Well this discussion won’t be complete until I mention that Marine Drive needs to be landscaped with dynamite.
No, you always want low income housing on your prime waterfront real estate! That and highways. City building 101.
It’s sad that any who has played Sim City has probably developed a far more success model than Buffalo uses, and in Sim City you had to deal with aliens attacking from time to time.
I can’t keep track of whether it’s BMHA or private apartments now, it seems to change all the time.
However, the person who decided to put low income housing on the waterfront was fucking retarded. Land closest to the water is always the most expensive and appealing, why put the PJ’s there?
All of the poor Polish and Irish who came in 100 years ago moved the East Side or South Buffalo because it was cheapest to live there because it’s farthest from the water. It just made economic sense. Why now is it different?
Yeah Robert Moses really screwed the pooch for us on that one.
At the risk of being flamed, I’ll throw my own two cents into this discussion. Let me frame this first I love the city, I grew up in the city, I unfortunately live in Snyder because the family moved and can’t fucking stand it, and once I have a “real job” after school I’m going back to Buffalo and will never considering living out here again. I’m also studying Urban Planning and architecture at UB so if any of my comment seemed biased, it likely is. I’ve spent years walking around and helping out in the Broadway Fillmore neighborhood, without a single incident. I volunteered with the central terminal for years and I love the area. All that being said for background, let’s delve into the issue.
The market is an asset, but if it is not fulfilling the needs of the majority of the people who depend on it, then something needs to either replace it or be greatly changed in order to make it more efficient for those who really need it. I think Aldi’s is a great idea for this exact location, but the design is absolute shit.
Over 1/3 of Buffalo does not have a car, especially true in this neighborhood, so the most logical thing would be to build this thing to the curb with the parking in the rear. Think about early cities and villages built before the car which have retained their original character, they are all walkable and not car-centric. Yes, this is now the 21st century, but once again consider the area. Most people are willing to walk to important or interesting places if it is within 10 to 15 minutes from their home, which is great reasoning for this location.
Now ask yourself, if you are like the majority of your neighbors and do not have a car, upon arriving to your destination, would you prefer to walk through a quarter of a mile of parking lot, or walk straight in the front door of a building built to the curb/sidewalk. Considering our weather here, walking through that same parking lot before, during, or after snowfall is not a pleasant experience. This is also a great opportunity to build a mixed-use building, including the grocery store, one or two other stores and offices/residential on a second floor space. Live, work, and play all within walking or biking distance of your home. These were the building blocks of great cities and have been seeing a resurgence in cities that are once again understanding their importance.
Side note: Once the Green Code is signed into law (new zoning laws for the city which have not been updated for over 50 years) building it to the curb will be one of the common practices which will once again become commonplace. Google it if you don’t know what it is…
Cliffnotes: Great idea, perfect location for the neighborhood, needs a redesign in site plan to be more accommodating for the people who will actually go there.
But there’s already a Save A Lot inside the Broadway Market. Aren’t Save A Lot and Aldi THE EXACT SAME THING? Why do we need another?
ADDED:
Nice to hear from someone who actually studies this stuff.
:tup:
That I don’t know to be honest, they may be the same thing, but I was under the assumption that Save-A-Lot was a little more expensive and has less offerings in terms of fresh and/or healthy foods.
Also thanks, I love what I’m studying. By the way I also write for Buffalo Rising…
lol
This is also a great opportunity to build a
For who? This shit doesn’t fund itself.
Here’s what happens in Buffalo:
Company: Hey I have an idea to make money in your city by opening a business.
City: Great, now do this this and this.
Company: But… That’s not my idea.
City: I don’t care, here’s what you have to do if you want to do your idea.
Company: Well, so much for making money. Peace!
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I mean you’ve got some good points, I just have no patience for people who think they get a say in what other people do with their money. Maybe I have too much faith in the guiding hand of hte free market, but that’s what put the city and all of the good stuff in it there in the first place.
I can see how Aldi’s can affect some of the vendors in the broadway market. The speakers said that an aldi’s can only help the fragile and shrinking population. B*llshit, that area is gonna remain a dump if the city doesnt start holding homeowners/scum landlords accountable for their properties. A new Aldi’s is not gonna bring people back to the neighborhood. You fix neighborhood, make a nicer area to live, people will come and stay then you dont have to worry about one store affecting another stores business. A year ago or so the city put in a law that you cant have home furniture on your porch, like couches and things or you’ll get fined. Yet that area looks like shit, almost every house is boarded up, no lawns are cut, houses are falling apart and thats ookkkkkk.
There should be huge fines and possible jail time for not improving/makeing home repairs. And if nothing is done take the house away and auction it.
Instead of building more projects for low income people, I think investors should start rebuilding streets one at a time, with some help from the city, and then offer these houses to the people for rent or purchase.
