Move the Trucks… not the People!

Forget new bridge, add more inspection booths

2010-01-29T17:01:00.003-05:00

Congressman Brian Higgins’ claim that a Peace Bridge expansion is vital to our economy is just plain wrong. Take one look at how much manufacturing there is in Western New York and it becomes clear that the current bridge has plenty of capacity for our own region’s trucking needs. The trucks the expansion is for are just passing through, and there’s no money for us in that.

Higgins is also wrong when he says the expansion is needed for “people carrying money.” Our sports events are pretty well sold out now, the Canadians didn’t show up for the Bills even when they played in Canada and our mall lots are full of Canadian plates and cast-off clothes. Higgins has produced no evidence that these “people” exist, but even if they do, we could get them over here a lot sooner and millions of dollars cheaper by just throwing up another row of inspection booths.

Alternatively, if the expansion is really about “people,” get the trucks off the bridge entirely. Follow Warren Buffet’s lead and move the goods the green way, by train. Then there would be more than enough room for “people” without an expansion. While we’re at it, let’s get the people here on high-speed trains from Toronto, too.

This is a defining moment for Higgins and for Buffalo. What will the legacy be— a Mr. Magoo expansion to nowhere, or a bold Kennedy-esque vision?

Linda J. DeTine
Buffalo
as published in The Buffalo News

Knock, Knock — Who’s there?

2010-01-28T22:06:00.012-05:00

The Public Bridge Authority

“They lost –We won” zzzzZZZZaaaa-Haaahaaa he said as he threw his head back laughing wildly! That’s how I envision the Canadian General Manager of the Public Bridge Authority Ron Rienas, announcing the recent legal opinion of US Federal Magistrate Kenneth Schroeder over the changes the PBA had already made to the truck plaza 5 years ago. That’s equivalent to celebrating sour grapes that have been rotting on the ground since 2004.

So what is the significance of this conflicted ruling? Who are the board members behind this “Bi-National” Bridge Authority who have spent $400,000 on high priced lawyers so they could protect themselves against having to operate in the light of day?

The total sum of their ‘win’ represents SECRECY; shutting out the public’s right to know, cutting international deals behind closed doors and creating a black hole to shield greedy politicians. Is there something noble in not having to tell the American taxpayer how their hard earned money is being spent?

The heartless conduct of the PBA appointed Board Members make the Thruway Authority, the Power Authority and the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission (another secretive authority) look like the three little pigs. “We’re clearly a New York State entity, reluctantly admitted Rienas, but the rules don’t apply to us the same as for other authorities.”

It’s the PBA’s way of reminding the condemned community living in the shadow of the Peace Bridge that our demise is still in the works, “It doesn’t mean we can fire up the bulldozers tomorrow” said Rienas. What it does mean is that if you don’t turn over your house, the Authority can still come and bulldoze it down.

That is why the ‘Columbus Park Three’ sued the PBA in the first place. They believe that a public authority is created to serve the people not themselves. That no public authority city, state, federal or ‘compacted’ should be able to operate above the law. The ‘Columbus Park Three’ had the foresight to know that a predator was waiting at the gates of the West Side and that an international border was not going to keep them at bay. They knew that no one from Planet Albany would get their hands dirty and protection from city hall was a lost cause. How else does a person keep a foreign gatecrasher from laying claim on another man’s city, neighborhood, or ‘castle’?

For Columbus Park residents the victory is not in the legal ruling but in the message; home is where the heart is. No matter how others perceive Buffalo’s West Side, over 40,000 residents passionately embrace it. Personally, I would like to say thank you to the legion of community residents like the ‘Columbus Park Three’ who are not afraid to stand up and shout, This Place Matters!

Kathy Mecca
President, Columbus Park • Prospect Hill Neighborhood Association

Bad Dream

2007-12-30T14:01:00.000-05:00

Dear Mayor Brown and Assemblyman Hoyt,

Check out the time of this e-mail! This is my winter recess and vacation. I should be asleep right now, but I was just awakened from a nightmare. I usually sleep rather soundly. I relish being able to catch up on some sleep when I am off from work.
I decided to get out of bed and write about this dream because it was so vividly in my mind. It was about the DOT coming to speak to me about relocating us. First there was one congenial man, trying to convince us that a house is not a home, then another and another. Each one uses a different approach.

