I have not fully wrapped my thoughts around this subject, and I am not sure how many parts this series I will put together--but here goes. After reading the vintage 1969 Sports Illustrated story posted on BRO, my mind jumped to this circa 1980 image of a building at the corner of Main and Virginia Streets.
This type of scene would have been a pretty representative face of Buffalo in 1969 (along with pretty much every other city), and it is the face that SI reported on. The article was fascinating reading. It brought back many memories and gave me a new perspective on the city's decline. These buildings were recently brought back from the brink of destruction with a top-notch restoration to form the highly successful complex known as The Granite Works (top and below).
A less enlightened group of Buffalo thinkers pushed for parking instead. The building across the street also recently received a major restoration as well as several others around downtown.
Is this evidence of an advancing city? Has Buffalo changed in a positive way since 1969? Buffalo still had a long way to fall back then. In 1969, the main solution to urban decay was to remove the city, or move away from the city's problems if they could not be removed. Today we see many individuals and groups fighting the make the city better in an effort to save our precious urban heritage. They have many wins to show for their efforts, but the force of decline is very strong. Do they have a chance at winning?
City bashing is a basic part of the sports world that is often reflected in sports writing. It is a product of our society that's built on putting down the other guy to build one's self up. Often, these kinds of story's are lazy fillers--nothing more that a cover for a lazy writer or lack of content worth writing about. That said, I could not disagree with most of the observations
made by the author. Buffalo is a place that really hit a brick wall at mid century. The problems are well known, and some of these problems are self-inflicted. Still, most are due to outside forces way beyond the control of WNYer's.
While reading the article, I kept thinking of these buildings at the corner of Main and Virginia and other formerly rotting buildings in Buffalo. In 1969, and for many decades later, this corner was a dark and derelict place, a scene common to the city then. Today, of course, broad abandonment and disinvestment still exists across the city. Buts festivals such as Garden Walk have introduced a new generation to the charms of urban living, and inch-by-inch derelict buildings have been restored, some that had been abandoned and rotting for many years in the most prominent places.
The Birge Mansion sat empty and decrepit for more than a decade in plain sight of the city's elite, as they attended symphony concerts across the circle at Kleinhans Music Hall. There was a push at one point to move the Philharmonic concerts to UB's North Campus in an effort to improve attendance by avoiding the problems of this inner city neighborhood.
Today the Birge Mansion is wonderfully restored (as is Kleinhans Music Hall) and this neighborhood, while still troubled, has seen major new investment. Similarly, another mansion (known to many as the Victor Hugo Building, now know simply as The Mansion) sat rotting directly adjacent to the Buffalo Club, the city's most elite business club. It is hard to defend a city against a sports reporter's derogatory comments when a beautiful building on the city's most prestigious street is allowed to rot in sight of its business leaders as they sip cocktails.
Today, of course, the Mansion has been restored to serve as a highly regarded hotel, and many other projects across the city seem to highlight a change in the city's attitude. The Web Building restoration, The Larkin Warehouse offices, the ongoing Genesee Block restoration, and the very real probability of the AM&A's building restoration are prominent projects, among many others, that seem to herald a big change in Buffalo's view of itself and its abilities.
Still, many of the negatives raised in the SI story, echoed by the recent Statler saga, are very present to this day in Buffalo. On a recent walk around Allentown these problems were plain as day to me. The walk left me very down on Buffalo (that is until the sun came out). My walk will be the subject of Part Two. Stay tuned.
Before image is by Senor Roboto on Flickr
That yellow caddy in the "before" shot is only 9 years old and it is already devoured by rust.
I think attitudes toward the city in general have improved since the Brock Yates story. The rise of historic preservation since then is a good example of improved civic self esteme in spite of economic decline. Istead of simply demo-start from scratch, more people see value in some of the most simple parts of the urban fabric. Heck, even the Ellicott-Talbert high rises were worthy of preservation and restoration and they were once universally regarded as total failures.
also that caddy is diagonally parked on the street. Imagine doing that down Main st now.