Buffalo Rising Online

Thank god we constructed the beautiful (and historic) interpretive signage and didnt contaminate our sacred ground with a replica of the building that actually stood there.... that would have been a disaster!

Oh my gawd - please tell me that a Starbucks or SPoT will be going in. I'd love to head for coffee and read the newspaper down there on my days off. Oops, here come all the non-chain type comments.......... LOL so be it - I like consistency.

How about a historically-correct Starbucks?

:-)

That radar tower screen panel type thing is pretty fugly. Luckily it looks fairly simple to bulldoze someday in the near future. Good to hear the rest of the work is moving along. It will be great to walk along the canal in 2008!

The interpretive wall is horrible ... nice idea but impossible to execute. Reminds me of some of my own bad ideas.

You are right on 300miles and rogerschroeder. The tacky interpretive signage ruins the entire view.

LOLOL There is this really nice Second Cup coffee location in Toronto on their waterfront, near the Westin. It has 2 floors and a very open floor plate, with a wall of windows lakeside and a patio on the ground floor. This is what I'm talking about for the Buffalo harbor. Let's hope...

Thanks for the update "queenseyes'. I can not wait to se this all completed. Someone mentioed "extending" the canal. Any details/pics/ renderings?

Noooooo! That put that damn thing up? I thought that when renderings went out to the media & the response wasn't favorable the powers that be decided not to fund the abomination. Is there an image of Celino & Baldy on the other side?

wow. Too much bitching today. These are just a few signs and they don't look bad at all.

The ghost wall is in fully thanks to our good friend Larry Quinn. I guess it doesn't look as bad as I thought, but man that money could have gone to something better.

Way too much bitching? Ya, it must be an off day for BRO.

Funds can almost always be better spent. If we really want to evaluate our funding priorities we would conclude that a Naval and Military Museum is one of the last things we need.

Tax payer dollars would have been better spent opening a new waterfront bar or stip of bars.....there are a small minority of people that care about the Erie Canal. I would be very surprised if this attracts any tourists.

I am gonna go out on a limb and say this is one of the dumberst project that Buffalo has embarked on in a very long time. Total waste of money

Gee, are there going to be any Starbucks anywhere any time soon? Who would have thunk two years ago that their sudden decline in business would have become a leading economic indicator?

I can't wait for the spring so that I can go walk along those 2 whole unearthed streets! I'll bring my own coffee though...

The project is looking great! This is one of the smartest investments downtown. It is very similiar to the inner harbor plan in baltimore. Create a great public space (even better with a historic theme), attract crowds, and develpers will follow. The inner harbor in Baltimore would be nothing if not for the upfront public investment that created a place that peopled wanted to be - and people came. Only after did developers follow, not the other way around as people typically think.

You can debate the look of the interpretive signage but i do think it is necessary and will be appreciated by visitors from out of town.

Possibly, the ghost wall should be painted with invisible paint. Just a thought.......

The helicopter down there is real ugly and what is up with the red shed? Is that thing coming down?

ChocolateShake - possibly we should buy some of this invisible paint, so we can "hide" it. Busy today? Acutally, the helicopter on the lifts are pretty cool, that is one of the interesting things that they did down there. It probably just needs a paint job. The red shed look so out of place when it when up, but it probably is a representation of what was there.? The red shed doesn't bother me any more.

ChocolateShake - possibly we should buy some of this invisible paint, so we can "hide" it. Busy today? Actually, the helicopter on the lifts are pretty cool, that is one of the interesting things that they did down there. It probably just needs a paint job. The red shed look so out of place when it when up, but it probably is a representation of what was there.? The red shed doesn't bother me any more.

There should be some serious work done to connect this area with what happened here before the Erie Canal... the War of 1812. Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and the Niagara River were the grounds upon which the young U.S. Republic fought Great Britain for control of waterways that would connect natural resources with markets. It would be nice to have at least one recreated tall ship. There should also be some serious efforts made to discuss the Niagara Frontier as "the West" to the 13 colonies and the young Republic. Doing so would also open up discussion about the Six Nations and their role in relations between the U.S., France, and Great Britain. There is so much history in the region that goes unremembered, and undermaketed because it is either not widely known or not presented in an attention getting, sexy fashion.

But what DOES the Inner Harbor in Baltimore have that makes it work? I have been there many times with family and kids and there is a world-class aquarium, over busy childrens' museum, the ESPNZone in an old warehouse, an USS Constellation tour and a touristy mall. Fort McHenry is in the distance, but "you can't get there from here". Nobody goes to the Inner Harbor for the USS Constellation alone - they go there because they can eat, drink and shop for expensive souvenirs. Is Fanuiel Hall a historic destination? No, you can eat drink and buy expensive souvenirs and shop at chain stores. As cool as I think Buffalo history is, you need stores, restaurants and bars to make any headway in the tourist market - and they have to be right there. Chippewa is too far for us lazy fat tourists to walk. Preferrably, those types of places would be able to span from Cobblestone to the lighthouse (oops, can't get there).

HarborSailor, There was nothing - no entertainment, restaurants, or retail included in the first steps at building the inner harbor that we see today in Baltimore. They created a great civic space that occasionally held large events on the water that attracted crowds of people in the summer. One day James Rouse scouting a site for a new shopping center happened to drive through the inner harbor (I think by mistake) and was impressed by the number of people. He decided it only made sense to build were the people were and then the rest is history. They did not build the commercial piece first, there was almost nothing but lawns and plaza space when the inner harbor was first constructed. And 30 years of projects later, the inner harbor is the waterfront you see today. It takes time to make a great waterfront. What you see in Buffalo is a project in its infancy. The Commercial Slip and Central Wharf is the beginning of something great.

I enjoy the sign and the "fake facade". It reminds me of the Benjamin Franklin house. I can't wait until the whole thing is done. It is a great asset to the city. hopefully nobody ruins it.