Did they happen to touch on how they have seemingly developed their waterfront with the massive Gardiner Expressway running along the length of it?
http://tinyurl.com/2sfabt
Perhaps it has something to do with being the largest and most diversified economic center in their entire country? That perhaps waterfront development isn't a function of access but rather demand and economic factors? Nah, can't be.
gaustad - What you wrote makes a lot of sense.
Damp - Your summary is good and applies beyond the city to the state too:
This is a city that has to dislodge those political boulders blocking the stream with aggressive and persistent pressure. And it's easy because there's no big plutocrat here to throw down a trump card and stop the change, just a bunch of wormy politicians that answer to petty constituencies and their Chamber Of Commerce groupies. They will crumble easily, just push and push, and push harder. Knock 'em over.
Unfortunately most of our wormy politicians remind me a lot of most of their constituents. Byron, Sam, Mickey, Lynn, Maria, Antoine, Dale, Mary Lou, and Crystal are us. And we are them.
We are the government-spendaholic over-regulating anti-free-market wealth-envying silver-bullet-loving backward-looking left-leaning superficial insular polarized lack of change that we've been waiting for.
Yes, they can be knocked over. But we're left standing. Usually not an improvement.
Toronto can't fix Buffalo. New York won't fix Buffalo. As Buffalo goes it alone, it has to find an identity beyond its glorious industrial past and drill it down. Here, Buffalo isn't alone: cities all along the Rust Belt are having those same issues. But, unlike many of them, Buffalo wasn't scarred by riots or sunk with the demise of a single industry. Buffalo was never a company town and has always mixed it up economically. That leaves few powerful benefactors to help bring a vision along, but it also leaves many would-be benefactors to push the agenda...so where are they? This is a city that has to dislodge those political boulders blocking the stream with aggressive and persistent pressure. And it's easy because there's no big plutocrat here to throw down a trump card and stop the change, just a bunch of wormy politicians that answer to petty constituencies and their Chamber Of Commerce groupies. They will crumble easily, just push and push, and push harder. Knock 'em over.
I think I'm very weary of those who complain but don't take some time to get the facts. Check out what those "really, really, really dumb, slow, inefficient, bureaucracy, head by lifetime appointees" have come up with(actually, i think you need to take a civil service test vs. being appointed, but again, to hell with facts and knowledge - this is the misinformation highway!).
https://www.nysdot.gov/portal/page/portal/regional-offices/region5/projects/outer-harbor
This is awesome stuff. It looks like a great plan and maybe we just ought to actually do something great and stop trying to make the outer harbor match everyone's own idea of perfect. And I'm very skeptical of Kearns leading a "social exercise." I'm sure the meeting today was standing room only...
Carl - good point. It's no surprise NYS is so inefficient. Instead of one long range vision plan for the waterfront we can grow in to we get quick fixes...like the current route 5 plans. in the future we will get more quick fixes. All these quick fixes are not going to create a great waterfront. Where is the leadership? Not with the New York State Bureaucracy. This says as much about new york state as about the state of the buffalo waterfront, lack of progressive leadership.
If you want to live here and be happy......accept that Buffalo will always be the way it is in your lifetime. We will never see significant change or growth. The variables are just not there for us right now.....those are the facts.
This is ok. Buffalo is ok the way it is for the most part. There are people that come and go, but the same foundation remains in tact.
Perhaps we should stop analyzing every project and just let it happen...can it really get any worse?
Torontonians generally lament their waterfront. High-rise condominiums hugging the land between the Gardiner Expressway and their waterfront serve as a large wall. The challenge there is correcting the many mistakes that have taken place. The lesson for Buffalo is to plan more carefully than Toronto.
Toronto grew because it was the designated financial and media capital of Canada and there was no political desire to share that power with other provinces. (Indeed, many Canadians, especially those in the central and western provinces, have a negative opinion of Toronto.) Growth is taking place outside of Ontario because: the conservative government in place doesn't treat Ontario as a favored child; and, Alberta has become an economic powerhouse due to the oil sands.
