Quote:
Originally Posted by pj3000
It was a 1970s downtown revitalization scheme... a "transitway mall" to combat suburbanization of commercial activity. And doing it underground downtown was too costly.
It ended up only helping to hasten the demise of downtown retailers, by only making it more difficult for people to drive and park and patronize downtown establishments. Trends were against its success from the start, yet they still tried with way-too-late efforts like this to "save downtown".
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Antares41
I agree with this Buffalo is a bit more intact then many peoples perception. And there is some real efforts to bring development back into neglected communities. Buffalo city boundaries are small(<50 sq. mi.) So even a little sprucing here and there has a significant impact, nevertheless, still a lot to be done.
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Yeah, Buffalo made a bunch of mistakes. Building the light rail while the population decline was already kicked into high gear, and then not being able to get any funding for any future expansions to get people from the suburbs to take the train. Turning Main St. into a pedestrian mall for most of its entire length in the downtown core was another one.
Metro rail ends at the UB south campus on the border with Buffalo and its largest suburb, Amherst (pop ~130k).
It was planned to be expanded to UB north, the airport, and future expansions to the "Tonawandas" suburbs and the "Southtowns".
Buffalo only has 40 sq miles of land, so the 17,000 residents added since 2010 is quite noticeable, with many people rehabbing SFH properties, downtown lofts, new apartments, some apartments now turning condo.
The restaurant/craft cocktails, craft brewery, craft distillery scene is light years ahead of 15-20 years ago.
Buffalo has always had a strong arts and theatre scene.
The Albright-Knox art museum is now undergoing a huge $170M expansion and will be rechristened Albright-Knox-Gundlach thanks to the $62M donation from ex-pat Buffalonian now "bond king Billionaire" Jeffrey Gundlach
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Buffalo
2010: 261,310
2020: 278,349
Erie County
2010: 919,040
2020: 954,236
Niagara County
2012: 216,469
2020: 212,666
Buffalo-Niagara MSA (Erie+Niagara counties) 2020: 1,166,902
Both the city of Buffalo and Erie County have noticeable growth for the first time in decades, whereas Niagara county (where Niagara Falls is located) is still suffering from decline. Inner city Niagara Falls continues to empty out while the Niagara county suburbs still continue to sprawl.
Huge developments include relocating UB Medical school to a new $375M building downtown, and many new structures on the Buffalo-Niagara Medical campus, which may be the largest cluster of employment outside of the CBD itself which is directly south of the medical campus.
The $120M rehab by DC-based Douglas Development of the former HSBC tower into Seneca One and an additional $58M HQ of M&T Bank's technology campus, along with other tech companies, 100+ apartments, etc. in the tower is another huge win. The building went from completely vacant to now having $178M+ of investments to transform it into a viable mixed-use building with over 2,000 people working in the tower.
Buffalo based M&T Bank will go from the #26 largest US bank by assets to around #15-16 with the recent acquisition of People's United Financial.
A $200B+ juggernaut.
TL;DR
Buffalo is no longer the butt of jokes. The Queen City of the Great Lakes is coming back.
Buffalo always had "good bones", now
most of the chips are falling into place in the 2020s.