Buffalorising has been redesigned.

Great piece steel, the city must have a retail cooridor that is not a mall. Here in Philly Walnut St. is fantastic, filled with stores and surprisingly..people! I think that's the main problem now, lack of a customer base for retail. People must have a reason to choose to come downtown other than convienience.

It;s not the distance it's the easy of parking and amount of time it takes to find it. My self I will do what I need to do to get the product or service I need or want, but I also will take into convience and time.

I personally hate coming downtown for the fact just about every corner along Main St. and now Chippewa Street during the day, you get stopped and bothered by a panhandler. I do ignore them, but I've even witnessed one walking up to parked cars and begging to the people inside at the Starbucks on Delaware Ave. That just pisses me off. The parking issues is a problem for most do not want to be bothered with break-ins and bums bothering them. You don't have panhandler problems in or outside most Malls, so it's easier to walk in and out with out being bothered. If we had cops walking around downtown like in other cities, maby people will feel safer and others might even feel more convienced to open up a retail store downtown. Till then, we are just ignoring the quality of life isues that face downtown today.

Excellent piece. The overlay of the mall and parking really hits home on space.
I think one of the reasons that the malls are so popular is that people figure the odds are increased for finding what they need. "I need a pair of slacks. If I go to the mall I know that that Sears, Macy's or Penneys will have what I need". With the city the options are not as obvious. Perhaps if the stores in the city got together and collectively placed an insert in the Sunday news, people would know they have more options.
But the amount of space dedicated to parking at a mall is mind boggling.

If downtown had more to offer than it currently does, then people will be willing to come down, park for a day and do errans, window shop, shop, walk around, eat, and so on. Right now, downtown doesn't have much to offer, I used to come downtown for the day by bus and just browse through the department stores, eat, and see a movie at one of the many theaters that lined Main St. ---Go downtown today, and what is there to do, walk past empty store front, office buildings that were once grand department stores, an empty Mall, and hardly any people walking around, which leads to an empty feeling and lifeless city. So, it's really not a parking problem, it's the fact, not too many want to walk pass these depressing eyesores, lifeless sidewalks in the middle of downtown to a destination. It's very sad.

Why do people act as if bums and panhandlers are only in Buffalo. I travel to alot of major cities for work and see homeless and/or panhandlers in thoses places too.

Hasn't the topic of parking become tired yet? It seems like I've read this same article a number of times here. The perception of bums being a nusance on every corner should be addressed in a way that it's an issue for every city.. and even the larger picture, why are people homeless? What can be done to try and solve homelessnes? What am I thinking, it's more important to talk about parking lots for the millionth time.

Show me a ten block stretch of the city that has 4 department stores plus restaurants plus over 100 smalleer shops contiguously connected and I'll go there. Until then SHUT UP!

BTW your photo only shows that the mall covers a little over 3 city block not ten

Bucky,

Parking is one of the most important issues the city faces and I think you answered your own question when you opened up the story and read it.

Mike: I defy you to find any outside of Eastern Hills Mall. That was the comparison Steel made not other decrepit cities

I find the "no where to park" excuse just that, an excuse. I don't drive, but I if I did, I wouldn't want to leave my car parked downtown. I don't even see a reason to come downtown unless I had to. But that's even rare. Downtown is boring, no shops, no attractions, just a bunch of empty buildings, so having an excuse of "no place to park" for the reason not to come down, is just a nice way of saying "no way am I coming downtown".

Sally-I was referring to Williams comments and many others in the past about the panhandlers in Buffalo. They act as if Buffalo is the only city with this problem. I made no mention of the Mall and whether or not there are bums outside of it in my post but nice try at starting crap again. Go back to the hole in which you crawl out of everday to post negative stuff on here.

