The Campaign is fighting together with neighbors to save the Meidenbauer House at 204 High Street in the Fruit Belt, just as we successfully fought to create the High Street Historic District, of which the Meidenbauer House is an integral part. The house has been owned by the city for 14 years, during which it has done nothing to maintain the building, now it wants to demo it. Councilmember Darius Pridgen also wants it demolished. City reaction thus far has been to issue another Request For Proposals (RFP), and effort it would seem destined—if not designed—to fail. It is unclear why the City insists on blocking, for 14 years, a conventional sale of the property, similar to the process it uses at the annual auction of city properties. Instead, it throws up the very high barrier of the onerous RFP, which, practically speaking, narrows the universe of possible new owners to a handful of developers.

Pictures below were taken in 2003, two years before the City seized the property for back taxes. Top: View from High and Maple street corner; the Meidenbauer House is unusual in that it is two conjoined houses, one facing High Street, the other Maple Street. Middle: The High Street frontage, before garage and adjacent cottage were demolished. Bottom: Maple Street frontage.

As you know, The Campaign for Greater Buffalo and its members were instrumental in saving Buffalo's Canal District in an epic effort that culminated in a March 2000 federal court decision and order that opened the way to saving, rather than destroying and burying, the Commercial Slip, Central Wharf, and the surrounding streets. We've led that effort ever since. In 2016, we unveiled our own plan for development of The Canal District (please don't call it Canalside, a fakey-commercial name decided upon by a former publisher of the Buffalo News). To refresh your memory, or to make first acquaintance, here are some illustrations of that plan, which is meant to represent a middle stage in a phased developement. We'll compare it in a future post to the masterplan general ideas just unveiled by Empire State Development. Stay tuned!