Buffalo Rising Online

I love a great Entertainment District. Chippewa used to be that. My friends and I no longer go there b/c is just got..........."old." There was nothing unique being developed. Just old places with a new sign. We need to make Chippewa pop out as a destination. If you look closely at it we have oil drums as garbage cans, trees that were planted that have been completely torn out, street lamps that don't light. How about making it look like it is more that a place for college freshman to hang out. I guess maybe that 'look' was okay when I was 23............ I'd like to see it evolve into more of an upscale place with special touches like brick sidewalks, throw in a few water fountains, maybe a pocket park. The street REALLY looks run down right now. Too bad, considering all thats going on around the corner on Delaware with its new 'glass' look. Can't we get the most logical street for entertainment spinoff to get a bit dressed up?

Look the problem is that the Chippewa District is simply to single focused. These bars need to be distributed across a wider area. There are buildings on Huron which have no tenants (a red brick livery stable and a white terra cotta building to name a few).

Yes there needs to be more hotels and the statler and the hyatt are both available and so is the light rail.

Plus, Im pretty sure that there are laws against open containers of alcohol in the street. I never got away with it when I was a young lad.

For the most part people need to understand that the majority of these kids (yes kids because there are underage partying on the streets) are just socializing and having fun.

However, as with all elements with kids without supervision it can unwind and descend terribly. Gangs could enter the crowd like they do on east and westsides with guns and weapons. Not everyones choice of relaxation is alcohol for some it could be drugs and drug dealers and the gangs that back them up. What starts out as just wanting a good time descends into dependence, addiction and violence.

We want our kids to go out and have a good time. We want them to enjoy they're hormone heavy youth and innocense. Its what makes Buffalo one of the best places to live in upstate ny. We actually have a nightlife that is incomparable to anything outside NYC and what cannot be found here can be found on the canadian side.

This isnt the 40s and 50s when things were slow and innocent. The worst that could happen was a barfight and a make out in the backseat of a car.

Its wonderful that Buffalo has the Chippewa District (though I always thought it would move to the area surrounding the Buffalo Casino if it happens...the court street tower by palladino, the courthouse, the statler, the dulski, M&T...this area is gradually becoming infilled with office space....) but we must explain that we are not interested in arresting these kids. We are interested in protecting them.

The best thing the city and the bar owners could do in my opinion is to open some of the bars on Huron and break up this crowd a little more so its not as dense a street party.

buffaloweiner,

For the Metro Rail to be any benefit at all to the entertainment district(s) it needs to run later than midnight. I am surprised that the last train is at 12:00. Couldn't the NFTA run it hourly from 12-5am? at least on Friday and Saturday??

Not only would it attract some new riders for the Rail. It could also prevent some people from drinking and driving....

the problem is that there are thugs all over that street doing nothing but harrassing girls all night. These thugs dont go into the bars, they dont buy drinks, they simply stand on the street messing with people and starting fights. There have been 3 stabbings, one fatally, and 4 shootings down there in the last 12 months. The place is a racial powder keg ready to explode ala the Metro Rail fight...

RailRider, I have to agree with you regarding later riding times for light rail. These kids cannot be driving.

I also agree that the intent of the police is not to relocate the Chippewa District but to police certain street elements. That is the greatest danger. These street parties are really wonderful but as with any gathering mixed with youth, drugs, alcohol and sex...the potential is there to unwind and descend into something very scary and tragic.

From the police point of view, it would be easier for the bar owners and the police if these cluster of bars were distributed over another city street like Huron which is empty. Smaller street parties would be good for traffic, good for the police, good for the bars and safer for all involved.

I've never felt unsafe. There are typically enough people around you to feel unsafe. I just think the street is aesthetically unpleasing, especially in daylight. There is a mix of races on the street...but there's nothing wrong with that. The problem is that the owners of these places thought the crowds would always be there in the numbers they were 7 years ago. Instead of doing upgrades and having their establishments evolve....they now appear to just want to grab any remaining buck they can............regardless if it's a 22 year old who will start a fight b/c someone looked at him or her "wrong."

heathersmiles...First thing that came to my mind. We now have police officers who are moonlighting as urban planners. This city is great and I have to thank BRO for bringing such interesting thoughts to the forefront.

lol!!

PS Am I the only one who has performance issues with this website? If I was an advertiser on this site, I'd be pissed!!!

i've always thought it would be a great idea to have the metro run hourly leaving the theatre district at like 1:15, 2:15, 3:15, 4:15 am. cut down on drinking and driving and perhaps bring more people down there. in the future when the rail is extended to UB North (i'm an optimist) it would make it that much easier for the of-age UB students to go to chipewa.

