This first post of a series by Nate Drag of Great Lakes United covering the Healthy Lakes, Healthy Lives Boat Tour stop in Buffalo from June 4th-9th: I spent a week in the Mojave Desert this past month. A friend of mine drove me to his house where I was staying. Through the eight lanes of traffic I watched countless sprinklers watering lawns in the desert. How could these residents be so unaware that they live in a desert? How could they be so unaware of the ecological crisis they are living within? Then I began to wonder whether the…
Author: Great Lakes United
A little while ago I posted a story about a local musician vying for the attention of Anthony Bourdain’s Travel Channel television series, “No Reservations”. For those of you who missed that story, here’s the link, but we can sum it up by saying that Buffalo, thanks to Mr. Starr’s fine work and the votes of many BR readers, came in among the top four finalists. Though Buffalo and Mr. Starr didn’t win the contest, producers of Mr. Bourdain’s program were pleased with all of the finalists and have promised to include them in some way in an upcoming program.…
Monday evening Councilman Brian Davis called me to say that work was being started on clearing the Tower Shoreline Beach. When I asked him when, he said, “They’re working late evening and night so as not to disturb visitors during the day.” So last evening I though I might head over to check out the work in action, but unfortunately the work does not even get underway until after 10pm. When I arrived at 8:30pm I discovered a large crane that was being used to remove the driftwood from the beach. There were also large rolling illumination spotlights so that…
It’s anyone’s guess as to when and if traffic will return to Main Street. Either way, there are sections of Main that could really benefit from the addition of foliage. When the street was adapted for the Metro Rail, it was literally paved from the buildings on the West side of the street to the buildings on the East side. There are vast stretches of paved blocks where bike riders and walkers are king. But at the same time it is easy to recognize which sections need trees, bushes… anything that resembles plant life. Greenery is necessary for a number…
If you happened to be roaming around Allentown last night, chances are that you may have run into a rogue mariachi band. When I first saw these guys at Cozumel they were walking around serenading the diners (and the partiers). Then, once we left to see what other Cinco de Mayo activities were happening at the other establishments, we realized that the band was on the loose. They were walking up and down the street serenading passersby, and they were also popping their heads into places like Sample to sing to the customers. I know that the mariachi band was…
If you’ve been wondering what has been going on at the Elmwood Kentucky Fried Chicken location (corner of Bryant), there is some good news (see original post). I spoke to Dan Leonard, the Elmwood Village Association’s business development specialist, who had this to report on KFC to Go: “Basically, they shut down the operation when a bunch of problems were discovered. I have heard that those problems have been corrected. It turns out that Kentucky Fried Chicken has chosen to remain closed. Now, even if they wanted to reopen they would have to go through a new inspections process. The…
Every once in a while some stores on Elmwood get restless. When that happens you can see a series of stores shifting in and out of locations. Right now, we are seeing a small shift of boutiques moving from block to block and street side to street side. It all starts with Divine Finds vacating its diggs to set up shop at home and on the internet. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been that long since the store moved from Lexington Avenue to Elmwood. It turns out that some vintage clothing shops, in this day and age, can operate without a storefront.…
When recently discussing the new Erie Basin Marina beach, the issue of ‘quality of sand’ was brought up. The reason? Because there is a beach at the NFTA Small Boat Harbor that is very underutilized possibly due to the type of sand found there. Have you ever walked the beach? Have you ever taken a close look at the materials used for sand? It’s basically gravel and rocks, making for an excellent place to take the dogs, but not a great place to build a sandcastle. If you ever head over to the NFTA Small Boat Harbor during the warmer…
Last weekend I found myself on Connecticut Street checking out some of the latest projects, including the Christiano renovation. I stopped in to talk to John Hochadel at Flowers, Etc., who proceeded to tell me about another little grassroots gardening project that I had always wondered about. The well-tended garden that he was referring to was just across the street, and it was already in full bloom. “That garden is maintained by the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors (BNAR),” he told me. “They take excellent care of that corner and I always see someone taking care of it.” The idea…
It was only about a year ago when Bill Zimmermann wrote a post about his concerns that the land surrounding the West Side Rowing Club was not open to the public. At that time, there was a foreboding metal fence that prevented anyone from walking near the point that extended out into the channel. This was also before the shovels had broken ground at the Frank Lloyd Wright Fontana Boathouse. He painted a pretty dismal scenario for anyone who would want to discover the art of rowing. Thankfully, it only took one year to see that scenario completely reverse itself.…