47 replies to this topic

[hkskyline]

Buffalo's main street downtown is a transit-only corridor, with wide sidewalks on both sides to promote pedestrian activity. It's also free to ride the LRT in the downtown core. Here are some photos from around the area. For more, visit :

http://www.geocities...iaglobe/gallery

[Garris]

Thanks for sharing those wonderful photos.  I last visited downtown Buffalo in '95, and while it was fantastically laid out and oriented, it seemed kinda, oh, vacant.  It looks far more vibrant now than then.  It's a great city and should benefit from its proximity to Toronto.  

- Garris
Providence, RI
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Visit the Providence/RI Photo of the Day thread!

[monsoon]

Yes, thank you very much.  I've wanted to visit Buffalo and this just encourages me more.   I especially liked the photos of the light rail line.  They are very lucky to have it.

[Scott]

Great pics! Buffalo has some interesting structures.

[Urban_Legend]

Great pics.  Isn't Buffalo where they filmed Bruce Almighty?  There was some great urban exposure in that movie.

[pwright1]

Beautiful old architecture in Buffalo.  Nice pics.

[wolfdawg54]

I have never been to Buffalo but it looks really nice. I especially like the streetcar system in downtown.

[jarvismj]

Sadly, when I last was in Buffalo, it seemed to be a ghost town. I took the Metrorail from LaSalle Station into downtown, and the most people that I ever saw was on the train. It was almost feeling that the apocolypse had happened and no one told me.  That was in May of 2004, though. I really did enjoy what I saw in the layout of the area. If only we could get something like what Buffalo has down here in Greenville, because they have the infastructure, and we have the people, and bam, instant fun place to hang out and get drunk and not have to drive home. I sure do lead a boring life.

[accatt2204]

It appears you guys have a decent public transportation system going. If only most cities could take advantage of light-rail as an effective form of public transit.

[bobliocatt]

Great pics.  For some reason, Buffalo's downtown looks very similar to Memphis'.

[FLORIDA SKYRISE ORDER]

Wow, great pics!  Being a Floridian, Buffalo sure looks foreign.  It looks like a European City, out of place for such a beautiful, authentic looking City in our austere American Culture!

FLORIDA SKYRISE ORDER

[ilektronik]

FLORIDA SKYRISE ORDER, on Jul 27 2005, 01:56 PM, said:

Wow, great pics!  Being a Floridian, Buffalo sure looks foreign.  It looks like a European City, out of place for such a beautiful, authentic looking City in our austere American Culture!

FLORIDA SKYRISE ORDER

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Being a Floridian would make most of the US seem foreign to you. Buffalo looks alot like every other northeastern pre-ww2 american cities.

[Recchia]

Nice pics.

I always thought Buffalo had a subway line, not light rail.   How does that transit only corridor work out?  Is the street very active around it?

[leets]

Recchia, on Aug 3 2005, 05:25 AM, said:

Nice pics.

I always thought Buffalo had a subway line, not light rail.   How does that transit only corridor work out?  Is the street very active around it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Buffalo does have a subway.  It comes above ground downtown.  The rail only portion of MAin Street has been a disaster.  Planning has begun to add cars back onto the street.

Edited by leets, 03 August 2005 - 07:08 AM.

[Recchia]

leets, on Aug 3 2005, 08:57 AM, said:

Buffalo does have a subway.  It comes above ground downtown.  The rail only portion of MAin Street has been a disaster.  Planning has begun to add cars back onto the street.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I see...  That's kind of odd, usually downtown's are the opposite and have rails underground through downtowns.  How come the rail only has been a disaster?  Not enough foot traffic?

[leets]

Recchia, on Aug 3 2005, 10:03 AM, said:

I see...  That's kind of odd, usually downtown's are the opposite and have rails underground through downtowns.  How come the rail only has been a disaster?  Not enough foot traffic?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Pedestrian malls all over the country have been a disaster.  The one in Chicago on State Street was removed about 7 years ago.  The problem is that many businesses feed off the traffic that passes by on the street.  they depend on the line of sight and the ability of people to pull up and drop someone off. For example think about a restaurant that can not have valet parking because no one can pull up to the front of the restaurant.  That is a killer for a restaurant.  The street traffic also adds vitality and the sense that there are people around and that the street is safe.  The number of people who walk on a particular street may be small but the people who might drive on that street can be huge.  Without the traffic there are many people who never need to go to the Main Street pedestrian mall so they do not know about businesses and restaurants that might be there.  In addition to the cars that used to be on the street there used to be at least 12 bus lines running along that stretch.  With the busses and cars diverted the population of people on the street has been drastically reduced.  Without the people the street becomes deader and deader.

In Buffalo like many American cities downtown retail has become drastically smaller in favor of suburban malls and big box stores.  This happened at the same time that the pedestrian mall opened.  So Buffalo's downtown retail got hit with a one two punch from which it has never recovered.

