Niggerology: Buffalo G-Code

G’s Up

So the Buffalo Green Code is being promoted, pressure is being applied for the Buffalo Common Council to ratify it, and most of you n**@$ don’t even know what the f*** it is. That’s unfortunate,because if you did know what it was and the potential ramifications of its impact on your life in Buffalo, then you’d probably be up in arms over it.

The Buffalo Green Code is a city wide land use/zoning plan that was basically put together by some white folks in suits and some yupsters. What is a land use or zoning plan? Maybe I should explain what zoning is first. No, zoning is not what happens in the studio after you burn an El, in this case it refers to the legal use or the laws that govern how land (and/or a building/residence) is used in a particular neighborhood. For example Northumberland St, Woodlawn Ave, Normal Ave, Plymouth Ave, and Courtland Ave might be legally zoned in the books in downtown Buffalo as residential areas. This means that legally the only types of land/building uses permitted in these types of areas are apartments and homes. If someone wanted to open a barber shop, they might have to fill out some paper work and go before a city zoning board with a good argument to ask for a special condition to open up their barber shop. Bailey Ave, Jefferson Ave, Hertel Ave, and Elmwood Ave night be zoned on the books as commercial districts. This means that if you wanted to open a business (depending on what type of business it is) on these streets you’d have the legal authority to do it. Other places might be zoned as industrial like Niagara St or Military Road, and still other places might be zoned as mixed use meaning both commercial and residential land uses.

I get it that some of Buffalo’s zoning codes make no sense or are outdated as proponents of the Green Code have expressed. You have huge swaths of land in the town where there is nothing going on, and this would open the door for some creative reuse options. Many people might ask “why is this building just sitting idle, if I had the money I would do this, I would do that” etc. Chances are there were probably some people who had some creative ideas on what to do with that building, but ran into some zoning issues. Revamping the city wide land use/zoning policy might help alleviate that problem.

On the other hand, the way it is put together is vague and it potentially opens the door to speed up gentrification in the hood. Here is a link to it. I’m not a urban design professional, but to those with eyes to see, notice some of the language used on there and the ideas in there for certain areas of the city. I would like to see the proponents of this plan take it on a more intimate citywide tour, to the people in the various neighborhoods of Buffalo, doing better outreach to many of the very people who would be affected by it most. As some older cats would say “naw man, you gotta make me understand”, make us understand in our language and as it relates to our lives right now how this G-Code would be beneficial to all of us. This would be better than just rushing the thing along and having press conferences to put pressure on politicians to make it into law. Buffalo real estate development seems to be moving along just fine with the zoning laws the way they are right now, why do we need to be doing this and why do we need it right now? Let us decide what we want where we live.

Art Giacolone wrote a pretty good article that#Artvoice re-posted that explains the potential pitfalls of this plan better than I do. Here’s a link to his piece . I advise you all to check it out and form your own opinions.

Here is a link to a recent press conference with mayor #ByronBrown about it.

This is what I mean about civic engagement, in a city in which more than half the population is black and brown, you have to pay attention to the moves that are being made that will ultimately decide how you will live. Most of the power moves being made in the town are made by people who don’t look like you. And, as is human nature or white Anglo-Saxon nature, when people get some power, if there is no accountability directed at them, they will use their power to benefit their own. It doesn’t have to be that way. I’m not saying that you have to go to every meeting, scream and shout, and pump a fist, but at the very least you need to step up your level of concern and involvement. The other thing is you have a black mayor in #BuffaloNY, but don’t assume he’ll always act in your best interest. He is a politician and most politicians (there are a few exceptions) react to power and pressure. If n**@$ is not reading the small print on their contracts and making sure that the label is doing right by them, then n**@$ are going to get jerked.

#LonnieBarlowShow #Niggerology #Gentrification #Race