The mayor of atlanta bussed all the poor people out during the 96 olympics
Only if you give them groceries like in that Mickey Kearns vs. Byron Brown race, lol.
The other issue with our waterfront is all the “brown field” property and the fact that before anything can be built the land needs to be cleaned up. If we were talking about virgin soil here Buffalo would already have a thriving waterfront. Development companies can get incentives to build, but we’re talking lots of money and years of remediation in some key areas… on top of a hostile political and business climate.
A furnace.
It’s sad how dumpy this area has become. No matter what the “anchor” store, it will be hard to get people to come to the waterfront during the winter (about 5 months out of every year). What company is going to make an investment in something like that.
For the people saying to build a Wegmans grocery store are you kidding me? How many people are going to come from the suburbs to shop at a grocery store that is already in the suburbs?
The whole town is shit, cash me out.
Wrong race.
I’m going to hell.
The idea of a Wegmans downtown wouldn’t be for those living 5 minutes from one in their quaint suburb. It would provide a place to get food for the tens of thousands of people who already live in and around down town. There are very few choices for that as of now. Down town is beginning to see some more people move there. Condos, studios and lofts are being built at a surprising pace.
If you want an anchor that will get foot traffic down there then you need a destination anchor and in a time like this where the economy is shaky you need a destination that people will go everyday of the year. To the store for food.
Start small and things will build up around it. It doesn’t need to be the main anchor it just needs to be a start in the right direction.
If you think about it it’s the only common sense solution that is not some sort of silver bullet fix to a dying city. We as a city need to make our selves viable and providing services and infrastructure that lends to people living in the downtown area would be a step in the right direction. Then maybe large retailers will want to come here.
Wegmans could have an opportunity to do something unique with that store like design the exterior to play off the history of the area. Or have Tastings ( which is a full service restaurant that is currently being market tested in Rochester that is located inside a Wegmans) or a double decker out door patio like in one in VA.
The options and ideas are endless. Now if only to get moving in the right direction, a direction would be nice
The wegmans restaurant in Rochester is done really nicely. Everything that wegmans does is class, I totally agree. But is a wegmans supermarket with a fancy restaurant and wine shop a place where people out of town will want to travel to? Is it a place that will draw people who live here to? I still don’t think so.
Buffalo needs an attraction that will draw people from Canada, even from PA up here to check out. Ikea would have fit that criteria, but they only build in growing cities with a large population. Its going to be tough to get any well known tenant down there. We have proven this with Bass Pro, even throwing money at them isn’t enough to get them to risk Buffalo.
Other cities put Casinos on the water front. I think this would be a drag on the city, and it would be even worse because all our casinos are owned by the Seneca’s, so the majority of profits wouldn’t help the city. A top rate casino like a Harrah’s property, or something from the Sands corporation would actually draw people to this town.
Look what they have done in PA with the old Bethlehem steel site.
At this stage of the game, we do not need to attract tourism. We need to reclaim and rebuild our waterfront to suit our local needs. Once it starts to thrive and become a draw for the local community the tourist attractions will follow.
x2. We need to get tourism off our minds.
How about a green park where we can walk around the bases of giant windmills and solar farms?
And shit, if there’s one thing Buffalo does well it’s drunken debauchery. Put a bar/restaurant strip with a boardwalk along the water.
And don’t forget to dynamite Marine Drive.
The waterfront plan is destined to fail if you build it as just something to serve just the immediate local population. AKA, if you think putting a fancy supermarket in will work as an anchor you might as well stop development now and save a whole bunch of wasted taxpayer dollars. The anchor has to be something that will draw people with money (read the suburbs) downtown. The suburbs already have plenty of nice supermarkets.
And for the last time, this does not mean I’m against a supermarket downtown. If you want to get people to live there one is desperately needed. It just CAN NOT be the anchor to the harbor development.
That’s actually an awesome idea. Too bad the current windmills are surrounded by industrial fugliness. The bars however are going to have to be the result of a thriving waterfront, not the cause.
I don’t think he meant to make it an anchor. I agree that a supermarket isn’t going to draw much more business. But if you start by making it a livable area, businesses will pop up to suit the growing population and eventually make it a more viable option for larger stores. I think we can all agree that the ideal situation which would result in the fastest growth is getting the anchor now, and growing around that. But who knows what the shit is going to happen at this point.
Is it?
I like the Wegmans idea. Tons of people work downtown, and could grab groceries on the way home, not to mention their delicious Subs during lunch time.
I think a super Walmart would be perfect there…I mean you already have scumbags that shop there…why not bring the shopping closer to them.
If anyone needs proof of this point, look at the Flats in Cleveland. They used bars as the anchor and tried to impart culture after the bars drew in people… Look at how much better than us Cleveland is doing right now :bloated:
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I am going to stab you in the fucking Achilles tendon
SUPER WALMART = BAD
You’re making an excuse for the waterfront to stay scummy.
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
Anything at this point seems better than a hole in the ground. If you don’t want DT to be scummy were do you put the scum. Everyone is fine with it, but NIMBY.
Ship them all to Canada. Offer a free boat ride with open bar and then drop them off in Ft. Erie. None of them have passports, they won’t be able to get back in. Plus they’ll get healthcare up there.
BEST IDEA IN THIS THREAD!
You know, we’ve already got Pearl Street, Coca Cola field, HSBC arena, the Naval Park, and the Aud site is basically shovel ready right?
A few concrete forms and the aud site is a cheap temporary (as in a couple of years) skate park, to help pull that area together rather than seperate it with a fenced off construction site. Then I’d like to see a foot bridge over the Buffalo River to a park or something by the Coast Guard station. Granted, in the winter you couldn’t pay me to walk across an open bridge right there. My sack shrivels just thinking about it. But it would be neat in the summer.
[MAP]http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=42.876357,-78.878596&spn=0.011054,0.019205&t=h&z=16[/MAP]
What is that cess pool next to the coast guard station?
---------- Post added at 09:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:30 AM ----------
Oh, and don’t forget to dynamite Marine Drive. :pedo:
By the way, for the people who were wondering where the potential new HSBC building would be, see that parking lot in between main and washington, right above the arena in the pic.