A young C.M. Barons -- regular contributor to The Batavian and former State Assembly candidate -- was a journalism student at GCC when the north side of Main Street, Batavia, was demolished to make way for the Genesee Country Mall.
Over the weekend, Barons found his old photos for a story he did in college.
The bottom photo is of David J. Gordon, who was the urban renewal planner in charge of the project. Barons sent it along in case anybody needed new dart board material.
Really tragic pictures. I
Really tragic pictures. I wish I understood the urban renewal movement better to try to understand why anything old and historic was not worthy of keeping.
If that side of the street
If that side of the street had many empty storefronts and was generally run down, then I could understand the need to tear it down....but everything I have heard indicates that there were many businesses thriving on the North end of the street. It's a shame. Now we have an empty mall that is based on a bad contract that adds little value to the city.
One thing I've heard that
One thing I've heard that _might_ justify it is that many of the buildings on the north were in much worse condition than those on the south.
I've always taken that explanation with a grain of salt.
Also, I imagine for a fraction of the taxpayer money that went into urban renewal, most of those buildings could have been saved.
I think the city of Batavia
I think the city of Batavia was ruined when they tore all those Beautiful buildings down and built mall that no one wants to be in. To save face they built the city offices there. More taxes off the books.
main street is not as much
main street is not as much fun to walk around and shop at it was back than, the mall was a joke waste of tax payers money. lol whats new ?
IT WAS SIMPLY THE BIGEST
IT WAS SIMPLY THE BIGEST MISTAKE EVER MADE IN BATAVIA!
My great aunt and my
My great aunt and my grandmother both lived on the north side of Main Street. Grandma lived on State Street over Louchnan's(sp)Meat Market, and my aunt over Vic's grill on Main. I don't remember either building being in bad shape. South side buildings being in better shape just doesn't make any sense to me.
I think Batavia was trying to rush into the future. Bad idea, bad planning, or maybe even the publics fault, one or all led to the disaster we have to see day after day, a constant reminder. Can't even remember the last time I was in there.
It is so nice to go to some of the local festivals around the area in the summer. A few examples, Spencerport, Leroy, East Aurora, Springville. Walking from shop to shop, having lunch in a quaint little restaurant...much like "old Batavia".
"Those were the days my friend.........
I've uploaded four more
I've uploaded four more images at-
http://www.surespritsga.org/urban_renewal.htm
Be patient; they were scanned at high resolution and take a few seconds to load.
The mall is such a waste of
The mall is such a waste of space.
Batavia has never recovered.
Batavia has never recovered.