I've had the honor to talk with one of the finest and most recognized pedestrian planners in America (John LaPlante from TY Lin International in Chicago) about downtown Buffalo's pedestrian mall and what possibly caused it to fail. His explanation, as the article's author touched on, has to do with the width of the road & sidewalks. I don't have exact measurements off the top of my head but it wouldn't surprise me if there were 30-40 feet of sidewalk on each side of the metro-rail. Of course the mall being 1 mile long is rediculously too long, but the fact that it feels like an empty canyon, even if there is a lot of pedestrian action, is the main reason it has failed. This seems to be a major point that people overlook whenever there is an article or discussion dealing with this topic.

if you look at any of those pedestrian malls they all have one thing in common. mixed use. none of them are just a mall in the middle of nothing. all of them incorporate or are surrounded by residential, office, retail, recreation, ect. main street can work as a pedestrian mall.....but we need life to sprout up around it. which seems to be slowly happening.

I would think block after block of empty run down buildings has a lot to do with it along with the shear length then split by the rail. At the moment a lose- lose situation. Very poorly planned from the beginning. When we went to see "wicked" the other night, main street was very sad, yet looking at all the historic buildings the potential is there.

So, true...Why doesn't Buffalo Place and the city work out a marketing/development plan to get Retail, restaurants, and entertainment venues Downtown? I don't see why we are stuck with first floor offices (blank windows, a parol office, and others) empty window spaces with no signs to promote them as a great business opp, and buildings allowed to rot away right in the heart of our own city core where visitor's to our area have to see it and think, what a dump. Granted, the city is improving in many areas, but I still don't see a push in the city center as we are now just seeing on the Inner Harbor. Why not get Benderson or another developer to just take over Main Street? If these guys are going national to attract the big names in retail to our waterfront, why not do the same for Main Street? It CAN be done.

Retail isn't going to come until people are in the CBD 24/7. What came first in Amherst? Retail or the people living there? If we continue to add residential to our cities core.....main street will come alive again.

Washington DC had 2 ,relatively short, ‘two block long’ ‘pedestrian only’ malls in the downtown area.. Both were complete failures. While the rest of downtown was experiencing a building boom, the pedestrian malls stood out as shabby and desolate problem areas. One in particular became a magnet for the homeless and provided opportunity for the criminal element at night. The fountains became public toilets. The city tore out the malls and reconnected the street grid. Today those re-connected blocks are home to restaurants, hotels, the SPY Museum, and condominiums

Denver Colorado Pedestrian Mall: Maybe our city leaders should take a visit? Their 16th Street pedestrian mall, the 16th street mall is located in downtown Denver, similar in every way to our own pedestrian mall in downtown Buffalo – Same width, sidewalk size. The lone exception is that Denver utilizes gas powered buses as opposed to light rail for public transportation on the mall. In both cities, vehicle traffic is not permitted, and the entire mall is a fare free zone, meaning of course, that all rides are free. Well…there was one more difference that I noticed between the Denver's ped mall, and our own. People and business! There were people everywhere. I stayed in a hotel on 16th Street, on a Tuesday. I noticed thousands of people on the mall. at 10 am, noon, 2pm, 5pm, and even at 11pm the streets still had hundreds of people of all ages and creed. The free buses were loaded with people at all hours as well. There were businesses lining the 20 blocks from the start of the mall, all the way to the end. Many were restaurants, packed with people. There was an outdoor retail center, loaded with shops, bars and a movie theater, all doing quite well. The reason that I bring this up, is that, as we all know, our leaders within the City of Buffalo would like to spend tens of millions of dollars to remove our own downtown pedestrian mall. There is an unfounded common belief that the mall killed downtown Main St, and downtown Buffalo as a whole. If this were true, wouldn’t downtown Denver, and its mall be in the same shape as ours? My point is, it wasn't, and still isn't our light rail line, or the pedestrian mall that has killed downtown. Wouldn't we be much better served to utilize the millions of dollars planed to tear out our mall, and invest instead, back into downtown, and Main St? Imagine…seed money for building rehabilitation and conversion? Tax credits to make doing business downtown more affordable? Dollars for more police patrols? $50 million can go a long way into the rebuilding of downtown Buffalo! It is arguable as to whether our pedestrian mall is an asset, however, where is the evidence that it is a detriment? The ped malls work in Minneapolis as well. In the 1980s, Denver was a cold, industrial city, much like Buffalo. In the past 20 years, they have reinvented themselves. It's time to do the same in Buffalo. We laid the foundation for that in the 70s, with the beginning of light rail and a pedestrian mall. Isn't now the time to finish what we started, as opposed to trashing it, and starting from scratch? We need to let our "leaders" know what we think. Maybe they should take a discovery trip to Denver and Minneapolis, and see how they made their malls work, before wasting not only the millions it will take to tear ours out, but the hundreds of millions that we spent to put it in.

