One of the better things about Buffalo is the Buffalo News crime reports. My personal favorite was the man who was shot while sitting on the toilet at the Buffalo Tourist Lodge on Main and didn’t even realize it until the next day.

This one is close to the top though…

A Buffalo man was robbed of five cents Tuesday night by two teenage boys outside his home in the 2700 block of Main Street, near East Amherst Street, police said.

Northwest District police said the victim was confronted at about 10 p. m. by two boys, described as 14 to 16 years old. The boys demanded money and displayed a gun covered by a cloth. They took the man’s cash and ran.

The structural steel is coming along at the Federal Courthouse. The two story rectangular base is bascially there while the cylinder is starting to ascend above it. Its a sigh of relief to really see this starting to come along finally.

The Avant project continues to move along quickly. Most of the glass facing north and west is up while little of it is up on the sides facing south and east. With the new courthouse, NewEra, and this leading from city hall towards the corner of Chippewa and Delaware and then going up to 285 you have a pretty sweet downtown boulevard. I’m excited to find out what restaurant takes the 1st floor…according to the website: “a most delectable restaurant.”

Lawsuit? What lawsuit? The Senecas are going at this project like there is no tomorrow with seemingly 24/7 work on the project. What is mostly taking shape right now is the parking garage which should be fairly large onto itself. Next to it is the actual Casino which should be about the same height as the garage. Whatever comes about of the lawsuits and appeals, there is no doubt that in the meantime the Senecas will continue to make big money at the temporary lot. The parking lot is just always packed to waste money away at this little blue shed. Mindblowing.

The final component of the Cobblestone Alive project is moving along swiftly. It looks as if the 1st floor will have some patio space on the corner of Perry and Mississippi. For 1st floor retail the windows end a bit to high up but maybe I’m wrong. Down the block I see no progress with the sports bar “Benchwarmers”. Perhaps their waiting for Sabres season and/or the block to welcome in occupants before starting things up.

I experienced Buffalo as merely a visitor for the 1st time since starting off at UB and I gotta say its a lot more fun to spend a week in a Buffalo summer than to experience months on end in the fall/winter/spring.

Sure the weather makes a huge difference but the biggest difference I would say is being able to customize your Buffalo experience. Be oblivious to the political culture, the intense urban poverty, the paltry job growth, the ample parking and instead meet up with friends who haven’t moved yet, eat at Ted’s and Wegmans and etc, enjoy a Thursday In the Square, the new Galleria and for me specifically-all the progress with the hand full of construction projects downtown.

Perhaps the extremely sprawled out culture in the region is a reaction to the frustration of the region’s evolution. Live away from it all unless you’re going to an event or work or whatever you particularly need or enjoy out of Buffalo.

Anyways, my famous construction updates will be constant throughout the week and now that I have adobe creative suites I’ll start experimenting with some new graphics and such to add to the blog. Stay tuned

A couple things hit a nerve over the last week architecturally speaking (nothing new there). Looking at the NYtimes a couple days ago I came across a special about new architecture in Beijing and all its bold new buildings. I couldn’t help but visualize the NYtimes covering all the crazy new buildings being built in Buffalo in the early 1900’s-late 1800’s with the bold and controversial Larkin Building, the insanely soaring Guaranty Building, the out-of-context Martin House.

Nowadays, this

crap gets built in the city center and no one gives a shit.

*pic courtesy flickr

I’ve written before about how architecture is indeed more important in Buffalo than it was before as we slightly move away from the “just build something” approach. That idea is still present and I’m guilty of on occasion as well. One may say that its all about money but good architecture doesn’t have to mean art museums and luxury condos designed by Gehry or Calatrava in world class cities. If a developer and an architect have any respect for the ground they build on and respect the ghosts of Burnham, Sullivan, Wright, Richardson, and Saarinen around them they’d do better-especially if you went to Harvard…like the guy who designed this-

*pic courtesy flickr

Buffalo will not have a building boom of Beijing proportions, in fact-it probably never will have a building boom. But things are and will be built in Buffalo, all I am saying is that embracing mediocrity is a self-fulfilling prophecy-whether through public policy or design.

Anyone with a remote interest in Buffalo is aware of the casino ruling and the opinions are varied and abundant.

The casino had the potential to serve as an entertainment anchor along with the HSBC Arena to help encourage business. And before you bring the Seneca Niagara analogy I submit to you that their (NF) project was
1. around minimal development
2. brought in revenue to pay for the new NF airport
3. put pressure on surrounding hotels to up the ante or die

One could argue the announcement of the hotel aspect of the project put some extra pressure on the Adams Mark and maybe even the Hyatt to make sure their upgrades were soon and of high quality.

A Buffalo Creek casino could have had some drawing power to developers needing an extra reason to commit to a store or restaurant or hotel on Canal Side. Since Canal Side is to become a regional attraction-having a large facility that draws people who clearly have a burning hole in their wallet who hail from Cheektowaga or Fort Erie or anywhere else around town-would help increase foot traffic at some small to medium scale.

In reference to the Senecas sucking in the poor who live in the Perry Projects or Douglass Towers- I have never once seen a pedestrian go to the casino, I’ve also never seen anyone get off an NFTA Bus to go there while the parking lot is packed all the time…I’m not buying the ‘exploitation of the nearby poor’ theory. Yes, a blue tool shed with slot machines has drawn in some not-so-fancy characters for the most part, but I can’t see the clientele base not evolving a bit after the completed project.

I think gambling is a stupid thing, I resent the fact that Buffalo got such a paltry deal on the project, and I think anyone who regarded the project as a great way to revitalize downtown is delusional BUT I think every project with drawing power adds up to eventually create a much better downtown. The more options one has when looking for things to do downtown, the better it is for everyone. The Senecas are in the game of profiting off of people who want to throw money away knowing that there is some sort of chance that they’ll get some of it back but the sad reality is that most of if not all these customers already waste their money on OTB’s and the Fort Erie Slots and NF Ontario Casinos-if your dwindling tax base wants to waste money, at least give them an option of doing so while giving back to the local municipalities.

To stereotype further, a bunch of old rich people in North Buffalo got together to sue because they feel they know what’s best for everyone else in the area. Whether they’re right or not is debatable. The Cobblestone District will continue to slowly evolve, probably into a quiet, high-rent loft neighborhood with some decent restaurants and cafes but they missed out on a chance to take a quicker path to vibrancy-perhaps a riskier one at that but Buffalo is in a position in which taking big chances might not be such a bad idea.

Came across some interesting info at the end of this BfloNews article about the opening of the Erie Canal Harbor in reference to Hillary’s visit of her much-championed-for project…

*It would be a nice gesture for the Raptors to indeed play a game or two a year at the HSBC Arena in downtown Buffalo. Certainly they couldn’t expect to get many season ticket holders from the region, but any sports team would love to expand its market and there certainly is little to no interest in the NBA and more specifically the Toronto Raptors.

Make us feel like we’re involved and are a part of the organization’s outreach with a few games here and there and this sports-obsessed area will be all over it-at least when there in town if nothing else.

*I also like the idea of having the Blue Jays (inevtiable new major league affiliate of the Bisons) play one or two games a year at Dunn Tire Park. The Jays don’t usually draw that well anyways, having a sold out 18,000 seat stadium would be a step up from what they usually draw at the Rogers Center during the work week.

*Of course its a give and take. We’ve already offered Toronto our Bills. Perhaps Hamilton will ask us to give them a Sabres game…