Buffalo Rising Online

I think the entire scope of the Niagara Expressway is incorrect and the reforms are to extreme in either relocating, removing it, etc.

Now that the Erie Barge Canal isnt in use commercially that much anymore....there isnt any reason it cant be narrowed and the banks of the Niagara Expressway expanded. Heck the Erie Barge Canal is due for a dredging...why not put all that muck on the banks and build them up.

There isnt any reason why the Niagara Expressway has to be an expressway at all. It could be a high speed parkway. There isnt much difference...but it would change how we interact with this stretch of land.

There isnt any reason why more areas cant be below grade or decked over, particularly with a building. The views would be incredible.

There also isnt any reason why there cant be parking areas on the shoulder of Niagara Expressway so the banks can get some recreational use.

There is also no reason why there cannot be some trees and landscaping on those banks.

The Niagara Expressway is due for a rethink....and it should be a public discussion particularly since the scajaquada interchange is an (fill in word).....and the entire expressway is both a necessity and an urban scar.

looks like one ugly view to me.

A little reminder....Chicago once didnt have Lake Shore Boulevard or its beaches

They dredged and filled it all in....now it would be a mistake to fill in the barge canal but there isnt a reason why it cant be narrowed or why the bank separating the barge canal from the Niagara River cant be moved further out into the Niagara River.

You know dredging and landfills arent an alien concept to Buffalo. Squaw Island at the foot of ferry where the Sewar Treatment plant is located was a landfill garbage dump.....I think Motor Island in the Niagara River and a few other Islands were landfill as well.....good portions of the Outer Harbor were created from dredging landfill.

Yes change costs money whether its downgrading to a parkway, decking over, dredging and landfill...but the point is simply that if we dont put forward these ideas FOR OUR COMMUNITY then albany will be more than happy to tell us what their willing or not willing to do for our benefit.

Which would you rather have....us deciding whats best for our community or an albany burocrat 500 miles away

It could be a fast-moving boulevard, too, with synchronized stop lights and direct access from streets from the West Side.

Vancouver doesn't have a single highway in the entire city limits - not one! - yet somehow deliveries are made and the city is a hotbed of cross-border economic activity.

heather...downgrading it to a parkway would only lower the speed limit maybe 5 or 10 mph....but it would allow many pull-over and park areas making large stretches of the current niagara expressway that are inaccessable for any type of use....accessable.

No one is advocating reducing the density of neighborhoods along the Niagara Expressway though that blight is happening naturally

My suggestion is to dredge the Erie Barge Canal and build up the banks along the Niagara Expressway so their more substantial than they are now.

There is no Barge Canal after Hertel, between Hertel all the way up to Sheridan Drive that land along the Niagara Expressway can be filled in with land fill. Heck they could dredge all that area in the Buffalo Harbor and put the fill right along this river front.

Put a 10-20 year plan out there to fill in that section of the Niagara Expressway and it would be cheaper than moving it. Dirt is cheap! Fill is cheap! In 10-20 years we could go from a waterfront expressway to a waterfront parkway with real park and harbors.

The waterfront is the one asset Buffalo can use to draw people and business. Using it as a place for traffic is not only foolish but backwards. Most cities have are far ahead of us and have figured this out.

Queenseyes - you have a lot of ideas about roads. Do you actually have to drive on any of these to get where you need to go? Because more and more it seems like you have plenty of ideas for the rest of us. The people who usually think the Bills need a new stadium are the ones who don't actually go to games. The people who think our highways should have more traffic lights and a slower commute don't seem to have to travel on them. You would think that trying to be greener these days we wouldn't want to slow this volume of traffic down and give it more situations to idle. We have plenty of space available for waterfront parks - upgrade LaSalle park, develop the outer harbor. Access to the outer harbor isn't tough to figure out - build another lift bridge. As for dredging the Black Rock channel, that should be done regularly already to keep it at authorized depths. You have to consider, however, if that dredge spoil is actually suitable for regular fill. Most Great Lakes harbors have confined disposal facilities for dredged sediment because it usually contains a lot of hazardous chemicals and materials. There actually is some commercial traffic on that channel up to the oil storage tanks in Tonawanda and the Huntley power plant.

