Providence R.I. put the equivilent of the Walden Galleria right in the middle of their downtown about a decade ago and just in the past few years they are seeing a resurgance, new hotels, restarunts and housing, now I'm not advocating this for Buffalo but I see many similarities between Providence and Buffalo, and I wonder if canal side along with projects like the Dulski revamp might put us in 5 years where Providence is today?
urbanesque you're right on the mark local resources should be used as leverage to getting business into the area. Not sure where the settlement with the New York State Power Authorty leaves us currently other then the millions they are giving us for use of the Hydro Dam in Niagara Falls NY for the next 50 years.
Lack of housing opportunites.
Suburban sprawl. We are losing population, yet we are developing our 4th ring suburbs.
Working downtown I get to walk up and down Main Street often. It’s embarrassing. So much city architecture wasted. I wonder if closing Elmwood Avenue to traffic and making it a pedestrian mall would be a good idea too.
I agree with the analysis but I would add that just as the pedestrian mall didn't kill downtown retail (or Main St.) I think people will be surprised and perhaps disappointed that putting cars back on Main St. isn't going to spark a revival of downtown retail. I would not spend any money reopening Main St. to cars because there are better, more effective ways to spend money downtown.
Retail is one of many essential elements that we should use to gauge the relative health and wellness of Buffalo and our economy; it should not be a target in and of itself. We need to focus our collective and individual passion, energy and influence on the more meaningful, if not less tangible, targets that will lead to the growth and development of the entire region. I believe that the future of WNY is the control and brokering of our natural resources and the energy that they provide. People will move, businesses will relocate, but the Great Lakes and Niagara Falls are going to remain where they are. Unfortunately, our myopic ancestors decided that it would be best to ship the power and brilliance of the Great Lakes to others instead of having them come here to take advantage of them. At the very least, we should have some of the cheapest water and power rates in the nation. In a world where resources are growing scarcer, we should really look to this as our bread and butter. The retail will come shortly thereafter, I promise.
Dan, a very interesting comment turned article. With all the facts you have at hand, you make a compelling case and I don't doubt that you're right. But what has always struck me as something of a cruel joke in Buffalo related to Metro Rail, the pedestrian mall, and the potential for street-level retail downtown: Metro Rail runs fewer trains and shuts down altogether *way* early on Sundays. So no cars *and* no trains. Result: I've been on Main Street downtown on a Sunday evening, and could have sworn I saw tumbleweeds blowing by...
Scooter, what lack of housing opportunities? Buffalo within a few miles of downtown has had a big suprplus of housing for many years now. More housing than people to be housed. Granted, not right downtown but that shouldn't be necessary.
What happended was pretty simple, and as Ghengis points out, nothing to do with closures or strategies of all those stores mentioned in the article. They would've been replaced if the customer base was there.
Simply put, enough of a majority of shoppers over the years decided they prefer "suburban style" shopping. For the smaller percent who did/do prefer downtown shopping, in theory they could be enough to have some retail downtown if the city or even the metro area was sufficiently growing in population and growing in purchasing power (job market).
But instead, the portion around here who prefer downtown shopping became a shrinking percent of a shrinking population whose average income has below-average growth, and eventually a tipping point was reached.
I work downtown and I think patronizing local downtown commercial and restaurant establishments is crucial; I prefer Buffalo's ambience and culture over Galleria Mall anyday; I don't even step into that mall, what a mess. Elmwood Ave is a great shopping district what a great jewel in this city and both my Wife and I like to do our Christmas shopping there as well; nice eclectic selection of shops, and local arts and crafts product as well. Unless their are any new arrivalsto the area here we know there are changes happening all around Buffalo and this region, all of which are undeniably leading to a Buffalo with a more vibrant core which will open commercial establishments once more. Easier access to downtown and also more importantly the current rise in residential development and influx of people wanting to live downtown will make Main St. come back to life. Waterfront Place is just another fine example of a new high end residential living option in downtown, last time I heard the 49 unit Condo tower was already half purchased. University of Buffalo developments adjoing the medical corridor will also bring an influx of students and people who want to live in metro as well, lofts and apartments are going up in a number of areas. Now the access piece of the puzzle; one of the greatest things to happen as of late and that I do not think anyone mentioned is the removal of the Breckenridge and Ogden toll barriers, I believe this tied with a restored mixed use Main Street, auto and metro will once again allow easier access to downtown Buffalo, one less hurtle. In the future I an hoping the Metro rail will be extended above or below ground all the way to Airport from UB Main Street Campus again more public access more influx of people more capital coming downtown; will that happen any time soon realisticaly no but it will it's another step in the right direction.
