Tag: Buffalo Common Council

Nov 1

2022

Activists seek renter protections

Published by

Responding to a spike in rents, Buffalo housing activists Tuesday called on City Hall to take steps to provide more affordable housing and protect tenants from bad landlords. Citing a 16 percent increase in rents since 2020, housing advocates and tenants hand-delivered documents to Common Council members asking for action on four fronts: Limiting evictions for just cause, such as nonpayment of rent or lease violations.  Requiring landlords to make repairs in a timely fashion. Mandating targeted rent controls to ensure a supply of affordable rental housing.  Establishing a $1 million revolving loan program to help low-income renters and homeowners.[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Oct 25

2022

City holding millions in other people’s money

Published by

The City of Buffalo took in $4.3 million from its annual auction of tax-delinquent properties in 2019, the year the Brown administration changed how it handles the money those foreclosure sales generate. Out of that $4.3 million, the city paid itself $700,000 to account for the back taxes and fees that led the properties to the auction block.  That left $3.6 million is surplus, much of which rightfully belongs to the individuals who lost their properties to foreclosure. For them, the money represents their remaining equity after all their creditors — the city, the banks, the utility companies — are[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Oct 18

2022

Activists sue Buffalo over Council redistricting

Published by

Buffalo’s Common Council members might have thought this summer’s contentious redistricting was behind it. If so, they were wrong. This afternoon 11 Buffalo voters and good-government organizations filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court, asking a judge to reject a redistricting plan adopted by the city’s Council in July and signed by Mayor Byron Brown in August. The city’s redistricting process, led by the Council, “failed to meet the basic requirements of the law,” the Article 78 complaint contends. Those failures deprived city residents of meaningful opportunities to take part in the process, according to the complaint.    The plaintiffs[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 19

2022

Council adopts new district lines

Published by

On Tuesday, Buffalo’s Common Council voted unanimously to adopt a redistricting plan that community groups and activists have spent the past two months trying to stop. The new district maps comprise an amended version of a redistricting plan unveiled in May by a citizens commission whose members were appointed by the Council and Mayor Byron Brown. The plan — which largely leaves intact the gerrymandering of a decade ago — will now be sent to Brown. The mayor must hold a public hearing on the matter. He then can approve or veto the plan, or allow it to pass into[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 12

2022

iPost’s redistricting coverage in The Nation

Published by

For the past month, Investigative Post’s Geoff Kelly has been covering the showdown between Buffalo’s Common Council and a coalition of activists and good government organizations over the once-in-a-decade opportunity to redraw the city’s Council districts. First he set up the conflict, providing background on the gerrymandering of a decade ago, then reporting on the largely opaque process undertaken by the Council this year and the mobilization of those urging the Council to do a better job. Then he described the extraordinary June 28 public hearing on the Council’s plan, which kept the current gerrymandered districts largely the same. More[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jul 5

2022

Council lost, activists take redistricting rudder

Published by

​​Last week Our City Action Buffalo — an organization of good government activists — scored two quick victories in a battle with the Common Council over redistricting. First, Our City Action successfully packed a June 28 public hearing with speakers, more than 100 of them. All opposed the Council’s redistricting plan, first unveiled in May by a commission that did its work largely behind closed doors. The Council’s favored plan largely leaves intact district lines that were gerrymandered 11 years ago to benefit incumbents. The speakers were unanimous in their support for an alternative redistricting plan created by Our City[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Apr 13

2016

Council ignores warning on lead test kits

Published by

The Common Council’s chief response to the city’s lead poisoning problem involves a commitment to distribute lead test kits to residents that one expert has termed a “very dangerous idea” with the potential for “extremely hazardous” results. No fewer than three experts challenged the wisdom of the Council’s plan in interviews with Investigative Post, including one who shared her concerns in writing last month with the office of Masten Council Member Ulysees Wingo. Those warnings have not been shared with other members, even when the test kits were discussed during Tuesday’s Council meeting. “Overall, I think there is a strong national[...]

Posted 8 years ago
Investigative Post

Get our newsletters delivered to your inbox * indicates required

Newsletters *