Buff State Boom- Conclusion

The auto-impound yard is the perfect site for the new stadium. However it would be better if the baseball and track facilities were also moved over to the Impound area around Dart and Hawley.

It would then be wise to purchase the houses between Forest, Grant, Letchworth and Dart.....this is an excellent place for more student housing and even more important...EXPAND OFF OF CONTRACT PHARMACEUTICALS (FORMER BRISTOL MYERS FACTORY) AND BUILD SMALL BUSINESS INCUBATOR FACILITIES WHICH COULD COMPLIMENT THE EXISTING INDUSTRIAL SITE.

It would be wise to hold a meeting between Buffalo State, Grant/Amherst and Grant/Forest neighborhood associations as to how they would like to see this section of GRANT STREET built up.

Infact, I will go a step further...Buffalo State should not support development on the former Atlas Steel Grounds off Tonawanda Street on the other side of the Scajaquada.

Instead Buffalo State should purchase that land and put it in a land bank for future development and incorporation into the campus.

Basically, Buffalo State must have a future plan divided into 4 parts:
1) the Core Academic Campus
2) Retail and Residential along Grant Street the new college strip.
3) Stadiums, Baseball Fields, Athletic Facilities
4) Small Business Incubators and future productization facilities to compliment UB. Particularly in nano-technology and material science Buffalo State is increasingly partnering with UB where UB does RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT and Buffalo State does TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCIALIZATION.

I wonder if MURIEL HOWARD has the leadership capability to emulate UB with a 2020 plan beyond the next 2 years and put forward a plan for the next 12 years.

MURIEL HOWARD, can you put forward a 2020 campus plan for GRANT/AMHERST, GRANT/FOREST, TONAWANDA/AMHERST, TONAWANDA/FOREST.

FOREST AVE needs Buffalo State and Richardson
GRANT STREET needs Buffalo State
AMHERST needs Buffalo State
TONWANDA needs Buffalo State

BLACK ROCK needs Buffalo State
WESTSIDE needs Buffalo State

infact....with between 10k-15k students at Buffalo State in the near future...can we be so bold as to consider the economic power of these students to reactivate the Beltway.

nah, this'll do absolutely nothing for Grant Street...its all parking.

So we have the new student housing taking over the main parking lot and now the new stadium taking over most of the other parking lot? I remember a few years back there was no parking if you came to school any later then 9:00am.

Hopefully Buff State also has aquired alot more space to make new lots...maybe this is a great time to propose a parking ramp??

At the very least this will get rid of the unsightly impound lots and add more of a campus police pressence to that side of Grant. Its already not uncommon to see BSC cops roaming Grant and Rees streets. Quite often ive seen Buff State patrol cars pulling vehicles over on Grant. It really is in their best interest to keep the overall neighborhood safe as well since it effects the saftey of the campus and its students.

I couldnt agree more regarding the loss of parking space. A large group of students are commuters to that school and I remember many times students parking over at Tops on Grant and Amherst of behind the Albright Knox due to overflow problems in the lots they had. Seems a large ramp is in order.

A ramp would also help Elmwood, the Richardson towers and the culturals at Hoyt lake.

It is very encouraging that BSC is expanding and investing in the manner that they are. Additional academic, athletic and housing facilities will strengthen the college and, inevitably, the community. However, the manner in which BSC expands and invests should be part of a thoughtful and thorough process that takes into prime consideration quality of life issues of its students and neighbors.
Chiefly among these considerations is the physical urban design of the campus and how it interacts with itself and the neighborhoods around it. A campus that is surrounded by a vast swath of surface parking, or unsightly utility buildings, will serve only to detach the campus from its surroundings. By extending academic and student facilities toward the neighborhood, with the goal of an eventual seamless transition, the two will mutually strengthen.

- Additionally, BSC should be encourage to initiate a long-term, comprehensive planning initiative, similar to UB2020, that would refine what the school would like to be in the next 15-20 years. BSC should ask itself questions such as if it is worth pursuing a broader diversity of degree programs and become a university or, perhaps, growing a larger student body within their current academic focus. It isn't out of the question for BSC to grow to 20,000 students by 2025.
Parking continues to be a problem at BSC and always will be. Instead of scorching its built environment with surface parking lots, the emphasis should be on structured parking, out of sight, on the far outskirts of the campus. Adding mixed-uses to these parking structures would add vitality to the blocks and spaces adjacent to them while helping to alleviate future shortages of academic, residential and retail space for the campus. Attractive architecture and design should always be a priority of all buildings, structures and public spaces.

