A 2017 article in Buffalo Business First reported there are 18, 964 vacant houses in our city (Buffalo's Housing Vacancy Rate is the Sixth Worst in America, Buffalo Business First.)  The immense number of vacancies is the bad news. Old, bad news. The new, good news is that Western New Yorkers are anticipating a celestial event, a total eclipse of the sun, and this eclipse will bring tourists to the Queen City.  Science has determined the date of the rare, astronomical event of a total eclipse; it shall be April 8, 2024.  While the laws of physics have set the calendar date, the decisions we citizens make to address house vacancy ahead of the eclipse arise from volition. Please join me in endeavoring to enact the Eclipse Escapade, a blitz to renovate our home before the eclipse. Help me with the Eclipse Escapade. 

Since tourists will come to the Queen City to witness it, this coming eclipse presents an impetus and an opportunity to not only renovate vacant homes but to demonstrate the hospitality and resplendence of our city. Total eclipses are an exceptional attractor for tourists; for example, the 2017 total eclipse attracted 400,000 visitors to Columbia, South Carolina.  Similarly, nearly 192,000 people traveled to Wyoming to view the 2017 eclipse, bringing in an estimated $63.5 million.  Eclipse tourism is popular, so popular there is even a special word for eclipse tourists; they are called “umbraphiles.” The expected influx of umbraphiles into Buffalo April 2024 creates relevancy between the eclipse and the housing crisis in our city. Umbraphiles on pilgrimage in Buffalo will need places to stay. Why not prepare them places in our vacancies?  Renovated houses could become AirBnB's for umbraphiles in Buffalo.  

Many Western New Yorkers are concerned about the number of vacant houses, but know the high cost of renovation makes the problem seem insurmountable.  This petition promoting the Eclipse Escapade proposes a way ahead.  With regards to the cost of home renovation, crowdfunding could provide a way to garner investment toward residence rehabilitation. Western New Yorkers committed to their community, but with pockets of modest depth, can invest through crowdfunding.  A home-grown Buffalo-based Funding Portal, Common Owner, is interested in working with small businesses and real estate companies issuing securities in connection with the Eclipse Escapade. The intent of this petition is to create public interest in the project. Please encourage the governments of Buffalo and Erie County to simultaneously prove Buffalo is hospitable and improve our housing stock by supporting companies involved with the Eclipse Escapade.

Your signature could help and inspire Western New Yorkers to work together to take on the housing crisis that has been such a perennial problem, and could help welcome guests to come see the eclipse. Please sign this petition to engender city and county involvement in the Eclipse Escapade.  Keep in mind, now is the time.  The sun and the moon won’t wait for us.  Sign now to make our city hospitable and resplendent in anticipation of a total eclipse of the sun.