It’s not just about chickens By Elizabeth Licata Monique Watts visits her chickens, who were removed to a farm outside the city when she discovered they were not legal in Buffalo (as of 2004); Photo by Cynnie Gaasch. Under what is probably the most restrictive chicken legislation ever to be passed in the United States, residents of Buffalo may be allowed to keep hens in their backyards as of this month—providing they can meet all of the ordinance’s ultra-stringent requirements. Many readers will have already seen this information in the Buffalo News, but that’s only part of the story. There are much larger issues here, issues of how we get our food, how we use our land, and how the traditional paradigm of city development has to be reexamined and at least partially reconfigured. Though city planners pay lip service to development that enhances neighborhoods and helps residents in real ways rather than chases silver bullets, many political leaders—especially in Western New York—still seem stuck in sixties-era urban renewal mindsets. Buildings are valued above all, the car is king, and parking is more important than the environment. What the politicians don’t see is that city dwellers are trying to live smarter and healthier these days. They don’t see the increasing numbers of office workers commuting via bicycle. They don’t see that sales of vegetable seeds and canning supplies are up fifty percent throughout the United States. They don’t see that homeowners are looking for ways to conserve energy and save money in every aspect of their lives, whether that means using sustainable energy sources, buying rain barrels, composting, driving less, growing their own food—or yes, sometimes keeping a few hens for the eggs, backyard pest control, and excellent fertilizer they provide. A drive around Buffalo displays many paradoxes. Here’s just one of them: while trailblazers are using vacant lots for tree farms, community vegetable gardens, and water-conserving rain gardens, city planners have planted rows of trees in the middle of the street with no strategy for watering them, though storm runoff—which floods our sewers and pollutes our waterways—runs along the gutter just feet away from where the trees are planted. A move to using porous materials in sidewalk construction and turning easeways into rain gardens would also help conserve water. Recently, a local couple had to wage a highly publicized battle to use vacant land on Buffalo’s East Side for an urban vegetable farm. Eventually, they were allowed to lease, not buy, the lots they needed. Is it so important that an empty lot be preserved forever against the dubious possibility of possible construction? Not in this economy. Bravo to the trailblazers who are trying to turn Buffalo into a healthier city, where resources are used, not wasted. And here’s hoping that our political leadership takes a lesson from Joni Mitchell and learns that a city can also be “some semblance of a garden.” Elizabeth Licata is editor of Buffalo Spree. SUBSCRIBE NOW Back to the Table of Contents Back to Top