So Is it good for The City or not?
Bass Pro plan puts history in back seat
Donn Esmonde-Buffalo News
Updated: 04/01/07 6:48 AM
I walked past the under-construction Erie Canal Harbor historic site Friday morning, to imagine what ought to be.
Bass Pro may be coming. A less-thanconcrete “predevelopment” agreement was struck Thursday. It would plop on the historic site a Wegmans-sized sporting goods store and an adjacent multilevel parking garage. Add a concrete “green space” plaza, and it all but swallows the 12-acre swatch that celebrates the definitive site on the Erie Canal. It is our page in America’s story, and Bass Pro would shred it.
If Bass Pro comes to Central Wharf, we lose our planned waterfront green space. Gone would be cobblestone streets and planned 19th century-style buildings to complement history and to bring commerce. Gone would be the sense of historic place the site demands.
It is a good thing the historic Commercial Slip is already dug, building ruins unearthed and the bowstring bridge built. Otherwise they would likely be sacrificed for a blue historical marker, reading: “Here, in 1825, Gov. DeWitt Clinton drew
a bucket of water and launched the canal that built Buffalo and changed America.”
I was nervous about Bass Pro since it was first mentioned for the old Aud. I knew our politicians and some business “leaders” were desperate for anything to happen. I knew that without a second thought they would sacrifice to Bass Pro the historic site that so many people — after a huge battle — persuaded the state to unearth and celebrate.
My fears were justified. After Bass Pro’s Aud plan fell through, CEO Johnny Morris eyed the public space on the historic Central Wharf. He should have been told no, that a historic plan — forged by years of lawsuits, public protests and, finally, common sense — was in place. Instead, Larry Quinn — the driving force of the recently created waterfront development corporation — said, “Whatever you want, Johnny.”
It is sad when a community cares so little about its own story that it would needlessly sacrifice it. If Bass Pro comes to Central Wharf, our piece of national history — an attraction in its own right — will become a mere accessory to a sporting goods store. We already have a historic plan for the site, approved by the city, county and state in documents stacked two inches high. Messing with it merely invites a lawsuit.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The historic site is a small slice of the downtown waterfront. There are a half-dozen other places nearby — including the soon-to-be demolished Aud — where Bass Pro (or a substitute) can go.
This plan gives us the worst of both worlds: a Bass Pro big enough to overwhelm and diminish our history, yet too small — at half the size of the Aud plan — to attract crowds from distant parts.
We can have it both ways — a fullblown history site and a nearby full-sized Bass Pro or some replacement. Instead, this plan would give us a half loaf of Bass Pro and a half slice of history. That isn’t progress, it’s desperation.
Along with Bass Pro would come “Canal Side,” courtesy of strip-mall king Benderson Development. We will get on streets near the Aud the Starbucks and other chains found in most malls.
I am as frustrated as anybody about so little getting done around here. But we also have a history of screwing up, from the University at Buffalo in Amherst to an instantly obsolete Convention Center. We ought to finish the history site, with the step-by-step development that would follow. Instead, Quinn & Co. opt for “instant neighborhood”: Commandeer a historic site and add spoonfuls of Bass Pro and Benderson and stir.
The get-it-done-yesterday mentality feeds a shortsightedness that time and again has hurt us in the long run. In terms of what will endure, let’s not get it Bass-ackwards.
email:
desmonde@buffnews.com
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I can't hate on the retirement issue, i'm 5 to ten years away myself. One thought though, If they don't go highrise, who's going to want to push our wheel~chairs across a sprawling campus?
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