Oh Mike, you've never been to NYC have you? The bums over there know how to be creative unlike the ones in Buffalo. In NYC, the poor have their special talents such as magic, sing, rap, tell jokes, play an instrument and so on to convience you for money. I have NEVER witnessed a bum in Buffalo do one of these at all, The beggers here all have the same line "I'm just trying to get some bus fare" or "I'm from out of town, and I just need some help going home". They walk right up to you, go ahead Mike, walk around Court St. at Lafayette Square and tell us you were not bothered by one of them, or sit at Spot Coffee on Delaware., sit by the window facing Chippewa St. and tell us you did not witness any bums bothering people in an annoying way.
If your going to beg for money, have some creativity, otherwise I'll ignore ya, and if you get in my face, I'll mase you, I don't care if your homeless, if I feel threatened I could harm you.

This is very interesting Steel. Unfortunately, I think some people are missing the point. I think what you are getting at is that every one complains about lack of convenient parking in the city etc. etc. but they are willing to go to the mall and walk great lengths w/o thinking about it. The fact that there's no retail downtown is beside the point here. IMO, that's another issue.

Until there is a strong retail componant downtown, there is no reason to come unless you work downtown.
IDEA #1: Take the $60 Million for Bass Pro and give 60 retailers $1 million each to open downtown, that would be critical mass. Can you imagine 60 new stores opening at the same time?! Any national retailers must be new to the area and agree not to open in the suburbs for a given time, giving downtown the exclusive and giving suburbanites a reason to drive past the malls.
IDEA #2: What about making downtown a sales tax free zone?

"Albeit" is one word not "all be it"
/end grammar gestapo

Jefferson, please read the comments on here...People dont want to come downtown till they have things to do there. It's a dead place right now, yeah, a few new lofts, but so what, what about Street Life? It's scarce, no stores, not even going to speak of the mall (that's a joke), a few cafes and restaurants only open during the week is not going to draw a large crowd downtown. Till we have major attractions, large stores, something for EVERYONE to do downtown, then we can forget about the parking issues, let's look at ways to bring people downtown in the first place. You can have all the parking in the world offered downtown, but so what, what is their to do when you get there?

We've heard it all before. Really, this is a chicken/egg issue here. If there was actually tons of exciting shit to do downtown, inconvenient parking would be an afterthought.

Also, if downtown experienced the growth that we all wanted, the parking "problem" downtown would probably be 5x worse than it is now.

By simple spatial dynamics, A downtown can NOT be vibrant in an authentic way if it accommodates every visitor's automobile. Our downtown will not be able to grow significantly unless there is attractive, convenient mass transit options (i.e. rail) that fans out to the place where most of the regional population lives (suburbs).

A strong downtown is vital to returning health to our REGION. The top priority now should be attracting more jobs into the core, then expanding metro rail to accommodate this growth so even more buildings don't need to be knocked down for unsightly parking.

NFTA don't care to extend, don't care about it's riders..Go ahead, call the so called Customer Care Line and see how they treat you (no matter what the question is) They are rude and snobby. Try writing to NFTA with your concerns, metro rail extensions and so on, let us know if you EVER get a response back...Good luck, TG

Answer Please - I know what you are saying about nothing to do but from my first read of the Post (skimmed the last 2 paragraphs to be honest) I thought Steel's point was that people go to malls w/o thinking at all of the distance they walk yet when they come downtown or even to the EV, they complain about not being able to park basically "near the door". Anyway, that was my take on it. So, definitely, rather than putting parking at the top of the priority list put helping retailer to locate downtown and I agree with LA about using the Bass Pro money for other retailers (I mean, how many fishing rods does anyone need?)

If the only National Stores in the region are in the Burbs, then "To the Mall, we must". Till Downtown can get the big names back downtown, then what's the point in going there? The few stores down there now are just hole in the wall stores with out dated pieces. I'd rather spend more at Banana Republic then $5 on a pair of pants that look like they escaped right off MC Hammer, circa 1990.

