Silo wall collapse

[Helpmenow]

Knock it down 

[ExiledInIllinois]

https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/buffalo-to-issue-emergency-demolition-permit-for-great-northern-grain-elevator/71-6daf2408-2ab6-479e-9d5b-f8b8cb8220df

 

It hasn't been operational for decades and they did nothing to preserve it? Sadly... It's taking up a lot of space.  Kayakers don't pay the bills. Sadly, it probably needs to be taken down.

 

Save a small historical portion like the fake Canalside..  Build a Dippin' Dots stand, throw a summer concert,  charge $20 to park... That will pay the bills during the June to September kayaking season.  /sarcasm

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

Doug Jemal (the REAL leader of Buffalo) offered to buy it …. Just give it to him and I’d bet on another Riverworks style attraction in the not too distant future. 

On 12/12/2021 at 1:21 PM, Nextmanup said:

Who says that wind occurs during a game?  The wind that knocked that chunk out of the silo would not have occurred during a game, even if we had an open air stadium right where it SHOULD BE...near the hockey arena.

 

 

Looking through this thread, it's utterly hilarious how poorly situated Buffalo, NY is, on the map.

 

It's freaking lightning rod for horrific weather, and none of it is particularly difficult to understand.

 

And it ain't gonna change, either.

 

 

 

 

One could say building New Orleans below sea level on the gulf in hurricane alley was not very wise either 

[BuffaloBill]

3 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

 

Those silos are what make Buffalo unique. We lost a lot of very beautiful, culturally relevant buildings in the rush of urban renewal. If they can be preserved they should be.

OK but what do you do with it? It just sits there as a historical artifact? 

[Wacka]

The time to be taking care of it was 40 years ago.

[ExiledInIllinois]

10 minutes ago, Wacka said:

The time to be taking care of it was 40 years ago.

Exactly!

 

Though... Two best times to plant a tree is 20 years ago and right now!

51 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

OK but what do you do with it? It just sits there as a historical artifact? 

Taking up a lot of space... Kinda sad because BFLo seems to always be in this predicament. 

Edited December 21, 2021 by ExiledInIllinois

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 hour ago, AlCowlingsTaxiService said:

Doug Jemal (the REAL leader of Buffalo) offered to buy it …. Just give it to him and I’d bet on another Riverworks style attraction in the not too distant future. 

One could say building New Orleans below sea level on the gulf in hurricane alley was not very wise either 

No.

 

It's the Nation's busiest port.  Revenue in far exceeds what needed to be rebuilt.

 

BFLo is the exact opposite.   Built because of geography and died because of it. 

 

Mutha Nature isn't  destroying NOLA's economic output... That economic output AND future potential still far exceeds what Nature can throw at it.

[PromoTheRobot]

58 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

OK but what do you do with it? It just sits there as a historical artifact? 

 

If someone like Jemal is spending money on it he's got an idea.

[TBBills]

Need to move into the future, rip it down!

[ExiledInIllinois]

26 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

If someone like Jemal is spending money on it he's got an idea.

Hope it's a good idea.  Limited options.  Gotta turn a buck somehow!

[T&C]

2 minutes ago, TBBills said:

Need to move into the future, rip it down!

Where would we all be without the past?

[TBBills]

1 hour ago, T&C said:

Where would we all be without the past?

Take a picture

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 hour ago, TBBills said:

Take a picture

Museums help too.

 

Something like this I am in the middle.  WTF does a city do with that monstrosity that is in condemned condition.  They haven't used in decades.  Just rotting there.

 

Cargill is outta Minnesota (incorporated in Delaware), they don't give a ***** about BFLo...

 

And that's BFLo's problem... Always mostly a satellite labor town with company HQs off in far away places... When business retracts, where do they retract to?  Their home bases... 

Edited December 22, 2021 by ExiledInIllinois

[Bob Lamb]

On 12/12/2021 at 12:14 PM, PromoTheRobot said:

 

Except those "old ugly" silos are iconic and becoming a hip playground, like Buffalo Riverworks. But you're right about some of them. Might not be worth saving.

Can you possibly imagine the amount of seagull, pigeon and rat type ***** in that building? It is a hazardous waste site right there, aside from building materials.

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 hour ago, Bob Lamb said:

Can you possibly imagine the amount of seagull, pigeon and rat type ***** in that building? It is a hazardous waste site right there, aside from building materials.

The residual grains alone may have sustained colonies of rats for years?

