Not much foot traffic on Main Street downtown these days (decades) but no matter what time of day or year, there will be two silhouettes dancing in front of “Get Dressed” obviously making you feel a little more comfortable being the only person strolling down the pedestrian mall.

Oh Buffalo, we have soooo much work to do.

Haven’t been on the computer in a few days. When I get onto BuffaloRising I see they’ve started doing downtown construction photos too.

Oh BR.O…it’s SO on.

But thanks for the shoutout in your January magazine…not gonna lie…I blushed a little.

The second I get into Buffalo I turn on the news and the main stories were…

1. Casino
2. Bass Pro
3. Factory workers being layed off
4. Man drives down subway tunnel and crashes with train

Yuppppp nothing has changed

Heading back for Buffalo early tomorrow morning after a month in DC. So now I won’t torture you all with non-Buffalo stories on an all-Buffalo blog.

Funeral and family stuff though for a couple days. Probably no blogging until late Sunday or Monday.

A poll on Buffalo Business Journal

Which of these events do you think will happen first?

Bass Pro opens a superstore on the Aud site
2%

Buffalo Bills move to a new downtown stadium
1%

Metro Rail trains start running to the airport
3%

New Peace Bridge begins carrying traffic
5%

Waterfront development projects are completed
25%

You-know-what freezes over
60%

Glad to see Buffalonians aren’t changing their thought process whatsoever.

My dad used to work at an iron foundry near the Bethlehem Steel plant. He had the normal everyday tasks that everyone else did but he also had an awesome bonus job given to him by his bosses…

Bypass the new $1 million filtration system and instead dump the probably toxic waste into the Buffalo River while the guys in the biohazard suits stood 100 feet away for safety

The foundry has since closed and we found out that it is now part of the Tift Nature preserve. Funny.

Mark is one of those names that is so simple yet not nearly as common as other one-syllable names like John or Matt.

But in the Buffalo blogosphere Mark(c) is the name that dominates the game. Here’s the newest one called Mild Mannered Blog.
And then there’s Buffalo Blogger and of course WNYMedia’s Marc Odien. Oh and Jennifer of All Things Jennifer has a husband/blog contributer as well.

I know there are others but it’s hard to keep track.

I should mention that my name is Mark too…in case you didn’t understand why in the world I found this information to be so interesting.

Recieved an E-Mail today from W. Morgan Smith of BuffaloPlace giving me an update about the case…
According to the offices of Economic Development, Inspections, and Permit Services…Dragon Express has been written up for Housing Court with no court date set yet.

According to Smith, if the window is repaired by the date of court appearance it will be dropped. If the owner appears in court and promises to fix it, they can without punishment but if they don’t show up they’ll be fined in all likelyhood.

He also adds that:

“It is not appropriate at this time for members of the public to contact
Housing Court Judge Henry Nowak about this case, but the City Building
Inspector assigned to Housing Court cases, Brian Higgins, can receive
public comment and present it to the Court at the appropriate point in the
proceedings. It is probably best to submit any such comments in writing to
Mr. Higgins at Room 304, City Hall, Buffalo, NY 14202.”

So although City Hall hasn’t told me anything since I filed the report, BuffaloPlace has been of tremendous help in keeping me updated even though they have no responsibilty to do so.

For no apparent reason, we trekked up the 95 to Wilmington for the day. And like most places I go, I see things that Buffalo should do and things that I’m glad Buffalo hasn’t done. When you first enter the city you realize that the tip of their riverfront is a large outlet mall with an even larger surface lot…wasn’t too excited. It got better from there though.
In the picture above you see the Acela Amtrak (a slightly faster train) parked at the Wilmington Station. That would be cool if downtown Buffalo didn’t have a tool shed for a train station. Just a thought.

The Riverfront Market is a small but cool space with everything you’d want in a market and connected to a great restaurant. It’s selection is not as good as the Broadway Market but is a bit more upscale. I’d assume the “Harborfront Market” in our Canal Side plans will look a lot like this. A new build made to reflect its past with a contempoary selection of stuff.

And all around it is a lot of re-use. Banking firms like Barclay and IMG Direct are putting a lot of offices in the long forgotten riverfront.
Barclay is also building this thing below. Which looks like a cross between a new NFL Stadium and the HealthNow HQ’s behind Buffalo City Hall. Wierd.

Lots of surface lots in this area, and not for future development…its incoporated into the final plans of these new builds. Not so smart.
And then one more development is the “Justisonlanding”. The Wilmington equivalent of “Waterfront Village”. A couple condo towers and a lot of townhomes next to it on a disconnected part of the city.




Except these ones look a million times better than the uninspiring crap they’re building this year on Waterfront Village.
There is a park further up town that was designed by Olmstead and it shows. The surrounding neighborhoods have a very North Buffalo feel to it. Pretty cool stuff.
Overall, Wilmington was a pleasant surprise. They need to learn about no parking lots in front of buildings, reduce the number of large surface lots, and make more of their builds multi-use. The downtown and riverfront are nice but were very quiet for a 70 degree saturday in January.

Mr. Esmonde’s column today column today discussed possible re-use of the old Aud. I think I came up with my best idea ever…

“Outdoor skating rink/Waterfront amphitheater.
Tear down the 1970’s addition to the Aud. Making most of the building (except for the Exchange Street entrance) open-air. In the summers, big name acts can play in front of thousands on the Waterfront instead of Darien Lake (which is facing major financial troubles).

In the winter, people can pay a couple bucks to skate on the exact same ice that their childhood heroes did, and feel the atmosphere that is so burned into our memories. It wouldn’t take profits away from Fountain Plaza because it would cost money to skate at the aud, and it would be a completely different vibe to the place.

It would be the most unique public space in Buffalo and would be used all year round. Talk about cultural tourism…a place like that would draw the intrigue of anyone from anywhere.

-Mark Byrnes”

So that’s what I think. Curious to see if anyone else has a non-retail idea.