Enrique14150- Its not about roads, or the convenience of your commute. Its about the people LIVING in the communities that are negatively impacted. As for thinking green, cities are the most environmentally friendly choice, COMMUTING is the problem.

as far as dredging....I personally dont care...but no doubt it would be tested and dont forget...if your building out the land by using dredge to fill on...dont forget the final cap doesnt have to be dedge silt but could be a fresh layer of clay and top soil so the dredge could be underwater filler.

There are options....

What best for Buffalo you ask? Go to Jack Davis gives $1.5 million toward UB engineering building for a good

... time.

Joshua, that is GREAT NEWS! It is great to see Jack Davis giving back to the community in ways that will increase his contribution exponentially. The UB Engineering School offers a top notch education, and it is good to know that his contribution is going to make our University even better.

I know that this will probably start some whining about the building not being in Buffalo, probably from the same people who want regionalism and consolidation of services. Why not feel good about UB instead of complaining about it not being in the city.

It is good news, great news if it were built in the City.

This is wonderful news and as I have been saying on Buffalo Rising this is not just a 5,000sqft clean room.

This is the beginning of Buffalos 2nd Center for Excellence. Look at the companies in Buffalo Niagara involved in materials: Gibralter, Buffalo Special Products, American Brass, SanGobain, Dupont, Dunlop, 3M, Occidental, Global Metalurgy, Praxair, Nanodynamics...and that doesnt include the pharmaceuticals and medical instruments and electronics.

As I have been saying, Buffalo has a very strong history with companies involved in materials: Glass, Ceramics, metals, chemicals, gases, plastics and radioactive materials to name a few.

Something no one really knows but Buffalo State partners with UB on material science research. Buffalo State focuses on basic material sciences while UB focuses on nanosciences. Both are needed for full research, development, application and evntually productization.

Think of this....a partnership with UB on Center for Excellence#2 would provide a strong justification to reactivate the beltway to connect Buffalo State and UB since any real partnership and any real consideration for an off-campus research/small business incubating center would have to be light rail connected to all locations.

Rochester has been adding roughly 1 small center for excellence per year. Their last one in Clinical Research added 1,000 jobs. Buffalo is still ramping up its first Center for Excellence.

Every effort should be made for this to be declared Buffalos 2nd Center for Excellence so we can start to market and attract companies here that benefit from close proximity to this research and our natural job talent pool. The sooner we do it, the more jobs...the more companies we will attract and the less people have to leave.

allfit- Can't have those crazies wanting "regionalism" to have a voice. We must work hard to keep WNY from ever moving forward. Can you imagine asking Buffalos neighbors to share the burden, it would ruin decades of suburban planning.

blackrocklifer - I think you missed my point. I read comments from people who preach regionalism, but want to remove easy access to the City with the hope that this move will coerce people to return.

We need easy access to and around the city, we need a variety of options for area residents because Urban living isn't for everyone. We have a lot of work to do to improve the city, problem foremost in people's minds is crime after several children were shot over the past week. You seriously think you can convince someone in Amherst that the city "isn't as bad as it sounds on TV" when you see the chaos that took place on the East Side this weekend. It took a huge effort just to get information to arrest the teen who killed a 14 year old girl. The news says, "the families are finally outraged". Finally? Is this crime related to poverty and lack of opportunity, or is it related to the 'thug life' culture as the aunt of the victim exclaimed during the interview? If so, what do we do to correct the problem?

You want regionalism, then don't close off the roads to the city. If you are truly interested in making Buffalo a better place, then start working on the social ills of the city. I rented an apartment in Tonawanda (Sweet Home schools) last week to a family who was moving from the Minnesota Avenue, they said bluntly "we can't take a chance in living there anymore". You can blame the suburbs, for the family that I rented to, they are thanking god that the suburbs exist.

Buffaloweiner - Please elaborate on the Centers of Excellence model for the readers at home.

The same people that will not cooperate with the police to solve a crime are also the same people that scream descrimination when the police shoot to kill and people die.

When people dont cooperate with the police then the only way to control those thugs is shooting to kill and that means an equal number of police shootings to thug shootings until the message goes out.

South Buffalo and Lackawanna are poor but they still manage to bathe, dress and speak properly without killing people randomly. Thats really the prioblem isnt it. A liberal society that wont discipline its kids, wont use cutting off welfare and social programs to demand responsibility, wont let schools discipline kids, wont let the workplace discipline minorities, and keeps expanding the definition of victim and minority to everyone except white men.