One writes down tidbits about my arrangement with my parents. They get nowhere with me. I am yelling at them to get out, get out of my life and leave me alone. They bring in women to speak with me, thinking the women will bring in a new approach-trying to manage me, woman to woman. I walk the neighborhood with one woman, telling her about my childhood here and about what my parents are going through now. All of the DOT employees assemble at the Mecca's house and we go through our litany of reasons why we are not giving in to this. We are just another days work for the DOT employees. They are calm because they have gone through this time after time. After all, it is not their life. It is just their job. They smile as though they understand, but how could they, really. One man writes down some scribble. I take the paper out of his hand and tear it up-saying, "get out, get out of here". "You have no right to the details of my life." "Will you be writing about us in your summary report for the day?" "Will you strategize a new approach with us tomorrow?"

I wake up, as I hear my son getting ready for work. I am shaken, trembling from this nightmare. This is how we live our lives, in fear of the nightmare that we relive day after day. Now put yourselves in the minds of two elderly people with Alzheimer's disease, who have a difficult time keeping order in their lives on a good day. Can you imagine what relocating will do to them? Their home is their safety net. They manage as well as they do because they have the order and structure of knowing their environment, as well as having us right next door if need be. Will the DOT be able to replicate that for my Mom and Dad? It's a wonder I can sleep at all while I am so worried as to what will become of them with this scenario.

Won't you make my nightmare go away?

Liz Martina

Sick Pets, Sick Kids

2007-12-28T20:55:00.000-05:00

Dear Mayor Brown and Assemblyman Hoyt,

I have attached a picture of my two dogs, Ozzie and Keegan. Ozzie is an almost 13 years old Black Lab and Keegan is an almost two year old Border Collie. The picture of them speaks volumes as to how one feels after the holidays-just exhausted. Ozzie has been suffering from allergies for years. He is one of the many pets in our area that has been sick. He also has many tumors. He costs hundreds of dollars to keep healthy. I just must treat him because he is a part of our family. His last vet bill was over $600 for medicines

and lab tests. Could this possibly be from the poisons he breathes in from the diesel emissions? One does wonder! I wish we had all of the health statistics on the people who live in this neighborhood, as well as our pets. Maybe then someone would really stand up and listen to our concerns. We do have the health studies from Dr. Mukasa, but you just choose to ignore them and pretend they don't exist, just as the DEIS didn't include them in the report.

Has anyone from your offices shown a concern for the health of our children in this community? They aren't able to vote, but you were elected to look after everyone. What about the 62% of the 40,000. residents under the age of 18 on the west side? Do you know how many of them have asthma and other respiratory health problems? How will the construction phase impact the students at school #3 day after day, week after week, year after year? Will traffic be routed on Porter and Niagara Streets going right by the school? What about after the new plaza is built? Will thousands more trucks be closer to school 18? They will miss more days of school from their health problems, causing lower academic success for their future. Who will stand up for these children? Will the children be safe walking to school? Will they be able to go outside for some exercise to Columbus Park and Front Park?

New Year's Day is quickly approaching. Might one of your resolutions be to consider the health of the children, pets and people of the West Side?

Happy New Year!

Liz Martina

How to blight a Neighborhood

2007-12-27T13:00:00.000-05:00

This is a satelite image of the block of homes, on Busti Ave, that is owned by the Public Bridge Authority:
These are photos of formerly-grand homes that the Public Bridge Authority bought on that block, about 15 years ago.
They paid good money for them and have allowed them to deteriorate, unoccupied, in anticipation of oozing even further into the historic neighborhood that pre-dates their 80-year old bridge.

In another post, we'll show some of the homes that back up to this block and, how the owner-residents DO maintain their homes, their lawns, their jobs, their families, their lives. Which will YOU support?