Maybe my idea is terrible, but its sucks that nothing is getting done. The city wants people to live in the city instead of the suburbs, yet they wont fix the neighborhoods.
Its nice to see how the city is so involved and worried about a new building being placed near the side walk for a “urban feel” GTFO here with that shit. These scum people who run the city dont have there priorities straight.
Maybe the city should just own all of the housing. When you leave it to the people with the money to invest to decide how to invest their money, they’re going to go to the nice neighborhoods where there is more money to be made. What about the places that used to be nice? What about what the people without money want the people with money to do with their money?
Shut the broadway market down, box it up, and reopen it in Allentown. Profit.
Possibly the biggest challenge for the city to overcome is exactly that. ^
If you buy a house in the city, chances are you aren’t going to profit off of it. You almost have to have an irrational love for the area and a genuine desire to help out the neighborhood. Any young professional or whoever with money that wants to take a risk by buying an old firehouse or warehouse in the city and remodeling it to live in it will almost certainly lose money. However, their idea might catch on and inspire others to do similar things in the neighborhood. There you have it. Sometimes you just need a few sparks to start a fire (spare me the east side arson jokes lol).
America is the most individualistic country on Earth (proven by research) so finding those people who are willing to make financial sacrifices for the benefit of the community are going to be damn near impossible to find. But that’s exactly who Buffalo needs.
So if you abandon that nonsense and work with the idea that people are motivated by ambition over principle then you get things like everything in the fucking city, including the city itself, that people are trying to preserve in the first place.
My head hurts.
Can’t say I understand what you’re saying here Fry. Explain?
Not 100% familiar with over there but from my limited ventures down there, it may be the environment tho. That isn’t a really money rich area so a Aldis won’t put out a market in a more mid class area but if someone on a limited income has a market or a larger chain with cheaper processed foods, they are probably gonna go to the cheaper one. Kind of like, I have 10 dollars to spend today for food. Do I get some fresh foods and plan for tomorrow or do I spend 3 on McDonalds dollar menu so I can spend the rest on other stuff.
I wish the city would be more giving to companies that actually want to build here tho. Their investment to build, they are bringing jobs to a beat up area, and maybe some businesses will follow suit.
Wow, i guess im a little late to this one. But i would have to agree that aldi has no place near the broadway market. I can see two scenarios arising from the building of an aldi. 1) Aldi gets all of the business from save-a-lot and the market because its easier to get to with parking and not having to walk thru the market and then the market has no chance of survival OR 2) Aldi realizes what the neighborhood is and closes up shop like Kmart did and then we are left with another empty building. Why cant they take over the bottom floor of the old sears store on broadway and filmore? Thats been vacant for years since the unemployment dept left. They city knows that aldi would be bad for the area, they are just using the parking space thing as an excuse to block them. The first thing the city needs to do is to save what they have that hasnt gone completely to shit (South Buffalo, North Buffalo, Lovejoy.) The people that lived on the east side were like locusts, They consumed what was good and left nothing in their wake. These “locusts” are now moving towards cheektowaga, take the schiller park neighborhood for an example, 15 years ago my cousin sold her childhood home on Doat St for $60,000, now 15 years later she would be lucky to get $20,000. Sometimes the quality of life things that hondadriver was talking about is are a good thing, but often times you will see an officer writing a ticket for having hedges not trimmed as a drug deal takes place across the street. Would you want to be out there trimming your hedge while people are dealing drugs off of their front porch with 45s hanging out of their belt? That is all.
I think investors would take a chance if the city helped/gave incentives or something. The city is losing money on all these house standing abandoned by not collecting taxes, sewer/user fees, etc. So they should approach an investor and say, hey if you buy multiple houses and help improve the city we will help pay half the labor or material. Then when they sell the house the investor will make some money and the city will get their tax money.
Or any other incentive. If you buy a house in a down neighborhood, no taxes for 2 years, or get a free roof etc, etc. The city will have to make an investment as well with these offers, but then people will start to care about where they live and will want to keep it clean.
Ive been looking at houses in the city to buy for myself to live in and the city offers an “up to $8000” loan that becomes a grant if you promise to and after you live there for 10 years for downpayment assistance. Not really good enough but it helps keep people in the city instead of suburbanites just buying income property. And of course, its not really available for people who make 35,000 a year or more
Disclaimer: I love living in the city.
That area is terrible. The Broadway market is the only reason white people go there.
If Aldi wants to build something new in that shit neighborhood, have at it. They are probably just not bribing the right people. If you’ve ever tried to open a business in Buffalo, you know what I mean.
Hell, we were gonna GIVE Bass pro tons of taxpayer money to build a monstrosity on our waterfront!