Catching the Wave
Giambra takes initiative, endorses preservation
concepts for Canal District
by Donna Ashby
Reprinted from Artvoice, June 22-28, 2000
What seemed like an impossible achievement two weeks ago has happened. Local officials,
led by County Executive Joel Giambra, have been given the green light by Governor
George Pataki and Empire State Development Corporation (ESD) chairman Charles Gargano
to evaluate a concept for developing Buffalo's downtown waterfront as proposed to
the Preservation Coalition by waterfront planner Roy Mann of the Rivers Studio in
Austin, Texas (Artvoice, vl 1n23).
The scenario on Saturday,June 17, was a victory for the Preservation Coalition; the
members of the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Committee who publicly refused to sign off on
the destruction of the Canal District's streets, wharf, and canal; and the ever-growing
mass of the public that is registering dismay at ESD's plans for a "replica
slip," yacht basin, and new roadways where historic streets, the Central Wharf,
and the Commercial Slip - the terminus of the original Erie Canal - would lie buried
under fill.
Prior to a rally organized by the Coalition at noon, Giambra, Mayor Anthony Masiello,
Congressman Jack Quinn, Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, County Legislator Greg Olma and other
officials lined up to show support for a process that could vanquish the poorly conceived
ESD plan, whose public support was never great and whose credibility was dissolving
faster than you can say "pop rocks."
ESD's conclusions about the viability of the Commercial Slip wall were shown in a
front page Buffalo News article to be false. That was followed by another News article
on the apparently misleading notion advanced by ESD's claims that the Commercial
Slip walls dated only from the 1880s (and were, therefore, somehow not that
historic). Evidence shows that the walls were in place by, at the latest, the 1840s.
In addition, a series of articles in Artvoice has shed light on not only the arrogant
attitude of the local ESD officials conducting the environmental review on their
"Inner Harbor Project," but the many historic events that took place in
the Canal District and are given physical expression in the streets, rails, canal,
and other endangered discoveries at the site.
A Victory, but More Work Ahead
Many people came armed with shovels, to the Saturday rally. They were ready to dig
the canal all over again. Some had American flags taped to them. Alison Pipitone
and Mike Meldrum sang Erie Canal songs to the over 250 people in attendance. There
was relief that a bad plan had been exposed and enthusiasm that a new, better solution
was within reach.
Could Buffalo be on the way to turning back, at the last possible moment, another
horrific planning decision? Preservation Coalition chairman Susan McCartney was cautiously
optimistic at the rally: "Things certainly seem to be snowballing in the direction
of preserving the Commercial Slip and the rest of . the Canal District, but we're
not quite there yet."
Indeed, the Coalition and other preservationists are still going full steam in their
campaign. Scot Fisher, a Coalition, board member, told the rally of his efforts on
a recent petition campaign. which so far has over 6,000 signatures. The Coalition
has distributed over 1,000 of its chartreuse "Save, Don't Pave" signs,
and more are popping up across Erie County every day. Over 200 signs and almost 300
"Do the Real Thing" buttons were snapped up at the rally.
Coalition Executive Director Tim Tielman exhorted the crowd to continue to put signs
up and wear buttons (available at the Coalition office at 838 Elmwood, or by calling
the number on the signs: 885-3897).
Afterwards, Tielman was savoring the moment, but likened it to a stage of the Tour
de France bicycle race. "It's the latter part of the race, we are gaining, strength
and we're finally in the yellow jersey [worn by the race leader], but that can change
over the next stages. The point is to be ahead at the end of the race."
The end of the race appears to be late August. That is when Roy Mann, in a proposal
now circulating, believes a thorough investigation of his concept can be completed.
Mann's proposed team seems to be geared to creating public confidence lacking in
the project so far. Proposed members include Ryan-Biggs Associates, canal engineers
from Troy, New York; Robert Melnick of the University of Oregon, the nation's foremost
expert on cultural landscapes; and Michael Tomlan, director of Cornell University's
preservation planning program. In the event Mann's team can start soon and is not
delayed or subsumed by partisan politics, work can be completed within 60 days.
Old Habits Die Hard at Local ESD Shop
Although Albany - through the Governor and ESD head Gargano - has yielded the field,
old habits die hard at the local office of ESD, in the Liberty Building at Main and
Court Streets. Its pattern of arrogant behavior continued unabated right up to Saturday's
event.