I wonder if closing Elmwood Avenue to traffic and making it a pedestrian mall would be a good idea too.
Larkin, now THAT would be the biggest thing ever. Or at least more than the previous one. Then we'd be all set for Elmwood Monorail. Or for horses to make their big comeback. Good thing the preservationists fought to keep all those carriage houses standing when everybody else wanted to demolish them. Or Critical Mass bike people could take over. Some kind of "progress" like that. The anti-car crowd would plan things out for everyone. Sandwich shops would re-open. Bagels too. The record and video stores would come back. It's gold, Jerry, gold!
Buffalonians killed downtown shopping, we made a very conscious decision to abandon the downtown core for a variety of reasons, these include the metro, changes to shopping habits, the increase in women in the workplace, moves to the suburbs, safety concerns, and over-inflated prices in the stores that remained. We decided to start shopping elsewhere, for convenience and cost savings and that trend isn't changing. We can pine for the department stores, or site new urban shopping districts in a few cities to give us hope, but ultimately the success or failure of retail shopping in Downtown will come down to convincing Buffalonians that this is the 'place to shop'.
Remember that there is retail in Buffalo that we need to foster and support and restaurants that are in jeopardy of closing if we don't frequent them more often. So while some of you are 'in exile' in the suburbs try making a special trip downtown to get your saline spray and cough syrup. If you need new clothes, take a special trip to one of the boutiques along Hertel, Main, Elmwood, etc. The money that you divert from the Galleria, the Niagara Outlets, or Amazon will help to prove that Buffalo is a viable market.
We aren't going to bring retail back with just some $5.00 cups of Chai or fishing lures at the Bass Pro, it is going to take many Buffalonians to make a change in their collective shopping habits. This is the reason for success of downtown retail in Denver, Chicago, and Charlottesville (is that even a city?), etc.
Hospitable - I believe that you are looking at the retail / downtown situation with your own agenda in mind. You just recited the same rhetoric that everyone else has stated here and in every other thread about downtown. Very original. Let's sum it up. 1) Blame the suburbs 2) Blame the whites 3) Blame UB 4) Blame big business 5) Blame the cars 6) Blame the politicians 7) Blame the state 8) Blame the suburbs again 9) Blame the whites some more... In other words, it is all a big conspiracy and always someone else's fault. We don't have retail downtown because we don't have people downtown. We don't even have a decent grocery store downtown (refer to the NEO post).
I am not saying that these things didn't happen, but you fail to really evaluate the root cause of the issues. People left the city in part because of the cars, take a look at the reasons that people left the city, it wasn't just to 'escape the blacks', it was to move to a nicer, planned community. They had control over their community, they were part of the community and didn't feel as helpless as they did in the city. Remember the saying, "you can't fight city hall", put yourself in that position for a while and you will seek out an alternative to your current situation as well. People typically desired to live in better areas, the city was crowded, polluted, and congested, and at that time the suburbs were the opposite. The mass production of autos, the drop in price of cars, the baby boomer generation, and the need for space all contributed to the development of suburbs. So it is more than just a simple case of mass racism, there are other factors that contributed to the migration out of the city, unfortunately many African Americans were not in a position to take the same advantages as white Americans, this is where racism plays a big part in suburban development. I guess it is easier to blame an uncontrollable specter of racism instead of looking at the real problem, eh?
Consider the factors for building UB in Amherst, it was a community decision because the residents at that time felt that UB would be detrimental to the community. Keep in mind that Buffalo was a largely blue collar city, many of the residents didn't even have a high school diploma, much less a college education. They saw UB in a completely different light than we see it today. Consider UB from a 1965 perspective, not a 2007 perspective, review the news paper articles and community protests and lawsuits against the expansion into the University Heights or building near the waterfront. Buffalo chose to move UB to Amherst, they thought it was the best idea at the time.
