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How Buffalo’s East Side Avenues is training citizen developers to revitalize commercial corridors

In 2018, the state of New York committed an unprecedented investment—$65 million—to a new place-based initiative to revitalize Buffalo’s East Side. There is perhaps no place in the region where wealth generation is more important: People of color…

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By Laura Quebral

In 2018, the state of New York committed an unprecedented investment—$65 million—to a new place-based initiative to revitalize Buffalo’s East Side. There is perhaps no place in the region where wealth generation is more important: People of color make up 80% of the East Side’s population, and decades of disinvestment have left residents with limited opportunities for economic mobility.[1]

Our team at the University at Buffalo Regional Institute (UBRI) became involved in the initiative, knowing we had to keep our promises to a place that had been overlooked and underserved for too long. This was a major investment opportunity and needed to be undertaken differently than what was done in the past. Most notably, the community’s voice and vision had to be at the heart of the change.

Leveraging state, private, and philanthropic investment in targeted areas

Buffalo’s East Side is characterized by significant structural obstacles to growth as well as significant potential. Ninety-five percent of the population lives in a neighborhood of concentrated poverty. Of the nearly 70,000 working-age adults, over 30,000 are unemployed or out of the labor force.[2] But with 1,650 acres of vacant land and 850 vacant commercial addresses concentrated around commercial corridors, there is substantial opportunity to plan for development that connects residents to opportunity.[3]

Part of the state’s Buffalo Billion Phase II strategy, the $65 million East Side Corridor Economic Development Fund was allocated to inspire transformational capital investments in nine target areas on the East Side (Figure 1). Seeing the opportunity to leverage and complement this state-led investment, 14 private and philanthropic organizations pooled an additional $8 million to support the operations, capacity-building, and community infrastructure needed to maximize community benefit from and ownership over the East Side’s revitalization.

The result, East Side Avenues brings together public and private funders, community-based organizations, consultants, and the city to plan and coordinate the many revitalization activities aimed at improving economic conditions on Buffalo’s East Side. Our role at UBRI is to lead implementation, reach out to community members, analyze past investments, and create a comprehensive plan focused on projects that are critical for promoting economic activity.

Figure 1. East Side Avenues’ nine target areas

Building a revitalization strategy starts with resident engagement

To determine what investments could shape the future of the nine target areas, the East Side Avenues planning team—consisting of UBRI and Empire State Development staffers—wanted to hear from residents first. We held four stakeholder meetings with hundreds of participants, accessible to each of the corridors on the East Side. Outreach was targeted but also inclusive—we reached out to nonprofit community associations, business associations, block clubs, and faith-based organizations.

Throughout this resident engagement process, no idea was a bad idea. There wasn’t some 20-page application; instead, we asked residents for one page that described an idea, how far along it was, and its cost. Anyone who submitted an idea was offered a listening session—a chance to informally share their vision with the planning team. Over 100 submissions came in and community members requested 42 listening sessions. It wasn’t “Shark Tank”—our team was there to listen and learn.

We met incredible people who shared their visions. One mixed-use building owner dreamt of a new coffee shop; a beautician imagined a first-floor shared business space and upstairs apartments; and a family wanted to transform their business into an incubator for entrepreneurs. Patterns emerged from the conversations: Residents felt that community anchors and historic places were critical to the neighborhood’s success. Property and small business owners had great ideas but needed help implementing them. It would take a mix of new training opportunities, access to capital, and strengthening community assets to achieve their goals.

But when we began to talk about millions of dollars of investment, concerns about displacement also emerged. We needed to ensure the success of East Side community members and give them opportunities to build and grow on their own terms.

A five-part initiative to build community power and ownership

Based on the patterns of need that emerged from our conversations with the community and partnerships with nonprofit community-based organizations, we designed five strategic programs to address the East Side’s capacity gaps and fuel inclusive economic growth. These strategic programs include funding to:

Over the next five years, we will expand the capacity of existing community-based nonprofits to implement all five programs and ensure work is driven by community priorities.