 

We have elevators here... But they are still in use. Makes me kinda mad that they couldn't still use them in BFLo. What was Cargill's plan with them all these years?  Could they have opened it back up into service? 

 

Brownfields like this should have been addressed. 

[Bob Lamb]

16 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

The residual grains alone may have sustained colonies of rats for years?

 

We have elevators here... But they are still in use. Makes me kinda mad that they couldn't still use them in BFLo. What was Cargill's plan with them all these years?  Could they have opened it back up into service? 

 

Brownfields like this should have been addressed. 

 

The product flow changed over the years. They no longer needed to store grain in those quantities. There is still a milling operation at the site.  

 

DECLINE OF THE GRAIN TRADE Buffalo's grain trade reached one of its high points during the 1920s when receipts exceeded 300,000,000 bushels a year. World War II plus the necessity. of helping to feed western Europe in the post-war years continued to stimulate the grain trade. As a result, the late 1940s saw several years 16 when grain received at Buffalo elevators and mills approached or exceeded the 300,000,000 bushel level. Since that time the decline in Buffalo's grain industries has been steady and severe. Grain receipts now are scarcely 20% of the amount received in the late 1940s. Consequently, many grain elevators have been abandoned or are being used to less than their full capacities. Elevator storage capacity has declined from a high point of 58,400,000 bushels in 1942 to a low point of 22,650,000 bushels. And the winter fleet that once numbered hundreds of vessels is now nearly extinct. The reasons for this decline are complex but three of the most significant are clear. The Welland Ship Canal (fourth one built in the Welland, Ontario, area) opened in 1932. With its opening full-sized grain boats coming from upper Great Lakes ports could by-pass Buffalo, delivering their cargo to Prescott, Ontario or Oswego, New York, for transshipment. Virtually no Canadian grain has been transshipped from Buffalo since that time. Next, completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1952 gave moderate size ocean A ship in the Buffalo River is unloading at the GLF (Agway) Elevators "A ", "B", and "C. " 17 The Great Northern Elevator, built in 1897 by James J. Hill, is now called the Mutual Elevator and is an adjunct to the Pillsbury Flour Mill. It is of a unique design having steel bins enclosed in a brick sheath. vessels access to the interior of North America by way of the Great Lakes. This ended Buffalo's grain transshipment business completely. While the transshipment business was coming to an end, Buffalo's animal feed industry was likewise declining. Decentralization occurred in this industry during the years between 1955 and 1970. Grain and other animal feed ingredients were no longer shipped to the large feed mills in Buffalo. Instead, smaller mills were built within trucking distance of the regions in which cattle, hogs, and horses consumed the animal feed. As a result, nearly all of Buffalo's feed mills ceased operation, the single exception being the Wollenberg, which produces only bird seed. At one time Buffalo's mills annually ground over 100,000,000 bushels of grain and other ingredients into animal feed. With the feed industry gone, Buffalo's grain traffic suffered still another drastic decline. The end of transshipment and the closing out of the animal feed business meant more than a decline in the grain trade. It meant a serious loss of jobs. At one time thousands of men and women worked in some capacity associated with the grain elevators and the grain business. Now their jobs are gone. 18 Buffalo remains prominent only in the milling of grain into flour. Even this prominence is threatened by new developments in transportation and business organization. Buffalo badly needs a modern Joseph Dart to apply new or even old technology to enhance the natural advantages that a large lake city has. Years ago the poet Carl Sandburg wrote that fog comes "on little cat feet" and sits looking "over harbour and city on silent haunches" before it moves on. Buffalo's grain industry was bustling and noisy, not silent like the fog Sandburg wrote about. Moreover, unlike the fog, Buffalo's grain industry has left evidence of its presence "over harbour and city ." Grain elevators and mills, even those now empty and abandoned, are the evidence of the time when Buffalo's grain industry flourished -and then moved on.

 

http://bechsed.nylearns.org/pdf/Buffalos_Grain_Elevators.pdf

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 hour ago, Bob Lamb said:

 

The product flow changed over the years. They no longer needed to store grain in those quantities. There is still a milling operation at the site.  

