West Side revival can be a blueprint
I have seen it with my own eyes. I have seen what some people do not think is possible.
I have seen what City Hall still— judging by its demolition-heavy, rehab-light policy—has little faith in.
I saw a neighborhood deep into a seemingly irreversible slide into slumville. I saw it dig in its heels and turn around, with hardly any tax-dollar handout.
I saw verge-of-demolition buildings revived. I saw abandoned houses transformed into homes. I saw people who were losing hope find a reason to believe.
That is what mine eyes have seen. Glory, glory hallelujah.
Good news is scarce in these parts. The ongoing revival and resettlement of streets west of Richmond Avenue—long the western firewall of upscale Elmwood Village—is ample evidence that neighborhoods can be reclaimed.
“[The city] does not have to demolish all of these houses,” Harvey Garrett said of the mayor’s plan to demolish 5,000 houses over five years. “If people stand up for their neighborhoods, they can transform them, the way we have here.”
It helps to have somebody like Garrett— a boyish, laser-focused former tech exec who spearheads the West Side Collaborative. The band of some 100 urban pioneers includes students, activists, block-clubbers, long-suffering homeowners and new blood, all united for revival. Empathetic Housing Court judge Henry Nowak Jr. uses the weapon of hefty fines to force slumlords to fix broken houses or to sell them, as-is, at deep discount. Garrett&Co. keep vacant places up until they are rescued by a buyer.
I saw the start five years ago, when Garrett helped to run off Essex Street a slumlord whose four crack houses held the block hostage. Eyesores on Essex— within a block of $150,000 Richmond Avenue homes—were selling for the price of a laptop. Now the 19th century bungalows, a block from the Left Bank restaurant, go for upwards of $60,000.
“We leveraged the strength of the [nearby] Elmwood Village,” Garrett said, “to expand street-by-street into the West Side.” Garrett is a bright guy with no patience for excuses. We walked a dozen blocks Thursday evening, with Garrett naming the owner of every eyesore, work-in-progress or restored house we passed. Folks on porches called out to him.
The better the neighborhood gets, the more people want in. The collaborative, allied with activists at PUSH-Buffalo, has helped turn over more than 100 houses. Garrett gets a dozen calls a month from people looking to buy.
Chenango Street years ago was three blocks battered by 12 vacant eyesores. All have since been bought, and more than $1 million invested.
Garrett two years ago played matchmaker between Elvi Jo Dougherty and a neglected 19th century Chenango Street bungalow after its elderly owner left. For $7,500, Dougherty—a single mom and art teacher—hitched a ride on a rising tide.
A new roof and fresh paint brought it up to speed, and the rehabbed bells-and-whistles bungalow next door lists for upwards of $150,000. Dougherty has a stake in a reviving dogs-and-kids neighborhood. Her inflating home equity might someday cover her daughter’s college bill. In a job-starved city, reviving neighborhoods are like money in the bank.
“What’s going on is inspiring,” said Dougherty, unloading groceries to a drumbeat from a nearby artist’s loft. “There’s no comparison to what was here [two years ago]. Neighbors stop by with perennials for my garden. It’s real comfortable.”
There still are eyesores mixed with rehabs. There still are blocks left to reclaim. But what has happened here shows that people cannot just fight. They can win.
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