The issue at hand isn't about parking, people who visit the Eastern Hills or Boulevard Malls know that they can park within a hundred yards of a convenient entrance, either through a flagship store or through a mall entrance. The malls are convenient and comfortable, they are all day destinations for people who enjoy that type of environment. There is a walking club at Eastern Hills for elderly citizens who meet to exercise three times a week. There are events for children, teens, and adults (special guests, santa claus, RV shows, Car displays, Job fairs, etc). All open to the public 16 hours a day (6:00 AM - 10:00 PM).

To Steel's point, you aren't going to replicate or beat that in the city. We aren't targeting the same demographic or market that the malls serve. I would be hard-pressed to find a parent who is comfortable sending their teenage daughter to the city to shop with friends for the day; yet this is common-place at the mall (not as much as it was 15 years ago, but still).

I lived near Georgetown for a little while and found that the shops along Wisconsin Ave were secondary to the overall experience. The crowds were older than the crowds at the Pentagon City mall, Georgetown focused on a particular audience, lured them, and kept them as captive shoppers. They had a plan, and stuck to it. This is one thing that is missing in all of these discussions, we expect growth to happen by fate, fluke, or force.

The malls are essentially 'planned communities' in many ways. Every aspect of the environment is planned and controlled, they are designed that way. Why not look to do the same for the city. Focus on one area of the city, and assign an aspect for that area. Let's not try to force retail, mixed-use development, commercial, industrial, professiol centers, etc. in every corner of the city. We need to get smarter about growth and move accordingly instead of pitting the city against the suburbs.

We have a lot to learn from the suburbs. I am not saying that the city should look like the suburbs, just that the suburbs have a better plan and execution model than the city. We would be well served to follow their lead.

Brilliant post, Steel. One of your best.

Why is downtown dull and lifeless? Because we sacrificed 50% of its potential attractions (buildings that could house shops, services, cafes, nightclubs, offices & apartments) to store parked cars.

First lesson: a basic law of physics. Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Every square foot dedicated to automobile storage is a square foot lost to the myriad uses that make a city viable and interesting.

I'm going to keep saying it: we can have a central business district with cheap and ample parking or we can have a healthy downtown. We cannot have both. For fifty years, the parking proponents got their way. They have nothing but decline to show for it. It's time for the urban proponents to have a turn.

Second lesson: Don't bother trying to "lure" vegetarians into your steakhouse (or vice versa). Design downtown for people who want urbanism. We already have ample suburbs for people for prefer suburbanism.

P.S. It's SHEER not SHEAR.

In the name of convienence we sure have made things pretty inconvienent. these seas of parking and massive buidlings that make us have to both drive and walk farther.

Right now I am withinn a 10 minute walk of a library, YMCA, small gorceries, drug stores, restuarants, framing shop, chiropractor, barber, video rental, grammer school etc. I don't even need to attempt the suicide mission of crossing a 5 lane over crowded road. Don't even have to start the car.

Kids want to go do something? Fire up the car, you'll have to give them a ride. And be ready to pick them back up again later. Not to mention the no-frills ugliness that accompanies that type of sprawled environment. Anything worth taking pride in or saving there?

We dictate our environment through our zoning laws and where we spend our money. The main strip doesn't meet all my needs. But, I plan on spending my money there first where I can to hopefully encourage other buisnesses to open. The alternative of avoiding it altogether, waiting for a silver bullet to fill it, will only accomplish my part in ensuring its demise.

I think Jefferson is the only one who actually read the story. The point is , parking is not the solution to what ails downtown. Parking is an excuse. There is far more parking now that in the past in downtown and there is far less to do downtown now than in the past. To me that say more parking equals less attractive.

Spend money and energy to make it a no brainer for stores to open downtown. Until downtown is vibrant the entire metro area will be looked on as a declining backwater by outsiders.

Downtown may work again if it had BIG RETAILERS with mixed activiy inside them. Not just a place to shop, but a place to eat, read, see exhibits, (Think Macy's Flagship in NYC), street performers (professional ones), venders (other than hot dog stands), restaurants and deli's that were open past lunch and open on the weekends, a security presence (when was the last time anyone seen an officer walk Main St. on an average day?), the pan-handler issues need to addressed and not ignored (another reason to avoid downtown right now). Over-all, most would rather walk a mile through a parking lot to a place that was secured, had plenty of stores, movies, restaurants and events held all in one area (walking friendly enviroment)...Downtown used to have this, but we let it die.

