Despite the fact that many people are pushing for a sole boulevard at the Outer Harbor, many of the waterside park amenities continue to appear. Features like parking and signage are making it easy for people to navigate and utilize the lakeside trail. Until now, not many Buffalonians actually knew where the Bell Slip was - or how far a jog it is to get the Seaway Slip. Unfortunately the Greenway Nature Trail map also shows exactly where the Route 5 highway is in relation to the designated trail parking. If the Route 5 plan was to suddenly disappear, the Outer Harbor would be a place where cyclists and trail hikers could easily get from destinations like Tifft Nature Preserve to Times Beach Nature Preserve. In a perfect world, the boulevard scenario (without Route 5) would already be near completion.
In coming days BRO will be dedicating a number of upcoming posts to current boulevard traffic patterns and reports. We'll also be hearing from a number of groups that have been doing some homework on the effects of rebuilding a semi-elevated highway at the Outer Harbor. The time is now to ask our politicians to revisit the Route 5 plan - to focus on the what makes a waterfront work, and what doesn't. Stay tuned for more on 'A waterfront that is close to being an open-slate for great planning'... a waterfront for the people, not for speeding cars and trucks.
Here's some background on recent Route 5 developments. Is there a Master Plan? Who is fighting for our Outer Harbor? With Spitzer out of the picture, is there a new hope that maybe he was the one who was pushing for 'just getting any plan done? What are other cities doing with their waterfronts? What did San Francisco do? Let's think this thru!!!