Franczyk blasts pace of progress on East Side
By BRIAN MEYER
News Staff Reporter
4/8/2004
Common Council President David A. Franczyk attacked the Masiello administration's
revitalization efforts Wednesday, accusing City Hall of treating some East Side
neighborhoods like a "self-cleaning oven" that can solve their own
problems.
Franczyk said the mayor's comprehensive master plan should be "torn up,"
and he depicted some officials as "arrogant bureaucrats" who are out
of touch with the needs of the East Side. He was infuriated that city planners
originally pushed to remove the Central Terminal from a state zone that would
make future developers eligible for incentives.
Local administrators of the Empire Zone program said the landmark has been in the zone for a decade and has yet to attract any private developers.
Franczyk countered that there has been recent interest. Following a stormy meeting of the Council's Community Development Committee, city planners agreed to keep the long-vacant landmark in the zone, but they said it will be removed next year if no new development occurs.
Timothy E. Wanamaker, the city's top planner, criticized Franczyk for threatening to lobby against other proposed zone revisions if the Central Terminal is not kept in the zone.
"For a Council member to say that unless his pet project is included, he's going to hold up the entire package (of zone changes) is extremely shortsighted," Wanamaker said.
Two Council members, Richard A. Fontana of Lovejoy and James D. Griffin of South, agreed that the Central Terminal could be a catalyst for revitalizing the East Side.
"You would have to be blind if you couldn't see the potential for that area," Griffin said.
Lorrie Abounader, the city's Empire Zone administrator, told Council members
that the state has imposed more stringent guidelines in the wake of recent criticisms
of the program. Wanamaker, who was hired last year, said he can't address what
happened in the past. But he strongly denied implications that the East Side
is being ignored now, noting that the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood is one
of the largest communities targeted.