When i was younger and went to Chippewa it always seemed mobbed. Now i can drive down the street on a fri or sat night with relative ease. You'd think it would never become 'stale' since theres a new group of 21 year olds every year... but it obviously has. The bar owners need to band together and rethink their model. If the problem is security, then as MRodgers said, hire private security. Not sure thats the problem tho. I think the problem is those bars are holes in the wall and the trend this decade has been more upscale. Clean up the street and bars and bring a cosmopolitan vibe to the street and the ppl will come back. At the very least offer something other than top 40 and bon jovi.

Maybe the Buffalo pd should split up the b distrit into three seperate substations

Think Rush St., Chicago, once a younger kids bar/party strip, now converted to a older more upscale clientel. I'll tell you the one thing I can stand when visiting some clubs/bars, those damn bathroom attendants! I mean you pay to get in the place, you pay a premium for drinks, can I at least go to the bathroom without some bum trying to shove paper towels, breath mints, and cologne in my face. I mean i'm forced to feel guilt for ignoring these folks and i just refuse to tip them or use their services, its a bit much.

"One guy that lived on Whitney was robbed of his wallet walking home a year ago" OMG ONE guy got robbed of his wallet a year ago! holy crap! Sounds like the safest town in America to me.

Toughinthestreets...you beat me to the punch. The suggestion of the establishments hiring private security to maintain law and order on PUBLIC SIDEWALKS AND STREETS is about as absurd as you can get.

Marilyn - Just because someone disagrees with your point of view doesn't make them a troll. You are making some very broad assumptions in your last post. It sounds like you have to have it your way or no way at all. (My apologies to Loverboy).

JAGERBOMBS

Would anyone like to join me, i am looking to assemble a ninja security force, we will operate under the cloak of darkness and systematically eliminate all the evil forces that pollute or sacred drinking grounds. At the end of each mission, we meet at Sea Bar for sake bombs and toro.

Im in...but only if you can include a chicken finger sub and perhaps a slice of cheesecake for the ride home

Bar owners should beef up their own security, the police can patrol the area but to many are involved on the strip on the weekend as it is leaving other area's without enough police activity. Typical for many business owners, they want the business but not willing to reinvest, hence, lack of security, problems and run down divy bars.

I think perhaps the problem is too many cops driving around the area, and not enough on foot patrol. I always see tons of cop cars driving around the strip, but hardly ANY walking the beat. You aren't going to police anything sitting in a cop car till after something has already happened. Perhaps if there was more of a presence on foot patrol, the vagrants would take notice, police could move people along, and actually be PROACTIVE as opposed to REACTIVE. If the cops were on foot or on bike, the could prob be more effective with half the presence than driving around in there cars checking out the young girls in short skirts.

Shoring up bar security will not fix the issue. These problems are no different than the ones that used to take place on Main Street, Elmwood, Allen, Hertel, and the other 'strips' that were popular at different times. I remember the same complaints lodged by local residents when I was a barback at Nonames on Elmwood, and the same from residents on Minnesotta Ave when I worked at Mickey Rats on Main. Same issues existed when Mulligans was still in business on Hertel, and when the Stuffed Mushroom was still the place to be on Main Street. I didn't work at the last two, but I have been at both during bar clearing brawls that fell into the streets.

I hung out at Mulligan's Brick bar and the Old Pink in college, and we would have brawls almost every night. There were stabbings, and muggings, cars broken into and purses snatched. This isn't anything new.

There were coordinated crack-downs on every strip that has existed in Buffalo, and it usually meant the end to businesses in those areas. Look at the bars on Hertel, it took over 10 years for businesses to occupy some of the vacancies on that strip. Elmwood and Forest are still shuffling, and Main Street has yet to see new businesses move into the old Mickey Rats, PJ Bottoms, Molly's Pub, and the small restaurants that fed from these bars. The bars on Bailey that used to complement the Main Street bars are gone for good.

I fear that a significant crackdown on the Chip Strip will result in the closure of businesses, that may not be reopened as stores and small restaurants right away. I fear that we may take away the reason that many young people visit downtown at all.

Walking the beat on Chippewa makes good sense and would help. The real problem is Buffalo police officers are not required to live in the city and few have any stake in the community that pays them.

Tell the cops to get out of their cars on the corner of Franklin/Chip and walk the beat.

Or maybe we could have the fireman do it who drive up & down checking out chicks while burning $4 gas....

By the way WTF does the 2nd last paragraph have to do with Chippewa? Or was this just an editorial by chief/urban planner/lower the drinking age Berry?

well you allow everyone to drink in one small area, you let them drive drunk, you allow fights to break out because there are no police walking around to prevent it. Its a mess and walking to your car even is dangerous! better yet driving! (very dangerous). The bars need security, a taxi service, strict rules about the drinking and drugging that goes on in the bars, this is unfair to the citzens that a bar owner turns people into monsters with all the alcohol they are pumping into them, then allow them to leave in that state. As the bar owners count their cash, someone is fighting or getting injured by a car accident. Where is the bar association for chippewa that talks to the community? or is that police's responsibility? (since they get paid off by the bar owners) those guys are probably the only business owners in buffalo making money (off our depression). What would buffalo be without bars? maybe people would spend their pay check on dinner at a great buffalo restaraunt if they were not down there...alot of people I have met have money issues but then I see them out downtown boozin it up? Its a vicious cycle that leads to all the problems we see down there, I wish elmwood village would be that busy on any day of the week... this is a serious issue that should be addressed..

