Key findings
- Neighborhoods redlined in the 1930s are still Buffalo's most disadvantaged, a sign that adjusting existing institutions has not been enough.
- The community rights movement shows how municipalities have tried to rewrite the rules, and the rule-making, that leave residents without power over development.
- New York's charter revision law gives home-rule cities a path to adopt a rights-based charter.
Despite a century of programs and spending, places like Buffalo's redlined neighborhoods stay locked in decline. This issue argues that the problem lies in systems of local government that put property and well-funded interests ahead of residents.
It grounds a proposal for a rights-based charter for Buffalo in the community rights movement and New York's charter revision law.
Dated December 2020 and released in February 2021.
Related
- Erasing Red Lines · The Co-Lab report series this issue builds on
- To build back better, the city needs a people-centered charter · Buffalo News op-ed by Russell Weaver and Jason Knight, March 2021
Cite this issue
Weaver, Russell. 2020. “Chartering an Inclusive, Sustainable, Democratic City.” High Road Policy 1(4). Buffalo, NY: Cornell University ILR School, Buffalo Co-Lab. https://hdl.handle.net/1813/102814.