Buffalo's Tow Path Park

By Sean Brodfuehrer

While out for a bike ride yesterday I decided to travel along the newly cleaned Scajaquada Bike Path, which still looks fantastic. Huge thanks to all the volunteers that came out of for the shoreline cleanup a couple weeks ago! After traveling from Delaware Park to the river, I decided to head north along the Riverwalk to Riverside Park and visit some family.

Having a bike path that connects downtown, Delaware, Front and Riverside Parks is actually a very convenient way to move about the north and west areas of the city. However, that is not the focus for now. While traveling along the Riverwalk I was happy to find that the Tow Path Park, located at the Foot of Hertel Ave, is continuing to see improvements.

This is a small (approx. 4.5 acres or 1.8 hectares) but nice addition to the waterfront park system. It has been a work in progress for about 10 years now, with improvements being added here and there. While biking by, I noted that the street had been completely repaved with two small parking areas located along the roadway. This is a huge improvement over the pothole filled road and large gravel-like square where people used to park. The new road really helps to clean up the whole site.

I was also happy to see that new trees, benches, garbage cans and decorative pavements continue through the improvements. I had always been a fan of the fish and stream details that have been incorporated throughout the site. There also seems to be some sort of interpretive element being constructed at the entrance to the site. I look forward to seeing that finished and reading about the Erie Canal and the tow path that traveled past this site. Unfortunately, as you can see, the details are not there just yet.

This park provides a great place to get down to the water's edge to fish, picnic, or relax. For those who may not want to drive to get here, or are looking for options to access the park, there are other options than driving and parking.  As mentioned before, the Riverwalk passes right next to this park, whether coming south from Riverside/Tonawanda/North Tonawanda or north from the Scajaquada Path, West Side or Downtown, this park is easy to find, and you could reach here within 20 minutes from most places along the bike path network.

Its location at the foot of Hertel also gives the park access by mass transit.  The 23 Hertel-Fillmore bus can pick people up all along Hertel and Fillmore Avenues and bring them right to the park. Also the 5-Niagara is just on the other side of the 190, only a couple hundred feet from the park for people in the West Side, Downtown, Black Rock, Riverside or Tonawanda that may want to check out the site.

The true benefit of this site over some other waterfront parks in the city is the location of the 190. Since the highway is located slightly inland, the park and people get to interact directly with the water--unlike Riverside and Front Parks which have had their waterfronts severed by the highway.

Sometimes, to my own detriment, I cannot turn off the urban designer/architect inside me, so I am always critiquing and thinking about ways to improve the places I visit. This park is no different, and there are two seemingly small things that could help the park become a larger destination. The first is access to the north along the shore, where you enter the park, moving through some very nice paths and trees, then all of a sudden the sidewalk ends abruptly and a No Trespassing sign tells you that you are no longer welcome. I understand that it is now private property for the apartment, but it is completely underutilized space. It is also an area of the shore where you could sit on the rocks and interact with the water directly, unlike the areas of the current park where there is a high retention wall for the shore.

Extending the park features along the shore north would provide more space for the public to enjoy the water and give the residents of the apartment towers a place to go. Right now there are no benches, no paths, just grass, rocks and water.  I know ithat f I lived in those towers, I would probably go to the park all the time since there is a place to sit, eat and relax.

The other improvement I would like to see happen is the removal of a useless fence. On the east side of the apartment's site, a fence adjoins the marina fence and runs south until Hertel Ave. This is one of those fences that I don't understand; there are no gates and nothing to stop someone from just walking around it. But it does have several negative impacts on the Riverwalk it is blocking off. Many people do not like to take the Riverwalk because it is constrained, as it straddles the line between the highway and mostly private properties.

I can understand their need for security at the marina site and the Army Corps. They are both completely enclosed sites with gates and security. The apartment site is not. It is completely open and anyone could drive up right next to the buildings, yet they keep this fence up and quarantine the bike path. Removing the fence could go a long way to giving the people who use the Riverwalk a little breathing room, at least for one block. We can't win them all, but this one seems obvious.

If you have never visited the site, it is a great place to be in the evening, especially since the sun sets over some of the longest widths of the Niagara River. It's the best sunset in Buffalo.