BIA goes off the deep end

I follow the digest emails from Buffalo Issue Alerts because the Terminal comes up in there every once in awhile. It’s a Yahoo group that consists largely of preservationists and anti-casino advocates. I don’t think I’ve ever posted before, because I prefer the wider range of opinions at SpeakupWNY.

However, in the last digest I got, I was surprised to see they had gone off the deep end. Now, unlike the other bloggers, I’m not talking about the “outrage” at WHLD airing pro-casino ads. I’m talking about this thread, the one that first links to an Artvoice article on why we should keep the tolls on the 190, and add more wherever possible!

I’m saddened to see that Cynthia Van Ness, President of the Preservation Coalition spouting this type of “roads are bad, the denser the better” rhetoric. Thankfully, the group seems to be somewhat split on the issue.

What Cynthia needs to realize is that for preservation efforts to be successful in Buffalo, we need to eliminate as many of these damned taxes and fees as possible. We are all being hurt by the insanity soup of taxes, by any name. Eliminating tolls means there’s more potential money for preservation. Not only does it affect those of us that choose not to live in the city and pay tolls every time we come into the city to work on our various volunteer efforts, think of the wasted money that local companies pay to drive their trucks into and out of the city. I see Will Poultry trucks on the 190 all the time. Presumeably they’re paying a lot of tolls. Eliminate those tolls, and maybe they’d have enough extra cash flow to consider expanding their business. Maybe even go the way of a New Era and reuse part of a building that could use some restoration love (*coughTerminalcough*).

I expect to see a lot of this New Urbanist, elitist chatter on a place like Buffalo Rising that is very pro-city development, and in Artvoice which caters to the dreamers. But for the President of the Preservation Coalition to be advocating for taking more money out of the pockets of Buffalonians is antithetical to the cause.