Buffalo Rising Online

What about swimming?

topless beach?

Do they need help with the clean-up? If so, please post the contact information and count me in!

This is cool but I bet they have to hire a lifeguard to enforce the no swimming ordinance, which is kind of ironic.

What's the purpose of a beach if you can not swim? I never heard of such a place. Sounds pretty lame to me.

There should be an intersting crowd on that beach, highly doubt you will see any swim suit models.

No way you can prevent people from swimming....little bit of a teason actually on a warm day.....if there is water and a beach, people will swim.

Dixie, good point, but there is no beach at Gateway Park either.

Nonetheless, everytime I go to NT waterfront to ride my bike or roller blade, I am baffled as to why Buffalo does not have a similar park. A park like this with bike trails, etc would kick some serious Butt downtowm.

Put a bike bath from Water authority all the way to Erie Basin.....not that difficult and would bring people down.

Also need to beef up secuirty at Lasalle Park, there are too many sketchballs dealing drugs over there.

Does anyone know who the other people on this Committee are? Our newspaper of record doesn't say this morning.

Nice job, Newell.

+1 Townline's comment.

Nice example of how a bottom up approach works and why its so important.

Will they please allow dogs now? It's silly in a city where so many people own dogs but they aren't allowed in the marina park.

really seems like this beach and other things are inexpensive, "common sense" projects that should have been completed a long time ago. If we allow a few to sell beads, clothes, etc down there it will attaract people to the Erie Canal Musuem as well, that no one really cares about.

Furtherm, a Starbucks should be down there. It should be actively solicited.

It is "coomon sense" projects like these, or lack of foresight from local politicians that has been holding this city back for you year. Buffalo needs to commercialize a little more and get with the times.

How about a boat show in the marina....would be a great event.

More beaches is great news. I hope that this beach being closed to swimming all summer will add pressure to fix our sewer systems. The sewer overflows in the area are devastating to the economy and environment, please fix them.

There is strong current there and it is not a place for unexperiemced swimmers. The only way to have swimming there is to have a net in the water off the shore.

The cove in the Erie Basin Marina catches sand from the currents. However dumping more sand there will see it eventully get removed in a fall wind storm or in the next seiche event. The stone walls are not good for retaining sand. They scower out the shore area.

The best place to construct a beach is at the LaSalle Boat Launch ramp. A little ways off the ramp a small retaining wall with small openings to the lake could be easily constucted in the water. It would resmble the old Fort Erie natural swimming pool. Go up to Fort Erie and look at the ruins of this pool. A fence would have to be constructed on top of the wall to keep people out of the open lake. The concrete ramp could be taken out and a sand beach with shoreline plants behind it could be constucted. This would be a small swimming hole.

The main thing that must be installed there is access to shallower water while keeping people from drownding in the lake. This could be easily and safely done. It is the best spot on the Buffalo for a beach. The water current there is not as fierce as off the Erie basin marina.

Rez, there are strong currents in most public swimming areas. Beaver Island has tremendous currents if you go out too far, so we have lifeguards to keep it safe. There are tremendous currents along most ocean beaches, etc. Advising swimmers of the risks and ensuring that the ignorant are protected from themselves should be relatively easy to do. I saw we construct a beach along Lasalle as well, why not have more than one destination, will the city cramp up if we have more than one destination along the lake?

I believe that we need the public boat launch open. Too many people head to Tonwanda, Grand Island, and other places to launch to avoid paying the stiff prices that some of the marinas charge.

I wouldn't mind seeing a tube rental or kayak rental in place along the lake or river.

Oh, can we bring back Yagotta Regatta too? That was a blast.

The difference between Beaver Island and the Erie Basin Marina is this. Beaver Island is along the shore line. The Erie Basin Marina was designed off the shoreline and thrust into the lake. The current is in closer proximity to the shoreline at the Erie Basin Marina.

Yes there are tremendous currents, tides, and rips in the ocean. The Niagara River on the Buffalo waterfront is not as user friendly at the Erie Basin Marina for swimming. It is an expert swimmer area for watermen and women with expericence in open water. The City of Buffalo will be very reluctant to go along with a beach in an area that has a higher danger factor to the general clueless public. I would love to have a beach built on the waterfront but it is a project that should have decreased risk factors and have a low cost to constuct and high survivability in a seiche event.

Also there is ship and boat concerns that must be addressed. The old LaSalle Park plane launch ramp could be reconfigured for a lower cost and be user friendly and a safe swimming hole. The concrete ramp should be removed and the slope kept and have a sand bottom instead. A small sand dune along the shore with indigenous Great Lakes shore plants would be best to be behind the shore beach and act as a buffer between the park and the lake. A retaining wall with small holes in it for water and fish to pass through would be built out in a way not to interfere with Erie Canal shipping and to keep children and non swimmers from drownding. At the moment the ramp is closed to the general public because of past deaths at this spot that occured at an unguarded spot and to prevent an opportunity for auto thieves to dump cars into the lake. Many non swimmers and beginners have died here when they got into trouble. A wall with some handholds along it would act to make this proposal safer. This spot would have a low maintenance expense to government and could be like a fresh water pool in the lake. It might be advisable to put in some water circulation in this lake swimming pool with a pump run by a small windmill. I would also plant stands of trees behind the dune to preserve the dune and create a curtain/noise buffer for the condo's to the south of the ramp. The trees would also be a deterence from car thieves driving stgolen cars over the beach into the water. Everything we do to make this place a crime free zone makes the City of Buffalo stronger.

Perhaps a long wall could be built a short way off the Erie Basin Marina breakwall and have swimming lanes installed in it. How about a long freshwater pool along the Erie Basin Marina stretch of water? Instead of a beach at the Erie Basin Marina put in a narrow swimming area so that people could swim in relatively shallow water. This long wall would not interfere with shipping and create a pool for people to swim in. If it was wide enough for two or three lanes to swim in. This pool would provide a place that is easy to maintain and swimmer friendly. Swimming, kayaking, and paddleboard competitions could be also held there. Optomize the use of funds, make the project low in risk, and inexpensive to maintain. All these spots would require lifeguards. It could be provide Buffalo high school swimmers another job oportunity. Perhaps to use the pool a small fee would be charged to out of towners and free to all residents of the City of Buffalo.

In my opinion we should instead consider fresh water pools in the area of the Erie Basin Marina and a sand beach at the LaSalle Seaplane ramp.

As for boat launching there is the Erie Basin marina that has plenty of oportunities for that recreational activity. If Buffalo is to be an inclusive city than there should be swimming beachs and fresh water lake pools for all classes of people that are safe, clean, and low maintainence. This plays better to government officials who are not knowledgeable about Lake Erie and the Niagara River. The safer this project is the better chance it has to get built.

Perhaps we could get a couple of police cameras to monitor this area year round.