The local ESD shop was directed by Federal District Court Judge William Skretny to
give all those victimized by ESD's show hearing on May 24, at which heavy-handed
orchestration was apparent, a chance to speak. Incredibly, despite pointed instructions
from Judge Skretny, ESD only notified those people by phone the day of the hearing,
June 14. If they had an answering machine, they got the message. Bruce Johnson, of
Williamsville, made such a complaint in his comments. An ad had appeared in the Buffalo
News on Saturday, which apparently nobody had seen. The Saturday edition of the News
has the lowest penetration of any day of the week by a large margin. As far as one
can tell, no special attempt was made to notify in writing attendees who signed up
at the original May hearing, but did not speak.
One can be sure that ESD's local office, where the shots are called by Tom Blanchard,
will continue to fight on. It simply knows no other way. It goes on churning spin
like a laundromat on Sunday afternoon. Common Council members are being hit by a
stream of emails attempting to convince them.of the validity of the pop rocks theory,
the sanctity of all ESD consultants, and the. towering rigor and objectivity of the
ESD environmental impact statements.
There is nothing more predictable than the drowning bureaucrat trying to stay afloat.
ESD has been reduced to trying to stir up veterans and, shamefully, wheelchair users
(see Artvoice vl ln24), to come to their aid by spreading disinformation that somehow
the Mann concept is messing with plans for veterans' monuments (it is not, and Mann
is a vet himself) and is not accessible (ADA is the law of the land). There is also
the reliably loyal Tom Grasso of Rochester, the president of the Canal Society of
New York State, a buff's group, who, now that the pop rocks theory has exploded,
claims he is fearful that changing a storm drain that lies within the Commercial
Slip will somehow damage its walls.
For their part, the Preservation Coalition, other preservationists, and academics
claim they have much more evidence of misleading, false, and selective use of information
in both the Final EIS of February 1999 and the Draft Supplemental EIS of May 2000.
New Blood Takes a New Look
What this means for local politics is not clear, but for the meantime Giambra seems
to have caught the mood of the populace once again. As he demonstrated in the election
campaign of last fall, there is opportunity in going with popular sentiment rather
than following the orthodoxy of the politico-industrial complex.
Dennis Gorski, the ex-county executive, was strongly identified with plans to move
the zoo, rushing through a new convention center, and being the father (does anyone
remember?) of the Horizons Waterfront Commission and its Inner Harbor Project. All
"silver bullet" projects handed down by the development establishment,
which the public has, or is, rejecting.
The sense that these projects were all hard-wired in advance and that Gorski was
robotically moving them along was almost palpable. Gorski's neck-deep involvement
in these unpopular projects may have led to the characterization of him, which he
simply could not shake, as a typical out-of-touch pol. The perception was of a leader
proposing grand projects to benefit the few, rather than decently thought-out plans
to benefit the average citizen and neighborhood.
But the public mood has changed, and the mayor and his handlers appear to be a bit
slow in reacting to it. Masiello appears to be mired in the same good-old-boy establishment
politics Gorski was.
One of the signposts, again, was the Inner Harbor project. In the first year of his
administration (he has since been re-elected and is almost certain to seek a third
term next year), Masiello's planning director, Kevin Greiner, undertook an examination
of the project, enlisting Bruno Freschi and Ernest Sternberg of UB to do the analysis.
The analysis was done by the first anniversary of Masiello's assumption of office.
Its critique of the Inner Harbor plan being shepherded by Tom Blanchard was withering,
and right on (Artvoice vlOn49). But, rather than stick with his new people, Masiello
was brought into line by the established powers and did an abrupt about-face. His
handlers made him an adamant defender of what became the ESD plan. This has caused
him to be very slow to react to the changing public attitudes around him.
The result, at least for now, is that Republicans are killing Democrats on progressive
planning issues in the City of Buffalo. It could be simply a matter of staking out
unclaimed territory, or a shrewd perception that there is a new base forming that
is up for grabs. It is not the traditional solid cores of ethnicity, class, or color,
so much as it is a blanket of "feeling" that can be thrown over large segments
of the electorate. It could be that the public is making character judgments based
on the style of development projects a given politician endorses. That gives more
symbolic weight than ever toņin the case of the Canal District - "do the real
thing."
Return to Buffalo Canal District