Great piece. I lived in Brooklyn for many years and still stare in astonishment at the shear size of the parking lot at the BJ's on Transit Rd where I buy my gas. Yikes.

Give us decent stores downtown to spend our money and we'll be there Steel.

Did'nt that small piece of land near the Adam's Mark just get recommended to stay a surface lot by our very own Mayor Brown? Doesn't he feel by putting a brand new office building over it will sacrifice 40 parking spaces? I do believe our own Mayor needs a wake up call on the need for a better downtown. And to think, this guy grew up in NYC, you'd think he would know how cities should be and how they work? Guess not.

I've lived in Philadelphia for more than 20 years now and the joy of walking and shopping downtown is an experience you can't get anywhere else. I just marvel at the old buildings and their ornate architecture. It is like a living museum.

Unfortunately, even here in this historic city they want to destroy some of these treasures for parking lots. If you do that you loose the very reason to visit a city.

When I worked in downtown Buffalo many years ago I loved to spend my lunchtime walking around and looking at all the marvelous buildings. Back then, some 25 years ago, much of the architectural beauty was faded or covered by cheap "modern" facades. I am happy to see so many of these old buildings now being restored and brought back to life.

As the article above suggests we shouldn't be trying to make downtown simply a cookie cutter assemblage of stores and parking lots. Restore and reuse what you have because this beautiful old architecture is what makes Buffalo unique. Only in a city can you go shopping for the soul as well as for that which is material. I think people need to be reminded of that and as long as web sites like this and the media in general keep getting the word out perhaps more and more people will discover how enriching it can be to visit the city again.

I love to come downtown. I like to bring my kids also. I live in the burbs but work downtown. I think a active vibrant city is essential to an area. If I had a subway option, say from the airport, to get here I would absolutely use it. We enjoy walking and if I didn't have to find a place for my car I would consider it an advantage. We took a vacation to Boston this summer and never used our car once we got to the hotel. Just used the subway for everything.

There's never an easy answer for these issues, if we were to transplant the Blvd or Eastern Hills Mall smack dab in the middle of the city a lot of people (esp suburban) still wouldn't go there for a multitude of reasons, esp the fear that white people still have of black people. I think the perception amongst many suburbanites is that they will get mugged, hassled, or shot in the city. The media perpetuates the notion of Buffalo (all cities really) as wild west fiascoes. That's not to say that there is no violence in urban areas, not sure where I'm going with this...sorry.

For years now I've called this phenomenon the "Bendersonization" of WNY. There is a perception that there is no parking if one can't park within eyesight of one's destination. If you want to park and go to Dave & Buster's, I can guarantee you a spot from which you can see that restaurant. If you want to park and go to Empire Grill, you may have to park around the corner. Or down the block. In which case, some people will just move along.

I'm not saying that's good - just how it is.

Steel says:

Spend money and energy to make it a no brainer for stores to open downtown. Until downtown is vibrant the entire metro area will be looked on as a declining backwater by outsiders.

When my dear WNY Coalition for Progress suggested in 2005 that downtown be given a special sales tax status - as a sort of reverse Empire Zone - to encourage people to shop there, and in turn hopefully prompt businesses to locate there, we were sort of ridiculed because it wasn't "fair". But think about it.

The suburbs have loads of cheap real estate available to build big malls and parking lots. How can the city compete?

Have the state and/or county waive part of its sales tax take for a certain, designated zone downtown. 8.75% in Tonawanda, but 6 or 7% in the City of Buffalo for, say, 10 years. That would be a great incentive to get retail interest back downtown.

