Buffalo Rising Online

Oct 15th, 12:00am By Joseph McHenry

Confucius said to “study the past if you would divine the future.” On October 2nd, Youth Leadership Erie County (YLEC) heeded his advice. On our first day session of the 2009 YLEC program – “Community History and Governance Day” – it was appropriate that we took a look back, in order to look ahead. By visiting some historic sites, like the Broadway Market, Michigan Street Baptist Church and Buffalo City Hall, which have helped to shape Buffalo’s past, we hope to understand better how Buffalo might use these assets to strengthen its future.

The City of Buffalo is full of so many relics from its storied past just waiting to be reinvigorated and transformed to meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s inhabitants. One of the places YLEC visited on this day was the Broadway Market. Many of us had never been to this historically significant site outside the festive Easter season. It became obvious during our visit that the Broadway Market wants to contribute so much more. The difficult question that faces our community is how to utilize this valuable asset better without radically destroying its character. It’s easy to suggest filling the market with higher-end boutiques that cater to a younger demographic, for example, but how would that affect the family-owned businesses and neighborhoods that have called the Broadway Market home for generations?

Obviously, these aren’t easy questions for anyone to answer. We are learning that the best way to approach this issue and many similar issues in and around the city is to host a community dialogue that helps to spark ideas and consensus.

One such idea that has sprung up consistently in the various community dialogues is using the city’s assets in a manner that makes the city more eco-friendly. Not only is this a tremendous way of raising the quality of life of Buffalonians, today and tomorrow, but it also would go a long way towards helping Buffalo shed the “rust belt” moniker it has long held.

Talking about a “green” Buffalo, classmate Ashley Bauman of Frontier High School said, “I think that if we improve on this issue, people everywhere will realize that we are improving and hopefully they will follow in our footsteps.” Perhaps the best part of this move to green the city is that it has already begun. Success can be seen in diverse places, from the windmills that grace Lackawanna’s landscape beside the old Bethlehem Steel plants, to the sheer numbers of bicycles that can be seen on the streets of Buffalo.

Anyone who takes a trip through Buffalo, like the members of YLEC have, cannot deny that there is much work left to be done. There are scores of examples like the Broadway Market, gems of our community, still wanting to give and waiting for help. However, one cannot deny that, on these same trips one can sense that, perhaps more so than in a long while, there is a keen sense of optimism in the air of our Queen City. An optimism that is being driven by those happy to embrace our past.

We have witnessed this in the opening of the Commercial Slip and the historic Inner Harbor. Despite complex economic circumstances, we heard it helps to keep focus on projects that will further promote commerce and tourism in the city. For example, we learned the redevelopment over the past decade to Toronto’s famed Distillery District could be a template on which Buffalo revitalizes the Cobblestone District.

Creating opportunity for the future is critical in the present. It is clear that Buffalo has the assets to transform itself into a place people will want to visit and, more importantly, stay and live in. From all of us at YLEC, we hear you: Now is the time to get to work, utilize our historical assets and forge the future of this city.

Photo: YLEC members at Community History Day meeting in the Broadway Market with speaker Assistant to the Commissioner of Economic Development David Granville.