Resident developers are a building block of community ownership

Of the five programs above, the final one—the Community-Based Real Estate Development Training program (CBREDT)—is emblematic of how residents, businesses, and property owners can be empowered to invest in their own assets, start or expand their own businesses, and grow wealth.

The first of its kind in the region, we developed CBREDT as a tuition-free, non-credit-bearing, 23-week adult education program that provides East Side residents and building owners with an overview of commercial real estate development (including predevelopment, construction, and project financing), offers weekly lectures and hands-on activities by local professionals, connects students with mentors, and guides students toward a final project presented to a panel of jurors. The program is modeled off of other training programs like LISC’s ACRE program in Milwaukee and the University at Buffalo’s Real Estate Development program, but tailored based on input from a local workgroup of partners consisting of LISC Western New York, the city of Buffalo, potential program participants, existing East Side developers, community development corporations, and faith-based organizations.

We received 154 applicants, with 20 applicants each accepted into our first two cohorts. Largely due to COVID-19-related complications, 15 students completed the program in 2020 and 19 in 2021.

“This is an opportunity for people to learn about their city and East Side revitalization efforts and for people of color to advance to the next level.”

 

Leah Angel Daniel, 2021 CBREDT graduate

Our ultimate goal is to give East Side building owners and community members the know-how to undertake a commercial redevelopment project. We wanted to ensure revitalization is driven by the community, and buildings don’t sit unused or fall into the hands of absentee landlords or speculators. To bolster participants’ chances at success, Empire State Development established a $5 million fund to provide program graduates access to much-needed capital. Many students are moving forward with their projects, including building out space for a small business, renovating a family-owned 2,000-square-foot, three-unit property, and pursuing historic tax credits for a 90,000-square-foot mixed-use facility.

We’re planning a third CBREDT cohort for early 2022.  We also offer continuing education and networking opportunities to graduates and check in on their development projects and readiness to apply for funding.

“This program made me confident that I can truly be a commercial developer. I feel privileged to have been a part of this incredible learning experience and to have connected with so many talented professionals.”

 

Brandi Barrett, 2020 CBREDT Graduate

Starting and ending with community voices

From the outset, East Side Avenues committed to elevating the voices of the community. And the best way to hear about a program’s results is directly from participants, so we continue to share CBREDT participants’ stories and promote their visions to inspire others.

East Side Avenues starts and ends with community voices, and is fueled by collaborative multiyear support from Empire State Development and 14 private funders to ensure we have the resources to succeed. We built the model together, are implementing it together, and continue to grow the economy, learn, problem-solve, and scale together.


Notes

[1][2] UBRI analysis of data from U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (2012-2016).

[3] U.S. Postal Service, HUD Aggregated USPS Administrative Data on Address Vacancies, 4th Quarter (December) 2017.


 

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Government

Mike Pompeo Doesn’t Rule Out Serving In 2nd Trump Administration

Mike Pompeo Doesn’t Rule Out Serving In 2nd Trump Administration

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Former Secretary…

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Mike Pompeo Doesn't Rule Out Serving In 2nd Trump Administration

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a new interview that he’s not ruling out accepting a White House position if former President Donald Trump is reelected in November.

“If I get a chance to serve and think that I can make a difference ... I’m almost certainly going to say yes to that opportunity to try and deliver on behalf of the American people,” he told Fox News, when asked during a interview if he would work for President Trump again.

I’m confident President Trump will be looking for people who will faithfully execute what it is he asked them to do,” Mr. Pompeo said during the interview, which aired on March 8. “I think as a president, you should always want that from everyone.”

Then-President Donald Trump (C), then- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L), and then-Vice President Mike Pence, take a question during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus at the White House in Washington on April 8, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

He said that as a former secretary of state, “I certainly wanted my team to do what I was asking them to do and was enormously frustrated when I found that I couldn’t get them to do that.”