As far as 'urban renewal' goes, the planners, politicians, and most of the major decision makers in the architectural planning community felt that this was the best thing at the time. I can only imagine how people will look at the demise of the Skyway and Thruway complexes in 50 years, they will either love us for it, or see it as the big blunder that stagnated or interfered with growth in Buffalo. I have no idea which way it will go, but in much the same way that UB has been a tremendous success in Amherst, and we curse the decision makers for that, at the time that the decision makers thought that this was best for Buffalo. We'll see how that plays out over the next few decades.
It is easy to second guess from today's vantage point, but you fail to realize the constraints that people were under when the decisions that you easily deride were made.
Denver has a very successful transit mall that is similiar in many ways to Buffalo. I think the concentration of office and residential use in denver helps although one notable difference is the frequency of transit service. The bus on the mall runs every minute or two meaning it is very easy to move up and down the corridor - there is barely any waiting. They also didn't spend money on extraneous arches and other street architecture but rather spent it on granite paving and great tree planting which gives it a much nicer character then buffalo's Main Street.
An increase in density downtown would obviously help Main Street but also would it be feasible to add service to the corridor where you may have trollys on Main that runs every 2 minutes between the theater district and the waterfront interspersed with the light rail on 10 or 20 minute intervals that goes out to South Campus (and hopefully beyond oneday.) More people downtown whether living or working is the critical component to the revival of main street and there are other examples such as denver that prove ped malls can work especially why the transit component is frequent and easy.
everything closes at 6pm and the train stops at 12 am. besides restaurants and theaters what else is there? not many people live nearby to keep the department stores open, either. i look down main on a friday night and its a ghost town. i dont think that's really the train's fault.
dont worry everyone. segways will make mass transit redundant, rebuild our cities, save gas, and feed our children. then main street will come back, including hens and kellys grants, marine bank. . .
In the 1950s thru 1980s no city could compete with the suburban desire for ranches, backyards and free and convenient parking. NOT TO MENTION IT SEEMED LIKE THE CITY AND THE POLICE ACTUALLY CONSPIRED TO KILL THE CITY....STREETS NEVER PAVED, CLEANED, SWEPT....SIDEWALKS NEVER REPAIRED....AND PARKING TICKETS.
why pay to park when one can park free why make the effort to patronize buffalo even for a sale when every trip is risking a $50+ ticket.
The light rail to UB and the Airport and Niagara Falls and South Buffalo could have alleviated many of those problems and make patronizing the city nearly as cheap and convenient and safe as the suburbs.
and ill say again, it wasnt metro rail that kept cars off main street. the decision to make it a pedestrian mall did ( i guess somewhat obviously). streetcars ran through the city's commercial districts with autos into the fifties - well in the auto age.
chik - realistically that won't happen. People on a large scale won't change their behavior often enough just to make sure that more retail stores can be downtown (or anyhwere). That just doesn't happen. Goes against human nature.
So while some of you are 'in exile' in the suburbs try making a special trip downtown to get your saline spray and cough syrup. If you need new clothes, take a special trip to one of the boutiques along Hertel, Main, Elmwood, etc. The money that you divert from the Galleria, the Niagara Outlets, or Amazon will help to prove that Buffalo is a viable market.
If downtown retail is ever to revive, it will have to be as a result of it becoming much more desirable to many more people (whihc in turn implies some turnaround in population and/or job situations, which aren't happening). It won't happen by some charity type behavior of people shopping there out of some imagined civic duty to "prove Buffalo is a viable market" (which it wouldn't be proving anyhow, if it's being done for that reason)
Can anybody explain to me why it's so very important that downtown have a lot more retail? Aren't there about 100 more pressing problems that Buffalo residents are facing? I understand it would be convenient for downtown workers and visitors if they could shop nearby, but if there just aren't enough of them who want to shop there often enough, and with enough money, to justify stores around there then so be it. How is it worth so much prioritization, drama, tax subsidies, etc.? Isn't the better apporach to make the city as safe and clean as possible, work toward a business environment that promotes an improved job situation, and then retail will have good solid reasons to WANT TO be there?
I think the end of the "two-martini" lunch is what killed Main Street!