Moving Day… coming? or, going?

2007-12-15T09:02:00.001-05:00

day 702: the conundrum of the moving van.
Originally uploaded by snowdeal

I attended the public meeting at the West Side Community Center on Vermont Street last night. To the people who want to leave instead of stay and make the city a better place:
We've tried demolishing neighborhoods to "improve" them before. It was called "Urban Renewal." It was a spectacular failure.
Some of the neighborhood is struggling. There are two main reasons for this:

The encroachment of limited-access infrastructure, including the Peace Bridge plaza, the I-190 and it's associated ramps, designed primarily for commercial transportation (i.e. big trucks).
Uncertainty. In fact, the only thing that seems certain to most people is that, at best, the situation will stay as it is and not get any better. (At worst, we'll get more of #1.)

In spite of this, the majority of the neighborhood has survived (and even thrived) because of strong fundamentals: Incredible housing stock, and proximity to the

waterfront and an Olmsted Park.
That said, I ask these questions:

Should we design our city for the people who want to stay, or should we design our city for the people who want to leave?
Who should move? Should it be the citizens and the neighborhood or should it be the Public Bridge Authority (and their trucks)?

Certainly, there must be a better option somewhere along the roughly 40 miles of the Niagara River. These trucks are a regional problem that require a regional solution. Currently, the trucks have very little local benefit. Virtually all of them simply pass-through. They should be put in a location that does the least harm and the most good.
Maybe, just maybe, we don't have to harm people, destroy a neighborhood, and desecrate our waterfront. In addition, maybe we can actually derive some benefit from these trucks if they were put in a location where we have the room to incorporate some sort of inter-modal or transshipment operations (which, incidentally, is what created the City of Buffalo with it's canal, port, and railroads). Maybe.
This project has failed because it is fundamentally flawed. It is a breathtakingly bad idea. It has languished only because the City of Buffalo and the County of Erie won't exercise the necessary leadership to protect its citizens, its neighborhood or its waterfront. There's no vision. There's no progressive idea of what we want to be.
So, unless something changes, our waterfront and many of our neighborhoods will remain the domain of trucks that are simply passing-through from one distant location to another---and soon, we may not have any people, neighborhoods, or waterfront to worry about. Is this what we want?

Bill Banas
Transportation Action Group
The New Millennium Group of WNY, Inc.
www.nmgonline.org

Nero Party'n at The Armory

2007-12-13T21:50:00.000-05:00

Connecticut Street Armory
Originally uploaded by amerune

Dear Mayor Brown,

I had a slippery ride home tonight! While driving under the Peace Bridge at 5:00 PM , I saw two trucks and seven cars on the bridge.
We have four cars in my house. I have two sons that commute to college and work, as well as my husband and I each having a car. These cars are not brand new. They do cost a lot to insure and maintain. Just this week, we had Kyle's car repaired for $500. We take our car to our local repair shop, right around the corner at Niagara and Rhode Island Streets. It is called Albano Automotive. The Albano family kids (I call them kids because they were all