The UCLA campus in Los Angeles has a number of parking structures that attempt to be tucked away -- some are more successful than others. The main parking structure, however, is a multi-level underground complex with spaces for thousands of cars that has a large athletic field on the surface to hide its presence and put land to good use. Multiple pedestrian exits from the structure permit easy access to many buildings. Since Buff State has land available, an underground lot would be especially prudent considering Buffalo's weather.

GO BENGALS!

On the subject of building a new athletic field on the site of the city's impound lot: what an improvement that will be coming in from the direction of the 190!

parking ramp w/ retail?!? have you ever been to the grant side of buff state? what retail would go in around there? That is the biggest pipe dream ever.. a parking ramp is needed but the cost for a state school is probably very prohibitive esp in this state

"BSC should be encourage to initiate a long-term, comprehensive planning initiative, similar to UB2020, that would refine what the school would like to be in the next 15-20 years"

Do we know that they haven't done this? It's a mistake to assume that they haven't simple because they haven't made a splash like UB2020.

The whole thing is just overly institutional and pedestrian in character. Didn't anyone learn from UB North?

Does anyone know what the plans are for the site that football field is currently located on?

That is a huge plot of land and I can not see any reference to it's use on the Power Point from Buff State or online.

Is it going to be converted to a large parking lot..green space...any ideas?

UB2020 appears to be in serious trouble, I doubt its a plan that Buff State would want to emulate.

http://uuphost.org/binghamton/node/17

UB 20/20: A Good Idea Made Horrible
Sun, 02/08/2009 - 22:54 — binghamton

Would you like to bring in 700-1000 world class Academics? Would you like to double the number of buildings on campus and bring hundreds of millions of dollars of construction to the local area? Would you like to enroll another ten thousand students?

These are all proposals put forward by SUNY-Buffalo’s president as part of his UB 20/20 Plan; a copy of the proposed legislation is available at http://assembly.ny.us/leg/?bn=A02020. These are all wonderful goals for the university center at Buffalo and could be translated into comparable goals for Binghamton or any number of other SUNY campuses. He has a vision and has gotten many in the Buffalo community to buy into this vision. When one looks a little closer, one is reminded of that line from “The Wizard of Oz,” “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” ‘Just pay attention to all that fire and smoke and what it suggests.’

To make this happen at UB, their president has asked for the unilateral authority to raise, and keep all, tuition for their students. The bill referenced above would allow him to increase undergraduate tuition by at least 32% over the next four years. Professional degree tuition could increase by at least 60%. Of course, UB would continue to receive the same state support as before. Even more interesting is the fact that if there are additional funds for SUNY, UB is at the front of the line and gets any increases first, before any other campus.

This bill also allows for the use of any and all state owned and operated facilities and land to be used for private purposes. He wants to build a hotel on state land and have the campus reap the benefits of that construction and operation. The state would get nothing and only the campus president makes the decision on these issues. All of these private enterprises would be exempt from local property taxes.

And, most interestingly, the president would be exempt from the provisions of the Public Officers Law and Ethics Law. He can do what he wishes and then have the state represent him in court if he is sued.

This sounds a lot like what happened during the last eight to ten years in the federal government. Let’s get rid of the rules on oversight; let’s free individuals to make their own decisions; and let’s turn a blind eye to potential legal improprieties. It worked for awhile but then it came back and bit us all very hard. There is a reason for rules and oversight. They might slow us down a little, but they do ensure we are protected and safe from rapacious individuals who are more interested in personal power than they are in anybody or anything else.

Websnark, fails to miss perceive the point. Buffalo has lost American Axle and is now losing the technology jobs related to HSBC data centers.

Buffalo desperately needs the growth that is coming out of UB and Buffalo State and even Canisius, just as Buffalo desperately needs the public sector investment in High Speed Rail, Light Rail Airport extension, the CSX/Port of NY/NJ transhipment facility at the Seneca Rail Yards and the Wharf Distict.

Buffalo is in desperate need of jobs and investment ... yes ... UB needs a 2020 plan, Buffalo State needs a 2020 plan and frankly so does canisius and the city of Buffalo.