I lived in buffalo for 1 year... the so called logic of leadership there baffles me..... they should have made that area for both rail and cars from the beginning.....
This isn't just about the train tracks being in the middle of Main St. Why they even built a rapid transit system at all is the question. By the time the system opened our loss of Bethlehem Steel was the final nail on the coffin. And downtown retail was already half gone by 1984. AM&A's would last downtown another 10 yrs when The Bon Ton would take over their suburban ancer stores and close the downtown store. As an early Gen X most people my age (53-56) were the last to see what downtown USED to be like in the late 70's. At least the shopping aspect of it. And all of the people walking around. My grandmother worked at the downtown AM&A's since the 60's and my mother and I would get on a Bailey bus downtown to meet her for lunch where we'd eat in the Basement (on the rare occasion she took us up to the top floor just to shut me up for a few months) and then my mother would use my grandmothers associate card so she could get her 10% discount. My grandmother had that for life too. I remember the 2 level Burger King on Main Street with its 1980's style lobby STILL sitting empty. The retail left because of the malls and urban flight. The pre-boomer generation moved to the suburbs and took advantage of plazas that offered some protection from the weather, grocery stores and shopping malls. The boomers then became the first generation of young people to have disposable incomes and they way they spent their money was studied and soon most advertising was focused on them. And they wanted to buy records and cloths close to home because by the late 60's going downtown was getting dangerous. Buffalo has dealt with many blows that just won't allow it to come back to life again. The loss of HSBC emptied both the tower and atrium leaving a massive black hole. 4,000 employees, gone. This Rainbow place we used to eat lunch at a lot 20+ years ago and they had very busy lunches. Lines out the door. And by 2:00 everything was dead but between 12 & 2 5 days a week for 10 years kept them going. And I don't understand why the city leaders going back to the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway which diverted 95% of the shipping that used to pass thru Buffalo, bypassing Buffalo and using the St Lawrence River to get to the Atlantic. The railroads also killed Buffalo, which is a great spot for the use of the Great Lakes as transport of goods, but not at all central enough for land travel. Or air travel. We'll never be an airline hub city because we're too close to the larger hub cities like Chicago, Cleveland, Toronto, Detroit, and at one time Pittsburgh. But why didn't local leaders ever fight for the city? It's as if they took the money given to them by these entities that left so they could and dragged their heels with any that could have replaced them. And if anything the idea for the train was an incentive for down town workers to not have to pay for parking and to cut back traffic because even while shrinking traffic was still brutal. The dumb thing was only making Amherst a park $ ride because at that time Amherst was so important. Nevermind the thousands of people that lived in the Southtowns, who would have benefited far better due to the, you know, snow they get that AMHERST doesn't and the dumbest idea of them all, the Skyway that shuts them off from downtown Everytime there's a gust of wind and a snowflake. Together. Those open could have taken the train downtown and back with no hassle. Also the train is free above ground and a life saver on brutally cold days when you had to walk from Main & Seneca to the mall food court. I lived in NYC and walked that distance all the time. But NYC streets don't have 30mph gales with below zero wind chills either.
My grandmother worked at A M & As downtown too as did her sister. They both transferred to suburban stores when they opened, first going to the Airport Plaza store and then the Sheridan Drive store from which they both retired. I was born in 1953 and downtown was a huge part of my life. So sad to see what was done to it.
Buffalo is a dead city. Same 20 year leader ship, which has failed. Now they’re talking about nonsense. Central terminal reconstruction, again. They have been working on that building for close to 40 years now and they can’t even finish the first floor! It’s a building without a purpose. The only purpose is for grifters to line their pockets. And so goes Buffalo. A city without a purpose.
Wrong. The blocks on and just off Main Street just north of Mohawk are full of lively businesses: Graylynn, Noble Root, Fattey Beer Co, Misuto Chows, The Hyatt, Flint Cafe, AMC Theater, Town Ball Room, Shea's, M&T. OSB Cider, Casa di Pizza, Hearth + Press, Bijou Grill, and more. That's just in the 500 and 600 Blocks.
@@Stumper716 We haven't been home in 20 years but are planning a trip next summer. Appreciate you posting that there are things to do downtown. My parents lived on the West Side until I was seven but most of my memories are going downtown for almost everything. I even had to go downtown to the DMV to take my written test for a driving permit. My grandmother worked at A M & As downtown and it was so much fun to visit her with my grandpa.
