Benderson is trying hard to make sure they can go ahead with their lifestyle center on Maple where the former shooting range is today next to the Pepsi Center.

There are plenty of issues here…Amherst is already pretty developed-could afford to keep some open spaces, Amherst is more than well represented in terms of retail options and facilities, and Amherst is already starting to face some suburban decay as its inner ring starts to deteriorate.

I’m not sure what the chances are of stopping this project but I think its an inevitable look into the evolution of surburban design-specifically for shopping.

The very American concept of the shopping mall is starting to lose its flair as cities become sterilized and attractive to the middle and upper classes who cities have tried so hard to get back for so long. Because of this trend, developers are seeing the need to develop urbanized projects in suburbs.

The Maple Road project by Benderson would be a very town-village type place with mixed use and self-sustaining.

Its also a great location. Right next to UB and close access to the wealthier parts of Amherst.

And with this project will come the complete and utter demise of inner-Amherst, potentially falling into the same categories that made Buffalo so unappealing to many. Boulevard Mall will struggle to maintain its success since most retailers would much prefer to be even closer to 27,000 UB students, wealthier portions of the area, and the swankiest and newest shopping center in town.

It won’t happen overnight but look no further than the lack of interest in shopping plazas around Bailey and Sheridan and Eggert near the Boulevard Mall and realize that this decay will continue to slowly crawl until a bit before UB.

Development is cold and rational, and this is a good project that in an economic market like Buffalo-Niagara region will hurt some successful areas but will be applauded for its fake urban-village design that makes for a pleasant, sterile ‘urban’ experience.

Overall I think its a good project-it would be nice to see suburban Buffalo breakaway from the Post WWII standard suburban concepts of design…its’ just unfortunate to know that their success will be at the expense of well developed and long established areas. But so goes life in the Buffalo area.

“The problem of insecurity cannot be solved by spreading people out more thinly, trading the characteristics of the city for the suburbs.”
-Jane Jacobs

There have been a few violent assaults/rapes in and around UB North this semester, starting to instill in people that just because its not the city-doesn’t mean that you’re completely safe.

In fact-some of the areas on and around UB North could become havens for rapes and assaults simply through poor and anti-social design.

Vast VAST surface lots with poor to little lighting, massive single use structures and complexes, discouraged sidewalk activity etc etc…

The city of Buffalo has to deal with the “stop snitching” movement, but in UB north there isn’t even any one around to “snitch”. Its hard to believe that there aren’t more crimes like this occurring.

UB is working on its “UB2020″ plan and with that should come some changes to the way UB North works as a mini-city of sorts. With much thought into making it mixed-use, well lit, pedestrian friendly and giving the place a sense of community…UB North can maintain its reputation as being the clean safe escape from the city campus.

Shopping on Sheridan near Bailey or NF Blvd near Bailey is becoming just as historic as shopping downtown or on Broadway.

Amherst has an accidental evolutionary chart in terms of shopping plazas as you drive further and further north up Niagara Falls Boulevard. Each one is less and less abandoned as you go further, leaving the past and the desnity in the dust.

One of the newer plazas, Consumer Square, was at risk of becoming much like its predecessors after losing K-Mart but is in fact being invigorated beyond what K-Mart could have ever done for the plaza.

Eastern Mountain Sports, Ultra Cosemtics, Christmas Tree Shops, OfficeMax and Old Navy are going where the K-Mart used to be, making a pretty busy plaza that already has Barnes & Noble, Target and Best Buy, even more bustling.

Why am I writing about this? It’s so important that developers take care of these shopping plazas and make sure they stay in top shape.

Sadly, in this case, most of the new stores are coming in from older shopping plazas in the older parts of the suburbs.

Drive up Sheridan or NFblvd and see that this region has already given up on the 1st ring of its’ suburbs. Keeping plazas like this bustling can help concentrate all the activity in the already developed suburbs instead of building new plazas further and further out that simply face the same fate of all the plazas before them.

Sadly, the trends just contiune and continue and no one will learn or care until…well nevermind.

Let’s just say “Suburban Planning” is going to be a considered just as serious an acadmeic issue in the future as “Urban Planning” is now.