Building up suburbia is what's killing Buffalo

[Captaink]

just for the record there is an IHOP on delware in the city of Buffalo

[VA Yankee]

In reading this blog it really strikes close to home. The general consensus is that the suburbs killed downtown, well they didn't, downtown killed itself. Here in Richmond Va I hear the same laments, allthough there has been major improvement several problems still exist.

1) The days of going downtown to shop are over. All the stores that people want are in the suburbs now. Richmond still laments and dreams of recreating the days of shopping on Broad street. This dream prevents them from creating a shopping enviroment that meets current residents needs. With higher city sales taxes no one wants to go downtown to shop.

2) Richmond has 2 groups those with and those without, theres no middle class. When people are young or older they live in the city. Once they have familys they leave for the suburbs because the city schools are so bad.

3) In participating in regional projects the city assumes that it is the center of attention and her needs should come first. For the surrounding counties that won't work, Richmond like Albany would have gone out of buisness years ago if it wasn't the State Capital.

4) The goverment is very corrupt and this reflects on all areas of the administration.

I read the blogs on Buffalo, one person even posted some great pictures of downtown. The only thing I saw missing was people. The city has alot of history and a lot to offer, package it, sell it stop looking what was figure out a plan and stick to it.

Ask yourself are schools good? Are the taxes fair? Does the city provide the necessary services? What buisnesses could you attract? We have many neighborhoods that have been reborn and now are starting to connect and fill in between. The schools are still the biggest stumbling block to attracting and securing a middle class. Secondly Richmond has a build it and ignore it attitude which has caused many great projects to languish.

Look at what the suburbs offer and don't try to replicate it. Some of our best areas are unique and eclectic and they have what the suburbs don't so people come in to them.

Heck with your proximity on the lake you could be a major port for overseas goods...just a thought.

[mikesuicide]

Originally Posted by ocean2026

Moderator cut: personal attack Starbucks didn't kill Seattle nor did all the fast growing suburbs. Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, NYC and hundred more cities have build up their suburbs and are doing just fine.

Loss of manufacturing - high taxes and an unattractive climate Killed Buffalo - if one reads the Wall St Journal and sees yesterdays story on the future of housing, while it predicts the housing recession may end in late 2009 up to 2011 - it said specifically places like Upstate NY, parts of Ohio, western pa and SE Michigan will continue to decline for the above and demographic reasons.

This thread is akin to shooting someone 5 times in heart and then noticing a box of Kleenex and saying he died of a bad cold.

While we have yet to fill the space of our economical driver, shippping and manufacturing, Buffalo is still surviving better then other rust belt cities. It is easy for people to make sweeping generalizations. I know for a fact that the housing market is growing in buffalo. I made 3 real estate transactions in the past two years for a profit. The last being in January of last year for a 100k profit selling a 3 unit residential property (I purchased it 3 years earlier and put 15k into it). Singing the sorrows is easy when your perched in another city.

It would be nice if the critics who moved would just admit that the only reason they are trolling a Buffalo forum is because they subconsciously long to come home to buffalo.

[FedupWNY]

Originally Posted by Captaink

just for the record there is an IHOP on delware in the city of Buffalo

Not a chain down in the Ward though, not an Applebee's on the Westside, no Pizza Hut on the eastside. There's no commercialization on Main Street. Buffalo is much larger than Delaware Ave.

Driving down Walden, between Harlem & Union, at least 10 chains can be viewed. (Target, Wal-Mart, IHop, KMart, Home Depot, Olive Garden, to name a few) Can't anyone imagine the private investments to a neighborhood if businesses (an others) move in the city?

[CAugust]

Originally Posted by FedupWNY

Not a chain down in the Ward though, not an Applebee's on the Westside, no Pizza Hut on the eastside. There's no commercialization on Main Street. Buffalo is much larger than Delaware Ave.

Driving down Walden, between Harlem & Union, at least 10 chains can be viewed. (Target, Wal-Mart, IHop, KMart, Home Depot, Olive Garden, to name a few) Can't anyone imagine the private investments to a neighborhood if businesses (an others) move in the city?

I am all for building up the city - more traffic, more money being spent and happy shoppers.

What killed the city is not the burbs though, it was the crime, the schools and a lot more. What about that beautiful waterfront? Not much going on there, wish it was. The hatch is a great place, but how often can you go to one place? Remember that restaraunt across from the Hatch? I am sorry but the name escapes me, I enjoyed many dinners there, then they closed and remained closed until a pricey restaraunt moved in and served sub standard food from what I am told.

Didnt Tops or Kmart put up a store in the city? Only to have to close it due to theft along with a lot of other reasons. Sad, but so very true.

The dream is great, but until we can get citizens to take pride is their own area it isnt going to happen.

People moved out to the burbs mainly for schooling - ask 100 families why they chose the town they did and I bet over 90 of them will tell you because of the schools - just a fact, not an opinion.

[FedupWNY]

Many people take great pride in the city of Buffalo. The most disheartening thing is of those who are perched behind a computer monitor (not meaning you C Aug, others in general though) believing they hold the pearls of wisdom because they once lived in Buffalo, or because they moved out to the suburbs. As people sprawled, so did businesses. If anyone compared the difference between Main Street in down town Buffalo to Trasint Rd. in Clarence, many things would be pointed out from the top of what Buffalo lacks....... shopping, restaurants, people & money. The pride is in the city, the people are in the city, what's missing is what's being invested outside of Buffalo.

Perhaps having the Bass Pro on Main Street might be the start of returning retail to Buffalo. I hear the old Donavan (?) building might be spared from demo, turned into office space or a hotel, buildings/business we already have. Being adjacent to the Arena, what if the lot was trasformed into a Boston Market, or something alike? Dinners before a Sabres game, take-out lunches for offices, a day shopping at Bass Pro or enjoying the scene of the harbor, these are what would attract people to staying/coming in/to Buffalo.

Pride's not lacking, only the investment.