Buffalo Rising Online

Put the cars back on Main if you noise and sucess. Maybe after the bridge is built.

Agreeing with what I think Storm is saying....Automobile traffic on Main is the first step necessary for change. I think the next step is get people...a lot of people...living on or near Main to provide a customer base for business. I disagree that this is a chicken or egg scenario. I think residents need to come first, then business can follow. I don't think retail will draw people down town but quality living spaces for a good price will. Once folks are living down there, retail, grocery, and restaurants will soon follow. Agree?

I don't think it is an issue for people to move into downtown even though it doesn't have all the amenities you could want. Often people choose to commute or drive to certain stores because of taste even if there is an easier more convenient one closer. Look at Tops vs Wegmans / Tim Hortons vs Dunkin Doughnuts as examples. Also look to history to help describe that people move places without the necessary conveniences close. The entirety of the inner ring suburbs were developed and built out without anything near them. Tonawanda, Cheektowaga parts of Amherst / West Seneca. After several decades and many many square miles of neighborhoods developed then we started to see the businesses follow. Sheridan, Union, Harlem, NF Boulevard all started to become commercial centers after much the area between them and the city were filled with people.

People first, then businesses will follow. The more people living in downtown the better the city and region will be.

As for the article I think that fountains and other amenities like that would add to the value and really help to make downtown nicer, even if empty. Look at the throngs of people that roam the streets looking for a nice place to relax in and around thursday in the square. We need benches, pocket parks, places that create a vibrancy which businesses would want to be near. Fountain plaza would if it could but the lights go off and the fountains shut down and it says that you should be home or someplace else than here.

I totally disagree that traffic is going to help at all. That kind of noise does nobody any good. It is a nuisance more than a reason to be there. If traffic so so darn important to businesses how come most of the nicest cities have pedestrian streets and who neighborhoods. How come Washington, Ellicott, Huron, Mohawk, pearl, franklin, parts of Elmwood, Church Seneca, or the many many many other streets in downtown or the city are worse off than main.. but they ALL have tons of access to cars. I just don't buy that cars are going to do anything. I think Main street actually weathered the stagnation better than most streets in downtown because it was a nice pedestrian environment and highly transit accessible.

I also think the Main St Pedestiran Mall is a wasted potential. Either car access or not would work if played to the advantages of each. When ever I have been to the PEdestian Mall in Ithaca it has always been full of people. What is the difference there?

I think people living on Main is the first step to vitality regardless of if cars are there or not. I'd rather see all the money that would go to rip up the pedestrian mall and put in streets go to programs to encourage high density living options along Main st. similar to the 500 block project.

I think the large passenger stations should be replaced regardless. They form walls up and down Main St and block off views such as Fountain Plaza etc...

It needs to be cleaned up, (the vacant buildings- some may get worked on according to a post from a few days ago on Main Street), have security (did you notice any COPS walking around on this eerie weekend walk? Market Downtown for what it currently has and take a few lessons from the Elmwood Villlage Association and have goals, marketing team, work together and be on the ball at all times to get things done instead of waiting for silver bullets.

I know how you feel, queenseyes. I too felt out of place every time I worked downtown on the weekends and walked along Main Street in it's eerrie quietness like a scene from 28 Days Later or Vanilla Sky.