As for the parking issue - it's no longer a question of capacity (there's plenty), it's a question of planning (there isn't any), or even technology (we're years behind). Smart parking, coupled with a comprehensive parking plan that would enable the city to maintain a well-designed, properly spread out network of municipal garages that are not ugly, but are convenient would be a great start. Parking downtown is generally ugly and haphazard, but as long as we have what amounts to a bus-only transit grid in this region, parking does need to be addressed as a genuine issue.

George

i believe our mayor grew up in New Jersey.......land 'o cars!

PLUS there is a MALL downtown! It just happens to be owned by a jerk who doesn't care one bit about the vitality of Downtown Buffalo; he only cares about the tax credits the biulding provides him.

Main Place Mall could be an indoor Elmwood Ave if the right person owned it. Unfortunately that's not the case.

Hotung should be ashamed of himself!

When it's 10 degrees out I'm not walking anywhere outdoors.

Shopitall, Mayor Byron Brown grew up in Queens.

Why do people act as if bums and panhandlers are only in Buffalo.

Mike, they don't say they're only in Buffalo - just that they're NOT in suburban mall parking lots. Get it?

Three other big reasons people prefer the walk of a given distance in a suburban mall lot to the same distance on downtown streets:

1.) Far fewer muggings or other crimes.

2.) Once you get to the mall, you can walk around indoors to many stores without dealing with cold, rain, or snoce/slush/ice.

3.) You can spend more than 2 hours without having to go back to the car to feed the meter. Yes I understand there's also parking ramps downtown but those are even more expensive than meters.

Should be obvious,

I can park around the corner for free in the Elmwood Village area or Hertel and don't have to worry about being mugged there either. But I bet , just as Pundit noted, to many the perception will be that there is no parking in those areas if parking is not provided directly adjacent to the street side establishment Also If I were you I would not assume that you will not be mugged just because you are in the suburbs. I have lived worked and shopped in cities my whole life. The only crime I have ever suffered has been in the suburbs

Steel, I partially disagree with this analysis. What that overlay seems to prove is that malls understand how people are actually willing to walk very *short* distances, as parking is made as close as possible to multiple mall entrances. None of these distances are greater than a quarter mile, as it seems that the maximum typical distance between a parker and a mall entrance is the equivalent of a walk between Delaware Avenue and Pearl Street, not very great.

That people are willing to walk greater distances *inside* the mall is due to the ingeniousness of its urban (!) design, melding the best conditions for urban street life under a single controlled roof: visual interest, plenty of people, and very small, contiguous storefronts with something to offer damn near anyone. I recommend the essay "The World in a Shopping Mall" by Margaret Crawford in Michael Sorkin's Variations on a Theme Park. It confirms what urban geographers know about pedestrian behavior - people's patience for walking distances is very, very low, even under the best urban conditions. In fact, the Regional Plan Association identified the typical walk to transit in Manhattan to be only 900 feet. What would it be here? People can wish they will walk further, but only consistent, diverse street level activity can produce any typical pedestrian trip further than 1300 feet - as in a mall. That is more difficult to produce in a cold weather downtown than in an enclosed controlled space, and while it should be our goal, existing conditions warrant that pedestrian convenience and even parking convenience (on-street) are vitally important. That's why, for instance, our city cannot simply get rid of a Metro Rail station even though another one is 800 feet away. It will affect foot traffic.

So... are people willing to walk long distances? I would simply look to all the mall shoppers who spin around parking lots for twenty minutes, trying to find an ideal space that will save them two minute's walking time. Malls understand cities; we have not yet done so.

Malls even use a certain kind of flooring material that tricks the eye into thinking a distance is less than it really is. I never thought about whether sidewalks could utilize material that has the same effect...

Malls also use a lot of twists and turns so a distance is always interrupted in the mind's eye, so no shopper ever gets an accurate visual on the length of a trip. Grid systems can't do that as effectively, even though they are very efficient urbanistically.

Malls shorten distances by placing streetfronts on multiple levels.