You want to stop the killings. Its simple allow the police to shoot to kill.

allfit- As long as the poor (and the associated problems) are concentrated in the city, nothing will change. It is too easy to pretend society is just fine or to blame the victims for being born into the underclass. I am not defending the 'thugs" but the majority of people just trying to live and prosper under very difficult circumstances. Why are they not afforded the same protection as their suburban neighbors? Why isn't there a regional police force to go where the need is greatest until ALL NEIGHBORHOODS are equally safe?

Oh- and heather- we seldom agree but WOW

Most in the city care about their community and many are passionate and engaged. Most neighborhoods in the city are decent places to raise a family. Most people in the poorest neighborhoods do not have the means to leave. Being forced to carry the regions burden of the poor is the main reason Buffalo is so troubled.

The 190 section between the Peace Bridge & Riverside was reconstructed around 1995 which gives it about 15-20 years left on its 30 year lifespan.

In the next few years, leadership should start securing money to fund an EIS. The EIS will take several years to complete.

It would be ideal to have a plan designed & ready to go by the time the road needs major repair.

South Buffalo, Lackawanna, Blasdell are poor large swaths of Niagara Falls are poor certain sections of kenmore, tonawanda...their poor the truth is harder to swallow...prior to the great liberal LBJ created the Great Society destroying our nation...is was rare for an african american to be a single mother or have an out of wedlock births and the black community was a heck of alot more cohesive and entrepreneurial and safe

No the truth is that the poor white minority they have their trouble makers but on the whole...theer isnt alot of victimization...and the community still points them out and self polices their community

when someone tries to police their neighborhood in say Lovejoy, they are attacked for being prejudiced. There you have the reason....the altar of victimization...explains everything and excuses everything...same with public schools

the result...peoples lives are destroyed

see thats the thing....to much freedom and to little responsibility can be as destructive as to little freedom.

IF the community cannot cooperate with the police then the only way to bring order and safety toa community is gradually tightening and tightening patrols, curfews and even shoot to kill orders.

Yes, there are poor people that just want to go to work, send their kids to school, take care of their home but just as kids cannot learn in a class of misenthropes and districtions ... neither can a neighborhood. Those forces have to be removed. If the neighborhood is complicit, protecting them with accusations of prejudice, then they are as responsible for that environment as the thugs...and the only thing the police can do is shoot to kill. Police, especially in one person patrol cars, know when they are entering a war zone and their life is in danger. If the community wants police to walk into that environment...they shouldnt blame prejudice for shoot first ask questions later.

Heather - There is no solution to poverty and racial disparity. Take a look at the protests at the Republican Natinal Convention today. 400+ people blaming the Republican party for poverty, homelessness, and economic disparity. Nothing like abdicating personal responsibility to a nameless, faceless collective entity,

Before Byron Brown resigns, he should get his ass down to the east side and really do something about the crime. It is a war zone down there and everyone just ignores it.

In addition to the 14 year old girl murdered last week on Hagen St, the 13 year old girl in serious condition from another shooting not far from there Sunday in which her 7 year old sister was wounded, now this. Late Tuesday it's reported that also on Sunday a 15 year old young man who has a full scholarship to Canisius HS was stabbed almost fatally while walking to church. Thankfully it sounds like he'll recover.

'15-Year-Old Stabbed on Buffalo's East Side

... Tim is expected to make a full recovery, although his mother said the blade of the knife was within centimeters of severing his kidney.'

Whole report -

http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=60349&catid=37

In all sincerity, seeing how Byron Brown is black and most of his constituents are black, you would think he/they would want to help their own people.

When do you ever see Byron Brown or constituents interacting with the community on the east side; trying to make it a better place.

The East side is a spitting image of "The Wire" on HBO.

heather you want to know the difference....tightening the grip on a functioning society would be fascist..

what we have on Buffalos Eastside is chaos with law, chaos without order and in many cases the ganges and anti-social behavior is dictated not by civil society but criminal society. Enforcing the law and breaking such a stranglehold in such cases would not be fascism...applying such methods to say Amherst or Hamburg...which have very low crime rates...would be fascist.

Thank you for explaining why the criminals win on the eastside. The police cannot use methods necessary to enforce law on the eastside without accusations of fascism or prejudice and bias...(ie because the same methods used in low crime neighborhoods dont work....of course their not going to work...those methods fit a low crime neighborhood....you have to use different methods in high crime neighborhoods)

Heather yuo are much to idealistic and utopian to safeguard the people of the eastside.

