Newsletter of the
Preservation Coalition of Erie County (Home
Page)
Back to Table Of Contents
June 1995
NEWS, NEWS, AND MORE NEWS
UNDERGROUND RR COMMITTEE ADVANCES
The Underground Railroad Committee of the Niagara Frontier is in the process of
being chartered as a Underground Railroad museum in Niagara County. Its mission is
to make accessible and preserve the legacy of the Underground Railroad the Niagara
Frontier. According to Committee President Kevin Cottrell, the group’s purpose “is
to promote better understanding and goodwill among people by implementing programs
and events to increase awareness and appreciation of cultural diversity.
“Reaching the children of Western New York is a primary aim, and the museum will
seek to enhance their self-esteem by presenting positive role models and spotlighting
the positive role diversity plays in sustaining freedom, courage, and hope in Western
New York and the nation.
“We’ve embarked on much of our mission already, but their is still much more to do,”
said Cottrell, who noted that the group had received a $10,000 grant for computer
and office equipment. An immediate goal is to operate as a museum as soon as possible.
As soon as accessioning policies are in place, other museums have pledged to send
artifacts for display. The Committee has also begun to do Underground Railroad tours
in the region (the Buffalo Board of Education was one group ferried around). The
group also has a one-hour slide presentation. Those wanting more information can
contact the organization at P.O. Box 176, Niagara Falls, NY 14305. Telephone: (716)
282-1028.
Bad Feng Shui over Buffalo?
The city of Buffalo, and New York State for that matter, lost a significant body
of commercial signage with deep roots when Marine Midland Bank, founded in Buffalo
and headquartered here but owned for some time by the Hong Kong Shanghai Bancorp
of China, had its identity submerged by the parent bank.
Ironic, as it is the Chinese who are careful to create conditions favorable to Feng
Shui, that is good vibes. Having a 538-foot-high disembodied cat eye or futuristic
robotic eye watching us is disconcerting to say the least. Bad Feng Shui.
Presco vending boxes hit the street
The idea that cities and suburbs should be designed around human factors — how far people can walk in 10 minutes, what constitutes a workable home territory, web-like connections to other districts – is about to get its biggest test ever. Markham Centre is to house 36,000 residents, Cornell in Markham is for 27,000 people in 10,000 units
Coalition's ‘Buffalo Tours ’95’ underway
The Preservation Coalition's annual tour series began with three tours spanning
the years from Buffalo's founding to the Art Deco period of the 1930s.
Due to the evil Dr. Fu Snafu, there was major dissonance between the descriptions
of tours and the tour calendar. A corrected tour schedule is printed on the back
page.
Yale pays staff to move to city
Yale University is half way through a program designed to get university employees to live within its home city of New Haven. Last year, the university announced it would offer $2000 a year for 10 years to any employee buying a house in the city by the end of 1995. According to the New York Times, the program was meant to show Yale’s commitment to the city it is in (70% of Yale employees lived outside the city when the program began). So far 125 employees had taken the school's offer. Said New Haven Mayor John DeStafano: “These 125 employees represent 125 potential Little League coaches, 125 taxpayers, and 125 families on city blocks.” The Times article profiled a young couple who bought a 220-year-old house under the program, and also noted that Yale had contributed $12.5 million to a downtown historic district.
Milwaukee mayor a preservation advocate
The May issue of Progressive Architecture has an article on John Norquist, a 45-year-old, two-term mayor of Milwaukee, who according to P/A, “has fought freeways, talked up the delights of city life, championed adaptive reuse of historic structures, and given countless slide shows contrasting the cozy charms of his hometown's many neighborhoods against the barren profitability of suburbia's franchise rows.” The ‘self-appointed architectural missionary’ was a popular speaker at the third Congress for New Urbanism in San Francisco last February. He also has changed the city's zoning code to prohibit setbacks which break the street wall. In his spare time he battles state highway engineers for better-looking bridges. As a state senator he helped kill a shorefront expressway.