And... this definitely applies to the urban situation... malls lengthen a total day's trips by spacing out pedestrians stops. So a shopper stops once, then walks another maximum quarter mile, stops again, walks again the same length, and repeats the process until a shopping day is over. Why the above article is misleading is that a shopper almost never makes a single ten-block equivalent trip for one single purpose. The same is true in an urban situation - a pedestrian almost never walks ten blocks to the post office, or a transit stop, or the bank, or a restaurant. But they *will* walk the total distance if they plan to do all of those things, and the pedestrian trip is segmented by stops along the way to each of those destinations.

Regina Urbis said,

Second lesson: Don't bother trying to "lure" vegetarians into your steakhouse (or vice versa). Design downtown for people who want urbanism. We already have ample suburbs for people for prefer suburbanism.

What a stuck up and bitter attitude you have. A lot more people appreciate good urbanism than you think, no matter where they might choose to reside. Their lives probably don't revolve around it though.

Perhaps their brains aren't flooded with architecture and urban planning terminology.

Perhaps they have never read "The Death And Life of Great American cities."

Perhaps they would come downtown more often if there were actually things to do inside those great historic buildings people like you spend countless hours fighting to preserve. A city is more than buildings; it's about the people who inhabit them, their stories, their social networks, ect. Empty or underused buildings, no matter how great, amount to nothing more than museum pieces.

Downtown Buffalo could become a great place once again; a place that nearly ALL metro Buffalo residents would enjoy. Mocking the majority of people because where they live is counterproductive and will only stall downtown's recovery.

When there IS stuff to do downtown like Thursday At The Square, Sabres games, ect., I see mobbed streets, packed trains, and people having a great time. And you know what? Most of them are probably from the burbs.

On real solutions, I think Buffalopundit says it best; make it advantageous to do business downtown and make access (yes, mostly by car, until we can get better regional public transit) simplified.

Having a nasty attitude and thumbing you nose at the majority of the region's populace won't accomplish shit.

Steel,

Re. Hertel and Elmwood, I'll agree my reason #1 is much less of an issue than for downtown. But the picture you put in your article was of downtown so I thought that was the main comparison you were making.

However, my reasons 2 and 3 certainly do apply to a comparison of suburban malls to Elmwood/Hertel. The convenience factor comes into play as well as others have mentioned - a good number of people find it less preferrable to "hunt" for a spot on side streets as compared to finding a spot in a mall lot where spots are usaully just sitting there (except a few days a year around Xmas).

About your statement "don't assume you will not be mugged in the suburbs", and your related anecdotal evidence... with all due respect I find your response condecending.

Although I said "far fewer" (which apparently you don't dispute), I wonder why you decided to respond in a way as if I had made some silly absolute statement that muggings were impossible in the burbs.

Does that kind of nonsensical red herring rhetoric really persuade anyone? I wonder why you feel the need to twist the words of people with views different from your own?

How many of these bozo's even know where or what Newberry Street is?

Maybe buffalo can be know as the high-density wig shop and nextel chirp phone shopping mecca.

Yeah, Mike we see bums and homeless in other cities, but the big difference is, there we don't see them mixed in with a huge amount of poverty stricken looking bedraggled white folks from lancaster, west seneca, south buffalo and cheektovegas collecting their social services at the Rath building and chicks named Marie with big hair that have titles such as Secretary.

I'd much rather encounter a bum downtown than one of those creepy mall walkers....those people scare me

Should be,

Read the original piece a little more carefully. the whole premiss of my piece is that the city should not be trying to compete with the suburbs. It should be doing what cities do well and that is being intensely urban. The giant mall scenario is ridiculous in the city as can be seen in the image. Equally ridiculous is a half hearted mall environment, which is what we have now, with massive scattered parking throughout downtown.

Make the cities commercial districts into exciting active urban places and people will flock to them. Chop them up with dead parking and you will have nothing more than mediocrity.

Steel is making a very simple and excellent point. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the right city to back it up.