I've driven by or thru chippewa a few times on weekends --- 1-2am, yes there's police... are they properly patrolling... lets just say I have pictures from two ocassions where wasted, skanky looking girls in tiny skirts are rubbing up on cop cars or dancing in front of their windows... and the cops egg them on....

could we ship the thugs to Russia? I'm sure a one-time payment to get rid of some of Buffalo's worst is much better than paying for overtime in the future and putting cops life on the line.

I don't think they will cause us a problem there.

Anyone see a problem with this?

I do not care what the solution is but we must not manage the Chippewa district like we manage the eastside and westside where we allow it to descend into thuggery, alcohol, drugs and violence.

Our kids deserve a good time. Warnings for some to either go home or be arrested to remove certain elements from the crowd.

Hey, I think it would be wise if they did hire security guards because Bar and Restaurant owners are responsible for their property and that includes the sidewalk. If someone gets hurt for whatever reason then those businesses are looking at full or fractional lawsuits. Their both stupid and cheap if they expect the police to cover full liability in a business that involves mobs of people, youth, liquor, drugs, late hours and sex all mixed together.

Chippewa is as much a street festival as it is for patrons of bars and restaurants and nightclubs. None of those businesses make a cent of the hundreds of people who spend their entire evening on the street socializing with the six pack they got at wilson farms or the bottle of liquor they have in their coat....not to mention the street drugs.

This is happening on the street....the police and the city have to get this off the street. As I said they can dispurse the crowd by dispursing these businesses forcing some to move to Huron which has empty buildings reducing the density of the crowd so trouble can be more easily spotted and corrected.

What we have is begging for trouble! That crowd gets to dense and at times the party is in the street not the bars. Its only a matter of time before the stabbings and shootings we see at public schools or the east/west side reallize that the police wont catch them and cant control the crowd.

The Chippewa Strip is WORTHLESS if that street gets a negative reputation and people pick alternatives like Elmwood or Hertel or the cobblestone.

Why doesn't someone just come to the table with reality?

The majority of the "thugs" people are referring to on this site are black. They loiter on the streets because the white bar owners do not let them in because they are black....for whatever reason.

Therefore we now have black crowds out on the street harassing the white patrons as they bar hop because they are pissed that the white owners will not let them in their bar.

Right or wrong, this is what is going on, all you have to do is go to Chip St. on Sat. and tell me what you see. I won't even suggest a solution, but The Basement closing did seem to clean up the street for while until recently.

I witness several terrible fights on Chip st. and most of the time everyone walks away without getting arrested. If these fights were to happen in any other city, everyone involved are arrested and taken away.

most of you people are old and don't even go on chippewa on a saturday at 2am so who cares what you think cause you don't actually know

mybuffalo, I was at Soho and Bayou getting extraordinarily loose until 4 am on Sat night. Where were you? I know exactly what I am talking about and truthfully I am not worried.

All those thugs will vanish once the temperature drops under 60 degrees.

Norpark: Think Rush St., Chicago, once a younger kids bar/party strip, now converted to a older more upscale clientel.

I'm sure if we just wait for rents in the West Village to start rivaling those in Chicago's Gold Coast, the residents will demand more upscale fare. Should be any day now, huh?

BuffWeiner - I tried to be a little more politically correct, but you said it.

Stereotypes go a long in Buffalo.

chip street is a dump, why don;t some of these bar owners skin their building and throw up a new facade.

Calumet building has plastic windows on the top floors....Buffalo looks duck taped together

gaustad- It needed to be said! the sidewalks are lined with those people and its scary...

Taken from the Buffalo News 9/14:

Patrons inside a Chippewa Street bar scrambled for fresh air following the release of a pepper spray-like substance early this morning.

Several patrons of Bayou, 79 West Chippewa, sought medical attention from Rural/Metro Medical Services paramedics for breathing difficulties, according to police reports.

No other information was immediately available on the incident, according to police spokesman Michael DeGeorge.

The two gentlemen pictured below are urgently wanted by the Buffalo Police for questioning in connection with the bar:

1) Shorter with white polo shirt with horizontal blue stripes 2) Taller acquaintance with balding/shaved head and red polo shirt

If you recognize them, please feel message me back with anything you may feel is relevant. Possible reward as well. Thanks