Buffalo Rising Online

Grant st is going to be fresh in less than 10 years. With buffstate up the road it has the potential to be a very trendy little neighborhood.

now all we have to do is remove all the scum that lives in this hood

You stay classy, icecreamsub!

The street lighting infrastructure is already very nice on Grant St. This is exciting, the Re-Use art opening was very cool.

This is exciting, another thing that can draw new people, blood and money into the neighborhood will be fantastic. It has for too long only been a local resource. Now it has something to bring more people to. Only a good thing for the street.

close by...on Ferguson...I use to regularly go to Frontier for my beverage purchases……but one too many bad experiences walking through their Quickdraw classroom was too much to take….I still have fond memories of breakfast at the Cozy Nook just a few doors down. Thank god I found a job.

No. Does that answer your question???

Great job Prish. I can't wait until the coffee shop opens. We'll start scheduling all our meetings there.

Harvey

Look what SPOT Coffee did to help the area of Delaware/Chippewa Street, used to be a seedy area untill they opened and brought in a new type of crowd to that area. This new Cafe looks like it can do the same for Grant Street.

Any pics of the inside? I'm curious as to how it looks.

Well more business is welcome on Grant Street and certainly Buffalo State could help by moving non-academic buildings like Bookstores, Bursors office, etc onto Grant Street, as well as a nice apartment building (dormatory).

But I have to admit where other people see color and vibrancy...this just gives me a headache....so I probably wouldnt patronize it

yikes, thats busy.

The mural looks a lot better when you look at the whole building. I agree the picture looks busy, but if you walk by, it looks fantastic and its really not an overwhelming design. I think its a really nice touch for the corner.

Prish has been hard at work on this project and it's great to see the transformation. If anyone can start some positive activity there, she's the one.

Great to see another project west of Richmond. As Allentown and EV have become more desirable the interest is starting to spread towards the riverfront. The West Side and Black Rock are the new frontier and in the past 5 or 10 years I have seen a new appreciation for these long overlooked areas. We still have many challenges but the momentum is now in our favor. The future is in places that are walkable, sustainable, and provide the sense of community so many yearn for.

Pack a 9mm and possibly an AK47...tread lightly with these thugs in the neighborhood

sorry to say, but lets be realistic, Grant street will look the exact same in 10 years, if not worse.....because there is no population growth in this area. That is why it is in its currents form.......people moved out.

who are you people expecting to move there and where they coming from?

Terrible comparison to Delaware and Chip...that is almost the center of the city.

buffaloed is correct to say that Mark G started the Chippewa thing but I wouldn't disregard Spot attracting power. Me and my whole generation (late 20's) knew nothing of Chippewa before spot. Mark might have brought a business and monied crowd to his building. But Spot brought the younger generation, the one that eventually started to go to all the bars and tolerant of the riff raff that used to hang out there.

So this cafe on grant might not be able to bring it the whole way but it certainly can and may help draw and bring some new energy into a couple blocks of grant around it. The key will be its ability to feel safe, and draw people from the whole region. Like spot did.

I disagree with gausted that grant is doomed to stagnancy for another generation. Sure there might not be population growth but those people who are chosing to move into the west side are putting a lot of money and investment into their homes. This is something that hasn't happened in decades and hopefully the trend can continue.

Where will the people come from? Well the west side is a different place than the East. There are not blocks and blocks of emptiness that need to be filled. We just need to be able to get jobs and wealth into the hands of the people that already live there. (key to keeping as much wealth as possible local). Try put our money into expanding business that create jobs.

This is the seventh restaruant/coffee shop/bakery to try this corner since Russ moved a few blocks to the south (sometime around 1980?). Each had some positives in their favor, but none could overcome the neighborhood.

That little covered corner was always a favorite spot for prostitutes. Nothing like having your 'suburban' customers having to say 'excuse me' to a prostitute standing in front of the door.

Honestly, where are all the people coming from to move into this area and turn it around? Did Micro Soft announce a new plant and world operations center to be built in Buffalo and bring a few hundred thousand people and new jobs to the area? I wish these people luck, but 7 failers there may mean 8.

