BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Some residents are concerned about several historical buildings in the City of Buffalo collapsing.
An Executive Director of Campaign Greater Buffalo History Architecture & Culture, Tim Tielman, is one of many who are making noise about the continuous neglect of these hundreds of years old buildings.
"It shouldn't take a building falling down for the city to do its job and inspect," he says.
A city spokesperson says most of these hundred-year-old buildings aren't city-owned. It's privately owned, but the city inspectors do regular visual inspections to check for water infiltration, cracking rust, and tough weather patterns.
The owner of the entire Half and Half building on Elmwood, Kilby Bronstein, says her facade collapsed in 2019.
"It was very a traumatic experience," she says.
She tells 7 News she bought the building in 2016.
"Our entire facade of the building from where the two apartments were completely off," says Bronstein. "It happened in the middle of the day. We were really lucky that no one got hurt."
Bronstein says these kinds of incidents stem from years of neglect.
Since then, she had to put reinforced steel on the entire roof so the building could hold itself together.
"This Elmwood Village is a very tight-knit community, and we'd never want the community to feel the building isn't a safe place," Bronstein says. "So we went above and beyond to make sure it is a safe place from the ground up."
Even though the city argues that these old buildings are out of their hands, Tim Tielman challenges the city to use the state, local, and federal funds.
"The city has received three million dollars in stimulus money," Tielman says. "And I'm telling you, there are buildings across that can actually use that money."
The city tells me those who have concerns about an old building deteriorating to call 311.
