I attended a meeting tonight at the Cazenovia Resource Center on the proposed Nevilly Court Educational/Athletic Fields Project. It was for the neighbors of the proposed facility to express their concerns about the project to Councilman Kearns. I got a call around 6:30 saying many people not from the neighborhood were planning on attending, so I stopped by.
The meeting was heavily attended. The neighbors came out in full force to discuss the project. They were pretty much dead set against it. One woman a few seats next to me made some very good points in a calm, non-confrontational manner towards the Councilman. A man in the back row had some good questions as well. Both liked the project but felt the location was not in the best interest of the neighborhood. A few in attendance liked the sound of their own voice. They interrupted the Executive Director from the Legacy Foundation, the Councilman, and even some of their own neighbors who shared their views. They just wanted to be loud. It was pretty comical, actually.
A woman who used to live on Marilla Street, but now lives off of South Park Avenue tried to make a point about giving kids from the neighborhood a safe place to go. A guy in the last row, who incidentally, looked like the BTK killer, shouted her down using the F word and other various profanities. It was white trash behavior at it's finest. He got up and excused himself from the room. It's pretty bad when you're so dumb, you have to put yourself on timeout. Others quickly got off topic and started talking about Sorrento Cheese, toxic waste, and anything else on their mind.
To hear some of these people talk, you'd think Kearns was planning on having a strip club put in over there. The woman a few seats away from me and the man in the back brought up legitimate concerns and asked good questions and spoke calmly, yet passionately. Others just talked loudly and tried to act confrontational every chance they got. If Kearns' project gets off the ground or doesn't, it's too bad people can't put aside their differences to work for the next generation. I've been at Tosh Collins three nights a week this winter and I can tell you the next generation is worth investing in.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me we should be working on education and community activities. The schools can't do it by themselves. Families need to come together to help each other. Youth sports is a great way to teach kids discipline as well as the importance of education. We can't look at politicians for the answers. We need to find the solutions ourselves. The mayor of Buffalo is a total joke. He's no leader and has never made any effort to work with the people of South Buffalo. He's just sitting back, hoping someone offers him a statewide post.
I was just there tonight as an observer. I certainly don't have anything against the group who oppose the project. None of them made any outlandish statements towards me. Unlike the flower lady, who gets grants from the city, state, and federal governments to plant flowers on McKinley Pkwy., these people actually live next to the proposed facility. Their voices deserve to be heard.
It would be nice if people stopped bickering about everything and came up with a plan to improve our neighborhoods (S. Park, Seneca St., and Abbott Rd.). I have to laugh when I hear people at the meetings say we have too many soccer fields. I remember when we had one field (at Potters Rd. in Cazenovia Park) in 1991 and their was only one goal on it. The other was in two pieces because of vandalism. People told me we would have a hard time selling outdoor soccer to city kids. The reason we have the fields we do now is because they are used almost every night during the summer months. Kids between the ages of 4 and 16 play on those fields. We have 1/10th the fields of our competitors. They are real families that come out each night to watch their children play. I know many of these families read this blog and I hope they attend the meeting on March 19th. We need to come up with a plan to help the next generation and help our community reach its full potential. Yelling at each other and pointing fingers will not do anything to improve the neighborhoods.
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The meeting was heavily attended. The neighbors came out in full force to discuss the project. They were pretty much dead set against it. One woman a few seats next to me made some very good points in a calm, non-confrontational manner towards the Councilman. A man in the back row had some good questions as well. Both liked the project but felt the location was not in the best interest of the neighborhood. A few in attendance liked the sound of their own voice. They interrupted the Executive Director from the Legacy Foundation, the Councilman, and even some of their own neighbors who shared their views. They just wanted to be loud. It was pretty comical, actually.
