As it fights to save landmark, Campaign for Greater Buffalo needs your help.
Special charitable tax break ends Dec. 31
Dear Friend in Preservation and Friend of Buffalo,
We are engaged in an epic battle to save the Great Northern grain elevator, a Buffalo icon which many of us worked to preserve and landmark over 30 years ago. Buffalo mayor Byron Brown made a classic Friday-afternoon-holiday-season emergency demolition declaration. We worked mightly from that moment to now, as I write these words, to block the demolition, get into court, and start planning for a renewed Great Northern.
This doesn’t happen by magic. The capacity to wage these battles comes from our members and donors combined with our knowledge and passion. When the rubber hits the road, it is The Campaign for Greater Buffalo that shows up. We need your help now in the form of an annual or monthly recurring membership to the Campaign, or a special donation that can reduce your taxable income by up to $600.
Our income has taken a big hit in the last two years, as we haven’t been able to operate our Open-Air Autobus and our LearnAboutBuffalo tours. But our work has not stopped:
•We are developing plans for a post-Thruway downtown, including “urban hamlets” on the East Side, West Side, and The Terrace.
•We are advancing proposals to link the historic DL&W train shed with the Connecting Terminal Elevator via a pedestrian bridge OVER the Skyway.
• We are fighting to save Voelker's Lanes and put together the landmark application that is now before the Buffalo Common Council
•We are celebrating our work in saving the North Park Library from demolition for a strip plaza and the adaptation of the building into the Italian Heritage Center.
•We are urging the city to fix or give us the Fruit Belt’s Meidenbauer House, part of the High Street Historic District, which we created.
•We released the massive Big Picture Plan in April, stretching from the foot of Main Street to Court Street behind City Hall. It encapsulates our philosophy of restorative development.
•We are continuing our Green Book Project to catalog all Buffalo Black-friendly business sites listed in the famous directories for Black travelers. published from the 1930s to 1960s, with the hopes of landmarking and restoring key buildings.
Please take advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime offer of income credit of $300 for individuals and $600 for couples for charitable donations. The NY Times explained it all in a recent article, to which we've added our own donation form (see below).
I urge you—no, beg you—to act now. Go to the our website, Greater Buffalo and the sidebar to DONATE button to give any amount. Or choose a membership level and click ADD TO CART.
You can also mail a check (dated Dec. 31 or earlier) or charge card information to us at Campaign for Greater Buffalo, 403 Main Street, suite 705, Buffalo, NY 14203.
Finally, you can call me at 716-854-3749 (after hours or weekends leave a message) and I’ll take you charge information over the phone.
The new year promises new challenges. Spirit willing and resources ready, we can be prepared. For that, we’ll need your help. Please donate as generously as you can, today.
Thank you in advance and best wishes for 2022,
Tim Tielman
Executive Director