Move Underway to Stop ECC's Amherst Health Science Building

I think some intern and mentoring programs might help seal the deal. Another idea might be having the developer of 120 North Division propose another building conversation for living space much closer to the Medical Corridor.

Give 'em hell, "obstructionists". God forbid a health science center be near the hospitals and other medical institutions in the medical campus.

As a current student living downtown, this would be the only logical place. The medical campus and UB are here, if ECC builds at North it will just prove that the administrators will never truly realizes the potential of this college.

Seems really short-sighted. ECC probably chose to place the Health Science Building on its North Campus because they wouldn't have to acquire land.

Build it in the city, close to the hospitals, doctors, and students.

No doubt that a building like this should be downtown and I actually think that all of ECC should be downtown..but be careful what you wish for.

The ECC North campus is 2000ft from the 90 and is a pretty large campus in terms of land mass. If ECC North were to go away and the 90 tolls are pushed back like some want, that campus would be prime for more office space.

Movement like this is always going to be a give and take. Just consider that when you are planning the development downtown.

These little moves today are what lead to bigger moves down the road. Moves that people complain about 50 years later.

I grew up near the ECC north campus, and I now live in the suburbs. However, with that said, I'm all for NOT building any expansion at the suburban campus. For many reasons, downtown is where this needs to go.

Say what you will about Joel Giambra, but he had a great sense of what it takes to revive downtown. His
plan to consolidate ALL ECC campuses downtown was a sound idea, but the many special interests sunk it.

Shortsighted because it won't locate one building downtown?

First, and most importantly, colleges are about education, not urban renewal or lining the pockets of developers looking to sell their leasable space. And they don't have an obligation to help, depsite what you might think.

Second, they typically, as they should, prefer to own thier own space, rather than subjecting themselves to market conditions and whims of the Paladino's of the world.

Third, the premise of a community college with the geographic scope of ECC is to provide alternate locations for educational facilities and the North Campus, although ugly, baren and hardly people-friendly, is geographically located near the center of the county and its population. I bet more people live within 5 miles of that campus than the North Campus.

Forth, there is a major regional hospital on Maple. This entire suggestion is based on proximity to hospitals on BNMC but Suburban is only a half mile farther from the North Campus that the BNMC is from the City Campus. And more importantly, these students are not researchers or high level medical professions so they don't need access to the high level research facilities at the BNMC. Do you even know if they have any relationship with local hospitals or is that irrelevant to the "everything in the city, foresake reality" rhetoric?

And lastly, this is going no where. I believe ECC has already purchased adjacent property and rezoned it for this use.

But let's not let any of that information spoil this argument based on some sort of moral obligation everyone is supposed to have to support the city.

What's next, move the English Department downtown because English is the office language of the City if Buffalo.

Think of how much money the county would make if they sold the rest of the land a the corner of Main and Youngs? Thats prime land there. Why not just have it in the city along Main st make use of the subway? Besides having 3 campuses is so redundant with redundant maintenance, lawn cutting, staff etc..

The county has a moral obligation to do what is right for the majority of residents. The majority of residents live in the city, and the majority of those residents are lower income residents who could benefit from the programs that ECC is offering in Amherst and Orchard Park. The same thing goes for UB. Instead of building onto their elitist fortress in Amherst they should undo the mistakes of the past by building more in the city. They should take over the Statler for their administration offices and take over the convention center, the main place mall, and the empty buildings on Main Street for a truly urban campus. This is what the students want and this is the best thing for Buffalo. The same goes for ECC. We have enough space for them to move downtown and that is where they should go.

It is high time for the colleges to answer to the people instead of the out of touch elitists who sit on their appointed boards and steering committees.

Whatever. Just do it. The sooner Buffalo becomes a suburb of Amherst the better. It'll save us a lot of stress and prove all the suburbanites right that the success of the region really does rest with the suburbs. Just save some land out there so we can move Canisius, Medaille, and D'Youville.

Didn't UB already move health sciences to the South Campus? If so, adding ECC medical to the mix downtown would give students easy access to multiple facilities just by jumping on the light rail. Expanding the downtown campus also provides easier access to the people who rely on public transportation (the majority who already live within the city limits).

Excellent article. Nobody quite knows why UB built in Amherst, but this expansion would repeat the mistake. We are in a Great Recession, for Pete's sake. It is time to consolidate ECC operations into keeping our downtown core strong---a prerequisite for a strong region.

I agreee this facility should be close to, if not part of, the BNMC. Proximity to the hub of healthcare in Erie Co. is completely logical. ECC North is tired and outdated. Rather then renovate, rejuvenate some of the down town core by relocating ECC programs to the City.

Setting aside the logic of where more people are for a moment, I can't help but wonder why ECC wouldn't want to take advantage of all the Kaleida and UB work in the Medical Corridor downtown. Tying it to the City Campus would give those students easier access to all of the resources in the Buff General/Roswell Park Area. You could actually have a better, enhanced program just by being close to those resources.

You hope "finding a place to park" isn't the deciding factor in all of this. It doesn't matter whether more people are in Buffalo or Amherst or someplace else, all have vacant buildings. If ECC takes this idea into the city, they can fill one and make it shine with what is already there.

It does not make sense for a poor county to have 3 community college campuses. Spending this much money to lock in the Amherst ECC campus is a poor decision. One consolidated campus belongs downtown where it would be most accessible to the most people, where the greatest concentration of employment is, where the most affordable housing is and where it could make the biggest economic impact.

The Amherst, campus is located on a single infrequent bus line with its giant energy wasting lawns in a low density residential area, is ludicrous. A poor over taxed shrinking metro should be thinking smarter than this.

Peter>"The majority of residents live in the city"

No, a majority of the county doesn't live here in the city. Anyone confused by that should look up the difference between majority and plurality. Around 70% of county residents don't live in Buffalo.

While either ECC-North or downtown could be a good location for the new lab, it's possible ECC-North is a better choice. There's benefit to ECC classrooms and labs being on one of its campuses. As WCP noted, the new facility would augment what's already on the campus out there: "The project would replace and augment the current science facilities...".

Do students in that major take some courses that won't be in the new building? Maybe so. Would nearness to the BNMC even be much of a factor for ECC's 2-year programs? Even if some ECC students have internships at BNMC, getting there isn't a problem. Both BNMC and ECC-North are well served by NFTA routes.

Locations pushed by downtown developers might not be close walking distance to BNMC anyhow. As others mentioned, Millard Suburban isn't far from Main/Youngs, and ECC students come from all over the county. I don't know which is best location overall, but to say all arguments are on the downtown side sounds very closed minded.

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"well served" by the NFTA?
Perhaps some people need to actually use the NFTA to know how great it is....

Has Anyone ever taken the Nfta to this campus from downtown? It takes nearly 2 hrs each way, if your lucky. not to mention if you live outside of downtown, you often have to go downtown get a transfer to metro rail or another bus. Its not an easy feet to pull off.

buffalofalling wrote:

"First, and most importantly, colleges are about education, not urban renewal or lining the pockets of developers looking to sell their leasable space. And they don't have an obligation to help, depsite what you might think."

funny, that doesn't stop us from punishing teachers and public schools for failing to solve poverty, racism, and almost every other social problem in america.

in the same vein, if ecc were a private school, i'd pretty much agree with you. but it is a department of county government, meaning that it belongs to the people of erie county. as such, the people of erie county have the right and duty to debate the allocation of ecc's dollars. i happen to think that new infrastructure investment outside of the urban core is a poor use of dollars; you can disagree.

but as a public institution, ecc is, in fact, obligated to consider the impacts of its choices beyond mere educational outcomes. just like public schools are.