Informing business owners and preservationists that the Commissioner of Public Works has “dictatorial” powers regarding public streets, the city is planning to tear up all the remaining cobblestone paving on Illinois street this summer and replace it with modern granite pavers. The city claims this will be a cheaper, more uniform paving than the historic resources they are removing.

At an October meeting John McKendry, owner of about half the street frontage on Illinois St., strongly demanded that all existing 160-year-old paving (presently under a “temporary” asphalt cap) on Illinois St. be retained and that missing paving be replaced in kind. That view was also advocated by the Preservation Coalition.

... John McKendry, owner of about half the street frontage on Illinois St., strongly demanded that all existing 160-year-old paving (presently under a “temporary” asphalt cap) on Illinois St. be retained and that missing paving be replaced in kind.

The Administration is well aware of the concerns of owners and preservationists regarding this issue and, so far, has not acknowledged correspondence on the issue.

A city engineer at the meeting also said each street will be considered as the time comes. Why the city would not simply continue its destruction of historic resources is anyone’s guess.

So far, the city record in the Cobblestone District is deplorable.

As the Sabres demanded, Baltimore Street was suddenly demolished last summer with no public notice. As of this writing, it seems that it will come back as a glorified driveway for the Sabres parking lot, at the level of those lots rather than the surrounding streets, and without curbing–exactly as shown in Sabres plans first published in the Preservation Report in the Fall of 1994.

Also last summer, the Commissioner of Public Works himself offered to put red granite curbing on the west side of Illinois Street if efforts to get sandstone curbing did not pan out. Instead, modern gray granite curbing, such as is found on every single paving project in the city, was installed.

While the city may take sport in mocking its preservation ordinance and those business people and citizens desiring to uphold its standards, it is frittering away its inheritance and much larger future gains.

While this is going on, the city troops developers through the District, attempting to entice them with millions of dollars in loan packages and condemnation of the entire district. A city official on one of the tours, playing the big man, tells a property owner who wants to restore his building, “Who gives a f--- about preservation?” In this Administration, who indeed?