Bill Brown: On the disaster of 'urban renewal' in downtown Batavia

Posted by Howard Owens on March 19, 2009 - 8:46am
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Bill Brown is a fine writer, and his description of Downtown Batavia as it once was on the Daily's Web site is as fine a remembrance of what was lost to "urban renewal" as I've seen:

A generation has grown up that never knew downtown Batavia and its varied and vibrant collection of stores, banks, offices, restaurants and apartments. The generation who does remember had to slug through life without cellphones, laptops, iPods and wall-sized flat screen TVs. So maybe it’s a fair exchange.

Shops occupied the first floor. Offices and other services were upstairs, and apartments took up the third floors. Hundreds of people lived downtown. They patronized the stores, went to the movies, ate at restaurants and window-shopped on busy streets. Dislocating these families and their influence — economic and social — was an unwelcome and unexpected disaster.

...

Gone were Brenner’s Jewelers (It’s Always OK to Owe Herb Brenner’’ but read the fine print). The Bank of America occupies the Main and Bank site. Mancuso Motors with a grand showroom has given way to Tim Hortons. The Mill Outlet where bargain-hunters were lured by popcorn and rummage sale counters is no more. The fortress-like Bank of Batavia was demolished for retailers. Movie fans had four theaters: the New Family and Lafayette on Jackson Street and the Dipson and Mancuso — late ’40s arrivals — on Main Street.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by C. M. Barons on March 19, 2009 - 11:31am
Just ahead of Main Street demolition, I conducted an interview with the director of Urban Renewal and surveyed local merchants and residents slated to lose stores and homes. The resulting article was published in the Country Post. Aside from being a harsh forecast that inevitably rang true, one of the most poignant recollections revealed in my interview with director William J. Gordon (check for name accuracy): I had asked about his qualifications and prior experience. He noted that he had been an officer in his family's toy company. Visions of a little boy at play with bulldozers and power shovels came to mind. Another revelation from the same interview: the urban renewal agency had twice the funding for demolition compared to funds dedicated to construction. Some will recall two things- how long vacant lots remained vacant and the absence of an elevated parking garage. The parking garage and parking in general was critical to securing anchor stores. Penneys at one point threatened to break its lease over insufficient parking. That's when the adjacent streets were striped for parking spaces.
The post-Urban Renewal generations are incapable of imagining how vital and intriguing downtown Batavia was.
Posted by Howard Owens on March 19, 2009 - 12:22pm
I would love to find -- and even republish -- a copy of that story!
Posted by C. M. Barons on March 20, 2009 - 3:25pm
The Urban Renewal Director's name was David (not William) J. Gordon.