SmartGrowth - No. If I could chose between funding a Renewable Energy Corridor (whatever that is?) or funding UB and it's medical campus, the REC would lose that decision badly.

Conditions in Univ Heights are fault of Buffalo's govt and some of its current residents, not the fault of scapegoats UB or Amherst. The shrinking of middle class families from many of those U.H. streets is similar to many areas across Buffalo. Street crime in U.H. is primarily fault of criminals, and to lesser extent the fault of weak judges and prosecutors. The police dept share in some blame. Loud parties and litter should be addressed much better by consistent enforcement and sentencing offenders to a lot of community service until they decide it's not worth it.

If Buffalo and NY state want more working class jobs, they should become more business friendly. About renewable energy - many corporations, universities, etc. are developing different forms. That will keep growing. There's no reason other than wishful thinking to say a Renewable Energy Corridor would create a lot of working class jobs in Buffalo as you claim. What would those working class jobs you're talking about be exactly?

Redirecting UB funding to supposedly create working class jobs in a Renewable Energy Corridor is one of the most backwards ideas I've heard.

Making that info available to the public would be great. My point is simply that there are more useful ways of talking about a problem than saying something like "muggings are the norm."

Where are the cops? I thought over the summer we had a new policey to target the "quality of life" issues in thie neighborhood that seemed to be working. What happend? Did we stop it as soon as summer ended like we do every year? Maby it's time the Mayor and Police Commisioner realize that crime happens all year round, not just during the warm months.

This area is on a slippery slope and it suffers from the chicken and egg conundrum. Parents of students and University Officials pushed for safer housing for students, especially after several high profile attacks in the late 80s and early 90s, including Linda Yalem (impacted the entire UB community), Kim Parague (raped, beaten, and left for dead in her house on Lisbon), bar fights, gangs crashing fraternity and sorority parties, several strong arm robberies, a law student attacked and beaten by six kids on Merrimac, and the list goes on.

The students offered a continuous stream to landlords in the area for decades, and in the mid-90s, that stream was shut off. The area has been sliding downhill from there. Bars and stores that catered to students have closed, violent crime has increased, the neighborhoods have become scarier and less safe, gangs are more prevalent, and the area is even more transitional now than when we had students there. I visit friends in the area and had dinner at the Steer a few weeks ago and was amazed at how different the entire area feels now.

I don't think that policing is the problem, and I don't believe that UB is the problem. The University Heights is suffering the same ill fate that many other parts of the city is suffering from. The area is becoming poorer and poorer, crime is increasing, quality of life is decreasing, quality of the housing stock is declining, and the more permanent residents are moving on. My friends in that area want to get out, but they can't sell their house and don't want to deal with renting to low income or section 8 renters. They have already cleared out their garage and backyard because things were stolen on several occassions, often during the day while they are at work. Of course, no one knows anything or is willing to say anything to the police.

The neighborhood needs a serious push for homeowners. I think the University District should do what Amherst did in the neighborhoods that surround UB. Amherst prohibits multi-tenant rentals in the first few blocks surrounding the UB campus, streets like Capen and Windermere, etc. The houses are primarily owner occupied and the neighborhood has more or less survived as a result. It has declined along with the University Heights, but not to the extent that the Buffalo neighborhoods have declined. The neighborhoods directly surrounding UB, on Englewood, Merrimac, Winspear, Highgate, and maybe a few other streets, should be reserved for owner occupied houses. I know that this isn't popular, as it pushes the problems towards the city, but it does create a boundary. Over time we can progress that boundary and push it towards Lasalle and Hertel. Drive the problems away from the UB core and re-introduce the neighborhood security that people need to live there with their families.

I know that this is not a popular strategy because it can be construed as racist or elitist, but something has to happen. Call it what you will, but the end result needs to be a rejuvenated University Heights that is safe for families, students, and others.

IT IS LONG OVERDUE to come down hard on the absentee landlords in this neighborhood. They should be policing/screening their tenants better. While I dont believe you can completely hold the property owner responsible for their tenants actions, it would go a long way if they were motivated to help police and monitor what goes on in their properties!! and yes...the Property mgmt co.s that are hired to manage the properties should be held to the same responsibility requirements as the property owner..they're the worst offenders!! Take it from me..I'm a proerty owner and the property next to mine , managed by a professional property co. located on Kenmore ave. had 55 ..yes 55 police calls in 1 year!! AND the mgmt co. would still not evict the tenants!! Perhaps a few nights in jail for being errant in their responsibilities as aproperty owner or manager would set an example for others who think buying and renting is all there is to do when owning income property!! It is even sadder that the Mayor and his much ballyhooed programs are all for the PR..and little effectiveness seen in the neighborhoods. I wonder if this type of crap would exist if it were next door to the mayor's home!!

UB is only part of the problem here. We can learn a lot from the increase in duplexes and houses that are now classified under section 8. We can learn a lot from the number of people who have brought the deep East Side crime and violence to the University Heights over the past decade. The average student no longer feels safe living on the side streets off Main, which has left the houses to the most die-hard fraternities and partying students, a few professional and foreign students, and a whole lot of subsidized rentals.

