Techical Assistance
Introduction to TA
Demonstration Program
Fee-for-Service
Team of Experts
Initiate Request for TA

Buffalo (and region), NY



Client: Local Initiatives Support Corporation - Buffalo

Team of experts: Joseph Schilling, Virginia Tech’s Metropolitan Institute; John Kromer, Fels Institute; Kermit Lind, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Community Advocacy Clinic; Lucinda Flowers, New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative; Lee Sobel, US Environmental Protection Agency.

Description of Work: In November 2006 , the Campaign unveiled our most recent, and most comprehensive assessment report – Blueprint Buffalo: Regional Strategies and Local Tools for Reclaiming Vacant Properties in the City and Suburbs of Buffalo. The report, released before supportive regional and local officials, business leaders, and civic groups, sets forth four leadership and four policy actions to prevent, abate, reclaim, and reuse vacant and abandoned properties within Buffalo and its surrounding first-tier suburbs. Championing the study was LISC-Buffalo, the University of Buffalo Institute of Local Governance and Regional Growth, and the Amherst Industrial Development Agency. “The time seems ripe for Buffalo-Niagara leaders to chart a new course as the region must first contain and remove these problem properties before it can rebuild its neighborhoods,” said Michael Clarke, program director, LISC-Buffalo. “Blueprint Buffalo offers local leaders a roadmap of strategies and tools to address the intractable blight and decay of vacant properties that have plagued many neighborhoods for decades.”

The four-step action plan includes the following steps:

  • Launching a citywide vacant properties initiative led by Mayor Byron Brown and his office of Strategic Planning
  • Development of a suburban vacant property agenda, spearheaded by local elected officials and civic and business leaders from those communities
  • Creation of an Erie-Buffalo Vacant Properties Coordinating Council to be the vehicle for regional problem solving, ongoing communication and information sharing, and to develop institutional capacities and partnerships
  • Establishment of Buffalo-Niagara as a Vacant Property Living Laboratory – which would be the nation’s first such national demonstration model – through a series of innovative policy initiatives driven by the new Governor, State Legislature, and elected Federal officials and managed by the University at Buffalo.

“I look forward to setting a direction that the City of Buffalo and our neighboring communities can aspire to,” said Mayor Brown. “By positioning Buffalo as a living laboratory, we have an opportunity to reinvent the notion of neighborhoods and build communities that will make us stronger and more viable for generations to come.”

Resources

Blueprint Buffalo: Regional Strategies and Local Tools for Reclaiming Vacant Properties in the City and Suburbs of Buffalo - Policy Brief (2.3 mb PDF)

Blueprint Buffalo: Regional Strategies and Local Tools for Reclaiming Vacant Properties in the City and Suburbs of Buffalo - Action Plan (1.9 mb PDF)

For a complete hyperlinked bibliography, visit this page (thank you David Torke from fix buffalo today)!