If the so called "Queen City Hub" was indeed in effect we would have retail and activity EVERYDAY downtown. But of course, it's an idea the city made to shut us up and it's not even in effect after about 8 years it was introduced. The plan calls for "Infill", retail all over downtown and into the surrounding neighborhoods. BUT!!!! Who is actually in charge of promoting retail downtown? Um, isn't BERC or Buffalo Place suppost to be promoting it? Hmmmm and how long has Buffalo Place been around and yet, Main St. continues to lose retail....
Point being, if downtown had an actual vision in place, people to market that vision to RETAILERS and collected all the info of available spaces and sold them all to potential new comers (For retail) then we may see life downtown again. Till then, we continue to allow every single property owner fend for themselfs (and some only keep a place empty for the tax $$- don't care about bringing business to the property- look at Main Place Mall as a perfect example). Anyway, the way downtown is and has been working for many years is the reason we are faced with huge parking lots and no activity unless an event is going on.
But then again, anytime a business does have interest in Buffalo, EVERY FREAKIN Tom Dick and Harry (Politics) want to get involved in telling the new comer how to run it's business, how to design it, where exactly they should locate and so on...Another reason we don't have big retailers downtown. If ONE GROUP worked with a downtown plan (all set on what type, location, over all vision, etc) and THEN promoted, we could see action take place. Till then, we are stuck with the same status que "All talk, no action" "Everyone jump in and mess it all up instead of just letting a good thing happen"

A very interesting comparison, well done.

Steel: Thanks for one of the best posts since BR started. Preception is everything.

As for the coments above that generalize "put some bussiness downtown and then I'll come there".......ummm....that's what we are trying to do.

Who is bringing retail downtown Jim? That's all we want, big names, unique retailers, theme restaurants, and other attractions downtown all year long...So, Jim, who's doing this?

I may be all wet and completely wrong, but here's my two cents:

First: The city needs to create a single "retail business entity" equivalent to the organization of a large suburban mall complex that would market and be in charge of securing and mainting a retail complex thru-out the downtown core. This would involve a lot of separate parcels scattered throughout the area.

The position should be a PRIVATE developer, not a government department. Bids could be solicited from potential candidates. Of course, some government seed money would be needed in the beginning to jumpstart the something from nothing, but once the entity is operating, it should be a strictly commercial/private concern like a HomeOwners' Association, but for the properties involved.

Second: The various parcels, vacant as well as existing structures, need to be identified and selected that would be the actual locations for the retail establishments. The UB School of Architecture would fit nicely in this role. I know many surveys/studies of the downtown core are already collecting dust and some students are looking for ideas for thesis projects.

People who go to malls go there because they KNOW "everything" is in one place - just like the function of downtown used to be. In that regard, large, department-type stores such as Sears, Penney's, Sibleys or whatever they're called now should be selected as the anchor tenants just like the malls - the idea is to have as many of these big stores downtown together in one place (or in close proximity - evenly spaced) as possible - that would foster the critical mass for the other smaller retailer and shops.

Third: This is another area that the government would be involved in - the "carrot and stick" - to lure them here. Tell Bass Pro to take a hike and use the 60 mill for the seed money to the larger and smaller businesses.

Since the larger older department store buildings are now all either practically unuseable or have been converted to other uses, maybe some of the vacant land at the south end of Main Street around the HSBC area could serve as a location for some of the larger anchor stores, along with reuse of a couple of the closed department stores. This would also complement the pedestrian activity of the cobblestone district as well as the sports complexs currently located there, not to mention the rapid transit stop(s).

Or, maybe Broadway around the Broadway Market is the location (Saattler's 998 and other stores come to mind).

This would also be a good location for the HIDDEN parking to be located above or below the larger stores. The larger footprint stores should also be configured so that they would permit the future addition of taller structures to be built on top without tearing up the stores that would be in use.

If it is downtown near the HSBC, offices or other similar use buildings; if Broadway, less tall, but mixed use - offices on upper two floors with residential for a few more floors above that.

