Recent posts on BRO and at Fix Buffalo got me thinking about the "silver bullet" syndrome that seems to prevail in Buffalo. How many big projects have been proposed and completed to great fanfare and praise, proclaimed as the one key element destined to save the city only to show minimal if any positive result. I found this postcard of the old Aud when it was fairly new. As you can see the neighborhood in this part of downtown was as bleak then as it is now. I am sure that the Aud then was perceived as a catalyst for growth in this part of the city. Wipe out the old canal slums and build a grand entertainment venue and the throngs will come. Well the throngs did come for each event and then the promptly left. Nothing to do in the neighborhood but to go home after the game. (Ironic that the new silver bullet for this neighborhood is to put a Disney version of the canal slums back in place).
Fast forward to the 1980's and Pilot Field is born. Baseball will transform downtown! Well, no it did not. It certainly is an asset but hardly transformative. And then there is the Hyatt Regency. This was a well-intentioned project. We would be saving a valuable piece of the city's commercial history and bringing new life and out of town guests to the city core. This would be the 24/7 operation that the city so desperately needed. Jump now to the present and we find an outdated hotel surrounded by blight and vacant lots. Hardly what was imagined when the project was conceived and quite a sorry site to expose visitors to. Now we hear that another $10M of taxpayer money will be pumped into this building to make it what it has not been over the last 20 years. There are numerous projects like this that have never lived up to their billing. Too many to discuss here. Certainly the problems of Buffalo can't be laid at the feet of these projects. Perhaps the city would be worse off without them. But, does that mean that these mega projects are not valid as development tools? Or is it that the people looking to these projects as the city's savior focus too much on the project as an end in itself rather than one piece of a much larger puzzle?
Take Artspace as a recent example "of not seeing the forest for the trees". Artspace is a wonderful development idea, which theorizes (and has shown success at) that bringing creative people into depressed areas can spur new development. The corporation that runs Artspace targets areas of cities that they believe can be regenerated by this type of concept. They see the Artspace development as the seed, not the end. Plant a seed in gravel and you get nothing. Plant a seed in fertile soil and nourish its growth and you get great rewards. From my vantage point (and I may not know everything going on) the city is treating Artspace as a seed in gravel. Where is the plan to make Artspace grow beyond its own walls? Even as Artspace was being built the city and local nonprofit housing agencies were making plans to demolish houses on adjacent Coe Place, a unique and charming collection of houses. The houses on Coe Place are exactly the type of urban nourishment that Artspace could grow into and yet the city saw them as just another problem to be removed.
David Torke of Fix Buffalo recently posted a story about this wonderful little commercial building (pictured here) around the corner from Artspace at 1325 North Michigan. It is one of those everyday buildings that can add to a city's richness. It has a wonderful arcade of windows marching along the street. Imagine this building lit up at night. Apparently the city does not imagine anything for this building except for demolition. Torke reports that this building has been issued a death notice by the city. For Artspace to be more than an isolated compound of artists it needs the nourishment of the city around it. If you take away the unique historic elements that can and will attract more people to this area you take away the project's ability to be a catalyst.
70 years ago the Aud was built and there was no follow up on its neighborhood. 20 years ago the Hyatt was completed and the city allowed a row of buildings directly across the street to rot, no neighborhood investment at all (unless you include demolition of a parking ramp to create a shovel ready site across from the main entry to the hotel). Today we have a shiny new Artspace full of creative energetic people and The City's apparent plan is to bulldoze anything of value around it. Where is the plan? Artspace is not the goal - it is a stepping stone to a goal. One stepping stone does not make a path.