Buffalo tends to get left behind a lot since the late 50’s but because of our stagnant economy we seem to avoid things like massive illegal immigration, and housing slumps.

While the nation and even the world panics over the sub-prime loan failures in the US housing market, we see that the Buffalo-Niagara region (that has seen its’ housing market stay pretty level since the 80’s really) saw a 14 % boost in home sales from over a year ago.

This quote gets me pretty pumped up by the way…

Among other trends Taylor says she is seeing: more people buying homes to move back to Buffalo, and greater interest in U.S. properties by Canadians, a reflection of the robust Canadian dollar, she said.

I feel wierd posting about only good things lately…like I must be subconsciously omitting all these bad things I know about but honestly, its been a pretty darn great summer for the Buffalo-Niagara region overall.

Some good news out of the Buffalo News today. The job growth streak is now seven straight months. The more this happens, the less you can say its a fluke or a short spurt because all these gains keep outnumbering the continuing and inevitable losses in manufacturing.

Our problems aren’t solved, but consistent job growth makes it a lot easier to feel good about what lays ahead for Buffalo.

For a while there has been a small buzz about the infamous Genesee Block getting redveloped. According to an extremely reliable source, the “Werner’s Photography” part of the block has been sold to a local developer with a solid portfolio…the balance is in a week to 10 days. In addition to that, a redevelopment plan for the entire block will be coming very soon afterwards.

We’ve all been let down before so take it with a grain of salt, but based on the current momentum going on-especially right next door with the IS Lofts and Ellicott Commons-its’ very likely that these two pieces of good news are the real deal.

UPDATE: It has since been anounced that the deal is waiting to close. Roger Trettel is the purchaser…the man behind Buehl Lofts. Whether or not the whole block sees glory again who knows but I truly believe Trettel is absolutely going to get the Werner’s Photo building done in due time.

Sign up for “Buffalo Lives”. It takes place September 1st in front of City Hall and you’ll be designated to one of five different clean-up areas in and around the downtown area.

But if thats’ not your kinda thing, they do give you a free lunch and free t-shirt for participating.

Oh and JP Losman might show up too!

Hope to see you there in three weeks!

I have a lot of respect for Donn Esmonde, I really do. But when it comes to Canal Side, he makes me want to pull my hair out

Look at what already has been done to see why we should do more. The rewatered Commercial Slip, uncovered building ruins, replicated bowstring bridge and Servicemen’s Museum patterned on the Coit-McCutcheon building carry a sense of pride and the pull of history.

Yes. I love the new drawstring bridge, the new boat slips, the new Naval Museum, and the cobblestone ruins. And when locals and tourists alike visit it they’ll say “Oh. This is nice…okay so now what do we do?”

Finishing the in-progress project with public waterfront space, with offices, apartments, restaurants and bars in buildings similar to the Coit-McCutcheon, would give us a slice of the old Canal Village. It would be our version of Toronto’s Distillery District, Baltimore’s Fell’s Point, San Diego’s Old Town or Manhattan’s South Street Seaport — but with historic underpinnings that those people- magnet projects cannot match.

I have spent more than half my life in DC, a little more than half an hour from Baltimore. I go up there a few times a year and know kids who go to college there.

I have never even heard of Baltimore’s Fell’s Point until I read this article.

If Quinn and Co. get their plan to come to fruition it will still be respectful of the Erie Canal harbor. The only difference is that there will be a parking garage and a Bass Pro where grass and trees were supposed to be. Without the large anchor, other retailers of any significance aren’t going to take the high risk that is downtown Buffalo retail. By putting BassPro on the Central Wharf, a surface lot like the Webster Block remains open and ready to feed off the imminent success of a waterfront entertainment district. Its that simple. Without it, our Waterfront will be a historically significant park and nothing more.

And thats the damn point. We need a waterfront that attracts people, that when people hear “Buffalo” they think “Bills, snow, wings…oh, and Canal Side!”.

I’m sick of thinking about it, sick of debating it. Get this damn thing done.

Don’t look now but Lackawanna might be getting its dignity back. With the Steel Winds project up and running with more windmills on the way, CSX adds to the good news with its plans for an intermodal center.

For a while I’ve been hearing about how the ports in NYC and NJ were practically overflowing- giving Buffalo a golden opportunity to take advantage of its’ terrific and underused rail infrastructure. Its a great $8 million dollar investment that can help Buffalo slowly get its’ shipping importance back on the map.

Lots of windmills and a new CSX Intermodal Center won’t turn it all around but its nice to see some good things happening in a place that seems to have everything go against it.

During my travels this summer I really started to resent the rather large amount of people who are quite content with the way Buffalo is. Baltimore is not a safe city, and most of it is quite depressing. But they make up for it with their downtown, especially their renown Inner Harbor done by Cordish Development which was supposed to do Buffalo’s waterfront until the whole Adelphia thing.
The pictured above “Power Plant” is a rehab of an old industrial building and now hosts an ESPNzone, a Barnes and Noble, and a couple restaurants. Other than that, the Inner Harbor has very little evidence of historic preservation

…and no one really cares because they’re having too much time enjoying themselves.

Great use of parking garages. 1st floor retail including a “Big Box” *ahem* retailer and some restaurants.

The retail buildings along the water are architectually insignificant and are not historical re-creations. People don’t really care either because they have lots of good places to eat and shop at.

Throughout downtown Baltimore, really good signage is everywhere. Buffalo? Not so much. Hopefully that will change after Canal Side is completed.

The inner harbor has a wide variety of different boats, and they’re free to tour. Buffalo definitely needs a couple more boats…having them accessible for free would be cool too.

And then the icing on the cake- Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Often immitated but never replicated…the best ballpark in America and a great way to end the day in Baltimore.

Here’s hoping we take a few pages out of Baltimore’s book for our Canal Side.

An interesting study came out saying that Buffalo’s loss of smart young people is right on average with the rest of the country. The real problem is attracting new people to come here to replace those people.

But thats not why I’m linking you to it. Watch the video. The end of it. And listen to Keith Radford’s reaction to the fact that Buffalo has added thousands of jobs again for the 6th straight month.

Local media is so used to only talking about bad stuff that they truly believe that only bad things are happening.

You have to make sure people know about the fires and murders and factory closings. But lets not demoralize everyone who watches the news and instead also let them know that for the first time in a long time, legitimately good things are starting to happen here. Kudos to Channel 7 for announcing the consistent (and modest) job growth. Hopefully as the small growth continues, the news can dwell on it a bit.