Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Love the Market
Care2.org, a popular online destination for people who care about making a difference is sponsoring a "Love Your Market" contest in collaboration with LocalHarvest.org, a web site all about organic and local food. As you know, University Heights has its own market, called the University Community Farmers Market. It is held on the South Campus has been entered in the "Love Your Market" contest and is eligible to win money to support it.An important feature in the University Heights neighborhood, the market started in 2007 and is a great way to get healthy local products, support local businesses and meet your neighbors.
It runs every Saturday through October 17th from 8:00am - 1:00pm on the UB South Campus on Main Street at Kenmore Avenue. Read about the market on LocalHarvest.Please vote in the "Love Your Market" contest today, and tell others to vote as well. We appreciate your support! Click here to vote.
For more information about the University Community Farmers Market contact UB Community Relations at 829-3099.
Friday, August 7, 2009
• Shutting the Door on Foreclosure and Drug-Related Problem Properties: Two Communities Respond to Neighborhood Disorder
This is an interesting article on how two communities responded to housing issues.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Artisan Day at the Farmers Market
This Saturday the University Community Farmers Market on the UB South Campus will get a bit bigger as we host Artisan Day, August's special event, one of five on the first Saturday of the month during the market season. Artisan Day will feature some crafters and local artists from 9:00am - 1:00pm. The market begins each week at 8:00am on Main Street at Kenmore Avenue.Some of the vendors include Green Dog Biscuits, a local company that makes natural dog treats of organic ingredients. Also in attendance will be Erin Bellavia who does calligraphy and paper crafts.
You will be able to find jewelry this weekend too, compliments of Dana Saylor Designs. Her custom pieces for weddings, every day or special occasions are made with Swarovski crystal.
Clay and pottery fans can shop from Clayguys, who make polymer clay embellished items such as kitchen serving utensils, salt & pepper shakers, pie servers, and some hand built jewelery which is also made with polymer clay.Regular vendors include Independence Hill produce, jellies, jams and canned goods; McHenry Produce, Kate's Country Cousins; Pasta Temptations; Sweet Greek; and Heaven's Gift Just for You. The market is located on the South Campus on Main Street at Kenmore Avenue. Free parking is available in the Main-Bailey parking lot right next to the market.
The market is each Saturday through October 17. Contact UB Community Relations for more information at 829-3099.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Garden Walk Highlights
Last Saturday the neighbors living around the UB South Campus showcased their plants, yards and gardening skills in the 8th Annual Samuel P. Capen Garden Walk. Begun as as a way to build community among neighbors, as well as highlight gardens, the Walk had 54 participants this year.
Some garden walkers enjoy the colors on Niagara Falls Boulevard.
Thank you to all of our neighbors who spent the day opening their yards and sharing their gardening tips. Below are some photos, the rest can be found on the YourUB flickr site.
Here is a backyard on Heath Street.
A young but thriving garden on Deveraux.
Some garden walkers enjoy the colors on Niagara Falls Boulevard.Here is an audio slideshow from Douglas Levere, A UB photographer.
Any garden within the neighborhoods surrounding the UB South Campus is eligible to participate. Volunteers are invited to help plan the event each year. For more information on the Capen Garden Walk, contact UB Community Relations at 716-829-3099.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
BPO to Play at UB Tonight
Tonight UB will launch its third season of UB on the Green, a free outdoor performance series held on the South (Main Street) Campus, with a performance by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
The series will begin on July 21 with a program of light classics by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducted by Paul Ferington, it is the orchestra's first return to the South Campus for an outdoor concert since 1997, when Ferington conducted a post-Fourth of July show.
UB on the Green's free music and dance performances will be held from 6-8 p.m. on July 21, July 28 and Aug 4 on the Hayes Hall front lawn. In addition to all-ages entertainment, the series is designed to educate, as well as entertain, with interactive demonstrations and other hands-on activities that are fun for the whole family.
Participants are encouraged to bring a picnic, lawn chairs and blankets. Light refreshments will be available for sale. UB on the Green is an alcohol-free, family-friendly event.
"UB on the Green is an opportunity to bring the community and university together for more than just good entertainment," said Vincent D. Clark, director of UB Community Relations. "This event provides opportunities for residents to organize and keep our neighborhoods strong by joining a block club or neighborhood watch, attending a safety training or participating in other neighborhood associations."