Lack of convenience killed downtown shopping. When people shop they look for bargains. If one has to pay $5 for parking plus lug all your goods from store to store outside in the elements during the winter as opposed to going to an enclosed mall, where would you shop? We lived in the city when I was a child and as soon as the malls opened up, my Mom never went downtown to shop again. Why would she? This was years before Metro Rail.
The only retail we will ever see downtown again will be stores that service a strong downtown community, which I believe will happen in time. Returning cars to Main Street will create more critical mass but will not give a shot in the arm to retail. Not extending Metro Rail to the burbs is a huge mistake. I wouold like to see the train extended to the Falls, tying tourism together.
First housing went to suburbs after WWII, then followed the services for those people i.e. retail, grocery stores, daily activities, then employment centers and F.I.R.E. (financial, insurance, real estate firms). Now we have huge edge cities, i.e. Amherst that have all of these for the automobile dependent. This was done very intentionally and deliberately. However, once we reach that critical mass needed in the CBD, we can expect retail to follow. Anyone see the new Tim Hortons to open on Court & Main? I would expect more food service biz before any retail comes. Canalside being the exception.
While I agree that Metro Rail was not the single biggest factor in the demise of downtown retail, I don't think that the absence of downtown retail in a city like Buffalo is inevitable. I've heard some people say that unless you're in a major city like New York, Boston or Chicago, you can't expect retail to be able to survive downtown or in the city as a whole. There are some examples of cities not that much larger or more glamorous than Buffalo that still retain downtown retail, though not as strong a presence as there once was.
Cincinnati and Pittsburgh come to mind as examples of cities with at least two major department stores downtown, along with a good selection of "mall stores". Shadyside, best described as Pittsburgh's version of the Elmwood Village, has Banana Republic, Gap, American Apparel, Apple Store, and others. In Cincinnati, the University Heights area is home to an Urban Outfitters in a renovated church. I know, the anti-chain people are grateful that we don't have any of these things in Buffalo, but their presence is an indicator of retail health.
I'm not saying that Buffalo needs to be just like some other city somewhere else, but I think that healthy retail in Buffalo should not be thought of as a pipe dream that can never be achieved. Just a couple of short years ago, I thought that getting a Tim Hortons downtown was an impossible pipe dream. Now we have 3, with the latest one about to open within spitting distance of my former place of employment. Now that I'm in exile, working in Amherst, I sure do wish I still worked downtown. I miss all the delicious lunch options that I could just walk to, without spending my entire lunch hour waiting at traffic lights on Maple Rd. I even miss running into the ridiculously small CVS.
More doughnut shops will bring life back into Downtown. If enough doughnut shops opened along the Metro Rail line, people would have little option but to ride the rails to get their daily fix. Dunkin', Tim Horton's, Winchell's, even small boutique and artisanal doughnut "crafters" could all get in on the action. Eventually, huge doughnut conglomerates would take notice and start to buy up all of the local outlets and consolidate them into huge, multistory doughnut emporiums. Some of these might even branch out into selling.... clothes and cosmetics! Thus the cycle of life Downtown would repeat and the Major department stores would be reborn,( though only selling plus-sizes and home defibrillators.)
shrinking population, poor housing downtown, no jobs, stores close. A simple formula. Thankfully this has begun to reverse. If people live in an area retail follows. Simple economics. Supply and demand.
Glad to hear the "Metro Rail killed downtown" myth exploded. Rochester and Syracuse and Utica and Albany have no more downtown retail than Buffalo does. All of them have traffic on their Main streets. If cars on Main Street was so essential, their downtowns would be booming.
If Fill was correct about parking, then downtown, in which about 50% of the real estate is devoted to parking, would have all the vitality and Elmwood and Allentown, which have very little off-street parking, would have tumbleweeds. Metro Rail didn't kill downtown, trading in destinations (AKA buildings) for parking killed downtown.
I think that Crazed touches on a major factor in the death of CBD shopping - the lack of free parking. People are totally attached to their autos. No one in his right mind is going to pay outrageous parking fees downtown when they can jump into their cars and drive to a mall or plaza where the parking is free. I think that City Hall is largely to blame for this problem. Politicians simply cannot see beyond the quarters harvested from parking meters.