Allentowndiva, I think they are banking on that bike museum opening up as the driving force to rejuvinating the entire city.

1. I think this is a great project, and I hope it works out. But others are right -- I don't see why this would have some catalyzing effect when the Tropical Bakery didn't.

2. That said, there are plenty of reasons to think that Grant Street can improve: - the prices in the EV and Allentown are forcing young people to look elsewhere. The folks who would have been buying on Ashland 20 years ago are now buying on Jersey or Rhode Island.

- the most dynamic activist organization in the city (PUSH) is devoted to winning victories for the west side.

- "where are all the people coming from?" Immigrants and refugees. Particularly folks from Burma and the horn of Africa. This is one of the few population inflows taking place in the area, and it's centered largely on the west side.

Benfranklin,

The suburban customers are there for the prostitutes, not the coffee.

"where are all the people coming from?" Immigrants and refugees. Particularly folks from Burma and the horn of Africa. This is one of the few population inflows taking place in the area, and it's centered largely on the west side.

Then this Grant street area must make them feel right at home. So this area is banking on revitalization from a transient and poor inflow of immigrants?

...who by the way are probably on social sevices.

Immigrants and refugees have been an important economic engine for urban neighborhoods all throughout our history. If you don't know that, you're ignorant.

Right on Colin

I'll go along with immigrants and refugees being important... but then you have to cater to their preferences. At this location, if you open a coffee shop/bakery, you have a very segmented market. The older italian people will want a hard roll, buttered, with coffee (most of this crowd has died off). Slightly younger will want doughnuts. Others will think of the tropical bakery... and want their specialty. I'm not sure what someone from Africa would want.

The problem quickly becomes that you can't produce in quantity... and items begin to go to waste. The owner cuts back, and then customers say 'they never have such and such'.... and it becomes the next bakery.

Steel... go to this neighborhood in the winter, when it's snowed in the south towns but not in the city, and watch the snow covered cars trolling for prostitutes.

I have seen it Ben. I know what you are talking about

yeah Colin, I know all about the history of immigration to this nation, all my grandparents were. The difference is that they filled spots in unskilled labor and manufacturing that existed back then. Now they come to exploit our benefits. Give the preaching a rest buddy.

Is this True Georged? In my experience immigrants are extremely hard working. As a matter of fact I have never met an immigrant who is on the public dole (I have met many many natural born Americans who are). Many immigrants are extremely well educated as well.

Perhaps the prejudice is what needs to be given a rest.

Nothing new here, immigrants have been scapegoated for generations. Our history has always been to call the newcomers lazy and blame them for our problems.

meanoldman is correct. Perception is not the reality in many of Buffalo's troubled neighborhoods. Most crime is between fellow criminals and having common sense and some street smarts goes a long way towards avoiding any trouble. This great project should not be compared to past efforts because the building is being fully renovated and will attract the type of people willing to take real interest in the future of this area.

The opening date is wrong! I went there tonight, and nothing is going on! Doesn't look like anything will be happening tomorrow (Sat. 15th) either as the gallery was empty. Luckily, I was going out to another event, so I didn't make a totally wasted trip!

the only immigrints who work hard are the mexicans, of which we dont have any... all the rest Peurto ricans, africans, muslims etc etc strictly come here to exploit our benefits... i stood behind a woman the other day in the Rite Aid line on her cell phone using her WIC card telling her sister to move here from new jersey because if she has a baby here shes automatically enrolled in welfare, social service, WIC and the rest of the teet suckling best benefits...she even said that some of the delis give her pre paid cell phones with her WIC card... then she left the store and got into her boyfriend/husband's double parked Cadillac Escalade out front...great city/state/county we have here... PATHETIC

Assaroni- WIC is a teet sucking best benefit? are you kidding? free cheese, dairy products and cereal for pregnant woman and small children is really just a handout to dairy farmers and grocery stores that actually does benefit the poor. It is the people that looted Wall St. (and your retirement) that should make you mad, that's where the big pigs pigs fed from the public trough and left the rest of us holding the bag.

Sorry to say folks it will take more than a gallery / coffee shop to save Grant Street. unless the owners are going to police the neighborhood their patrons will only be bait for the criminals.