While Buffalo fiddles, St. Louis builds
It’s been one bit of dreary and depressing news after another this past week for Buffalo’s Inner Harbor project. First comes the story that Bass Pro is waving the white flag and moving off of the central wharf, and now looking at the Aud and Donovan sites instead (translation..forget about Bass Pro. Then the ECHDC holds their latest meeting, and lay out a timetable for demolishing the Aud and the Donavan building, and it looks now that 2009 is the EARLIEST that these blocks will even be development ready. The NYSDOT is ready to move on plans to rebuild Route 5 through the Outer Harbor, but nowhere is there a plan and concrete timetable for closing and demolishing the Skyway and building alternative routes.
Depressing, disgusting, pathetic… the two state authorities, the DOT, and our elected officials can’t seem to get out of the way of each other and move things along.
Meantime, over in St. Louis, there’s Ballpark Village, a $650 million mixed-use retail/entertainment and residential district being developed in partnership by The St. Louis Cardinals and The Cordish Company. Ballpark Village will cover six city blocks that will directly connect to the new Busch Stadium, which opened in the spring of 2006. Ballpark Village will feature approximately 450,000 square feet of retail/entertainment, 1,200 residential units, 300,000 square feet of office and 2,000 parking spaces. Located in the heart of downtown St. Louis, MO, Ballpark Village will be a world class district that will redefine the Gateway to the West.
And guess what? They are breaking ground soon on the first phase of the development, which is now a cleared site on the spot where the old Busch Stadium stood.
My question is this? Why is St. Louis able to demolish their old venue, clear the site and have new development shovels in the ground less than two years after the final game was played at the old Busch? Yet here it is, 11 years and counting since the Aud saw its last event, and the boarded up, vacant eyesores still stand, with redevelopment timetables pushed back over and over again.
Mark Says:September 12th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
its always incredible as a buffalonian and travel to cities with similar pasts like st.louis and pittsburgh, cleveland, and baltimore.
and you see that all these places eventually-usually by the 80’s but at least by the 90’s got their heads out of their asses and stopped bitching and moaning about how the suburbs are taking everything away.
buffalo still bitches and moans about the suburbs but just less than they used to…remember-we elected a mildly retarted adult as mayor for 3 terms, and before that a psychotic old man for 4?5? terms? byron brown is a tool. but he’s not retarted or psychotic…so we’re improving here.
finally private development is STARTING to occur in our downtown now that we’ve fallen behind the entire western civilization. and now our plans actually have money with them…so there’s hope.
but basically the city of buffalo has gotten exactly what it deserved because it never had the initiative or brains to step up to the plate and stop wallowing in sorrow.
but i still believe. because i’m just another stupid buffalonian.
Talkin_Proud Says:September 13th, 2007 at 10:38 am
The lack of development in this town is not for lack of money it’s simply because we’re so in love with our history and architecture that we’re striving (doing nothing) to be the next Colonial Williamsburg.