side of Buffalo permanently idle and concentrate all development on Main Street. The inner ring suburbs would also be left behind.

The land bank as propoposed would also halt most of the demolition in the city and redirect funds to development along Main Street. This meant that abandoned property would remain and be a blight on most city neighborhoods. The proposal essentially says, "if you live next to an abandoned houses, get use to it or move to a studio apartment on Main Street."

There is nothing wrong with a land bank, but the current proposal is the same old, same old from the politically conservative regionalism crew in Buffalo.

The land bank proposal also gives most of the power in determining where development goes to an insulated group of academics as UB, while keeping neighborhood organizations out of the process and dumping all the financial responsibilities on the cities.

Yes, the land bank proposed for WNY is another elite controlled exercise in Buffalo with the taxpayers flipping the bill for their socail experiments.

But what would we expect from a piece of legislation that started with a star chamber set up by Pataki.

[quinn]

Clearly WNY Mind has never even looked at the landbanking bill.

Nowhere does it say that funds would be redirected to development along Main St or that the "power" would be consolidated in a bunch of academics at UB.

Why is it that EVERY organization that works with housing and dealing with the problem of abandoned and vacant properties supports the bill and the ONLY opposition is Byron?

Like everything else - if he and his winged-monkey henchmen can't control it, it's a bad idea.