Buffalo is the best city for commuters because we have a highway infrastructure designed in the 50s (and looking every day of it) for a population of 500,000+ people, which everyone assumed would just continue to grow.
(If I might just interject a suggestion or two here: 1. If you’re on the I-90 Eastbound by the airport, the I-290 interchange is counterintuitive. Reconfigure the exit so that the left lanes continue straight onto the 290, and the right lanes turn east towards Albany;and 2. Ramps onto and off of our expressways are banked backwards, increasing the risk of truck rollovers. Bank them correctly.)
The reason I bring this up is this thread at Buffalo Rising, which quickly devolved into silliness. But this post from “Prodigal Son” deserves to be highlighted, because I agree with every word:
I have no patience for either end of the urban vs. suburban debate. Einstein put it perfectly - there is more to either side than Transit Road and Fillmore Avenue.
Arbitrary “distinctions” between neighborhoods divide and hold back WNY as much as high taxes. There is no high moral ground to claim for living in the city, or living in a suburb. You live downtown, ride a bike to work, and eat lunch on Elmwood every day? Great for you - I hope you enjoy the lifestyle you’ve picked. The carbon footprint you save on your bike is dwarfed by your huge heating bill each winter as the energy leaks out of your architecturally correct but wasteful 100 year old windows. You live in Williamsville, drive to work downtown, and get take out from Tim Horton’s? Sounds good too. I hope you appreciate the same commute in Vegas would take 90 minutes and cost $15 a trip in your SUV. Nobody’s perfect - I’m a little sick of the vicious judgement on both sides.
You can’t make a suburb without an urb. Surrounding suburbs of Buffalo need a vital core at its center to thrive. The city is not saturated with uzi wielding hooligans (thanks Irv). At the same time, no successful growing city in America is a dense downtown core with no residential suburb surrounding it. Some people want space, and pay for it. That doesn’t make them bad people or a threat to your bohemian downtown existence.
Give it a rest. Both sides need each other. Let’s take all the the energy wasted in downtown vs suburb battles and invest in some businesses, create a few jobs, and start growing again.
wtf are you talking about? It’s an incredibly simple idea.
instead of having the 290 ramp go to the right, and come over the 90. have the two left lanes, go to the 290, then the two right lanes go straight to the tolls.
It won’t ever happen since theres no point in taking down that ramp, just makes you wonder why it’s like that in the first place.
It was designed before the suburban sprawl began and the 290 was likely a minor highway that was more an off-ramp from the major highway which is the 90.
An IMO, changing which side of the highway the exit is on is NOT going to solve the traffic issues at that area.
The problem is much moreso idiotic drivers who don’t know how to use the road despite driving it daily for years.
That could be the biggest waste of money I’ve yet heard regarding how to improve Buffalo.
WAT? Do we see a lot of truck roll overs because of the claimed plethora of ramps banked the wrong way? Another collosal waste of money.
Yeah I’m sure Einstein had an opinion on Buffalo. Unless Einstein is the SN of someone on Buffalo Rising, in which case the context kind of got lost here.
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Actually, I’m pretty sure high taxes are a lot more damaging than people feeling proud of the things that make their neighborhoods unique.
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Agreed.
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Umm, WAT? Who the hell is investing the amount of energy required to revitalize an economy in posting on the internet?
:picard:
Sorry, this just struck me as one of those great proclamations where someone wanted to be heard first and thought of something to say second.
When you are attached to a urban planner (as a major) you get GOOD ideas thrown your way all the time…
and minglor, i bet you could not construct such a manifesto if you tried you hot dog… Just stay in ea where you belong (ea/op/and its larger areas around it are what make taxes in ERIE county soo expensive… its not cheep to send electric/water/etc there…
PERFECT EXAMPLE: Toronto (the city put a “imaginary line” around itself so they would NOT f- things up like we did here in buffalsprawlo…)