 

DECLINE OF THE GRAIN TRADE Buffalo's grain trade reached one of its high points during the 1920s when receipts exceeded 300,000,000 bushels a year. World War II plus the necessity. of helping to feed western Europe in the post-war years continued to stimulate the grain trade. As a result, the late 1940s saw several years 16 when grain received at Buffalo elevators and mills approached or exceeded the 300,000,000 bushel level. Since that time the decline in Buffalo's grain industries has been steady and severe. Grain receipts now are scarcely 20% of the amount received in the late 1940s. Consequently, many grain elevators have been abandoned or are being used to less than their full capacities. Elevator storage capacity has declined from a high point of 58,400,000 bushels in 1942 to a low point of 22,650,000 bushels. And the winter fleet that once numbered hundreds of vessels is now nearly extinct. The reasons for this decline are complex but three of the most significant are clear. The Welland Ship Canal (fourth one built in the Welland, Ontario, area) opened in 1932. With its opening full-sized grain boats coming from upper Great Lakes ports could by-pass Buffalo, delivering their cargo to Prescott, Ontario or Oswego, New York, for transshipment. Virtually no Canadian grain has been transshipped from Buffalo since that time. Next, completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1952 gave moderate size ocean A ship in the Buffalo River is unloading at the GLF (Agway) Elevators "A ", "B", and "C. " 17 The Great Northern Elevator, built in 1897 by James J. Hill, is now called the Mutual Elevator and is an adjunct to the Pillsbury Flour Mill. It is of a unique design having steel bins enclosed in a brick sheath. vessels access to the interior of North America by way of the Great Lakes. This ended Buffalo's grain transshipment business completely. While the transshipment business was coming to an end, Buffalo's animal feed industry was likewise declining. Decentralization occurred in this industry during the years between 1955 and 1970. Grain and other animal feed ingredients were no longer shipped to the large feed mills in Buffalo. Instead, smaller mills were built within trucking distance of the regions in which cattle, hogs, and horses consumed the animal feed. As a result, nearly all of Buffalo's feed mills ceased operation, the single exception being the Wollenberg, which produces only bird seed. At one time Buffalo's mills annually ground over 100,000,000 bushels of grain and other ingredients into animal feed. With the feed industry gone, Buffalo's grain traffic suffered still another drastic decline. The end of transshipment and the closing out of the animal feed business meant more than a decline in the grain trade. It meant a serious loss of jobs. At one time thousands of men and women worked in some capacity associated with the grain elevators and the grain business. Now their jobs are gone. 18 Buffalo remains prominent only in the milling of grain into flour. Even this prominence is threatened by new developments in transportation and business organization. Buffalo badly needs a modern Joseph Dart to apply new or even old technology to enhance the natural advantages that a large lake city has. Years ago the poet Carl Sandburg wrote that fog comes "on little cat feet" and sits looking "over harbour and city on silent haunches" before it moves on. Buffalo's grain industry was bustling and noisy, not silent like the fog Sandburg wrote about. Moreover, unlike the fog, Buffalo's grain industry has left evidence of its presence "over harbour and city ." Grain elevators and mills, even those now empty and abandoned, are the evidence of the time when Buffalo's grain industry flourished -and then moved on.

 

http://bechsed.nylearns.org/pdf/Buffalos_Grain_Elevators.pdf

What killed BFLo opened Toronto up to the world!

 

We should have built an "All-American Canal" to compete with Welland.  Plans were on the books in 1950s/60s to build it.  Did they know that Love Canal would be sitting right in the middle and blow up in the region's & nation's face under 20 years later?

 

Jetport in Pendleton too:

 

 

 

Shoutout to:

 

@BringBackFergy

@Beerball

 

😉 😜 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

5 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

What killed BFLo opened Toronto up to the world!

 

We should have built an "All-American Canal" to compete with Welland.  Plans were on the books in 1950s/60s to build it.  Did they know that Love Canal would be sitting right in the middle and blow up in the region's & nation's face under 20 years later?

 

Jetport in Pendleton too:

 

 

 

Shoutout to:

 

@BringBackFergy

@Beerball

 

😉 😜 

Build an 'all American canal' and your grain still goes past Buffalo.  The less times it's handled, the lower the cost.

[ExiledInIllinois]

2 hours ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

Build an 'all American canal' and your grain still goes past Buffalo.  The less times it's handled, the lower the cost.

Yes.  But it's not going through Canada. Jobs stay here... Provisioning the ships, the tugs, etc... 

 

Better than being treated like Radiator Springs in the movie "Cars."

 

Thing is... Through Canada they can charge a toll.  In US, by US law no toll could charged. No user fee. 

[T&C]

10 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Yes.  But it's not going through Canada. Jobs stay here... Provisioning the ships, the tugs, etc... 

 

Better than being treated like Radiator Springs in the movie "Cars."

 

Thing is... Through Canada they can charge a toll.  In US, by US law no toll could charged. No user fee. 

I never knew this, interesting stuff coming out of this thread.