The Exodus of Major Companies Such As Trico and Bethlehem Steel, See Figures 2A and 2B

The Revitalization of Buffalo

by Daniel D. Kochmanski April 29, 2004, revised August 10, 2010

Since 1950 there have been several factors that resulted in Buffalo’s population declining from 600,000 to about 300,000. The closing of the Central Train Terminal on the city’s East Side had a dramatic impact. People were switching from traveling by train to traveling by plane or roadway. A couple factors that caused the flight to the suburbs or out of the area all together were tax incentives to build and live there and the racial tensions that occurred within the city. In June 1967, riots that rocked the East side of Buffalo virtually shut down the city. Fear makes people want to move to a place where they feel safe and secure. 1 In the 1900’s Buffalo lost much of its industry and lost its edge as being a central focal point for shipping and receiving of products whether by water or by rail. It was no longer a hub for goods to the west or to Canada. The opening of the Welland Canal spelled the beginning of the end for the Buffalo grain industry. The final blow was dealt in 1959 with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. This waterway gave ocean vessels passage into the Great Lakes. This completely removed Buffalo from the shipping chain. Back in April 2004, when this article was first written, many grain elevators still stood vacant as seen in Figure 1.2 . As I suggested in my original article the HO grain elevator needed to be torn down and replaced. It was torn down to make way for our downtown casino.

Figure 1. The 130 foot elevator of the H.O. Oats company located on Perry Street. During the 1950's, the plant was producing over 6,000 cases of cereal a day. The cereal plant closed in 1975 and the brick manufacturing building burned in 1987 yet still stands to this day.

The exodus of major companies such as Trico and Bethlehem steel, see Figures 2a and 2b below, caused numerous job losses and a severe economic impact on the city’s economy. 3 Figure 2a Bethlehem Steel closes most of its Lackawanna steel making facility in 1983. 4

Figure 2b Trico Facility on Main Street 3

As I said in April 2004, the first stage of Buffalo’s revitalization is the casino since it seemed inevitable that it would be built here. The people of the suburbs apparently don’t want it. The city of Buffalo does want it for the needed tax revenue cause it appears that the state of New York is not going to supply it’s second largest city with the necessary needed aid for its revitalization. The casino was built in place of the HO Oats grain mill as shown above though I thought a more optimum place for a casino is the area East of Michigan, between William Street and the 33 Kensington expressway. As seen in figure 3 the area appears to be mostly residential and much of it’s vacant. My suggestion is to have this land purchased and used for a casino. I think most people in this area would be happy to sell their dilapidated houses. The casino would then become an extension to downtown. It would have excellent access from both the 33 as well as the 190. Figure 3 proposed area for the new Buffalo casino 5

Table 1. Assets in the Buffalo area Sport franchises like the Buffalo Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Blizzard Lake Erie & the waterfront & Fresh water supply Parks Colleges & Universities Educated / skilled labor force Inexpensive housing Little rush hour Theater, Sheas, Kleinhans Museums,Table Albright2. Attractions Knox, Science, and StructuresHistory that should be added to Buffalo CasinoInexpensive Buffalo, power East & ofwater Michigan between William and the 33 ThemeIndian Reservations park & Water park at the Water Front NatureGenerally park mild with climate Boat docks at the Water Front Shopping Mall at the water front with International Restaurants since we're a border city Condominiums at the Water Front Extend the subway to the new Water Front Build a new International bridge Table 3. Changes Needed for the Buffalo Area Change from Change to Rationale / Reason Additional rail lines need to be Eastbound lines are needed to bring people to Limited size of Metro rail subway added downtown Suburbanites use the cities resources & should pay for it & city cannot afford the Buffalo operated Police Force Erie County operated Police Force burden without the necessary tax base from the suburbs in the county People from the suburbs use the city's Erie County operated Fire benefits and therefore should pay their fair Buffalo operated Fire Department Department share & city needs the county's tax base to support their public services Buffalo operated public school Erie County operated Public school Education needs to be standardized with system system equal opportunity and quality for all children Buildings have not been used since 1950's Removal of the old Central Replace with an inner city park and are a home for derelicts. main bldg needs Terminal train station's auxilary known as Memorial Park with new to be listed as historical landmark to Buffalo & bldgs on Memorial & Pederewski housing in the surrounding area NY Revitilize the Buffalo Waterfront Buffalo needs a large mall and major Theme Demolition of the Cargill grain mills and utilize Buffalo best resource, park to attract attention. Southern tier on the water front and demolition of Lake Erie. Install a Theme park and suburbanites have little or no where to shop most of the Bethleham Steel facilty shopping mall and dine. City needs revenue. Build the inevitable Casino, which I Buffalo needs the tax revenue from the Purchase & demolish an area of don't like, but Buffalo wants it for Casino for its revitilization. Home Owners can homes, East of Michigan, between revenue and the suburbs definately use the new found income to move out of this Broadway Ave and Genesee St. don't want it. terribly run down area Remove reminance of Crawdaddy's Put in a Park with Trees and a It's close proximity to downtown makes it a restaurant at the Erie Basin marina sitting area. perfect place to have lunch near the water Replace the Peace Bridge with a Buffalo needs to maintain its crucial gateway Remove the Peace Bridge completely new bridge to Canada for import, export and tourism