A woman who used to live on Marilla Street, but now lives off of South Park Avenue tried to make a point about giving kids from the neighborhood a safe place to go. A guy in the last row, who incidentally, looked like the BTK killer, shouted her down using the F word and other various profanities. It was white trash behavior at it's finest. He got up and excused himself from the room. It's pretty bad when you're so dumb, you have to put yourself on timeout. Others quickly got off topic and started talking about Sorrento Cheese, toxic waste, and anything else on their mind.
To hear some of these people talk, you'd think Kearns was planning on having a strip club put in over there. The woman a few seats away from me and the man in the back brought up legitimate concerns and asked good questions and spoke calmly, yet passionately. Others just talked loudly and tried to act confrontational every chance they got. If Kearns' project gets off the ground or doesn't, it's too bad people can't put aside their differences to work for the next generation. I've been at Tosh Collins three nights a week this winter and I can tell you the next generation is worth investing in.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me we should be working on education and community activities. The schools can't do it by themselves. Families need to come together to help each other. Youth sports is a great way to teach kids discipline as well as the importance of education. We can't look at politicians for the answers. We need to find the solutions ourselves. The mayor of Buffalo is a total joke. He's no leader and has never made any effort to work with the people of South Buffalo. He's just sitting back, hoping someone offers him a statewide post.
I was just there tonight as an observer. I certainly don't have anything against the group who oppose the project. None of them made any outlandish statements towards me. Unlike the flower lady, who gets grants from the city, state, and federal governments to plant flowers on McKinley Pkwy., these people actually live next to the proposed facility. Their voices deserve to be heard.
It would be nice if people stopped bickering about everything and came up with a plan to improve our neighborhoods (S. Park, Seneca St., and Abbott Rd.). I have to laugh when I hear people at the meetings say we have too many soccer fields. I remember when we had one field (at Potters Rd. in Cazenovia Park) in 1991 and their was only one goal on it. The other was in two pieces because of vandalism. People told me we would have a hard time selling outdoor soccer to city kids. The reason we have the fields we do now is because they are used almost every night during the summer months. Kids between the ages of 4 and 16 play on those fields. We have 1/10th the fields of our competitors. They are real families that come out each night to watch their children play. I know many of these families read this blog and I hope they attend the meeting on March 19th. We need to come up with a plan to help the next generation and help our community reach its full potential. Yelling at each other and pointing fingers will not do anything to improve the neighborhoods.
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I was also at the meeting and feel that the neighbors (I am not a resident of Zollars or Marilla) of the proposed project have a legitimate concern. To destroy a natural forest for the project is wrong. It is packed into an area where traffic and noise will affect the current residents in a negative way.
ReplyDeleteI think that Hillery Park would be a better location and I think that neighborhood would appreciate it. There is already access from a major city street (with a traffic light) so the neighborhood would not be disrupted.
I am all for the project, but not at the proposed site.
hello,
ReplyDeletebefore the meeting, i was unaware that trees would have to be knocked down to complete the project. i'm a big fan of wildlife in this area myself. if you look under wildlife on this blog, i've filmed deer, beaver, and other animals at s park lake (adjacent to the area in question). i know there are even coyotes in the same area, which i'm hoping to film.
it seems they won't put any new buildings or artificial turf on pre existing greenspace, so that would make hillery a tough go. i wish they would look into the area by the abandoned steel plant on s park. i was pretty sure that was a brownfields location. i hope i didn't come across as confrontational at the meeting when my name was mentioned. i apologize if i did. it was not my intent. i was just there in support of youth sports and i know the councilman is trying to do something positive. i support the rights of the neighbors. i only got involved at the previous meeting, when people from other neighborhoods stood up and said the numbers were down for youth sports. this couldn't be further from the truth. the woman who made those claims actually appeared in the mayor's commercials, which calls into question her independence. but most of the people at yesterday's meeting were nice. it was only a few that seem like very angry people.
i was also at meeting i thing location is wrong and if your going to build a project like this you should have 3 or 4 soccer fields and 3 or 4 football fields and 3 or 4 baseball fields im all for idea just lets make it big enough to use and in a location thats not on peoples backyards and ido think mickey kearns has done alot for south buffalo
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