Mr. Pompeo, a former U.S. representative from Kansas, served as Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2018 before he was secretary of state from 2018 to 2021. After he left office, there was speculation that he could mount a Republican presidential bid in 2024, but announced that he wouldn’t be running.

President Trump hasn’t publicly commented about Mr. Pompeo’s remarks.

In 2023, amid speculation that he would make a run for the White House, Mr. Pompeo took a swipe at his former boss, telling Fox News at the time that “the Trump administration spent $6 trillion more than it took in, adding to the deficit.”

“That’s never the right direction for the country,” he said.

In a public appearance last year, Mr. Pompeo also appeared to take a shot at the 45th president by criticizing “celebrity leaders” when urging GOP voters to choose ahead of the 2024 election.

2024 Race

Mr. Pompeo’s interview comes as the former president was named the “presumptive nominee” by the Republican National Committee (RNC) last week after his last major Republican challenger, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, dropped out of the 2024 race after failing to secure enough delegates. President Trump won 14 out of 15 states on Super Tuesday, with only Vermont—which notably has an open primary—going for Ms. Haley, who served as President Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

On March 8, the RNC held a meeting in Houston during which committee members voted in favor of President Trump’s nomination.

“Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump on his huge primary victory!” the organization said in a statement last week. “I’d also like to congratulate Nikki Haley for running a hard-fought campaign and becoming the first woman to win a Republican presidential contest.”

Earlier this year, the former president criticized the idea of being named the presumptive nominee after reports suggested that the RNC would do so before the Super Tuesday contests and while Ms. Haley was still in the race.

Also on March 8, the RNC voted to name Trump-endorsed officials to head the organization. Michael Whatley, a North Carolina Republican, was elected the party’s new national chairman in a vote in Houston, and Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, was voted in as co-chair.

“The RNC is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly every single day to elect our nominee, Donald J. Trump, as the 47th President of the United States,” Mr. Whatley told RNC members in a speech after being elected, replacing former chair Ronna McDaniel. Ms. Trump is expected to focus largely on fundraising and media appearances.

President Trump hasn’t signaled whom he would appoint to various federal agencies if he’s reelected in November. He also hasn’t said who his pick for a running mate would be, but has offered several suggestions in recent interviews.

In various interviews, the former president has mentioned Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, among others.

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/13/2024 - 17:00

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International

Riley Gaines Explains How Women’s Sports Are Rigged To Promote The Trans Agenda

Riley Gaines Explains How Women’s Sports Are Rigged To Promote The Trans Agenda

Is there a light forming when it comes to the long, dark and…

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Riley Gaines Explains How Women's Sports Are Rigged To Promote The Trans Agenda

Is there a light forming when it comes to the long, dark and bewildering tunnel of social justice cultism?  Global events have been so frenetic that many people might not remember, but only a couple years ago Big Tech companies and numerous governments were openly aligned in favor of mass censorship.  Not just to prevent the public from investigating the facts surrounding the pandemic farce, but to silence anyone questioning the validity of woke concepts like trans ideology. 

From 2020-2022 was the closest the west has come in a long time to a complete erasure of freedom of speech.  Even today there are still countries and Europe and places like Canada or Australia that are charging forward with draconian speech laws.  The phrase "radical speech" is starting to circulate within pro-censorship circles in reference to any platform where people are allowed to talk critically.  What is radical speech?  Basically, it's any discussion that runs contrary to the beliefs of the political left.

Open hatred of moderate or conservative ideals is perfectly acceptable, but don't ever shine a negative light on woke activism, or you might be a terrorist.

Riley Gaines has experienced this double standard first hand.  She was even assaulted and taken hostage at an event in 2023 at San Francisco State University when leftists protester tried to trap her in a room and demanded she "pay them to let her go."  Campus police allegedly witnessed the incident but charges were never filed and surveillance footage from the college was never released.  