If you want to improve the University Heights then the Buffalo Police need to do something about the crime and violence. The University District council has to do something about the high rental rates and absentee landlords, and the University has to do something to bring students back to these neighborhoods. We also need real stores and restaurants opened along Main Street and along Bailey Avenue. There are far too many vacant buildings and far too little diversity in commercial offerings along these strips.

The blog is great, but I have yet to see them target anything except student housing on the blog. Why not go after some of the other sources of crime and quality of life issues, like the kids that were recently arrested of brutal muggings or the twenty something non-college students who were arrested for beating college students. Why not do an expose on the rape cases in the area instead of a photo spread of empty cans and bottles that remain after a party. It is my opinion that the rapes, muggings, and beatings are far more significant and detrimental to the area than the college parties.

There are investors who build up to make a profit and there are investors who tear down to make a profit. Buffalo has been at the mercy of the latter for the last 50 years.

The destructive owners of these buildings should be held to account. They won't be though if history is the guide. This is how neighborhoods are lost. With a major university down the street there is no excuse for this.

University Heights is a very special area to those who live and work there, but no more special than any other community. Crime is the number one issue and that is just as it is throughout the city. Property conditions are a close second, but that issue too is true across the city, with very few exceptions.

The University of Buffalo bolsters the Heights community. If the campus closed tomorrow the neighborhood would soon look like a ghostown. Students aren't always great neighbors. On the other hand, students are the most frequent victimes of crime and unscrupulous landlords.

The University has existed at the corner of Kenmore and Bailey for what? 150 years? No living neighbor preceded them. And now it is somehow a surprise that 18 year olds play music loud? That they like beer?

The Heights is a great neighborhood. The people are diverse and care about their community. It is also a community that in private conversation fashion themselves as liberal - and yet they would expect the University to control the behavior of the students who live off campus. Not exactly the mindset they held 40 years ago, I would guess.

Hopefully the neighbors, the University, the Block Clubs, the City can all work together and help sustain the neighborhood.

Colin - People have different defintions of what norm is. That doesn't matter really.

But are you implying all muggings make the news?

How do we know that's true? Has the Buffalo News ever promised to report them all? Maybe they've been reporting only a portion all along.

Since all crime reports are entered into city computers anyway, it should be easy for the city to have a crime report display page on its web site updated daily. They could easily block info they feel is needed to solve the crime or protect victim privacy, so that should be no excuse. There was some talk last year (Golombek pushing for it) for the city to start reporting up to date crime details on the web. Council members should start pushing for this again. Currently we have no idea what percent or muggings or other crime is reported by the Buffalo News.

Neglect by landlords and increasing availability of student housing in Amherst are the causes of the decline of University Heights. The house I lived in during my soph. and jr. yrs. (2001-2003) is vacant (except for the rats). Neighbors on the street have made an effort to buy the home from the current owner (who lives in east amherst and hasn't rented it since my friends moved out in 2005) but the owner won't sell. He pays the taxes and writes them off while the house and street suffer. The city needs take action against neglectful landlords. I am tired of people blaming UB for the problem. UB doesn't own the properties. It is the responsiblity of the owners to take care of their property and its up to the residents to maintain the neighborhoods...even if the residents are college kids.

Proper maintenance of the building has to fall on the owners. It is their responsibility to rent out to responsible people.. or hold those that they did rent out to accountable for their actions.

The city's inspections department has been the focus of the chopping block much more than other departments and this is the result. Too few people to actually get to all of these problem properties. How about the cops, teachers, or firefighters start acting like adults, compromise a little bit and allow the rest of the city to function.

Departments like inspections, permits, planning and public works are all at the mercy of the big three because they hold the politicians in their hand. Whenever cuts happen it happens in those departments while others don't. Don't only complain but tell them you want MORE inspectors on the streets. It is time to cut the slackers so we can redistribute fund to other departments.

Guns and muggings aren't the norm in the Heights. If they were, they wouldn't be in the news.

i grew up on minnesota avenue. went to ps 63. my block had families that have lived there since the 1950's (this was in the 1990's). It had kind of a tougher elmwood-vibe to it from my memory as a 7 year old. there was a decent sized co-op, a ben and jerry's, and some interesting indie clothing stores. at that time it was 'in transition' and the transition was about to escalate as UB expanded north with NSC, Center for the Arts, UB Stadium, and then the dagger-in-the-coffin...the on-campus apartments.

i was naive and optimistic and moved back to my family's old house on minnesota when i moved to Buffalo for school. It was awful. My block has now mostly died off and is surrounded by renters who don't care about their property or others or the neighborhood in general. I've been assaulted multiple times by d-bags in that neighborhood and you can't even drive on the side streets on summer nights sometimes because punks just walk in the middle of the road, not giving a f*@k what you think.

i wish these bloggers good luck but there are a lot of obstacles they can't fight. UB makes the neighborhood and since parents want to put their kids in either the dorms, on-campus apartments, or new student-only developments off of sweethome, its hard to convince parents to let their kids live in a worn-down neighborhood with an increasingly bad reputation. it has a horrible reputation amongst UB students that will be very hard to overcome and its more and more becoming affiliated with the rest of what lays along Bailey Ave well into the east side.