Over the weekend I headed down to the foot of Ferry to see how the Earth Day cleanup was going along the Niagara River. When I arrived to Broderick Park I discovered that Riverkeeper had beat me to the cleanup. The area was clean and there was a blue sign left behind that read, “Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper – Clean Up Site”. So instead of documenting the cleanup I decided to observe the layout of Broderick Park. Like many of Buffalo’s other public waterfront properties, Broderick Park suffers greatly from the incredible number of parking spaces that take up valuable waterfront land.
Maybe in this case it is because the entrance to the Buffalo Sewer Authority Wastewater Treatment Plant is also found on the land… along the Black Rock Canal. That means that on one side of the park we have parking, while on the other side of the park we have the Sewer Authority’s driveway. I asked the official at the Sewer Authority entrance if there was another entranceway to the plant and she told me that there was an entrance on Squaw Island. I was actually familiar with that entrance, but was not sure if it was operational. If the Sewer Authority consolidated to one entranceway, Broderick Park would benefit. Many of the people who use this park live on the West Side of Buffalo. These people walk to the park… I have rarely seen more than a dozen cars parked along the river. The waterfront parking at Broderick could be lessened due to the overabundance of spaces, and like Squaw Island, the park could be returned to the people… not the cars.
Broderick Park was the last stop on the Underground Railroad before slaves headed on to Canada. There is an abandoned hotdog stand there that should be given to some entity involved with promoting that historical significance. Pastor Darius Pridgeon of True Bethel Baptist Church would be perfect for the project considering that he has successfully operated a Subway restaurant at his church where he trains young people for entering the workplace.