Designed to showcase the university's resources, as well, the series also will include participation by the UB pediatric dental clinics, the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the UB Anderson Gallery, as well as other local community organizations.
The series will begin on July 21 with a program of light classics by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducted by Paul Ferington, it is the orchestra's first return to the South Campus for an outdoor concert since 1997, when Ferington conducted a post-Fourth of July show.Local musician Neville Francis and his band, The Riddim Posse will headline the July 28 program, which also will include The Budos Band, a Brooklyn group with a jazz, afro-beat and soul sound.
The series will end on Aug. 4 with Taylor Made Jazz, a local award-winning group, and Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, known for its appeal to diverse audiences.
For more information about UB on the Green, contact the UB Office of Community Relations at 716-829-3099.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Samuel P. Capen Garden Walk this Saturday
Come out to see the beauty in the South Campus neighborhoods this weekend at the 8th annual Samuel P. Capen Garden Walk, scheduled on Saturday from 11:00am - 4:00pm.
Fifty four gardeners will be home to talk with you about their gardens, which are filled with art, ponds, arbors and many more surprises.
Maps for the walk are available from 8:00am - 1:00pm at the University Community Farmers Market and from 11:00am - 4:00pm at the following houses: 22 Larchmont Rd, 38 Brinton St, 135 and 405 Capen Blvd and 67 Highgate. Maps are available Friday at 101 Allen Hall from 9:00am - 5:00pm.
This year’s walk will showcase gardens with a variety of attractions, including fish ponds and other water features, sculptures, gazebos, organic and native plants in Japanese, English and Cottage-style garden designs. Other gardens are entirely grassless or center around rock and boulder elements.
This year, attendees can get a Garden Walk passport, where they will visit gardens and collect the password at each house. Then they can enter the passport into a drawing to win a prize. Passports will also be available with the maps.
The Capen Garden Walk is coordinated in collaboration with the UB Office of Community Relations, the University Heights Collaborative and the Eggertsville Community Organization. Its mission is to showcase the neighborhoods surrounding the UB South Campus while building community among neighbors.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Clark Hall- Fitness in the Heights!
Clark Hall, located on UB’s South Campus, provides UB and University Heights with an extensive fitness and recreation center. The amenities provided include 3 full-court basketball courts, 3 volleyball courts, 3 badminton courts, a multipurpose gym with tartan surface, a dance studio with a wooden floor, 3 racquetball/squash courts, a wrestling room, a weight room, an abs/cardio room, showers, locker room, and a 25 meter swimming pool for the full-body workout. The Fitness Center at Clark Hall features Nautilus and Cybex selectorized equipment for the person desiring this type of workout. In addition, the Clark facility is fitted with a Heartline Jungle Gym, free weights, benches and a variety of cardiovascular equipment.
Using Clark’s facilities is more affordable than most health clubs, with only a $20 monthly, or $189 yearly fee for University Heights neighbors and other community members. This price also includes access to the facilities on North Campus’ Alumni Arena. Various programs and training classes are also offered for an additional fee.
Visit Clark Hall today to begin a healthier, more active life!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Planning blunder doomed Main Street trees : City & Region : The Buffalo News
Buffalo News looks at the problems with the Main St. Mmedians.Planning blunder doomed Main Street trees : City & Region : The Buffalo News
Shared via AddThis
Shared via AddThis
Friday, June 12, 2009
Buffalo News Feature Story
Donn Esmonde: University Heights needs UB to step up
The recent rash of violence around UB’s South Campus brought it all back for me: the school’s broken promise over the last decade to invest in —and to stabilize—the surrounding University Heights neighborhood.
If anything should spur UB to revisit the plan, it is last month’s shooting death of model student Javon Jackson the night after his graduation.
Banks, corporations and politicians in the mid-1990s were in place with UB to buy, renovate and resell more than 100 homes. UB never pulled the trigger.
The idea was to retrace the footprint that UB had in the ’70s, when it owned many houses—and had its campus police station—on nearby Winspear Avenue. Then-President Bill Greiner of UB abandoned a limp ’90s housing effort after redoing a half-dozen homes—at the same time UB was building reams of student housing at its isolated North Campus in Amherst.
