City Hall should realize by now the little things matter. How much great press did they get for making a small beach down on the water? And the result was a handful more people down there. Simple, cheap solution to water front access.

Bike racks matter, vendors on the street, small beaches, trees, garbage cans. All important things.

How much could bike racks cost. Cheap or possibly free. And think of how great mayor brown would have looked. "Mayor makes city bike friendly" Thats good for a handful of votes.

We need people in city hall that are more proactive and are able to stop, think and be a bit creative.

Hmmmm, it is a shame but it seems that people on this site would rather complain than do anything about it....nobody thought to call the city's parking enforcement people to ask about the fate of the old meters? Is it really that suprising that they took them down? Any one of us could have called, stopped the removal, and spearheaded a plan to raise the funds for bike rack conversion.

Another thing is that the city does deserve some of the blame, but do you really expect them to lead this charge? Granted they may seem like an easy scapegoat and they are, but where's the business community, neighbors, EVA to raise the issue?

Next time get away from your computers and do something. We're all at fault. Myself included.

I can't say I'm surprised. Does anyone know who authorized the removal of the poles? Was that person even aware of discussions and support of transforming these into bike racks? Has anyone contacted Buffalo State or UB to see if this can become part of a student project? At the least we should try to prevent the removal of additional poles. Who do we call at city hall?

I lived in Buffalo during the fall of 2007 and early winter 2008. I used my bicycle to get around the city rain, shine or snow. I was very frustrated with the lack of infrastructure for cyclists. Granted, I am comparing my Buffalo experience to cycling in Toronto where I commuter cycled for many years, but nonetheless, I was surprised by the absence of basic necessities for cyclists both on the streets and outside stores. Without sidewalk bicycle racks, I regularly had to search for trees or hydro-electric poles that I could hitch my bike to. Aside from Wegman's on Amherst and the Lex Co-op, no other stores which I visited provided bicycle racks for shoppers...Tops, Rite-Aid, CVS, Walgreen's, Target, Wilson Farms, coffee shops...and many more. For cyclists coming to Buffalo from any other city that has a greater awareness of urban bike culture, the Buffalo biking experience, regrettably, can be nothing but disappointing.

Real Question is "Are the PEOPLE of Buffalo Bike Friendly?"

I'm a competitive cyclist, no I haven't won any crazy titles, but I have fun competing in local events (www.buffalobicycling.com) so I can move on my bike when I want to. I was riding up Wadsworth the other day towards Symphony Circle @ a little under 25 mph (almost the damn speed limit) when some Jacka$$ made a left onto Wadsworth right in front of me and then cranked the wheel over hard and almost hit my front wheel with his bumper. I had to hit the breaks. Oh yeah there were no cars coming the other way so this guy had plenty of room to be in the other lane but chose to swerve in front of me

I was pretty mad and caught up to this "gentleman" at the 1st light. I should have left well enough alone, but I told him to be careful and that he had just cut me off. He said "no kidding, get your damn bike off the road!!"

Completely dumbfounded we both too off from that light at the same time. He swerved his truck into the bike lane at me so hard that he almost could not recover and almost hit the parked cars himself. I was lucky, I was not hurt, but my hand scrapped down the side of this guys SUV hard enough to burn a hole in my glove!

I just want to take a second to remind everyone IT IS ILLEGAL TO RIDE YOU BIKE ON THE SIDEWALK. IT IS DANGEROUS TO YOURSELF AND PEDESTRIANS TO DO THIS. BIKES, BY LAW, HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS TO THE ROAD AS CARS. I am no "critical mass" guy and think that they tend to make more people mad then do good, but really how do we get people to be OK with sharing the road? How do we also get people to stop riding their damn bikes on the side walk? How many times have you almost been hit by some guy tooling around on his mountain bike on the side walk? I really hate that.

sbrof, Good points on both. It's been a while but I don't remember there being any of this stuff in driver's ed. so it guess it is the State of New York that is not bike friendly...

great move dudes.

i will call and complain for sure!

Oh, and to Newell's observation about timing: this move indeed sucks, with the people coming to town this weekend covering Buffalo and those looking at whether to move or move back to Buffalo. Imagine for a moment that with more foresight, there could have been the opportunity for folks to attend a cool unveiling on Elmwood like I mentioned above, of formerly ugly parking meter posts transformed into public art and bicycle parking. A good story all around: Buffalo unveiling new public art, Buffalo responding to rising gas prices by "rolling out" new bike parking, Buffalo encouraging biking to and within the City's top retail district, Buffalo creatively making the most of its resources and infrastructure, Buffalo's City Hall and community organizations partnering to revitalize the city, Buffalo declaring its aim to become "Bike City USA" (as discussed on BRO recently), etc. But no.

Along these lines, also imagine that with foresight - and a bit of patience - the official ribbon cutting on the new beach could also have happened during Buffalo Homecoming, with Newell in the conga line to acknowledge the role of BRO in launching that project. What a great story for out-of-town media and all the visitors: Buffalo's young progressives are now staying and working to revitalize the city, instead of heading off in search of greener pastures. But no: the picture is largely the same middle-aged guys in suits - with the local fishwrapper vaguely mentioning that "someone" gave the beach idea to a councilmember.

For several days, Buffalo Homecoming shines a focused spotlight on Buffalo's potential and revitalization like no other happening in the community. In the future, instead of dumb moves and bad timing on the part of myopic City government, with some advance planning and vision there could be a number of projects in the pipeline that would show off smart planning, wise and creative use of existing resources, community/government collaboration, and progressive ideas for revitalization --- a series of cool ribbon cuttings and unveiling parties which would have everyone wanting to come be part of it, and spread the word.

That would go a long way to combat the image portrayed by Al Jazeera and others of Buffalo as a post-industrial basket case. City Hall, please wake up and get it together.

I'm not from Buffalo, but I am a cyclist - so I empathize - but while searching for art bike racks I found these, which seem like a good solution to your parking meter problem (if you can catch them in time). Custom art optional.

http://commuter.typepad.com/commuterpageblog/2007/01/bike_parking_or.html and here http://www.creativemetalworksllc.com/Pages/production_racks_divs.html#

As far as I'm aware, the city did what it said it was going to do. They never actually agreed to keep the poles in place.

I emailed him does that count?

educations, not once in the entire process of getting a license dis a person actually told about the law and sharing the road. This gives people some sense of entitlement that it is their road and its entire purpose is for cars.

Same could be said about traffic circles people hate, fear and don't know how to deal with them because they were never taught the rules of engagement. Hell most people now adays can't tell you who goes first at a stop sign anynmore because everyone just waves everyone else on.

sbrof, Good points on both. It's been a while but I don't remember there being any of this stuff in driver's ed. so it guess it is the State of New York that is not bike friendly...