it seems to be a growing trend for a opportunity to present itself to the buffalo area only to have government or the citizens to crush the hopes and dreams of investors trying to develop the area. I want to touch on the water front first. The grain elevators always come up. WE NEED TO SAVE THEM!!! WE NEED TO DEVELOP THAT AREA!!!. I have a different view than many people and favor progress over other things in many situations. In my head it is almost a chart I wish I could draw and I would post a picture.
Grain Elevators.
They need to be preserved VS We need to develop that area
If they are to be preserved can they be used to generate revenue?
If YES proposition investors with incentives to recondition them and make them a attraction for the area to enjoy
If NO level them and build that area.
I don’t understand they this raises so much debate among people. I realize they are part of buffalo’s history but they are just that… history. If industry cannot utilize the existing facility for production and it cannot be made to bring in tourist then in my eyes it serves no purpose other than wasting time and money sitting on vacant land.
Money drive a government and a city not a historic facility sitting idle.
Maybe keep a fraction of what is there, and make a museum out of it. Then put other attractions around that. Unless a museum/attraction is developed, they should go out for the trash. They would make a nice reef for the fishies in Lake Erie.
bulldoze. growing cities change and if they want to grow this city again, they need to change it.
Abandoned structures pay no property taxes, cost tons to maintain and repair, and have no revenue stream. Have a ceremony, clear them out and make the land build ready while offering incentives on taxes on intial investments to build and then in a few years you have a property that is paying property taxes to the government while serving a purpose. If the new developer is willing to work with what is they, remove any past tax debt on the land and make people want to build. If you keep requiring businesses to make a larger risk than is already at stake for trying to start up an area, no one will want to try it. If you make it lucrative for someone to invest there and who knows, build a walmart, aldis, or other main stream hated store, let them. People need to get in the area to live and go and once people have a reason to be there, the rest will follow.
fuck the grain elevators, we already tore down one of the most badass structures buffalo had to offer, so why cant the grain elevators that arent being used go?
Why do these plans always involve some sort of magical unlimited funds from a benevolent city loving philanthropist?
It costs money to tear down the grain elevators. Tear one down if there is a better use for the site, maybe use tax money to help fund the demolition in exchange for a private company building there. But don’t spend a bunch of money tearing them down for the sake of tearing them down.
I heard an interesting idea when I was reading up on the EHDC: Paint them all as part of the waterfront development project, each one a different color. Won’t cost much, and it will do wonders for the look and feel of an industrial wasteland.
Then tear them down as needed. Maybe keep one for nostalgia, but not all of them. They were put there ruining a pristine waterfront in the name of progress, they should be torn down in the name of progress.
Side note: if anyone is a writer and has some interesting thoughts and view points of current events, PM me. I may have a project in the works for you.
I agree 100% that their removal will not start water front development BUT if someone wanted that spot and wanted to use that location it is completely off limits right now. I am not proposing that the city should fund their destruction but it would be nice to see the city take a active roll in trying to get people to develop rather than just playing hardball about everything with no benefit to the city.
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I didn’t want to shit up your thread by being completely off topic.
They should reconstruct them, make them safer, and then do bungee jumping , climbling, rappelling off of them and make them and out doorsy thing lol. Since that’s all it seems they can be used for anyway. Atleast make them look nice and generate some sort of revenue.
How many of you knew about the waterfront “power” breakfast going on in about 1 hour? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Next time we should have a NYSPEED contingent!!!
Buffalo is like the slumlord of New York, doesn’t really want to fix anything, not interested in adding anything to make itself more functional or nicer, and those vacant buildings and structures…keep those, we might need them someday.
Anytime a project is proposed there’s always someone, or a group that his an issue which blocks it’s progress (remember the Verizon data Center?) One person’s personal issues and stupidity cost the rest of the community jobs, revenue, and prosperity. I thought we do things in this country based on democracy and the greater will of the public. Until this changes, we will lag behind in economic and social despair. How can we change this?
Normally I’d agree but in the case of the grain elevators they pretty much have to be torn down first. No developer with half a brain is going to spend any money developing a plan to use those sites while the elevators still stand because they know how much time and money will be wasted fighting the preservationists. If it was a shovel ready developers would be a lot more interested knowing all the BS with the preservationists had already been handled.
Yeah that’s a good point. Still a long way off from that though, I mean when you can’t build an aldis in an empty kmart parking lot in the ghetto because there used to be something nice there it becomes obvious that we’re a lot of elections away from making any progress in this city.
I think the only thing you could build within the city limits today is a frank lloyd wright inspired grain elevator shaped homeless shelter.