Buffalo Rising Online

Lauren - Very interesting. I sent you an email.

The place in the bottom photo is actually very nice. Not everything must be turned into that same kind of pocket park that we are all familiar with. Show a little restraint, please. I would suggest that the gravel be built up a little to get ride of the pooling water. Litter could be removed but I see nothing wrong with keeping it simple and authentic.

Just a heads up -- a group named Citizen Action already exists. It's a national group, organized state-by-state and they have an office in Buffalo. Not a big deal for an ad hoc group to use the name, but if you want to keep things going you might want to change it.

There are a lot of positives about main st.

Buffalo place really does a good job keeping it clean; normally there is very little litter on the street. The flowers everywhere are great, M&T's summer concert series, the square, an abundance of trash cans that are emptied and maintained, benches, the train, pocket parks and a few other small touches that I’m forgetting.

Things to fix… many but most are easy!

(A hard one first) The 500 block from the abandoned burger king to J.P.’s Fashon’s and that little path next to it… it’s so embarrassing. When I’m showing friends from out of town around I get super uncomfortable when we have to pass this block, its really depressing. Hopefully when the Stewart & Benson travel building is fixed up that will draw some attention to the rest of that block.

Now the easy ones… A few of the subway stations could use a fresh coat of paint. Those information booths need to be occupied, have another use or taken down. Those are also an eyesore only because they are not used. MAPS!! There are no pedestrian maps in downtown or in any part of Buffalo for that matter. Put up some maps with “you are here” things on them. These maps should point out other Buffalo points of interest and corporate HQ’s and how to get there via mass transit. Believe it or not out of towners visit Buffalo for one reason or another and they are left walking blind. I had to tell a group of exchange students how to find City Hall the other day. Downtown is a walking architecture museum, TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT. Print up some brochures and put down facts about some of our great buildings. They can be handed out at the newly staffed information desks. Street art and furniture! A few well placed small statues downtown would be lovely. I lived in a small city in northern Spain and you couldn’t walk 100m with out seeing a statue. We are lucky to have trash cans on Main st, now let’s work on a recycling program like the Elmwood village. Murals! We have enough blank walls that face parking lots, let’s paint them! An attractive mural makes you feel better than graffiti covered brick. Not to mention murals decrease the likely hood of getting your building tagged. It’s not kosher to tag over someone else’s work. Don’t roll you eyes, BIKE RACKS. Everyone might get sick of hearing it but bike friendly cities are progressive cities are cool cities. If we can make our town less dependable on driving that will increase our marketability to young professionals and relocating companies. The pedestrian bridge from main place mall to AM&A’s should be covered with some kind of mural or pro Buffalo advertising.

These are my thoughts. I would love to do them but I do not have the time or resources. If anyone does I would love to help.

Buffalove

Andrew...a lot of the things posted here on BRO are WAY over the top, but the suggestions in your post are fairly reasonable ideas(even the bike racks...lol) and a lot of them would not cost a ton of money.

PS I posted about the above ground metro stations recently. There is no excuse for letting them get to the condition they are now in.