AtwaterLouse, its not UB Amherst that needs to be relocated downtown but new centers for excellence, research facilities associated with it, office parks with small business incubators and of course downtown annexes like a Theater for the School of Performing Arts, Law & Government, Media & Journalism, etc.

You cant expect kids to stay in the area or companies to grow in the area if the students and the university arent integrated into the local economy.

RonR, your absolutely right the property tax code does need to be changed

As far as where are we going to get the money, well Higgins is on the transportation committee but the biggest problem we have is that WE (Buffalonians and WNYers) know what we want for the future of transportation but we are neither proactive enough to communicate it in advance and we do not have the representatives and local public institutions loyal to our area....they are patronage appoitments from albany pretending to be local but getting their direction most assuredly from Albany...and Higgins is proving to be a sellout to DC just like all our other representatives.

All these comments and wonderful ideas prove that we Buffalonians know what we want locally but its the outside influence from unions, albany, dc and developers with inside business deals all extorting money from the taxpayer.....but its not what the local Buffalonians want.

Genesee reconstructed, no skyway, roadways downgraded to boulevards! I can only hope to be around to see all of this happen, if it does at all.

Well these sort of plans are not about dollar and cents for development but this seems to be a spur to get the government into action about zoning and other laws that could help to mold the development that we might see in a way that improves the city aesthetically.

It is a sort of build out vision for the Queen City Hub plan. Sure there isn't huge development dollars (what is a Billion dollars over the last 7 years anyhow) happening in Buffalo but then again Las Vegas / Phoenix didn't exist 50 years ago either. Who knows what the future will bring, the point is that if tides turn and development starts to shift back to the north east and Buffalo that we have the policies in place to support it and shape it to create the maximum benefit from it. We have a choice to allow it to happen anywhere and spread out all over the place (who wants that countryside anyhow, what a waste) or we can use it to re-create our city and downtown. The fact that Issa is even in Buffalo as much as he is shows that this isn't 1970 anymore.

The city definitely needed someone to come through with a fantasy. However I don’t find the results of this study all too attractive. It has a few appealing notes towards density, but these gluttonous results seem to only serve the core: instead of focusing on parameters. Our cities strength is exactly the opposite of what they are trying to do here. (Does this plan come with an aikman helmet?) Like beyonce says, upgrade. So create interest by formalizing a dynamic relationship between locations. They should be finding thickness though this interaction and not some spurious attempt to be emerald city. Show developers impact analysis by giving them a constructivist rulebook towards our aesthetic. Their one building could break up the unrecognizable and partnered with another project, bring a whole new outfit. The process of recognition is the greatest resource for creativity. This plan left too many of our strengths at the wayside.

I would have to say the City's commitment to this vision is ZERO. How can they be developing a new plan for the restoration of the street grid and radial system, while simultaneously giving public money to remodel the Hyatt including the atrium over Genesee St, that the City's current comprehensive plan says should be removed?

Your City is failing you as we speak. Until we get real leadership, and a true commitment to what's best for the people of Buffalo, not what's best for the politically connected, all of these plans for the future are just a waste of our time.

flyguy & orlanmon,

there is nothing you can do about the jobs that are being shipped to china. The only thing you can do is create new jobs here that cannot be shipped out.

that is all.

Dont you see what the biggest impact on the above picture is? Its blatantly obvious to me. THE STREET GRID IS RECONNECTED. GENESSEE, MAIN, MICHIGAN STREET EXTENDS ALL THE WAY TO THE WATERFRONT, WILLIAMS, BROADWAY, DIVISION, EXCHANGE, SWAN....ALL EXTEND DOWNTOWN.

Now in order for this to happen the Niagara Expressway and the Skyway are converted to Parkways

The Church and Seneca Street access ramp is gone The Erie Street access ramp is gone The Elm-Oak Arterial is gone The Kensington is truncated to Jefferson The I-190 is truncated to Hamburg. Probably an extension of the light rail to feed all this density

Traffic (potential customers and residents) is put back on the streets of the inner harbor, outer harbor, first ward and near eastside allowing downtown to grow south and east organically without barriers and obstructions.

