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A Message for Buffalo

Posted on Jan 9th, 2011 in Blog / News | 0 comments

I debated on whether to write about this publicly, and I decided I would since there is a *slim* chance that somebody with a little common sense in my town may just read it, possibly someone who can help change things. This post may be deemed a rant, but I don’t think so considering facts are facts.

For the past few years I’ve noticed that the city of Buffalo, being in desperate need of cash it seems, is sending it’s ticketing posse out there in full force. Ticketing as in parking enforcement and maintenance/housing violations. What I’m going to focus on right now is snow removal. According to Buffalo code, a public sidewalk should remain clear from snow and ice and other debris at all times and it is the property owner’s responsibility to “keep it clear and clean enough for a wheelchair to pass through”. These were exact words of a ticketing officer whom I once asked who was writing tickets to property owners in my neighborhood for not shoveling their sidewalks.

This week, everyone on the few blocks of my street got tickets for not clearing the sidewalk. EXCEPT the vacant lots, which are owned by the city of Buffalo. There were no tickets left there. Their sidewalks are never shoveled. No one ever comes to maintain those properties. EVER.

Mind you, people work all day/night and can’t be there immediately to clear the snow. There are even disabled people who can’t get out much let alone shovel a sidewalk. Everyone on my block has always been diligent about keeping our properties clear of snow – the stairs and walkways, and yes even the sidewalks. The people who can’t get out usually hire someone to do this for them. But this is Buffalo. It SNOWS here. The plows come. They throw heavy, icy mess BACK onto our clean sidewalks. People walk on these sidewalks and mat it all down into another solid icy mess. And we as property owners are expected to jump and clear this mess again after the city dumps it back onto the sidewalks (which they happen to own in the first place).

The whole thing just doesn’t make sense sometimes. These ticket writers out there know the neighborhood and who clears their snow and who doesn’t. The first chance they see it not clear, now they ticket us. But they don’t ticket themselves for the pile of snow in front of their own lots.

My snow is clear now, Buffalo. Yours still is NOT and never is. I have pictures. I’m going to fight this ticket but will probably lose anyway because you need the money, even though you are in violation of the same issue that my neighbors and I are being ticketed for. Is this fair to the hardworking homeowners and taxpayers in the city of Buffalo, some of us who are really making an effort to stay in this city?