I love Toronto but it is not a utopia and it has stumbled since the mid-1990s with transit, social and economic issues. It's in a transitional stage and it will be interesting to see how they manage this transition. That's where Buffalo can learn.
compare Buffalo to Toronto,
Toronto's waterfront is being designed by really smart progressive architects and planners, and a responsive city government.
Buffalo's waterfront (and i mean the bulk of the waterfront, not that tiny piece of property by the arena.) is being designed (or not designed) by a really, really, really dumb, slow, inefficient, bureaucracy, head by lifetime appointees, over which local citizens have no control, the Department of Transportation!
I wonder why Toronto is growing so fast, and Buffalo is shrinking so fast?
God I love New York State.
On the contrary Paul, Toronto was built fast and hapharzardly with very little planning. Why? Its the reason everyone refuses to remember. Quebec Separatists voting to leave Canada and form their own country back in the 1970s cause nearly all of the anglo and many of the french canadian corporations to leave Montreal for Toronto so their companies would not be involved in the quarral and risks of new tax policies, new currencies, un-known inheritances of national debt not to mention cross border tarrifs and customs between Quebec and Canada.
Canada is going through what america went through after WWII, the diversification of their nation from the northeast great lakes region ... to the west coast and the southeast and then lastly the desert cities.
Yes Toronto will still grow as the NYC of Canada to which Buffalo will profit enormously once it cements its position in between NYC and Toronto. Sadly however, that day has not yet come for Buffalo but it is multiples closer as canadians discover our retail and airports soon companies will follow Labatts with technology, distribution and services.....but front on the burner for Buffalo and Canada must be RAIL (Freight and passenger) as well as Customs Reform (plus bridges to Canada on Grand Island the last place left unbuilt that can cheaply cross the Niagara River).
Buffalonians must put extending our light rail and demanding equal funding for the NYS Senate High Speed Rail Task force which now spends 99% of its budget you guessed it in Albany and the Albany/NYC corridor.
Toronto doesnt need to show us anything. The biggest thing Toronto could do is to push Ontario to extend its GO Rapid Rail to Niagara Falls Ontario and negotiate fast border transfers for passenger rail so that Niagara Falls NY and Buffalo can be the international gateway entrancepoints that they should be (especially for business).
Looks like Higgins and company are following through with their 'plans' for the outer harbor. Construction has already began on that portion of Route 5 and it will remain elevated. Just check today's news article. *shakes head*
http://www.buffalonews.com/258/story/308289.html
It is really great that they were willing to come here to give us some ideas. It is also great that our politicians made and effort to get ideas from outside their own circles. I only hope that these comments and this meeting doesn't go to waste because anything that draws our two cities together a positive. Did the mayor show up? How about the DOT? doubtful How does this message and these ideas get to them. What we really needed was to have them here and speak directly to each of these groups.somehow I have the feeling that a transcript sent to them is going to go straight to the recycling bin.
The News today states that the parkway is to be constructed on the eastside of the elevated portion of Rt5, that would be the Tift Preserve side and not the lake side, that has to be an error right.
I checked out the NYSDOT site and there are two different parts to this project. The outer harbor looks very nice, but the actual road reconstruction has not been updated since October, so there's no way to see what they're actually doing. The News article says more details on Thursday....
Chris69, I agree that Toronto grew quickly -- but only after 1955. You're correct that their growth has been haphazard. I agree, too, with your comments regarding the future of Buffalo. In my opinion, there are only two ways that this can happen: 1) Erie County must implement a metropolitan form of government -- interesting as we discuss Toronto; and, 2) New York State reform of its tax codes.
Although I cast a critical eye, I am still positive about Buffalo's future in the long term and it's encouraging that these discussions with Toronto are taking place.
The News today states that the parkway is to constructed on the eastside of the elevated portion of Rt5, that would be the Tift Preserve side and not the lake side, that has to be an error right.
i stand by my previous statement, watercolor renderings are deceptive, and tell you nothing.
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