People have no idea of how the Metro Rail killed downtown because it was so so behind schedule that people just stopped going downtown to shop because it was so hard to get around during construction. I remember my mom who had always shopped at A.M.&A's downtown started going to the one in Tonawanda.
"No cars, No foot Traffic" - you literally cannot write a more conflicting statement lmfao. Have we literally STILL not learned that more cars in an area does not at all lead to pedestrian friendly streets?
Without a decent rail system you won't get foot traffic. They have free parking downtown and that still doesn't bring in people except it is for a Bills game weekend.
Buffalo is ass. Boston all day baby. New York state more like new poop face. New England baby all day everyday! Best thing New York State should do is bow down and wash Connecticuts feet and beg to be annexed and colonized!!!! Yeah boy!!!!
Anytime someone tells me they want to live in a walkable city, with public transportation, I tell them to look up Buffalo. It's your public transportation utopia.
Yeppers dearly so much downtown its ashamed how downtown is disgusting really never did mail street dearly so much why cars sharing main street it ridiculous 😊their nothing to shopping downtown dearly so much truth nothing but the truth so me me God 😊
3:40 this guy is such a liar. He doesn't care about business owners, he's just brushing things off in front of camera
I mean, it's a stupid question. It's like...yeah...I know it sucks for them...do you want me to act like this is new information?
Government is absolutely pathetic.
I lived in buffalo for 1 year... the so called logic of leadership there baffles me..... they should have made that area for both rail and cars from the beginning.....
every city project is like this now. contractors never on time or on budget. Corruption used to be hidden but it is out in the open and disgusting.
DemocRATS
People work from home and the homeless live there
I worked in the Rath building years ago and am&a was booming and the mall
This isn't just about the train tracks being in the middle of Main St. Why they even built a rapid transit system at all is the question. By the time the system opened our loss of Bethlehem Steel was the final nail on the coffin. And downtown retail was already half gone by 1984. AM&A's would last downtown another 10 yrs when The Bon Ton would take over their suburban ancer stores and close the downtown store. As an early Gen X most people my age (53-56) were the last to see what downtown USED to be like in the late 70's. At least the shopping aspect of it. And all of the people walking around. My grandmother worked at the downtown AM&A's since the 60's and my mother and I would get on a Bailey bus downtown to meet her for lunch where we'd eat in the Basement (on the rare occasion she took us up to the top floor just to shut me up for a few months) and then my mother would use my grandmothers associate card so she could get her 10% discount. My grandmother had that for life too. I remember the 2 level Burger King on Main Street with its
1980's style lobby STILL sitting empty. The retail left because of the malls and urban flight. The pre-boomer generation moved to the suburbs and took advantage of plazas that offered some protection from the weather, grocery stores and shopping malls. The boomers then became the first generation of young people to have disposable incomes and they way they spent their money was studied and soon most advertising was focused on them. And they wanted to buy records and cloths close to home because by the late 60's going downtown was getting dangerous.
Buffalo has dealt with many blows that just won't allow it to come back to life again. The loss of HSBC emptied both the tower and atrium leaving a massive black hole. 4,000 employees, gone. This Rainbow place we used to eat lunch at a lot 20+ years ago and they had very busy lunches. Lines out the door. And by 2:00 everything was dead but between 12 & 2 5 days a week for 10 years kept them going. And I don't understand why the city leaders going back to the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway which diverted 95% of the shipping that used to pass thru Buffalo, bypassing Buffalo and using the St Lawrence River to get to the Atlantic. The railroads also killed Buffalo, which is a great spot for the use of the Great Lakes as transport of goods, but not at all central enough for land travel. Or air travel. We'll never be an airline hub city because we're too close to the larger hub cities like Chicago, Cleveland, Toronto, Detroit, and at one time Pittsburgh. But why didn't local leaders ever fight for the city? It's as if they took the money given to them by these entities that left so they could and dragged their heels with any that could have replaced them. And if anything the idea for the train was an incentive for down town workers to not have to pay for parking and to cut back traffic because even while shrinking traffic was still brutal. The dumb thing was only making Amherst a park $ ride because at that time Amherst was so important. Nevermind the thousands of people that lived in the Southtowns, who would have benefited far better due to the, you know, snow they get that AMHERST doesn't and the dumbest idea of them all, the Skyway that shuts them off from downtown Everytime there's a gust of wind and a snowflake. Together. Those open could have taken the train downtown and back with no hassle. Also the train is free above ground and a life saver on brutally cold days when you had to walk from Main & Seneca to the mall food court. I lived in NYC and walked that distance all the time. But NYC streets don't have 30mph gales with below zero wind chills either.
