Good day, Sen. Schumer.
Did you happen by Niagara Falls while visiting some of Buffalo’s most forlorn neighborhoods last week?
We think Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan would have been suitably impressed enough to fully endorse your Community Regeneration, Sustainability and Innovation Act.
The bill is a $300 million program that would help cities with vacant housing that predates the nation’s foreclosure crisis.
Surely a drive downtown — no don’t stop at the casino or the state park — would be reason enough to get the Falls on board with this legislation.
Boarded up homes can be seen on most side streets — not to mention Main Street, which some long-time city residents have referred to as looking like “Berlin after the war.”
Perhaps your trip bypassed our fair city because U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins is a co-sponsor of the legislation. He’s from Buffalo.
But it seems like the bill was written just for us ... or this is blight everywhere in New York?
The legislation proposed by Schumer and Higgins would establish a three-year, $300 million demonstration program involving 15 large cities and 15 small cities with large-scale property vacancy. Cities would have the flexibility to use funding for things such as finding new uses for architecturally or historically significant buildings and redeveloping abandoned properties or preserving them as green space. A new council including members from various federal agencies would offer technical assistance and support.
Tearing down the old in the Falls is inevitable. It has to happen before it falls down.
Yet the city can experience a renaissance ... one paved street at time, one dilapidated building at a time.
We like your idea Sen. Schumer and we urge you to stop by for a visit.