Today there is a lot of new development planned in DT Buff.  Much of it is residential with over 600 appartments currently planned or in construction.  When they open up the street again I am certain that the retail climate on this street will really heat up

[Recchia]

Yeah, there's a street in Providence here (Westminster St.) that used to be a pedestrian mall, but when they converted it, it completely killed it.  They have since then reopened it to traffic and although its not doing fantastic, its doing better.  Westminster never had any transit running down it though, so I was thinking that the one in Buffalo would do okay since it had the LRT on it.  I guess not though.

[Cotuit]

Recchia, on Aug 4 2005, 07:50 AM, said:

Westminster never had any transit running down it though...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Westminster had a trolley back in olden times, but not while it was a pedestrian mall.

[dixiecupdrinking]

leets, on Aug 3 2005, 02:11 PM, said:

Pedestrian malls all over the country have been a disaster.  The one in Chicago on State Street was removed about 7 years ago.  The problem is that many businesses feed off the traffic that passes by on the street.  they depend on the line of sight and the ability of people to pull up and drop someone off. For example think about a restaurant that can not have valet parking because no one can pull up to the front of the restaurant.  That is a killer for a restaurant.  The street traffic also adds vitality and the sense that there are people around and that the street is safe.  The number of people who walk on a particular street may be small but the people who might drive on that street can be huge.  Without the traffic there are many people who never need to go to the Main Street pedestrian mall so they do not know about businesses and restaurants that might be there.  In addition to the cars that used to be on the street there used to be at least 12 bus lines running along that stretch.  With the busses and cars diverted the population of people on the street has been drastically reduced.  Without the people the street becomes deader and deader.

In Buffalo like many American cities downtown retail has become drastically smaller in favor of suburban malls and big box stores.  This happened at the same time that the pedestrian mall opened.  So Buffalo's downtown retail got hit with a one two punch from which it has never recovered.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Interesting that Poughkeepsie, NY had the same thing happen with its Main St. pedestrian mall, albeit on a clearly smaller scale. Over the last few decades, the city has had retail leave downtown and move out to US 9, which is an arterial six-lane divided highway that runs along the periphery of the city. It's really a shame because the core of Poughkeepsie reflects a very vibrant past. It's all beautiful four-story rowhouses and dense commercial properties, but it's also extremely depressed. The city tried to convert its Main St. into a pedestrian mall thinking it would lure customers to a pleasant shopping area, but the exact opposite occurred. Without traffic on the street, the area stagnated even further and became a dark, dangerous area that actually intimidated potential customers rather than encourage them. They finally reopened the street to traffic a year or two ago.

Poughkeepsie benefits from some relative proximity to NYC, though, which Buffalo can't claim. It's 70 miles north, which is a haul, but it's also pretty conveniently located at the end of a Metro-North line, which puts you in Grand Central in about 90 minutes at peak express times. The city is hoping to capitalize on its relative cheapness by pulling off a Lower East Side/Williamsburg-type artist colony revitalization, and it wouldn't surprise me if it worked considering that the town's got a beautiful urban infrastructure and is extremely cheap.

[Garris]

dixiecupdrinking, on Aug 15 2005, 09:48 AM, said:

Poughkeepsie benefits from some relative proximity to NYC, though, which Buffalo can't claim. It's 70 miles north, which is a haul, but it's also pretty conveniently located at the end of a Metro-North line, which puts you in Grand Central in about 90 minutes at peak express times. The city is hoping to capitalize on its relative cheapness by pulling off a Lower East Side/Williamsburg-type artist colony revitalization, and it wouldn't surprise me if it worked considering that the town's got a beautiful urban infrastructure and is extremely cheap.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow, so only about a 2 hr total commute each way!!  And the NYC commuter metro continues to expand...  When I was growing up in Putnam County, Northern Westchester was considered the upper fringe...  Amazing now that Poughkeepsie is considered to be in the orbit now...

Poughkeepsie might have been one of the first areas in the NY metro to have its city killed by strip malls and indoor mall retail.  Some of those malls along Rt 9 date to the late 1960's and early 1970's.  Similarly, that area of the NY metro was one of the first to get big box retail as well.  

In a way, the modern fortunes of Poughkeepsie mirror that of Hartford, and the decline of both happened nearly in lockstep, and for much the same reason (decline in core industries, suburban flight, changes in retail patterns).  It feels like, just as with Hartford, I grew up hearing about Poughkeepsie rejouvenation plan after plan after plan, and none worked.  

I really hope the city makes it.  Aside from NYC, the entire Hudson River Valley doesn't have a single ultra-desirable urban area (Yonkers, Peekskill, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, Albany, etc...).  Lots of great small towns (Croton, Sleepy Hollow, Garrison, Cold Spring, Hudson, Kingston, even Beacon now), but no cities.  I'd really like to see Poughkeepsie be the first urban gem on the upper Hudson River.  As you said, the ingredients (including an "A" list college in Vasser and all the culture that brings) are all there.

- Garris
Providence, RI