It's probably the last thing a champion female swimmer ever expects, but her head-on collision with the trans movement and the institutional conspiracy to push it on the public forced her to become a counter-culture voice of reason rather than just an athlete.

For years the independent media argued that no matter how much we expose the insanity of men posing as women to compete and dominate women's sports, nothing will really change until the real female athletes speak up and fight back.  Riley Gaines and those like her represent that necessary rebellion and a desperately needed return to common sense and reason.

In a recent interview on the Joe Rogan Podcast, Gaines related some interesting information on the inner workings of the NCAA and the subversive schemes surrounding trans athletes.  Not only were women participants essentially strong-armed by colleges and officials into quietly going along with the program, there was also a concerted propaganda effort.  Competition ceremonies were rigged as vehicles for promoting trans athletes over everyone else. 

The bottom line?  The competitions didn't matter.  The real women and their achievements didn't matter.  The only thing that mattered to officials were the photo ops; dudes pretending to be chicks posing with awards for the gushing corporate media.  The agenda took precedence.

Lia Thomas, formerly known as William Thomas, was more than an activist invading female sports, he was also apparently a science project fostered and protected by the athletic establishment.  It's important to understand that the political left does not care about female athletes.  They do not care about women's sports.  They don't care about the integrity of the environments they co-opt.  Their only goal is to identify viable platforms with social impact and take control of them.  Women's sports are seen as a vehicle for public indoctrination, nothing more.

The reasons why they covet women's sports are varied, but a primary motive is the desire to assert the fallacy that men and women are "the same" psychologically as well as physically.  They want the deconstruction of biological sex and identity as nothing more than "social constructs" subject to personal preference.  If they can destroy what it means to be a man or a woman, they can destroy the very foundations of relationships, families and even procreation.  

For now it seems as though the trans agenda is hitting a wall with much of the public aware of it and less afraid to criticize it.  Social media companies might be able to silence some people, but they can't silence everyone.  However, there is still a significant threat as the movement continues to target children through the public education system and women's sports are not out of the woods yet.   

The ultimate solution is for women athletes around the world to organize and widely refuse to participate in any competitions in which biological men are allowed.  The only way to save women's sports is for women to be willing to end them, at least until institutions that put doctrine ahead of logic are made irrelevant.          

Tyler Durden Wed, 03/13/2024 - 17:20

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Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-March 2024

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-March 2024
A brief excerpt: This 2-part overview for mid-March provides a snapshot of the current housing market.

I always like to star…

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Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-March 2024

A brief excerpt:
This 2-part overview for mid-March provides a snapshot of the current housing market.

I always like to start with inventory, since inventory usually tells the tale!
...
Here is a graph of new listing from Realtor.com’s February 2024 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report showing new listings were up 11.3% year-over-year in February. This is still well below pre-pandemic levels. From Realtor.com:

However, providing a boost to overall inventory, sellers turned out in higher numbers this February as newly listed homes were 11.3% above last year’s levels. This marked the fourth month of increasing listing activity after a 17-month streak of decline.
Note the seasonality for new listings. December and January are seasonally the weakest months of the year for new listings, followed by February and November. New listings will be up year-over-year in 2024, but we will have to wait for the March and April data to see how close new listings are to normal levels.

There are always people that need to sell due to the so-called 3 D’s: Death, Divorce, and Disease. Also, in certain times, some homeowners will need to sell due to unemployment or excessive debt (neither is much of an issue right now).

And there are homeowners who want to sell for a number of reasons: upsizing (more babies), downsizing, moving for a new job, or moving to a nicer home or location (move-up buyers). It is some of the “want to sell” group that has been locked in with the golden handcuffs over the last couple of years, since it is financially difficult to move when your current mortgage rate is around 3%, and your new mortgage rate will be in the 6 1/2% to 7% range.

But time is a factor for this “want to sell” group, and eventually some of them will take the plunge. That is probably why we are seeing more new listings now.
There is much more in the article.

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