There was a time, not that long ago, when I would rarely find myself on Hertel. Nothing against the street, but I found Elmwood a lot more vibrant. These days, I find myself walking in and out of Hertel shops and restaurants on a regular basis, thanks to all of the new businesses that have opened over the last couple of years. Even my pharmacy is on Hertel – Parker Pharmacy. Hertel is becoming a real attraction in the region, with loads of reasons to visit.
Last evening, I attended the Deep South Taco community meeting, and came away with an inspired new look at the commercial district. It was great to hear so many enthused neighbors (not necessarily the immediate ones) come out to support the taco restaurant. I was especially happy to hear from some of the younger people who had recently moved to Buffalo (or back to Buffalo), and were choosing to live near Hertel because of all of the recent advancements. People are digging the vibrancy, and are hoping that the trend continues.
At one point, Buffalo attorney (and big time Hertel investor) Tom Eoannou stood up and told the story about how he had first introduced Deep South Taco owner Richard Hamilton to Hertel Avenue. To me, that spoke worlds about the business community lending a hand to others to join the revitalization efforts.
While I couldn’t stick around for the entire meeting, one of the last people that I heard speak pretty much summed up many of my own thoughts on the issue. The guy stated that he felt nervous about his wife walking down Hertel at that particular section where Deep South Taco was planning to open. His wife literally does not walk on that block because of the riffraff, and also because it’s a dead zone in the evening. He said that he welcomes the life that the restaurant would bring to the street, especially to that corner that has been so problematic in the past.
Of course not all of the crowd was happy with the thought of Deep South Taco coming to the street… or there wouldn’t have been a meeting to begin with. Hamilton attempted to mitigate most of the concerns that immediate neighbors had, and even discussed numerous changes that he was implementing to be as “neighborly” as possible. One speaker who was concerned about the noise levels stormed out of the meeting, after others in the audience claimed that he had surpassed his time limit and was beginning to ramble. It’s unfortunate, but in cases like this there are going to be a few people living DIRECTLY next to the restaurant, who will be impacted the most. And by impacted, they will be able to hear people on the patio talking while eating their tacos – no live music, no loud music on the patio… just people having lively conversations. It’s a fact of life when you live on the edge of a commercial street.
Of course the issue of lack of parking was brought up a number of times, but it was awesome to hear that others who live in the neighborhood had actually taken the time to show the ample available parking that everyone has. The vast majority of the crowd certainly came to the defense of the business, which was heartening to see. For those opposed to the development, Hamilton assuaged many concerns by conceding to color choices (see revised rendering), adding fence-lines, and even patio configurations. He initially went into the design attempting to tackle any issues that he felt might arise down the road.
As I listened to Hamilton go back and forth with the crowd, I thought of my father-in-law who lives in Allentown. When Cozumel Restaurant was open, he would sit on his back patio and listen to the people on the patio, along with the music. On numerous occasions he mentioned to me that he enjoyed hearing the activity, which was one of the reasons that he loved his neighborhood. I heard many similar sentiments from Hertel residents at the meeting. The street is at its best when its active. There was a time when Hertel was a bit down and out. Those times are now changing thanks to the incredible investments that are being made by numerous business people on the street. Let’s hope that it continues to head in that same direction.
I asked Hamilton what his biggest takeaway from the meeting was, and he said, “The people that spoke up and said that they had come to the meeting and were dead set against the restaurant… and who then changed their minds during the meeting and were suddenly excited about the project.”