younger than me growing up) lived just down the Street. Mr. and Mrs. Albano still live there and their one son, Chris, lives on the block with his family also. We could say, we are fortunate that we must visit these car doctors more frequently than our medical doctors. These three brothers, Tony, Chris and Mike, have been looking after our vehicles for years. They are trustworthy and convenient. They help us maintain the routines in our daily lives. They are essential to minimizing the disruption of car problems to each one us. They will often drop off our cars when they are ready, right at our house. They help us out if we need a few days to pay our bill. Having them right near us and knowing them like we do, makes this service contribute to our high quality of life on Columbus Parkway. So many of our neighbors have their cars serviced there. When we go to pay our bills, Tony will go through the stack of invoices saying: not Mecca, not Cody, not Murphy-oh here it is-Martinas!! When I drop off or pick up my car, it often becomes a social visit, catching up on the news with our families and neighbors. This is what a neighborhood is truly about. It is like Andy of Mayberry visiting at the barber shop in town. How will our relocation address these issues? Can you replicate what we now have with the Albano family and how they take care of our cars? Mayor- I know you are very busy, but another day has gone by, and you have yet to answer any of my concerns.
Tonight, you had your Christmas Party at the Connecticut St. Armory. You didn't invite us, yet we are the good citizens who voted you into office and we live right there! Why did you choose the armory? It is a beautiful facility with its historic structure, that was even worthy of restoration after the fire that destroyed it in 1982. It is a landmark in our community which we live in, the historic Prospect Hill community, and I am sure you were happy to showcase it for your party. If your preferred Peace Bridge Expansion plan moves forward, as you stated to us that you think should, how will people get to the Armory next year with all of the construction going on? Where will people park? What will be left of this historic neighborhood to see when people come to your party next year? How will Buffalo's finest jewels be viewed through the mess you will cause? It is ironic that just a few evenings ago, in this very place, your entourage was plotting our demise, yet you chose this location for your party. Instead of seeing historic homes, the visitors will see concrete and trucks. Don't you think visitors would rather see a historic neighborhood as evidence of the rebirth of our city? We have a vision for this community that could actually attract people to the city instead of driving them out. We are not the obstructionists here....you are, because you are unable to embrace any ideas that would benefit this community instead of destroying it. You are obstructing our sense of community for the future and our quality of life. It is you and the other politicians who are obstructing the possibilities of what Buffalo is capable of being.
I was at a holiday party last night with my neighbors and other community activists. This party was filled with people who care about Buffalo and our future. They see the possibilities and know that this proposed expansion plan is bad for Buffalo. They are willing to help us preserve this neighborhood because they value what we, as citizens, contribute to the community and what this neighborhood represents to the history of Buffalo. We have many supporters and they are growing in numbers everyday. People are fed up with the bad decisions our politicians are making with little regard for what the citizens want. Are you singing tonight at your party? Maybe you could sing the Barry McGuire hit song, "Eve of Destruction".
Liz Martina

No Shame

2007-12-11T22:33:00.000-05:00

no shame
Originally uploaded by *Hairbear

Dear Mayor Brown,

How many days have I written to you now and all I get is an automated response that you have received my e-mail? Is this how you respond to the citizens of Buffalo?
The meeting last Thursday has come and gone. You never did get back to me about what you were doing to get the meeting postponed. I am sure you got the report from the office of strategic planning. Do you think anything positive came out of that meeting? No-it just caused more pain and anxiety in our already stressed lives. Nobody cares about where the trees will be planted after you remove us from

our homes.
Mr. Bruce Campbell lives in Michigan and Mr. Ron Rienas lives in Port Colborne. Neither one of them care about my life and what happens to the PEOPLE in this neighborhood. They don't care about the daily struggles we go through nor do they have any vested interest in our community, yet they collect a handsome paycheck to demolish our lives. To think how much these meetings cost! It makes me sick to think about the cost of the many color printed posters of the neighborhood which were given out at this meeting and others. What a waste! This money could be used in a thousand different ways to help the city. If the PBA is paying for it, then the city should be getting more money from the PBA. It is not just the cost of health care that is crippling all of us, but the waste from projects like this. Yes, they can mark it down that they held a meeting with public input.

There are some days I do wonder what is it that I am fighting for in keeping my house on Columbus Parkway. While we have so many great neighbors and a great location near the waterfront, close to downtown, Kleinhans Musical Hall, an Olmsted Park, the Elmwood strip, and historic homes, we are not without the struggles of urban living. Just this morning, while I was entering my car, there was a used condom on the curb. The last two years we have been having this problem. While we suspect prostitution, I am unable to stay up all night, as one of my neighbors has, to catch several suspects. When I phoned the police this summer about my concern, that was the suggestion I was given - Just stay up all night doing police work! If you remove our neighborhood with the Peace Bridge Expansion project-just where will the prostitutes go? Who will stay up all night doing the police work for the city? Maybe the truckers will police the prostitutes! Instead of "Duty Free" maybe it will be "Booty Free"! Did the DEIS address the relocation of prostitutes? Will homeland security be concerned with this issue? Just today on NPR, I heard that our local Homeland security will be having fewer dollars to work with.

