When I saw that 200 Delaware would now be referred to as “Avant” I thought, oh thats slightly pretentious but whatever…” And then I saw that the building will say “Avant” in big letters facing the thruway…Buffalonians, not necessarially known for pronouncing French words correctly ( I mean, we turned ‘Beau Fleuve’ into ‘Buffalo’) would be doomed to embarrass themselves for years to come upon trying to pronounce it.

But apparently the issue has been addressed…

When Avant took the lead in the name game, there was some concern that Buffalonians would have a tough time pronouncing it.

“There was some worry that the Buffalo “flat A” would overtake the softer “Ah-vahnt,” said Uniland spokeswoman Judi Griggs.

To dispel concerns Crowley Webb hit Main Street and asked passers-by to pronounce Avant, along with two other possible building names. When results yielded a 90 percent success rate for Avant’s soft A’s, the choice became final.

Check out a good piece in the Atlantic Monthly about the new distribution of crime in metro regions as suburban crime is increasing while city crime goes down.

The era of the housing project is long gone thanks to high concentrations of poverty, limited access to upward mobility, amongst other things.

With the end of it came section 8 vouchers to all, giving nearly-limitless opportunities to those from the aforementioned projects to live in the suburbs if they so desire.

And with that has come a trend suggesting the almost evenly distributed amount of crime throughout metro regions.

Perhaps a fair explanation of why Amherst crime has gone up while Buffalo crime has gone down?

Although I feel bad for a good family to get stuck with violent drug dealers around their homes I think it is fairly anti-social to assume that crime should be a problem for just a city. Perhaps if it is everyone’s inescapable problem, then society will take a far more thoughtful approach to solving the issues at hand. Perhaps the Sandy Beach thought process will be non-existent in the future.

Satisfying news coming out of the Buffalo News today about Carl Paladino beginning the planning process for the 3rd condo tower in the last remaining parcel around it.

Architecturally speaking the whole place is mediocre at best and urban planning-wise its a disaster. Making vast amounts of waterfront property private, parking in the front almost everywhere, and pathetic connectivity to the adjacent central business district-all mortal sins in the world of planning. Sadly, that is partly why this place works. People with money want to be downtown but they don’t trust it enough to live where they’d have to interact with the crazies and hobos and the non-existent criminals roaming around. Times have changed since the 80’s when this part of the waterfront became high-end residential-but the mindset has only changed for the better slightly.

What is good about this place is that it was able to attract people with money to pay property taxes in the city of Buffalo and to create some sort of residential/waterfront momentum while nothing else could. With it now attaining a fairly high density for Buffalo standards, it potentially creates the need for a nearby grocery store, coffee shops, clothing stores, and other everyday needs.

I’m excited to see this community finally get build out. Perhaps in the future as people need more sustainable living-the wealthy residents will demand better infrastructure that creates great multi-modal connections to their surroundings, creating a more vibrant downtown. For now, its just good to see the demand for residential space in downtown Buffalo to keep strong.

I’m sure many of you remember Ed Glazer’s article about how Buffalo is dead and it should stop trying. A couple of my planning professors at the time really hoped for an equally thorough and intelligent response to it and it looks like it finally happened…from Richard Florida (!)

Its a great response but maybe slightly optimistic. I’m not sure how powerful a great waterfront and other cultural assets can make young people stay as opposed to simply providing jobs that college graduates are looking for but I do believe that Buffalo can be an overflow-type place for people and businesses that are priced out of Toronto or even Canada completely. High-speed rail would help accelerate such a potential trend. A Schengen-Zone type agreement would really help but that is an impossible feat.

With the aforementioned parks and waterfronts and museums etc etc Buffalo could indeed be attractive to businesses in Canada who want a US presence but see a bad image being attatched to having set up shop in Buffalo but to individuals I find that hard to be a population-adder

Anyways I’m not the expert so enjoy his very thorough look at Buffalo’s positive future…let me know what you think of it.

Oh hai. I have been, am, and will be out of town for a bit. Observations of my travels in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, San Diego, LA, and San Fran when I get back…

Meanwhile here’s an interview with Jordan Levy on WBEN…good to hear about Canal Side coming along and beyond exciting to know that retailers are going to sign contracts in the fall.