This past weekend, amidst the packed beginning of “festival season” around Western New York (e.g., Allentown Art Festival, Juneteenth Festival, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure), more than 500 volunteers reminded residents of the Lovejoy neighborhood why Buffalo is called the “City of Good Neighbors.” In a matter of about four hours on Saturday morning—despite intermittent rain—volunteers with Brush Up Buffalo repainted 14 homes and the Iron Island Museum. Most of the homeowners were elderly and disabled, and some hadn’t even been outside their homes in months. But even a hidden sun couldn’t stop them from feeling like their…
Author: Dan Gardner
The Olmsted Conservancy has unveiled a plan to invest nearly half a BILLION dollars (yes, with a B) into the Olmsted Park System over the next several years. Funding will target the parks, parkways and traffic circles that make up the system and aims to restore Fredrick Law Olmsted’s vision of a city within a park. Should the entire plan come to fruition, this will be a HUGE step in the revitalization of our city and have a far reaching impact on all communities. Click here to see the Business First article that first reported this.
On recent return home to Buffalo, I was taking my usual tour of the city and talking with a friend about Buffalo’s unfortunate, yet somewhat self-inflicted ranking as America’s second poorest large city. This of course, led to the brainstorming of ideas that would address this ever growing problem. As we continued our drive through the city, we drove down South Park Avenue, past Valley Farms, the now defunct private commercial greenhouse project that former Mayor Masiello once touted as a promising economic engine. While the project failed as a private enterprise, I began to wonder if a similar project…
On recent return home to Buffalo, I was taking my usual tour of the city and talking with a friend about Buffalo’s unfortunate, yet somewhat self-inflicted ranking as America’s second poorest large city. This of course, led to the brainstorming of ideas that would address this ever growing problem. As we continued our drive through the city, we drove down South Park Avenue, past Valley Farms, the now defunct private commercial greenhouse project that former Mayor Masiello once touted as a promising economic engine. While the project failed as a private enterprise, I began to wonder if a similar project…
The recent post comparing Buffalo’s Main Place Mall to the Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis led to a great dialogue over the future of our downtown pedestrian mall. Main Street has traditionally, and will continue to symbolize downtown Buffalo. Now, with $50 million available for Main Street’s revival, it is critical that the right decisions be made about its future. Almost as long as I can remember, people have been floating the idea of reintroducing traffic to Main Street. While the effects of the Pedestrian Mall on Main Street can and should be debated, I am not aware of any recent,…
I was wondering how the community feels about the renewed push to introduce traffic back to the Main Street Pedestrian Mall. Currently, I live in the Minneapolis, MN area (although desperately missing Buffalo) which has a large, thriving Pedestrian Mall in the downtown core called Nicollet Mall. While there are a number of minor differences between the two pedestrian malls, I believe that our leadership may be making a HUGE mistake by initiating a long-term project to bring automobiles back to this district. First, let me point out a few of the differences between the Buffalo and Minneapolis Malls… -…