At the end of the day
“But we understand that more than streetlights are needed,”
Mayor Byron W. Brown said.
February 29, 2008
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“But we understand that more than streetlights are needed,”
Mayor Byron W. Brown said.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
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As if spending lots of money adding quaint streetlights and fixing the roads will make the area an attractant to business growth and shopper satisfaction.
You could turn Seneca Street into a smooth, 4-lane boulevard and all that would do is allow vehicles to drive through the area faster. That is exactly what they would do, in fact, because there is little apparent reason to stop there.
Look closely at the photograph you used your 2/25 blog entry about cameras coming to Seneca Street. What immediately caught my eye was was the “Mr. XXXXX Bar” sign and the neon “LIQU”. If this is a typical Seneca Street block (and excepting the Cazenovia/Mercy Hospital area this STILL seems to be the case) then I have an alternate suggestion.
My suggestion: Focus and advocate purely for infrastructure improvements that will draw people (and business) to the area, then worry about the street. I believe strongly in “storefront remediation” (my term) which relates to funded programs that renovate building frontage and signage (including your popular light poles) to hopefully beautify structures seen at eye level. Sandblasting and curbside cleanup - reduction in GRIME - is relatively inexpensive and would go far to brighten the neighborhood.
Humans rarely look up or down; their world is almost entirely viewed on the horizontal. Brighten their view of the area first, and follow up with subsequent improvements elsewhere.
Spending $1.3M on improvements - the “demonstration” project - might be a great idea but not if building remediation isn’t part of the effort. Otherwise, you’ll just end up with more asphalt in need of repair 7 years from now.
BBD
Comment by Buffalo Blood Donor — February 29, 2008 @ 1:55 pm
BBD, It’s easy to trust your judgement on certain things like infrastructure, you’re usually right on such things like that, but in my honest opinion of Seneca Street, if people are going to avoid the street because they fear ruining their shocks having more business isn’t going to help either. There has to be a mix of both to “revive” Seneca Street.
There are just some of pictures of the street for you to see and think which is more important at this point.
http://southbuffaloblogger.wnymedia.net/blogs/2007/11/04/why-seneca-st-needs-a-repave-in-2008/
As per asking of the area of the picture you talked about, that’s just one block, but other blocks have good & quality neighborhood “family” businesses (more than bars & liquor stores).
The street lights, if left go any longer to rust away, they will become a serious danger. The street, all the money we pay in taxes, we should have the best roads, instead we have the worst.
While we are at a point where we can’t force new business, there needs to be something to draw future investment… and improved infrastructure will definately help.
Comment by CindyK — February 29, 2008 @ 7:43 pm
Unfortunately, South Buffalo is only getting 7 cameras. Block Club Leaders were not pleased hearing this news. Again, the rest of the City gets more, while South Buffalo gets a token portion of the project. Again, the South Buffalo Taxpayers get less, less and less, while our taxes go up, up up.
Comment by John — March 3, 2008 @ 10:49 am