Buffalo Rising Online

every time a building gets revamped or built people scream for "retail in the city". maybe if they supported it we would see it happen, stores are not there just to make the city look pretty and succesful. just proves yet again, retail will never happen in buffalo.

while I commend Mr. Calvaneso on his efforts, the clothing store was not a good location....retail is a tough act in broke Buffalo, but an Elmwood location "might" have served him better.....

I agree with Gaustad on the location, it still amazes me that Pitt Petri is able to survive in that spot after to many years, there is no foot traffic in that area.

So, you're telling me that he couldn't even find a buyer for the men's store? This is very sad, it was the ONLY designer store downtown for men. Now what? Back to the mall?

Why would privately owned retail succeed downtown or in it's immediate vicinity, The city government since the late eighties has thought that any shopper using the commercial establishments in the city should pay a parking fee for the privilege of visiting these shops. Until parking fees and fines become a nuisance amount of money ( you can define that yourself) rather than a punitive amount that chases shoppers to the malls etc., then city retail will continue to suffer. I would like to know if the automobile is the second greatest revenue enhancer after property taxes?

Clothes were way over priced for the Buffalo Market - upward of 200 for a shirt.

They were pricey, but had style that no other downtown establishement offered. Not even Elmwood carried those brands, now we are left to go back to the Burbs again. Thanks Calvaneso.

Buffalo needs to learn that chains and locally owned retail stores need to co-exist. The chains attract everyday shoppers who then wander over into the often too-high-priced boutiques. Look at Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, Saratoga Springs, NY, or Georgetown. We need to stop blindly chastising national chains and realize that they help local stores when they exist side by side.

o come on, you'll spend more on gas getting out to the mall than the lousy quarter or 2 for the meter. And if you want to avoid the $30 ticket... obey the signs. seems to work fine for me. ok, ok... so i have been guiilty of the extended cat nap which resulted in an alternate parking violation.

What about promoting Mass Transit and walking if you live in the area? It's the car culture here that has destroyed the downtown and city neighborhoods already. Seems for every new development something has to get knocked down for parking.

If it wasn't for the St. Lawrence Seaway, none of this would have happened.

Promoting mass transit is great, unfortunately Metro is not convenient enough for regular use. Don't get me wrong, I would love to ditch the car, but you can only wait 30+ mins for a bus then another 30+ for the transfer so many times before you lose patience. I guess it all boils down to Buffalo's density. We're no Chicago, NYC, or Boston. I'm embarassed to say it, but Buffalo (not including the west side) feels like 1 big suburb. Can some developer pleeeeeeeease build a few blocks of brownstones. Now that i'm officially off on a tangent, the corner of elmwood/forest would be great for rowhouses. Basement or first floor retail (tell them to shove the zoning ordinance up their a@@), condos above, big 'ol stoops, and an alley behind -- city!

Go to Lu Modern to shop in the city. Better location, better merchandise, better customer service and better prices.

Lu Modern isn't all that great either, in my opinion. Calvaneso had a far superior product line though, but like many people have mentioned, the prices were gauging for the Buffalo market. And as Gausted mentioned earlier- that location never helped his cause. Although it's certainly a visible location, there is nothing comparable around it. In this climate (economically and Buffalo's weather), if you are going to run a retail operation, it has to be convenient to the shopper's every need, which in this case means walkability, parking and other options (i.e. lunch options, coffee shops, other stores, etc). It's unfortunate to see a store that really was a pretty cool place go under, but all factors considered, the clock's been ticking for a couple years now.

Damn- always enjoyed city grill and the rare trip out to Calvanesos on Transit was always excellent. Good Luck Steve

Dreamers of retail, the downtown stores all closed their doors so they could irritate the customers standing in line waiting to get in. When the stores closed the customers then went to stand in line at the little restaurants that once were scattered through downtown but they also decided to insult the waiting customers by closing their doors. Yes retail establishments in the nineties left downtown even though there were waiting customers. A scenario like that could only happen here in Buffalo. Why do I recall Mable Danahy (?0, Peller and Mure (?), Kleinhans, Bergers (there were more) but since I am a tee-shirt guy who has lived along Elmwood for the last thirty years my observations should be no more credible than some car jockey who drives everywhere. I can remember in the late sixties when street parking was almost impossible to find in the downtown shopping district. You can reject my conclusions of why customers stopped shopping downtown because I am still in the city but ask some of the former customers why they stopped visiting downtown.