As can be seen by looking at Table 2, one of the next things I would add to Buffalo is a large Amusement park on the lake. This would include a domed theme park known as Thrills of Buffalo and a domed water park known as Erie Water Park. The theme park would have a roller coaster in the shape of a Buffalo that would exit the dome structure & extended over the lake. The park’s exterior summer time water slides will be used for tobogganing in the wintertime. The area would also host a large shopping mall with a string of restaurants with an International theme since we are a border city. It would also specialize in delicacies created here that Buffalo is famous for like Chicken wings, Beef on weck rolls, Lasagna & the Hamburger. The hamburger was actually first introduced at the Erie county Fair in Hamburg, NY but I like to consider this the Buffalo metropolitan area. A separate new nature park called Lake Front Park would go hand in hand with nearby Tifft farm nature preserve. Boat docks and residential condos, see figure 8, will also be built near the Parks. One of the first steps to this project is proposing the idea to the Chamber of Commerce and local area businessmen at the “Working Together for Buffalo’s Waterfront” meeting on 5Thursday,-13-04. This article was submitted to Mayor Byron Brown on 8-11-10. The proposed area is shown in Figure 4 & 5. This new project will be run by: B uffalo E conomic S uccess T eam

Figure 4. Proposed Area for Theme Park, Water Park, Nature Park, Mall, Condos, Boat Docks showing vacant land. 5 A promotional campaign will be placed in the area newspapers and the help of area politicians will be sought to launch the concept. Their motto being “We are the 1 and we have developed the BEST revitalization program for the Queen city.”, BEST will ask for money from local area people and businesses. Community money will get invested on a voluntary program of buying stock in BEST. BEST will control all finances for the “IMAGination of BUFFALO” program. This multi-phase program will take years to build and should attract business and tourists to the area. BEST will hire companies based on their expertise as opposed to their financial capabilities, meaning a contract will not be awarded to a large contractor who does nothing except put out Request for Bids to a multitude of smaller sub contractors. This concept of trickle down economics rarely ever works. The large contractor reaps the rewards of the large contract and pays the smaller sub contractors little or nothing at all, leaving the smaller contractors to file bankruptcy. Instead BEST will hire each contractor for every facet of the project. BEST will hire a project coordination team who will oversee the project and will have some input as to which contracts are awarded to whom. BEST will hire multiple architects, electrical, plumbing, roofing, siding, roughing and concrete contractors, etc. Once a contractor has been awarded one facet of the project, they will be ineligible to receive a contract for a different facet. In simple terms the money for the project will be spread out amongst many smaller contractors in the form of trickle up economics. The idea is to get as many companies involved as possible. I want to see people helping from all over WNY similar to the Extreme Home Makeover project that occurred in November 2009. As I was there, each of the seven days, I saw people from all walks of life volunteer and truly define Buffalo as the City of Good Neighbors. Some Guidelines for contracts will be as follows: Subcontractors within the Buffalo area will be favored over those outside of Buffalo. All contracts are to be awarded to companies within Erie County providing there are two or more companies willing to bid and capable of performing the scope of the work as provided by the Project coordination team. If two capable contractors do not exist within the county of Erie then the Project Coordination team may put out a Request for Bid outside of Erie County. I have many more ideas but space here is limited.