Yes this is why we want NYSDOT and the FEDs to follow our plan instead of theirs!

YOU CANT HAVE THIS KIND OF DENSITY WITHOUT INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORTING IT AND RIGHT NOW OUR EXPRESSWAYS AND OUR STREET GRID DO NOT SUPPORT ANY OF THIS!

This is what our city might have looked like if we had a REGIONAL plan in place decades ago.

There is enough office space and office tenants in Amherst alone to fill all those new high rises bldgs.

I would hope we as a REGION learned our lesson about the co$t of sprawl. I'm guessing we haven't. Proof of that is the ECIDA and local IDA still giving tax breaks to developers to build office buildings on spec out in our 3rd ring burbs. All of wich require more roads and utilities, all of which is paid for by OUR tax dollars.

The solution is simple, one metropolitan gov't with a sprawl reducing blueprint. Anyone can still choose where they want to live, but the cost/tax/etc structure would be heavily favored to reuse existing underused infrastructure. No new infrastructure will be build in outlaying areas until the entire region grows and it is needed. This way we would all win no matter where the buisness located and we would not have to fight each other for the same buisnesses. Especially those that need to be in this area to begin with.

Add to that the ability to put subsidized housing near jobs. Making it easier for poor to get off the subsidies and contributing to the tax base instead.

Unfortunately we are too wrapped up in our own little fiefdoms to band together and take the chance at once again becoming a powerhouse. We are too content at ensuring we can by a house farther out, have wide enough roads to travel two towns to get to work, and be able to sell again at a profit before the wave of disinvestment catches us while complaining that the area is falling apart, but not because of our actions.

As for the pretty picutre, the infrastructure is a given. Roads will need to be rebuilt/etc in the future. Plan as far ahead as possible for when that time comes for what we want. The buidlings will take care of themselves in time if we are able to band together to make the entire Buffalo Metropolitan area something better than an old starving dog eating its own apendages to hold on a little longer.

Excellent idea. Chicago followed this same model and now it boasts one of the best skylines in the country (and one of the top in the world).

Oh no, they forgot to check in with Planner Pundit!

flyguy, although the common worker would agree with you, you are forgetting one key fact. I would be willing to be that atleast half of the CEOs that ship jobs away to foreign markets would rather keep them here but the C word is keeping them from doing so: Competition. In America we live a world of Kill or Be Killed - sorry but its true. If you dont like it go live in a socialist society. You are forgetting one major thing that will never change - human capital. As long as there are people in cities then there will be jobs. 50 years ago there were not IT jobs as we know them and Buffalo thrived. Pittsburgh thrived. Cleveland thrived. Why? Manufacturing. We need to start thinking of new ways of parting people with their money instead of worrying about jobs that have already left. True, greed is huge part of it as everyone would love more $$. Yet you need to find a job that will never be outsourced. Become a doctor, cut yards, work at a movie theater, or start a company. You don't need to have 100,000 worldwide employees to have a successful company. Think of a better way of doing something. That is where Buffalo must thrive. Our low wages, low cost of living, and vicinity of great natural resources must work hand in hands with **NEW** politicians to lower taxes to make the area the most affordable and desirable place in the country. Call it negative inflation. People will EVENTUALLY (and I stress that since this is America) realize that a salary of 50k and cost of living of 35k is MUCH better than a salary of 75k and cost of living 100k (PS thats negative savings for our overspenders). That is where Buffalo MUST thrive. We have hundreds of houses that can sell for 50k or cheaper. Where else in America can you find that? Yes they need some work, but the framework is there.

So forget national pride. Forget Americanism. Do not look to the government to save your ass or you will end up with a civil service job that eventually will be outsourced because its cost outweighs its benefits. If you want to succeed in america do concrete, do accounting, just do something.