Who or what do you worry about when you're falling asleep at night? The good citizens of Columbus Parkway and our neighborhood should be able to get some rest at night. Who is our guardian?

Are you developing a city for people who want to live here, or for people who want to leave?

At 6:00 PM tonight, there were 6 trucks, 2 buses and three cars on the Peace Bridge.

With regards,
Liz Martina

Naked Truth

2007-12-10T00:53:00.000-05:00

the emperor has no clothes
Originally uploaded by nic221

RE: PBA PUBLIC WORKSHOP #1 12-06-07

Your Honor:
Thank you for informing us the Public Bridge Authority had scheduled Community Workshops designed to "modify and improve" the proposed plaza expansion plan, and not a moment too soon, for if you hadn't told us, no one at all might have attended the first workshop. The method the PBA chose to inform the public--printed flyers placed on porches--was barely medieval, and the timing--one week in advance (and only after formal inquiry)--was more than suspect.
For whom are these workshops intended? The PBA continues to treat this massive public works project as if it were the building of a sandlot ball field, inviting only 200

homes to the first workshop. And, since 125 of those homes sit within the area of the proposed new plaza, less than 40% of the invitees conformed to the PBA's own standard for participation. By my estimate, only one homeowner present fit the PBA's profile of residing in the "surrounding" neighborhood.
What is the goal of these workshops? They're designed to provide "options" to "modify and improve" the plaza "through a series of exercises." The exercises are comprised of questions relating to neighborhood and construction, and are obviously worded to induce the neighborhood to collaborate in its own demise; the brick and mortar equivalent of asking, "Would you rather be blind or deaf?"
Workshop moderator Bruce Campbell, a PBA consultant, was visibly affected by the unexpected and lively debate this first evening. I sense he hasn't the stomach for this type of conflict. I hope he has the decency to be pained over his role in this charade. But this evening was so heated, even PBA General Manager Ron Rienas appeared pale and unsteady as he flubbed his sound bite for the television audience. It's unfortunate the media coverage focused only on the conflict, when the real story was the PBA's effort to obscure and obfuscate the truth, to stage an event solely for the purpose of documenting due diligence while forever avoiding an open an honest discussion of their plan.
This workshop shows: the PBA "has no clothes."
Peter Joseph Certo
776 Columbus Pkwy.
Buffalo, NY 14213

A Christmas Poinsetta

2007-12-07T23:04:00.000-05:00

A Christmas Poinsetta
Originally uploaded by Sandy's Candy

Hello Mayor,

I couldn't write to you last night. We had a very successful parent meeting at school 54 yesterday. Parents and family members came with their children to an event that demonstrated how students learn to develop reading skills. The children showed their parents how to practice sound blending, and parents learned about the Fab 5 components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency. Afterward, everyone was treated to ice cream sundaes. Needless to say, after scooping about 300 ice cream bowls,

I was exhausted. I packed up my work bag at 8:00PM and loaded my poinsettias from the school holiday sale into the car and started for home. While driving under the Peace Bridge at 8:15 PM, I saw four trucks on the bridge and no cars. As I turned onto Columbus Pkwy. off of Porter, I decided to check to see if there were still cars at the Armory from the community meeting about "the bridge". Indeed, they were still there, so I decided to go in....but wait...what about the poinsettias left in the cold? I took the risk and decided to check out the meeting, hoping the poinsettias would be ok for awhile, thinking the meeting would be over with soon.
You see...the poinsettias are very important to me. Every year, for my entire life, and most likely for many years before then, my Dad's best friend, and my godfather, always had the most beautiful arrangement of a poinsettia delivered to our house. My "Uncle Don", was a bachelor and lacked in the creativity of gift giving. My family always did enjoy this gift and we have always looked at it as a symbol of "Uncle Don". Uncle Don was my Dad's best friend... for 75 years. How many people can actually say they had a friend, a best friend, for that length of time? He grew up with my Dad, went to school with him from kindergarten through 12th grade. He was a dentist who lived in the neighborhood and practiced on Niagara St. Uncle Don passed away 6 years ago. It has been since then that I have watched my Dad slip into his own sadness and onset of dementia. Since Uncle Don's passing, I have been bringing home a holiday poinsettia for my parents. When I bring it into the house, I announce to them, "Uncle Don is here"! It always puts a smile on their faces and I am so happy to help keep the memory of Uncle Don alive for all of us.

