Buffalo Rising Online

What a waste these politicians are. Do we really need to put a podium out and have a news conference? They need to get back to their offices and do some f'ing work!

it looks like the country? im going to pretend that was a joke

There should be angled parking on the street. Makes a better use of space, more parking, and looks allot more attractive to the eye.

ahhh i think u meant the one with the press conference....sorry my smart ass remark was unwarrented...i thought you meant the one with the trees removed

One thing that I was interested in seeings was the entire facade of the buildings. Yes, the trees are gone but it looks like a lot more will be planted. Will this help Main St? I hope so.

the reconstruction will be good for this street because it should include many more amenities for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers than the current street. Bike racks, bike lanes, better benches and hopefully some good garbage \ recycling cans will be added. That being said don't hold your breathe for some new profound reinvestment into Main because all of a sudden cars are back.

The only pressure this is going to create is for more parking lots directly on Main. The great thing about the train and the pedestrian mall was at least Main Street was kept intact without a huge desire by businesses to demolish it for parking. I can see this opening up the discussion by those with money to tear down their neighbor because all those people who now can drive right in front of the building will now want to park there and walking around the corner is just too far....

We'll see where it goes from here. Essentially this was already a one way street/parking lot without the light rail going down the center, so the conversion was quite a lot more attainable then what is along the rest of the way.

I think that this will be a good project and it will make it easier to get to different places therefore creating an atmosphere for more business to tend to come to the area, at least in theory anyway. I hope that it turns out that way.

I just can't wait until tupper becomes two way! that won't cause any traffic problems! (but for real, just glad main st. work is finally underway!)

Finally! I hope they keep the momentum going.

This got me thinking...what ever happened to that building next to Redjacket on Main and Allen that had the roof fallen in?

As far as the picture...it doesnt look like an urban setting at all...and the sidewalks arent going to be that wide with 2 way traffic and parking.

but atleast they got trees, sidewalks, curbs and places to lock your bicycle. However, they missed the street lights..and we should hope that they more period light posts and not those awful arches they use on expressways.

seriously tho, regarding sbrof's post... the city needs a longterm parking plan for Main St. NOW before the issue comes up. They can't wait until someone starts tearing down buildings for parking lots. They need a policy. And they probably should plan to build a couple large parking garages to make parking convenient and keep the rest of the site available for real development (not surface lots.) Maybe the currently vacant lots shown in the first picture above should be developed into well-designed parking garages with integrated first-floor retail.

300 miles - between more parking and extension of the light rail, I can decide what is more unnecessary.

Downtown is full of parking lots and garges with little to no traffic. Come on!

Why on earth have a podium and ceremony to announce two way traffic returning to one little block. Is this all we have to celebrate in this town?! What a joke.

Sbrof is right, adding cars to Main will increase pressure to demolish & create more off-street parking, reducing vitality, and so on...

The removal of cars probably saved most of Main Street from the wrecking ball.

The work on the 700 block is good, however, with many cities planning pedestrian malls, does it make sense that we're removing ours at great expense ($75 million+, most of which hasn't been secured)?

Adding cars to Main certainly isn't a panacea; one only needs to look at every other deserted downtown street to see that car access doesn't equal development.

On the other hand, adding people & residences downtown will increase vitality.

Perhaps a better, faster, cheaper solution for the rest of the project would be to just open up the cross streets that were walled off (Eagle & Mohawk) to reduce the long, tunnel feeling of the stretch of Main from Church to Huron.

This will accomplish to a degree the goals of access & connectivity at minimal cost while freeing up future funds for more pressing needs like the Scajaquada upgrade, Skyway removal, etc.

gaustad - downtown is full of parking, yes.. but nowhere on Main. It's a pedestrian mall remember? The whole point of adding cars to Main is to make it more accessible to people. People driving down Main will see what's there. More businesses will hopefully open again. That's the whole idea. Adding one or two carefully designed garages in the right places could really benefit Main evem more without damaging the streetscape. If the city does nothing to plan for it, then businesses with do it themselves, resulting in demolitions on every block so they all can have their very own parkinglots. This must be avoided at all costs.

What a relief that Main Street is finally opening back up. Michigan, Elm, Oak, Ellicott, Washington, Pearl, Franklin, Delaware and Elmwood are clearly insufficient to handle all the north-south downtown traffic.

Why, sometimes it takes me nearly 3 minutes to go from end to end!

It was never about commuting concerns Rob, it's about reviving the economy of Main Street.

RobH - too funny -

300 miles, I see where you are going, but the parking issue on Main seems way too premature. Lets get some stores open first and some traffic then we can worry about where to park. This may not happen in our lifetime

That's fine. All I'm saying is that they need to have a plan. They don't need to start building a garage now. But they need to be proactive about these things.... something city hall has rarely been.

:)

This phase of the project will boost activity and accessibility in the block. Let's hope a solution is found that allows the addition of cars to the 600 Block, just south, while retaining a transit station that in 2006 generated over 660,000 passenger trips. It is likely higher now with the recent spike in transit use.

The City can have addition without subtraction. Why not have the best of all worlds on Main Street???

okay im going to pretend i didnt see anyone else's comments? this is going to lead to the demo of buildings for parking lots? have you not seen the reinvestment of almost the entire side of the block that situate the Sidway? in order to demo ANY building in the city of Buffalo, you must go to the Preservation Board for approval, no matter what location of it you are in. if it is a historic district, this approval becomes even more hard to attain. that being said, this is great news. look no farther than the University Heights to see what this stretch of Main Street will resemble visually. An obvious positive of this is another access point in to downtown other than Oak Street from the 33. Rather than continuing onto Pearl street or Edward, you can turn left onto Main and enter the heart of the city. Ideally this would continue all the way down to the Erie Canal Harbor for yet another access point into that district...

Brown is awful. Seriously awful. Worst decision ever, Buffalo!

Can Higgins suit be any tighter? Someone has to teach these politicians how to dress!

Syms off the rack for 90 bucks just doesn't cut it.

My guess Bufago is that most of the money is SAFETEA-LU transportation funding which would not be available for small business incubation.