Figure 5. Map shows area of proposed Theme and Water park and Mall. 6 Figure 6. Existing Metro Rail Subway line 7 The Metro rail will need to be extended past its normal boundaries as shown in Figure 6 to the new theme park and mall area. The subway also needs to be extended Eastbound as mentioned in Table 3, out Main Street into Williamsville and out Broadway. Money from the aforementioned casino will be used for this project as done in Chicago. Some of this money can also be used for urban renewal of homes and buildings as done in places like Denver, see Figure 7. I would also suggest adding new signs to the Main Place mall, half the people of the city don’t know its even there. I would like it if we could take the existing strip of land that the 33 expressway is on and bury it. This may not be practical based on the underground rock present. Unfortunately, I am not a geologist so this will have to be examined. In its place build a park and call it Kensington Park. Then straighten out and bury the 198 Scajacuada Expressway and reconnect Delaware Park. In the Erie Basin Marina, take the stretch of land where Crawdaddy’s restaurant was and make a nice park with lots of trees. Its close proximity to downtown would make a nice getaway. Give an added facelift to the Chippawa Street area, which is bursting with nightlife. Changes will also have to be done to city services such as the formation of one police force run by Erie county and one fire department run by Erie County as mentioned in Table 3. The Erie county Library already exists this way with the main library located within the city. We need one Erie County school system which offers free education of equal quality to all within the county. We need to promote education in Buffalo, it’s one of the last strengths Buffalo has, as mentioned in Table 1. If we utilize our position as a leader of education, we can promote future economic growth. Then as the economy improves, incentives can be placed whereby students who achieve a cumulative High School grade of 90% or better, will receive a scholarship grant to attend a college within the Buffalo area. The Erie County Social services department will be revamped because we have a paid work force sitting idle and this is a form of wasteful spending habits as described in Table 4. This Welfare program will now require that people on the program do some type of work for the county similar to the WPA program in the early 1900’s. This will be based on where you live. This means that people within the city of Buffalo will be required to work on city projects. This will include projects like cleaning streets, parks and graffiti off buildings, both publicly and privately owned. Welfare recipients will paint city property such as poles, bridges, railings, etc. This will also include helping out at community area events. We are all well aware that the city needs an extensive face-lift. The county is currently paying well-bodied people to sit and do nothing. Many times these same people have the highest criminal records because they have nothing to do except think of ways to break the law (i.e. sell drugs, steal, domestic violence, etc.). The general worker does not have sufficient time to even think about committing crimes. They are too busy trying to support their family, save for a car, a house, take care of sick relatives and basically make money. The bottom line is that everyone can do some sort of work for a limited number of hours. Even the individual that is handicapped can perform certain tasks based on their capabilities. People generally want to work and keep occupied. If you give these people free money and leave them to sit and rot, it’s no wonder that they have no motivation, no sense of pride and the highest rate of crime, see Table 4.

Table 4. Items that need to be Removed for Buffalo to Succeed Remove Rationale / Reason Garbage, trash in the streets Looks terrible to visitors Pot holes Shows lack of concern for our city Empty houses haven for drug users and derelicts need people in office that will care and will do Political barriers something about it. Wasteful spending habits too much money is frivolously wasted High rate of crime scares people and businesses away old Memorial Auditorium It's is quite apparent that it will never be used

A city that could be used as a role model for Buffalo is Denver. Between 1991 and 2001 the Denver Urban Renewal Authority has hosted the following: 25 redevelopment projects $273.5 million in public funds invested 1,565 residential units created (not including Lowry or Stapleton) 11 historic structures saved 4 vacant department stores renovated 3 neighborhood shopping centers redeveloped 2,777 single-family homes rehabilitated Figure 7. DURA renovation program. House to the Left is BEFORE, house to the right is AFTER. 8

The redevelopment projects in which DURA is involved are financed through a combination of public and private investment. A unique mechanism called tax increment financing enables DURA to use the net new tax revenues generated by the redevelopment to help finance the project. 8 DURA is engaged in neighborhood and downtown revitalization, economic development, home ownership and housing rehabilitation throughout the City. Look at the renovation done to the home in Figure 7.

Figure 8. Current residential housing on Buffalo’s waterfront. 9 http://www.novan.com/buf3.htm It would be wonderful if all this could happen to Buffalo and it can if we all work together!

Figure 9. Downtown photo supplied by BuffaloPix 10 Sponsored by BEST

Authors note: I’m sorry for the artistic graphics, if you don’t approve. I like to strive for perfection and yet seek out enjoyment in all that I do. For I have found that those who do best at any task are generally the ones who enjoy what they do. Daniel D. Kochmanski

Bibliography: 1 African American History of Western New York, www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/hwny.html 2 http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/grain/history/history.htm, also h-o-oats photo 3 BuffaloResearch.com 4 Bethlehem Steel North Office from Lackawana Public Library 5 Buffalo Downtown Maps from Erie Internet Mapping Service 6 Buffalo map Skyway by Yahoo.com 7 Buffalo subway diagram from subway.buffalonet.org 8 DURA http://www.denvergov.org/default.asp 9 Photo of Buffalo waterfront http://www.novan.com/buf3.htm 10 many thanks to BuffaloPix for wonderful photos of Buffalo http://www.buffalopix.com/winter_scenes.htm