I applaud the BSC Group, the City of Buffalo, Empire State Development and Cannon Design in their recognition of and plan to stop haphazard development. Just because a developer or business has enough money to build something doesn’t mean they should be allowed to build whatever they want in the inner city. The images shown do not show what Buffalo will become they only show that Buffalo as a city is taking control over bad development decisions that we have been allowing in the past.

Ron R, You make some very specific recommendations. That’s great, your thinking about the issue and offering good feedback. I urge the city (which I'm sure are following this) to seriously take a look at the concept RonR has put out there.

The article doesn’t mention if the whole 190 has been sunken or just truck traffic but my opinion is that the whole 190 (near the city) should be mostly underground. Maybe not a complete tunnel but a lot of green space could be built over it. This would certainly help reconnect the city to the water. A lot of people say the removal of the skyway would reconnect us to the waterfront but if the skyway is removed we still have the 190 acting as a similar barrier. The boulevards could be located just to the sides of the sunken 190 allowing lower speed traffic to keep pedestrians safe. Exits off of the sunken 190 can empty onto the boulevards for people getting to work and fro deliveries. In any event I’m not sure that we can afford to do this at this time or that it could bring in fresh money to the area, so while I love it, we may need to wait on it for awhile.

Seeing something like this is the kind of thing that gives me occasional hope. This city has shown me in the past that it can do something right every now and then (not often, but sometimes). Maybe having a concrete plan in place like this, approved by the not only the city but the community as well, could be another stimulus. I'm not holding my breath, but you never know.

PS, we need to set priorities and unify the agenda and alot of Buffalos agenda is infrastructure: roads, expressways, bridges, light rail, high speed rail, freight rail, airports, ports, etc.

We got rid of Thruway Tolls We got the commercial slip rewatered and because of it we secured Bass Pro these were big grass roots battles...and we can do demand local control and win.

Should I be impressed that the BSC Group, the City of Buffalo, Empire State Development and Cannon Design got together to play Sim*******City? Nice concept. This is what Buffalo could look like without decades of shitty planning and limitless capitol for investiment in skyscrapers that can be built without conflict from historical groups in the complete absence of zoning laws. Rediculous.

Chris69 - Although I'm skeptical that NY state govt can breed Centers of Excellence like rabbits without losing whatever meaning 'excellence' still has these days, and also I think some of the CoE ideas you list would probably need physical closeness to existing academic and research entities rather than being scattered like politicial pork - it wasn't your views I was mocking above. I've no deep argument with what you suggest. You made clear previously you disagree with extremist suggestions from others about pushing for large scale moves for the hell of it. I was mocking that idea - the one about inventing creative reasons such as a need for "green studies" as a justification to move almost everything from Amherst to downtown causing a big setback and wasting many millions for seemingly no reason other than the suggester's whims. I found that a laughably irresponsible thing to suggest. About the CoEs, I agree there's potential if they go about it the right way. Other than funding, politicians should stay out of that as much a spossible. For example, if UB or Buff State decide a new CoE should be located on campus for whatevr reasons, I don't want a Hoyt or Thompson allowed to override that and put it somewhere else.

Notice that a new condo tower is now rising at the waterfront end of the Genesee Street axis. Probably not the greatests axis ending building either.

Underground truck traffic: What about the trucks that need to make deliveries / pickups?

Any company that needs to have giant carbon-emitting trucks in the middle of a city could just be put underground too. Check and check.

if as many people focused on the fundamentals of why this area is failing and coming up with ways to change that…

There’s plenty of fundamentals focused on here. Inventing ways to force UB to spend hundreds of millions replacing the Amherst campus with a new one downtown – there’s a huge fundamental. And getting some public funding to help build that thing with all those different cultural exhibits near where the Pier was – if that’s not a job-creating fundamental then I’d like to see one. Many fundamentals are being focused on. Most of the so-called “failing” in this area is the fault of the suburbs anyhow for various reasons that you’d know about if you paid more attention here - so don’t expect the city to work miracles.

