The final designs are out for the Rt. 5 along the Outer Harbor-a roadway that just screams out “I hope your stereotypes of Buffalo have been fulfilled thanks to this experience.” The skyway will not be removed but there are ways to live with the Skyway (bridge for 30 mph cars, light rail and pedestrians at the foot of Main would be nice).

The roads are straight, have great connectivity and most importantly-make sense.

I’m feeling the pedestrian trails though. It’s a unique part of the region but not inviting due to the infrastructure. These trails with historic interpretations will make for a pretty nice park-like experience…although I can’t see this being a hot spot to visit most of the year.

The enhanced connectivity should make it a bit more appealing to take the risk on a buisness venture, specifically ones related to water access. But until there is a great multi-modal connection from the Inner Harbor, seeing a booming Outer Harbor will be a stretch.

All in all a really nice project for something the NYSDOT came up with…here’s hoping there is no lawsuit and a quick and timely construction process.

Out of nowhere Elliot Spitzer’s reign as governor has come to an apparent ending-perhaps tonight even.

He seemed to survive the ‘drivers license for illegals’ situation as his poll numbers were increasing as of late but his creative financing schemes like privatizing the state lottery and making everything applicable to user-fees in lieu of raising taxes was pretty bizarre.

He’s been criticized frequently but I saw him as a pretty solid improvement over Pataki in regards to his interest and dedication to Buffalo. His interest in Canal Side and the Peace Bridge seemed true at heart. He (at least claimed to) made sure Uniland got the funding it needed quickly to help get the Dulski renovation get underway. His interest in the UB2020 plan and guaranteeing 7,000 new students at a UB downtown campus seemed legit.

Spitzer always came off as a little awkward to me. Maybe it was the overly-brash personality mixed in with some huge ears. Can’t say I saw this coming, but can’t say it isn’t easy to visualize. Usually those who seem to be the loudest about fighting for what is right seem to live the wrong way in secret.

I voted for Spitzer but I wished all along that Tom Suozzi got the D’s nomination. Perhaps next time.

*Photo courtesy NYtimes

For as long as I’ve been riding the light rail-the advertising has consisted of plugging bus routes and HIV awareness-this is not a good sign in regards to the marketability and profitability of Buffalo’s light rail.

But hark! Private sector advertising!

Perhaps a good sign in regards to the rising usage of our light-rail system. Or some sweetheart exclusive ad deal with TimeWarner.

I hate that they use green but other than that the font styles are a real good 1800’s-industrial look, the glass photographs look real good too…although these interpretations sounded really tacky and cluttered when discussed I think they are starting to come together and make good sense as a whole as this project. If significant retail ever becomes a reality I think this will be quite the urban retail experience…even better than Baltimore’s (?)

Article in the Buffalo Biz Journal about Artspace. Nothing groundbreaking but its just nice to read about a previously terrible part of Main Street starting to become something good. Artspace might not be the cure for our economic ails but projects like this really help out the urban fabric.

I just watched a 2-part Family Guy tonight. And all i have to say is that Family Guy is to comedy as what Andy Warhol is to art.

That was painfully unoriginal. All that dependency on pop culture/catch phrases/celebrities/ad campaigns to make anything slightly amusing…I don’t understand why so many people love that show.

Feel free to explain.

In the Canal Side project, we’ve heard on occasion about the weird scoreboard-type objectthat was under-construction and then was ordered to stop being constructed until being allowed a chance to see the final product before deciding whether or not to take it down.

I’ve a had a bad feeling about what it will look like but I came across the image today and it actually looks pretty good. Whether or not the good design transpires onto every-day real world circumstances remains to be seen but I think the ECHDC made the right call to wait to see the final product.

Paid $250,000, might as well keep it.

You might have come across the news that Spot Coffee is planning to expand into Toronto and in fact already has a location next to the Rogers Center. They already have a location in Rochester and they’re really starting to grow where it all started-in Buffalo.

Richard Florida’s theories are already coming into effect…kinda.

I saw ‘The Savages’ last night at the Amherst Theatre on Main Street.

Its a depressing yet very good movie but what stood out to me so much was that Buffalo was the perfect setting for the movie. As two siblings pursue their own struggling careers while failing miserably in their personal lives as well they attempt to take care of their angry, senile, dying father who is subjected to the depressing lifestyle of a nursing home. The backdrop for all this is the quirky, awkward, decaying, gray and precipitous Buffalo. The combination is perfect.

NYtimes review
Rotten Tomatoes

In the shadows of a city overwhelmingly rich in history as well as proud and protective of its traditions is a new central business district that has a skyline which could be confused for any generic US sunbelt city.

La Defense although much more sterile and boring than the city it represents is a fascinating place solely on the fact that it is truly the purest antithesis of Paris from tall soulless glass skyscrapers to big shopping malls and big outdoor concrete plazas that become lifeless when the workday is over (although there are efforts to make that change).

Like most cities built during the modern era, its a soulless place on its own and so the cure for that is always…lots of non-functional public art (!)

La Defense could very well become the biggest star in the architecture world soon if and when Morphosis gets to see their “Tour Phare” built.

It will be one of the largest structures in France and all its energy will be supplied by wind turbines on the roof of the structure. To give France credit, they are willing to take architectural risks that Americans have been slow to come around to.

Although it might not be welcomed with open arms, La Defense does what Paris proper won’t and that is build skyscrapers. Its an interesting debate. It would be hard to question the fact that the landscape of Paris would be severely different and perhaps not as unique and marketable as it is with 21st century structures towering over everything before it. When Paris did allow a skyscraper to be built they got suck with the Tour Montparnasse

which serves its primary purpose as a punch line amongst Parisians (you could even say its construction was a self-fulfilling prophecy but thats a whole other conversation). At the same time, it is become more present that France needs to modernize to stay relevant in the future and by severely limiting commercial space in one of the most famous cities in the world one could say they would only be hurting themselves. But when you have a 35-hour workweek, productivity and economic growth probably isn’t the most pressing issue on your mind.