I'm glad Steel takes a whack at the "metro killed downtown traffic". I moved to Buffalo in 1975, a few years before the trolley was run, constructed or even publicly announced. As a native NYCer, I loved Buffalo (and its environs) but there was scant traffic, pedestrian or vehicular, on Main Street at that time.
I can't say that metrorail has brought more people downtown but there are now more lunchtime pedestrians on the street looking for a place to eat than there was in the 1970s and 1980s.
"White Flight" to the 'burbs has been the greatest factor in the decay of downtown. WNYers have a heightened sense of race and safety. To this day, many white suburbanites consider Buffalo a crimeland out of a Johnny Carson monologue... check your wallet at the cityline, then a challenge course of dodging hookers, winos and muggers.
Downtown needs more places to serve daytime "residents" of downtown (those working in government, law, F.I.R.E. (as described above), the arts and not-for-profits...
In large part, Elmwood (between Bryant and Lafayette) thrives merely by answering the question "where should we go for lunch" for the thousands who work at Children's Hospital.
When I worked downtown, in the 80s and early 90s, one could still run errands downtown on lunch break... a fast bite to eat, shop, pay bills, and the like... Woolworths on Main Street was active until it closed doors because it provided services needed by poor people (who lived nearby or who took bus to downtown)... check cashing, bill paying, inexpensive merchandise...
Buffalo's department stores have always been out of date... drab interiors, lacksidaiscal service, merchandise out of sync with customer needs.
Taylor's failed because it's plan to cater to high end consumers was unsupportable... not enough high end consumers in that area. (Its liquidation sale when closing brought out the consumers who deserve a store downtown... people willing to pay $100 for a $500 outfit... bargain hunters)
Look at the popularity of the Tuesday/Thursday Farmers Market... wouldn't an urban grocery store (such as Whole Foods or Trader Joe's in NYC's Union Square) be a service to that same population of buyers.
Meet the needs of the population who are already there. IKEA (I know, I know.... the company wants sites with more population)... Gap (there used to be one in Main Place Mall), Old Navy... Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Syms...
Meet the real needs of the population that is already downtown.
Well well well...
First of all, I think it was the metro rail that put the final nail in the coffin. my parents have told me that main street was "alive" ( don't mistake alive for a slight pulse) until the 1980's. The lack of traffic is what killed what was left.
Things were worse back then.... and the was a group of interesting proposals on the board for mass transit and rail lines in and around the city that could of made downtown retail work at one time. But RACISM, white flight, the suburbs, and the death of a useful mass transit system is what killed downtown retail.
Crazed Da Loon.. very suburban attitude you have there... but 100% dead on. Funny thing is out door shopping and life centers work in climates and cities much much colder and harsher than ours. PARKING PARKING PARKING... god I think its in our DNA.
I don't think opening traffic to main street is going to be a retail "done deal"... but it will finally give the opportunity for main street to finally be marketed as a destination. There was a thread I came across not to long ago on another story that said we built the pedestrian mall and no one promoted it!! It's a step in the right direction for car crazy Buffalo.
Top 10:
1. Racism, White Flight 2. Loss of 70,000 jobs in the late 70's and early 80's. 3. Retail consolidation - we're not alone in this one people. ( i.e. Cleveland, Rochester, even Chicago as of recently) 4. Death of a useful monorail: excellant investment, starting in a dead part of town and ending in a dead part of town. The only real reason to take the damn train is if you live near it or theres a sabres game avoid the traffic. 5. Urban Renewal - Not only did this destroy some of the cities most treasured assets, but it was prolly the 2nd biggest source of job loss next to the closure of Bethelem 6. The Buffalo Auto Club 7. Racism 8. Suburban Shopping Malls 9. UB in amherst 10. Anti-city attitude prevalent in the majority of the late 1950's-90's.
1 for good luck: Lack of a qualified retail leader, who's working on this. Bringing everyday services and shoping back downtown?? NO one to my knowledge
Tinker...I find your post very humorous... and quite philosophical. I find that urban "philosophers" tend to ignore the cold hard facts in search of the deeper meanings of why people do what they do. It's laid there.. right in front of you.
Ooo and I write with my own "agenda" do I....thank you for making me feel all secret agent like...everybody writes with their own agenda.