LouseAtwater, well see not all of the research centers and centers of excellence are best placed on the amherst campus. They can be spread around and here is why. Its not just UB, and its not just a partnership with UB and other local/regional schools but it must include UB, a partnership of local schools such as Buffalo State and a network of local companies involved in that industry. Therefore a Center for Excellence in Supply Chain Management would be best located in an areas where there is alot of transportation, logistics, import/export companies, warehouses, etc...making Central Terminal area a strong contender.

If one looks at the companies involved in materials strongly concentrated in metals (south Buffalo), chemicals and gases (niagara falls and riverside area), etc.

Rochester adds one Center for Excellence about every 2 years and it hasnt watered down Rochester infact its really supported a strong and growing small business sector but each Center they add is for a different industry. They do not overlap and they really dont overlap throughout the state either.

So no it wont detract from the Centers for Excellence in fact the more centers we have the larger our network will be to attract companies in that industry to locate here.

2 parts of BRO sugar and 2 parts WNYmedia salt mixed in with a handful of new politicians and bake for 15 years...you might have something

Oh, you’d have something - that's for sure. Sugary salt. Mmmmm. Just like they sell at Trader Joe's!

Chris - I didn't say the CoEs all had to be anywhere, and obviously any related to life sciences likely make sense to be near BNMC. I'm open to looking at them case by case, but am suspicious of politicians treating them as pork handouts and won't necessarily believe they're about excellence just because that words is in their name. Not that my opinion matters much, but I'll keep an open mind.

Btw, What are the CoEs in Rochester? FWIW, the NY state web site mentions only one there: Rochester Center of Excellence in Photonics and Microsystems

What was the award Homer Simpson won - "Oustanding Acheivement in the Field of Excellence"? I would like to vote for awarding that to whoever convinced anybody that drawing all those tall buildings has the slightest bit of connection to likely reality. Denizen's comment nails it.

That's not the Skyway; it's 190, right?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jSFLZ-MzIhM&feature=related

Atwater this year they added a Center for Excellence in Imaging which isnt as big as the Center for excellence they opened up in photonics about 3-4 years ago. This Center for Excellence in Imaging is going to be part of a research consortium with other out of state colleges so that Kodak, Xerox and other imaging intensive companies can tap into that research....so its more about access than local research but have no doubt its meant as a start and will grow in size and jobs from there.

Last year they opened a center for excellence in Clinical Research creating 600 jobs basicaly doing all those tests on new drug trials for the FDA to approve commercial release. Such a center could easily be created in Buffalo also. Buffalo could do FDA drug trials just as easily as Rochester could.

So there is three and Im sure there is another one.

Well, AtwaterLouse....I think its good to keep an open mind because todays business looks at a number of things like locating next to research knowledge centers and they look at industry networking....if you think of all the factors it takes to be competitive in business....cost isnt always the bottom line....sometimes it location, access to knowledge, etc.....and we could create knowledge centers surrounded by office parks and business incubators scattered all over the city....and these would have a huge economic impact

As far as your concerns for pork and politics....well if you have a good idea to get pork and politics out of the federal government, out of nys or even the county....Id listen....but pork or no pork....Buffalo is so poor...I say bring it here and spend it

(one thing Buffalo should have learned by now...if you hem and haw....it just gets spent someplace else....dont think for a minute any virtuosity in Buffalo is going to result in lower taxes.....you know whatever we save albany will just lower our state aid and spend it someplace else in nys....cause thats the game)

Tony's correct. Business will get only more and more dynamic over time as technology keeps advancing. Even China sometimes loses out to other countries for lower-end industries, and there's still tremendous opportunites in the U.S. as far as the eye can see. Manufacturing output still to this day climbs annually in the U.S., except for rare recession years.. There's no good excuse of why Upstate NY should be hurt so much from free trade with the other states in _this_ country. That's what should be of more concern than pointing to distant countries.

Higgins would object to having the 190 removed. I agree. Waterfront expressways drive down property values and cut cities off from the water--exactly what Buffalo needs more of...