Regionalism - OK, Buffalo - Yes. The only way regionalism is going to work is from a strong City. Support the City and the rest will follow. Support Amherst, and well, do what you want to do.

crisa, the current broadway market was rebuilt in the 1950s. Its little more than a flat parking garage converted to a mini-urban mall.

The original Broadway Market before it was rebuilt...that had the roots and tasts of Polonia.

If the Polish community doesnt live there and their afraid of the area the its days are limited as to how successful it can be long term.

There are 3 long term possibilities but none will help today.

1) encouraging more people to use Genesse & Broadway instead of I-190 and Kensington

2) Redevelopment of the Buffalo Forge site which is just a few blocks away

3) There isnt anything historic about the Broadway Market. Go back to the photos of the original broadway market...and redo the exterior facade to bring back its historical presence.

Visiting the current Broadway Market isnt any more of a historical patronage (from the outside) than visiting a Woolworths or a Kresges or a Grants.

If the Broadway Market is truly historic then celebrate it as historic and replace the exterior facade with something more reminiscent of the original Broadway Market.

There are still sections of Polonia in the white sections of the eastside like Lovejoy etc and losing the Broadway Market would kill surviving Polonia in my opinion though certainly it would keep the Broadway Market alive.

There is one last idea which I submitted to the Olmsted Park Commission. Buffalo didnt have just one farmers market. Nearly every community had one and frankly their becoming increasingly populare. Humboldt Park could easily rebuilt the Parade House and it would make an awesome market. South Buffalo and Riverside are ripe for a market.

Perhaps another future for the Broadway Market is to embrace these small community markets with products from the Broadway Market enticing people from all sections of the city to venture to the Broadway Market to patronize the greater selection.

For many, if they dont go to the Broadway Market, then they dont become a part of its loyal clientelle....diversifying...to local markets would go quite a way to bringing them back.

The problem is the planned containment of the poor in Buffalo. Until middle class Americans are affected nothing will change. If you are lucky enough to be born into the middle class things usually work out and if you are born into the underclass, guess what, things usually don't. And allfit-the reason people are protesting against Republicans is because their policies have widened the already obscene gap between rich and poor.

heather- Few born into poverty have the advantages that we take for granted. I have personally known many kids who had potential but with no one to mentor them they soon become lost. Growing up and living among people of different incomes levels allows an insight that is lacking in your (and others) simplistic black and white view of poverty.

Back to the original topic- We will wise up and remove these highways. Our waterfront real estate is just too valuable to waste and like the old saying goes "they aren't makin any more of it". The desire to live and play by the water will eventually bring change.

heather- Lets define poor as the 70% of children living in poverty in Buffalo. Now lets tell them to stop being victims.

70% is ridiculously wrong. According to this, it was around half that, 36% of Buffalo children in 2005:

http://regional-institute.buffalo.edu/includes/UserDownloads/PolicyBrief_Poverty.pdf

At top of pg 2: '...In Buffalo Niagara, as nationally, 18% of children lived in poverty in 2005, with rates in Buffalo and its largest suburbs ranging widely from 36% in the city to 8% in Cheektowaga. ...'

Table to the left of that text says under-18 poverty rate was 11% in Amherst, 8% in Cheektowaga, 16% in Tonawanda, and 36% in Buffalo. So Tonawanda (evil suburb) that year with 16% was very close to the national rate of 18% child poverty that year. Likely within the margin of error. So if poverty was somehow equally distributed everywhere in the U.S. as blockrocklifer says it should be, Tonawanda would stay almost exactly as it is anyway. Ritsy upscale scum of the earth Amherst was next closest to the U.S. average with 11%.

70% of children in Buffalo Public Schools qualify for a free lunch. This is poor, many times the children of WORKING POOR but still poor and to pretend they are not there is just dishonest.

My mistake- 91% of Buffalo Public School students qualify for a FREE or REDUCED lunch in 2006. Sorry for under reporting. Source- District Administration, a peer magazine

No heather-it is never so simple or black and white.The problem of poverty is grey, and conservative people are uncomfortable in this area of thought.

I'll be nice to- statisics are pretty lame. I hope some of these kids will rise above their circumstances but I know it will only be a few. I have known so many kids who just don't have a chance because their parents if even involved are dysfunctional. Until we break this cycle things will never change and until ALL citizens accept responsibility things will not change.