Fourth: Concentrate a police force that would be in charge of security for the area to insure the public feels "safe". Las Vegas has instituted mounted horse patrols and lots of bicycle patrols in it's downtown. Besides the eye candy of the athletic cops in their shorts riding around in the summer, there would be a practical side - get them out of their cars and donut shops and become the beat cops they used to be. Some of the larger casino malls have special canine patrols that are very people-friendly - they encourage the children and others to pet the dogs - but they are capable of serious security work at the same time.

One of the main reasons, other than the loss of population, that the individual department stores failed downtown wasa that they operated as individual entities. If they were all part of a single whole entity thats main purpose was a their well-being, maybe that would create a more successful atmosphere to succeed.

Also, other than identifying the first 4 larger anchor tenants, the other establishments can be added and the retail entity can expand slowly as demand is created. And the anchor tenants don't necessairly have to be department stores - maybe Broadway market can have a location there - or maybe Broadway is the location for the anchor tenants and the shopping district. Tha't what the survey would identify.

I always thought that if the downtown retail were approached and operated similar to (not exactly like, but along the line of) a shopping mall, maybe the chance of success of both actually getting something and maintaining that success would greatly increased.

Oh, and one more thing - if Main Place Mall is not torn down - DEMAND that the stores along the street are open and visible TO THE STREET! Nothing worse than a long, useless blank wall to walk past...

Right on point John. I agree, why isn't their already a downtown retail organization? Buffalo Place is suppost to do this, but after 20+ years, we know they havent' been doing it.

So, anyways, why is there so much parking and so little to do? Is all this parking "Just" for those who work downtown? Seems like it when ever one tries to park during a weekday and all the "up front" spaces and lower levels of any parking ramp are all reserved. Hell, even the entire two blocks (surface) on Washington St. are reserved for M&T Bank employees....How fare is that? If downtown is for "Everyone" and some are trying to bring in outside customers to thier establishments, having few "public" parking is a big concern. I know we have plenty of parking, but does over half of it need to be reserved? And the best part is, most of these so called reserved spaces are usally empty during the day, so why can't it be "first come, first served"?

John, The problem with the Main Place Mall is it's owners...They simply don't care about the Retail/Mall..They would rather have it sit empty and collect a tax deal every year. This way, they don't have to deal with business owners problems. Go ahead and ask any retail owner that is left in the Mall, you may get some pretty good stories on the Mall issues..
By the way, if anyone would like to call in to ask questions or simpy vent to the Main Place Mall, here is the main number, an actual person would answer Mon-Fri 9-5:30pm. xxx-xxx-xxxx
(phone number removed. It is not a good idea to post phone numbers here. We can not check the accuracy of these numbers. If you would like to call the Main Place Mall ownership please find it through normal channels)

i thought this was a good article to read about .This city drives me crazy with parking lot development. Successful urban areas like
Toronto or Boston have dense urban cores ...Buffalo did at one time
too.Just look at all the old post cards and pictures of our city's
heydays.Parking was not an issue..storesand businesses and
entertainment were all vying for space and attention of the consumer . Whats scary to me is reading about developments at
somewhere like Walden Galleria where they are building outside the mall a row of street scape restaurants and entertainment .All of
it within seeing distance from the thruway ....I mean its like going to the mall( the suburbs ) to go to the city or going to Las Vegas to see the Eiffel tower or the NYC skyline . This competes wth the actual urban area .E ven in my South Buffalo nieghborhood S.Park Ave
is somewhat of a drudge to drive down..its all small businesses
some borded up some still barely thriving ( so it seems) But its
pretty much a building then a parking lot ,a house then an empty
lot .Over and over you see this and it looses street continuity for
walking and pedestrian interest and shopping..Granted yes
buildings if not cared for decay and must be torn down but then
whenyou do that you create a streetscape that is like a upc.code
or Mike Tysons teeth...downtown needs to be filled in ...our city's
street corners are either convenience stores or four corner
parking lots ,gas / collision properties or empty grass lots where
once a wonderful house once stood...but was burnt or neglected
Come on we are just starting to address this parking issue !
Weve got a ways to go...