"We don't have retail downtown because we don't have people downtown. We don't even have a decent grocery store downtown (refer to the NEO post)."..and why is this the way it is??
- Granted there was a huge movement mid century across the country from city to suburb.. won't deny that.. but there where an astounding number of homegrown factors implemented that aided the process... ( i.e. We can attribute many of the occurances the rest and I have mentioned in this post to the destruction of Buffalo... philosphical terms.. so you can understand)...
I'm just a realist...the suburban movement of mid century and the combination of what I've mentioned in my previous post is what destroyed downtown and its retail.
It's very different to compare Buffalo to a Providence, e.g., because we're simply not part of that Boston - NYC - DC megalopolis.
On other topics,
Pedestrian Malls are generally successful in places that rely heavily on quality mass transit, and they're seldom created on main arterials. The NFTA wouldn't know quality, attractive mass transit if it smacked them in the head. So, what works in Copenhagen, Zurich, and Amsterdam isn't necessarily going to work in Buffalo. A cluster of pedestrian-only streets off Main Street might have worked, but there's no real mass of people doing any walking downtown anyway. The point is to give a large volume of pedestrians an area to walk without cars. Where's that?
All department stores are in trouble, and the market has changed so that Target and Wal*Mart and Kohl's have replaced them, for the most part. Main Street can be revived, but it will best happen organically.
As for white flight, isn't it a bit late now to blame everything, including but not limited to global warming, on that? That was a generation ago. A little less whinging and a bit more thinking about how to attract people back to the city might be in order.
OTOH, we could file lawsuits against new condo builds too. That might work.
Seriously. You raise a good point regarding retail. I will retract my comment implying that the rail ruined Main St. My question which to me seems to be the most logical at this point is; what has the surface rail done to help downtown buffalo and Main St?
I hope the overwhelming response is; Nothing, because it doesnt service enough of the community.
Parking is one of the only things that makes money downtown. You are better off tearing down a building and putting in a parking lot than you are trying to find tenants to occupy your first floor retail and upper apartments. Take a stroll downtown and you will see that landlords have given up, they haven't changed their 'for lease' or 'for rent' signs in decades. Tear it down and put in a parking lot though and you will have a daily revenue stream, especially during events like hockey games and concerts. It has nothing to do with shopping or people, it has to do with making money.
Talk to people from the suburbs and they will tell you that the city is still full of crime. Work on that first.
Cities that are not in decline generally have retail downtown. When the Buffalo stores closed, it was economically unreasonable to open new ones there. Based on evidence and national trends, opening stores in the burgeoning suburbs made more sense from a business standpoint. Otherwise the department stores would have just switched over to Macy's or some other chain. Certainly the metro rail didn't help any, but it's almost cliche about rust belt cities... if you want to actually go shopping you have to go out to the suburbs.
Many cities lost their downtown department stores, but not all of them saw a complete implosion of all their dowtown retail..
Well, I don't know the whys or hows...but some pedestrian malls obviously work. I loved visiting the pedestrian mall in Charlottesville... amazing! My friends and I would just go down there weekends, weekdays...whenever we had spare time. There is aton of small business and residential in and around the mall too. http://www.charlottesville.org/Index.aspx?page=177
You would think an area with population growth, a healthy economy, plenty of jobs, etc. would mean thriving downtown retail. Not so in Las Vegas, where the downtown area has been a thorn in Oscar Mayor's side for years. Fastest growing metro in the nation, non-gaming revenue has been healthy, but downtown continues to slide. The city spent $32 Milliion for an underground parking garage, close to $100 million + for the "Fremont Street Experience" and still the numbers are down. "Neonopolis" was supposed to to be the crown jewel for downtown retail and it has tanked, last report I saw they were trying to convert it to office space to house a Spanish language newspaper and TV station. Major retail fled the downtown area years ago and even the hotels are seeing their numbers decline.
