Buffalo neighborhoods severely shortchanged
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It is hard to miss the huge imbalance between the amount of public dollars allocated for Canal Side versus those allocated for the West Side and other stressed city neighborhoods. Steady loss of decent, living-wage jobs has resulted in decades of poverty and disinvestment in these neighborhoods, leaving thousands of homes in serious to critical need of moderate to complete rehabilitation. Yet we are willing to put $154 million worth of public dollars into Canal Side, and only $11 million into a single West Side neighborhood to address 200 homes.
Issues of equity, fairness and proportionality must be considered when talking about these kinds of dollars. City neighborhoods are severely shortchanged for the benefit of highly subsidized “silver bullet” projects structured to yield high reward to very few and virtually nothing to the general public. Subsidy allocations chronically ignore the thousands of financially challenged and needy homeowners who have remained committed to our neighborhoods.
If we can afford to spend $154 million for Canal Side, then surely a modest one-third of that is reasonable and prudent for our neighborhoods. The spin-off effect of this funding would not end with an improved housing stock; even more provocative is how many decent, living-wage jobs could possibly be created with a pipeline of thousands of homes awaiting moderate to complete rehab. Perhaps it is time to start thinking about “plan B” for Canal Side.
Steven H. Polowitz
Buffalo
Published: February 10, 2010, 12:30 am