Activists hoped that new President John Simpson’s UB 2020 plan would include a University Heights housing piece. Instead, it was the missing piece of a worthy 2020 vision that will—among other things—deepen the university’s downtown footprint and buck up its South Campus academics. But it does little to deal with the fraying University Heights neighborhood and the glut of absentee landlords and trolling street thugs.
Dozens of urban colleges—as close as Canisius and as distant as USC—extended their reach into surrounding streets. Whether fueled by altruism or self-interest, it makes sense for schools to reach into neighborhood housing—for student safety, and to avoid the enrollment- killing reputation that crime brings.
Police say crime in University Heights is down. But the last year saw several high-profile student rapes and beatings, a homeowner’s shooting and— last month—the shooting death of Jackson and a UB student’s brother.
Jackson’s tragedy should prompt UB officials to stop dipping their toe into the neighborhood and dive in. A similar tragedy prompted Milwaukee’s Marquette University to get off the dime a decade ago. Half steps such as UB’s employee housing incentives and task forces do not get it done.
“It was the right thing to do back then,” said Kevin Helfer, “and it is the right thing to do now. . . . I think it should be part of their core mission.”
As University Heights member of the Common Council in the ’90s, Helfer helped to craft the buy-rehab-sell housing plan that UB never launched. He said that it “would not be that hard” for UB to do it. Neighborhood residents have bought and rehabbed a handful of houses, but nothing on the scale UB could bring. Along with building a city at the Amherst campus, UB could prop up the one that already exists along Main Street.
“It is in their self-interest to stabilize the neighborhood,” Helfer said. “If they do not invest in the community and the housing stock, what we have now will just perpetuate. . . . Think of where we would be now if they had [started] 15 years ago.”
The lack of UB-controlled housing did not cause the recent violence. But stable neighborhoods smother crime.
UB’s vice president for student affairs, Dennis Black, said the focus is on adding to the mature mix of grad students and faculty in University Heights.
“I don’t know of much conversation going on [at UB] about us getting back into the buy-rehab-sell business,” Black said. “There is not much talk of us as a developer.”
Maybe it is time for the talk to start. The neighborhood—and its problems— are not going away. Unless UB finally decides to step beyond the fence, I think the next 15 years will look a lot like the last 15.
desmonde@buffnews.com
The recent rash of violence around UB’s South Campus brought it all back for me: the school’s broken promise over the last decade to invest in —and to stabilize—the surrounding University Heights neighborhood.
If anything should spur UB to revisit the plan, it is last month’s shooting death of model student Javon Jackson the night after his graduation.
Banks, corporations and politicians in the mid-1990s were in place with UB to buy, renovate and resell more than 100 homes. UB never pulled the trigger.
The idea was to retrace the footprint that UB had in the ’70s, when it owned many houses—and had its campus police station—on nearby Winspear Avenue. Then-President Bill Greiner of UB abandoned a limp ’90s housing effort after redoing a half-dozen homes—at the same time UB was building reams of student housing at its isolated North Campus in Amherst.
Activists hoped that new President John Simpson’s UB 2020 plan would include a University Heights housing piece. Instead, it was the missing piece of a worthy 2020 vision that will—among other things—deepen the university’s downtown footprint and buck up its South Campus academics. But it does little to deal with the fraying University Heights neighborhood and the glut of absentee landlords and trolling street thugs.
Dozens of urban colleges—as close as Canisius and as distant as USC—extended their reach into surrounding streets. Whether fueled by altruism or self-interest, it makes sense for schools to reach into neighborhood housing—for student safety, and to avoid the enrollment- killing reputation that crime brings.
Police say crime in University Heights is down. But the last year saw several high-profile student rapes and beatings, a homeowner’s shooting and— last month—the shooting death of Jackson and a UB student’s brother.
Jackson’s tragedy should prompt UB officials to stop dipping their toe into the neighborhood and dive in. A similar tragedy prompted Milwaukee’s Marquette University to get off the dime a decade ago. Half steps such as UB’s employee housing incentives and task forces do not get it done.
“It was the right thing to do back then,” said Kevin Helfer, “and it is the right thing to do now. . . . I think it should be part of their core mission.”