Yeah, beware the false hopes that undergird so many urban indoor malls such as the one in Providence! St.Louis. Philadelphia,Norfolk, and other cities saw this '80's trend fizzle out in their communities. It's foolish to believe that importing what is essentially a suburban building type into a dense urban setting would attract people from the suburbs back into the city. That same thinking was behind the ridiculous Urban Renewal schemes of the 1960's. "Crime", "parking", "congestion", everything becomes an excuse not to visit these places. At the end of the day, they were just poorly designed environments that did nothing to stimulate the experiences of suburbanite and urbanite alike. Cities like Buffalo should definitely scrap it out with their parasitic suburbs and reclaim lost gross receipts but we need to be inventive and even extraordinary to make it work. A Walden Galleria won't be enough..it shouldn't be enough even for Walden.
Ever been to the Twin Cities (no NOT Tonawanda/North Tonawanda)? Minneapolis has a very successful downtown pedestrian mall that allows bus and bike traffic only. It intersects with their Hiawatha Light Rail (Mall of America - Airport - Downtown route) and is very busy with foot traffic and lots of retail and commercial space both large and small (including a Target flagship department store). So no, I don't you can blame the decline on the lack of cars.
Good point, SLEEP. Amherst did not want the LRRT to come into their community and connect to the student population that is basically stranded there without a vehicle. Also, loca, state and federal policy really prohibited the benefit and utilization that we could receive out of having a mass transit system like this in our community. Initial EIS called for poposal of two other lines that went east-west in the tonawandas and sheridan corridor, and also north past UB north campus into the audobon area.
I moved to Buffalo in '68 and lived in the area until 2000 when I moved to Indianapolis. I still miss Bflo and the wonderful people. Since moving to Indy, the one thing that still astounds me is the busy downtown. It's so different from what I was used to. In the 30+ yrs of living in Buffalo I watched the downtown fade. Meanwhile Indy on a weekend evening - the sidewalks are actually crowded with people walking from club to club, eating at one of the great resturants, or just enjoying a walk with friends while checking out the people. It's a great place to go, and do they ever. Those in town on business or at a convention , and locals from suburbs - all come to be a part of "what's happening" in the city. From what I'm told, it wasn't like that 25 yrs ago. What changed? Good politics. Those in power made revitalization a priority and now, there are rock and jazz clubs, resturants, Circle Center Mall (you can get there by covered overhead walkways), horse drawn carriages and, what really makes me think of Bflo - a lovely canal system with wide walkways & benches, paddleboats and even gondolas. New York state, Erie Co and Buffalo have made the choice to do little to make the city and the area into what it could be. Business moved out. Taxes went up. Population declined. Money dried up. IAll kinds of other reasons come to mind too, it's not a problem with one solution.
Why would any shopper in their right mind want to pay money to park, cross busy streets to shop from store to store, carrying bags along the way, when they can park for free and shop 100+ stores all under one roof? C'mon people, this isn't a suburban point of view, this is just a good old fashioned it is what it is, common sense statement. That is why retail is dead in downtown Buffalo as well as in most downtowns of cities with shrinking populations. Malls came on the scene in the 60's and by the 70's downtown was dying fast. People was convenience.
Downtown will be vibrant again but it will be as a center for entertainment and recreation. As more people move downtown to be closer to the action a small retail center will emerge to service these folks and these folks will be shopping there because it will be convenient to them. Is that also considered a suburban point of view? I'm really ammused at the assumption.
Yes, but surburban sprawl did not help the shopping situation either. If most of the people lived in the City, then there would have been no or little reason to build in the 'burbs.
Bass Pro will resurect Downtown and all the little people of the village will rejoice. ( now, about how you fit a deep sea fishing rod onto a Metro Rail car....)
1. Lack of housing opportunites.
2. Suburban sprawl. We are losing population, yet we are developing our 4th ring suburbs.
A lot of local retail, as the author suggests, simply cannot compete with the changing dynamics, namely the huge corporate entities. However, there is also an inherent racsism in retail, the "unwritten" assumption is that all urban populations shoplift and again the assumption is that in a city like Buffalo this will be the majority of the clientele if one attempts to do business in a downtown. If a large store like Sears was to open up again in the city they would not change their hours, they wouldn't merely be open to cater to the lunch crowds of downtown workers. So, agree with that mentality or not it is the one thing that will keep established retail out of the city until there is a massive population shift, which is hardly likely.
Good MIDDLE-CLASS apartments / houseing and a tax-break for a few GOOD groceries would do more for downtown than any fish store... the rest simply follows the population. Use Toronto as a good example of this in action.
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