Detroit east: Wildlife encroaches on Buffalo's thousands of vacant lots

Like Detroit, Buffalo, New York, once an industrial powerhouse, hasn't had a Republican mayor since the 1960s. And like Detroit, Buffalo is becoming a city of vacant lots.

And we know nature abhors a vacuum.

From the Buffalo News:

City Hall owns approximately 10,000 empty lots in Buffalo and, like any property owner, is responsible for mowing and maintaining the grass. But because of the wet spring, the city is about two weeks behind in cutting the grass, according to spokesman Michael DeGeorge.

"These are not lots that the city wants," DeGeorge said. "These are lots that people lost their homes, and these lots fall to the city."

Homeowners elsewhere might have some sympathy for city crews tasked with cutting and recutting grass on all those lots, but for the residents next to the lots where the grass is now near 3 feet high, that sympathy runs thin. Especially when they get citations for their own tall grass, and then look next door and see the grass on the city-owned lots is even higher.

Howard complains about the woodchucks that migrated from the empty lots near his house and into his yard, where they dug three holes that lead into his basement. One hole is 2 feet wide. He also recalled one night last summer, when a skunk strolled over and sprayed his 23-year-old son while he was standing in the driveway.

Of course rats are a problem too. On many nights, Howard told the Buffalo News, his street smells like skunk spray. Sometimes the woodchucks and the skunks fight.

The News didn't say if the animals are registered to vote.

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