Oops...sorry for the tough read Not sure what happened to my paragraph breaks

In a four season city like Buffalo, incorporating a pedestrian only street for such a long length was a really questionable decision. It should be retrofitted to permit all modes of transportation particularly in the winter months. This doesn't mean one has to throw the baby out with the bath water; a more manageable portion of Main Street (maybe as an extension of Lafayette Square) could be designed to permit closing it off for events and/or during peak summer months when people really want to get out of their cars to walk to their destination.

I think under such a strategy, retailers and developers could be better enticed to locate along Main Street.

I was in Santa Cruz last weekend and they have a great vibrant downtown (I'm not talking about the boardwalk) and it is not a pedestrian mall (they allow one way traffic). Parking was plentiful and $.25 for 1 hour and 45 minutes which makes it easy and encourages people to park and wander. I think it is time to open Main St. to traffic. Downtown Seattle is a thriving downtown and they have no pedestrian malls. Nearby Tacoma has a nice main thoroughfare that has both cars and light rail. One thing I noticed in Tacoma is that all of the parking downtown is free for 1 hour. One of the last times I was in Buffalo, I tried to go to meet a friend downtown and parked in one of the lots- the the parking ticket dispenser was broken (I found out after I had even put in $5). I ran into the restaurant for 1 minute to tell my friend I needed to find another space only to come out and find that in that tiny timeframe I had received a $35 ticket. Way to encourage people to come downtown! I would open up Main St. to traffic and make it very very easy to come down and park (if not for free, then very affordable). Mark 2 blocks of main street off as the more pedestrian friendly area and I bet you see that area take off. I'd concentrate on the blocks near Sheas and the theatre district as there is already some decent development there plus the Hyatt and a youth hostel.

As others have pointed out, people and life are the major factors. And what Vivian said about that especially resonates with me: the only "programming" that I notice taking place are special events - not a lot day-to-day. Newell had an article a few weeks ago calling for day-to-day programming around the Main/Huron intersection, and what struck me then is that there is already an organization (Buffalo Place) that was formed to - among other things - handle "programming" for the pedestrian mall. I think if they were to do more, more often - and more creatively - it could make a huge difference, and I don't understand why they don't. It doesn't necessarily require a huge amount of financial resources.

Let's face it: even if the long-term answer is to re-allow the cars, that will take a long, long time to happen, if the progress of the first phase is any indication. Or, say the answer is [insert silver bullet project here: Bass Pro, AM&A's redevelopment, etc.], that's still years away. Buffalo can't afford to let Main Street remain so much a wasteland in the meantime. Perhaps - like was done for the Commercial Slip redevelopment - a summit meeting/conference in the community could get some fresh ideas on the table for bringing more people and life to Main Street in the short term. The results would spur additional economic development and boost quality of life - and couldn't possibly lead to anything worse than the situation now - so what's to lose--? Maybe the first commenter could get John LaPlante to come from Chicago to be the keynote speaker...

Does anyone know which significant buildings along Main Street are owned by the city? Or what the percentage of city-owned buildings is?

How it went down is something we have been debating for years...NOW, let's try and improve Main Street. Who is Promoting this part of town to Retailers right now? Let's focus on that, improve the area and MARKET IT so it can be busy. Right now, Noone markets Main Street unless an event is going on. It should be a place "To Be" everyday instead of just for special events. Get a local or national developer to take over our current Pedestrian Mall and have them MARKET Main Street to national retailers, restaurants, entertainment venues and get this street the action it needs.

Has anyone considered our terrible climate, 60 mph winds, snow drifts, sideways rain and sleet. Who the hell wants to walk up and down Main St. outside in this crap. It is awful for 6-8 months.

I don't believe that population is a factor, but the fact that Buffalo is the second poorest city in the country means that people are not real materialistic here.....they just want to eat, drink, watch the sabres and die.