My grandmother worked at A M & As downtown too as did her sister. They both transferred to suburban stores when they opened, first going to the Airport Plaza store and then the Sheridan Drive store from which they both retired. I was born in 1953 and downtown was a huge part of my life. So sad to see what was done to it.
Buffalo is a dead city. Same 20 year leader ship, which has failed. Now they’re talking about nonsense. Central terminal reconstruction, again. They have been working on that building for close to 40 years now and they can’t even finish the first floor! It’s a building without a purpose. The only purpose is for grifters to line their pockets. And so goes Buffalo. A city without a purpose.
They should bring more stores to downtown I came in 1985 when we had a amazing mall
The 100 block looks almost done but isn't open. When with that open?
Wow, cars will be able to go down streets for no reason again. Good use of money and time. No one goes downtown unless they have to; it's a shit hole.
Wrong. The blocks on and just off Main Street just north of Mohawk are full of lively businesses: Graylynn, Noble Root, Fattey Beer Co, Misuto Chows, The Hyatt, Flint Cafe, AMC Theater, Town Ball Room, Shea's, M&T. OSB Cider, Casa di Pizza, Hearth + Press, Bijou Grill, and more. That's just in the 500 and 600 Blocks.
@@Stumper716 We haven't been home in 20 years but are planning a trip next summer. Appreciate you posting that there are things to do downtown. My parents lived on the West Side until I was seven but most of my memories are going downtown for almost everything. I even had to go downtown to the DMV to take my written test for a driving permit. My grandmother worked at A M & As downtown and it was so much fun to visit her with my grandpa.
Im was going to buy a house over there but is a ghost town damn so sad those city is empty not that much people for what i see
People have no idea of how the Metro Rail killed downtown because it was so so behind schedule that people just stopped going downtown to shop because it was so hard to get around during construction. I remember my mom who had always shopped at A.M.&A's downtown started going to the one in Tonawanda.
How did they think people would get to downtown to shop.
Keep Voting Democrat
LoL
Keep Voting Democrat
LoL
It needs to be connected to Boston.
Buffalo is dead.
Gross no thanks, we want nothing to do with buffalo
@@sway_9803 Boston all day baby
@@nonyobussiness3440 🙏
I think Boston would object.
Boston is not going to remain 'Irish' for very long . . . . .
"No cars, No foot Traffic" - you literally cannot write a more conflicting statement lmfao. Have we literally STILL not learned that more cars in an area does not at all lead to pedestrian friendly streets?
Without a decent rail system you won't get foot traffic. They have free parking downtown and that still doesn't bring in people except it is for a Bills game weekend.
Buffalo is ass. Boston all day baby. New York state more like new poop face. New England baby all day everyday! Best thing New York State should do is bow down and wash Connecticuts feet and beg to be annexed and colonized!!!!
Yeah boy!!!!
Too late they killed buffalo long ago so we got used to shopping in suburbs and Amazon !
is no one going to mention .....-Its full of . ...
racists like you? no thats only in north tonawanda.
This citys leaders are a joke 14 yrs lol
I'll fix this problem by next year for $50M.
I went there for the firs titme last weke right now its an absolute ghost town its very creepy
Buffalo = rust belt dump
If new your city can build a stadium in the city why couldn't buffalo with so much more room?
Anytime someone tells me they want to live in a walkable city, with public transportation, I tell them to look up Buffalo. It's your public transportation utopia.
Lia Lando is a cutie newscaster
Buffalo SUCKS
Masaallah. America
Buffalo were great ideas come to die.sad
Yeppers dearly so much downtown its ashamed how downtown is disgusting really never did mail street dearly so much why cars sharing main street it ridiculous 😊their nothing to shopping downtown dearly so much truth nothing but the truth so me me God 😊
Bad joke