As University Heights member of the Common Council in the ’90s, Helfer helped to craft the buy-rehab-sell housing plan that UB never launched. He said that it “would not be that hard” for UB to do it. Neighborhood residents have bought and rehabbed a handful of houses, but nothing on the scale UB could bring. Along with building a city at the Amherst campus, UB could prop up the one that already exists along Main Street.
“It is in their self-interest to stabilize the neighborhood,” Helfer said. “If they do not invest in the community and the housing stock, what we have now will just perpetuate. . . . Think of where we would be now if they had [started] 15 years ago.”
The lack of UB-controlled housing did not cause the recent violence. But stable neighborhoods smother crime.
UB’s vice president for student affairs, Dennis Black, said the focus is on adding to the mature mix of grad students and faculty in University Heights.
“I don’t know of much conversation going on [at UB] about us getting back into the buy-rehab-sell business,” Black said. “There is not much talk of us as a developer.”
Maybe it is time for the talk to start. The neighborhood—and its problems— are not going away. Unless UB finally decides to step beyond the fence, I think the next 15 years will look a lot like the last 15.
desmonde@buffnews.com
Thursday, June 11, 2009
UB Community Service Day with Brush Up Buffalo
As part of the University at Buffalo’s inaugural UB Community Service Day on Saturday, June 20, the university will participate in Brush Up Buffalo 2009. All community members, faculty, staff, students, and alumni are encouraged to volunteer.Founded in 1996, Brush Up Buffalo is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization that organizes an annual event to repaint about 10 to 15 low-income, single-family, owner-occupied homes and revitalize city neighborhoods. This year’s event takes place in the University District, directly south of the UB South Campus. The University at Buffalo is proud to be a key sponsor.
Registration for Brush Up Buffalo 2009 is simple and can be done on the Brush Up Buffalo web site. You will be asked to include your name, e-mail, phone number, t-shirt size, and lunch preference.
About 500 volunteers from across the region are expected to participate this year and the organization hopes to repaint approximately 15 homes. More homes may be painted if additional volunteers register. There is no cost to participate, but volunteers must be at least 18 years of age.
All Brush Up Buffalo volunteers will meet at the UB South Campus beginning at 7:30 a.m. Parking is in the Diefendorf Lot off Sherman Road at Bailey Avenue. Buses are provided to transport volunteer teams to and from houses. Each volunteer will receive breakfast, refreshments on-site at the houses, a Brush Up Buffalo t-shirt, and lunch back at the UB South Campus.
With 30 to 40 volunteers assigned to each house, the painting takes about three to four hours to complete. Most volunteers are finished with the entire day by 1:00 p.m. Most supplies are provided, but volunteers are encouraged to bring extra ladders if possible. No painting experience is necessary, and union painters will be at each house to provide assistance.
Please consider taking part in this unique opportunity to volunteer with friends and neighbors to help beautify the neighborhood.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Be in the Samuel P. Capen Garden Walk
The Samuel P. Capen Garden Walk has been a University Heights tradition since 2002, created to showcase the neighborhoods surrounding the UB South Campus, including University Heights & Eggertsville, while building community among neighbors. It is a joint initiative between the University at Buffalo and local neighborhood partners and is held rain or shine.At this time we are receiving entry forms to participate in the walk. There is no fee to enter a garden in the walk and no garden is too small! This event is part of the University and community’s larger efforts of making the neighborhoods surrounding the South Campus an exciting, safe and vibrant place to live, work and play.
The walk itself will be on Saturday July 18th from 11:00am - 4:00pm. Maps will be available at the University Community Farmers Market on the South Campus on Main Street at Kenmore Avenue from 8:00am - 1:00pm. They will also available at 22 Larchmont Rd; 135 and 405 Capen Blvd; and 67 Highgate Ave during the walk hours from 11:00am – 4:00pm.
All participants will be invited to a pre-event gathering on Friday July 17 in the neighborhood to meet other gardeners and pick up maps and your signs for the walk. Location and time will be distributed upon your confirmation of participation.
All participants are invited to leave their signs up on Sunday July 19 so you can see the other gardens on the walk.
Contact UB Community Relations for more information and an entry form at 829-3099. See photos from the Garden Walk here. Photo by Nancy J. Parisi.
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