In recent months, a number of occurrences in Buffalo have signaled to me that Buffalo is on the right path. When I was young, the only toy store in the city, Clayton’s, packed up and moved to the suburbs. I’ll never forget the day, although I must admit that I was too young to understand that there was a massive shift underway, and the city was in trouble. To this day, I believe that when Clayton’s abandoned the city, something deep inside me awoke, although for many years I wouldn’t actually understand the true meaning of the vacant storefront that the toy store left in its stead.
A few years after Clayton’s closed its doors, leaving Elmwood without a toy store (TreeHouse came much later), my favorite restaurant – Ted’s Hot Dogs – pulled up stakes on Porter Avenue, and headed to the burbs. Throughout my childhood, Ted’s was the place that my family took me and my siblings on Saturday afternoons, to sit out on the picnic tables and enjoy lunch. When Ted’s left, I knew that something was wrong, but still, I was too young to figure out exactly what it all meant (see Ted’s history).
Last week I was called by a media (video production) company in Vancouver to talk about the slump of Buffalo, and the recent rebirth. Until that point I hadn’t actually thought back to that one-two punch that left me reeling in my youth, but the recent announcements that Clayton’s and Ted’s were both coming back to the city, and apparently super-sizing in the process*, helped to put some things in perspective. It seems that I never got over the slight. In the back my mind, I always knew that Ted’s would come back to the city, once the time was right. But I never, in a million years, thought that Clayton’s would ever make a comeback (see history of Clayton’s).
Thinking back to Buffalo’s dark days, and everything that we have accomplished in recent years, I have to pinch myself when I think about the return of Ted’s and Clayton’s. To many people, this might not seem like that big of a deal, but to a young kid who measured his city’s worth by the places that held the fondest memories, it’s no wonder that I decided to join the fight for Buffalo as a young man.
Until I was interviewed by the Vancouver media company, I never put those losses, and the recent gains, into perspective. Today there is so much going on in Buffalo, that these types of advancements can actually get lost in the shuffle. For me, it’s a triumphant day when two iconic businesses from my youth both decide at the same time, that Buffalo is ready for a long overdue return.
See the return of Ted’s Hot Dogs on Chippewa
See the return of Clayton’s at HarborCenter
*Ted’s will also be a place watch sports, and Clayton’s will be situated inside a substantial complex