Yesterday's meeting at the armory, which I missed most of, was another attempt to divide and conquer, pit one neighbor against the other to tear down a neighborhood, separate one persons' needs from another's and for us to give in and make concessions about our lives. Do you really think I care where a tree will be planted when I am forced to move out of my house? I want to have my friends around me for 50 plus years. I already enjoy this high quality of living with what I have. This is not just about the physical structure of our homes. It is about how we are connected together. I truly believe what we already have, family and friends around us, is what so many others in the world are lacking in their lives. You can not put a price tag on this kind of life style and you can not duplicate it somewhere else. It has taken us years of living together to evolve to this style which we so dearly embrace and appreciate.

This weekend I am going out of town. My dear friend and neighbor, Kathy, I know will be here to check in with my parents and keep an eye on my house. This is the kind of neighbors and friends we have, caring about each other and helping one another. You can not duplicate this anywhere. While you might have a real estate agent negotiate a dwelling, will you have some agent to offer us transitional friendship and emotional support in our relocation?
After the meeting last night, as we were all so tired from our very busy day and emotional evening, we decided to visit our neighborhood restaurant, Boomerang's, for a bite to eat. Most of us hadn't had a chance to eat or relax, once again, because of what we must live with everyday, the big gorilla in the backyard, "The Peace Bridge".

Oops...I had to run those poinsettia plants into the house first. I am happy to say they did survive and we will enjoy the memories of Uncle Don again this holiday season.
Mayor-For every poinsettia you see this holiday season, please think of us on Columbus Parkway and the entire neighborhood. Who will replace the relationships and memories of friendship in our lives?

Liz Martina

Lipstick on a Pig

2007-12-03T16:11:00.001-05:00

Lipstick on a Pig
Originally uploaded by specmotors

Any tweaking of any kind regarding any expansion in any neighborhood, specifically ours, is unacceptable. Quite frankly, your contrived effort is simply putting lipstick on a pig. Inappropriate and out of place.

This Home… or, an On-Ramp?

2007-11-28T21:46:00.001-05:00

5sq
Originally uploaded by PBPics

test text here

Letters regarding DEIS

2007-10-23T09:37:00.000-04:00

If you are interested in obtaining a neighborhood letter to sign and mail in for the public comment period, please email us at pbagoaway@gmail.com.

Left behind...

2007-10-21T13:57:00.000-04:00

These houses will remain, but with trucks running through less than 100 yards away...

These houses will be GONE...

2007-10-21T13:51:00.000-04:00

A sampling of the homes that will be bulldozed in the name of progress...

Don't Truck Up! Tourism, not Trucks at the Peace Bridge Plaza!

2007-10-20T21:16:00.000-04:00

Photo by Newell Nussbaumer

Welcome Tourists, Cottage-Goers, Autos, Cyclists and Pedestrians!

We have a once-in a lifetime opportunity to RE-create a welcoming environment for the citizens of Buffalo, Canadian friends, family and tourists by way of the the Peace Bridge — if we can join together to re-route long-range truck traffic to a different bridge and Plaza.

We want to move trucks efficiently (as does the PBA). The difference between the PBA and the citizens of Buffalo is that we want to move the trucks out of our neighborhood and park and to a more suitable crossing!

URGENT HELP IS NEEDED

The public has been given less than THREE WEEKS to read, question and comment upon the Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS)! We are asking you to help us obtain a 1-month extension to the October 29 deadline. Please download, sign and mail the letters on our DEIS Extension Letters page.