A Hundred Million Here, a Hundred Million There…

…and next thing you know, you’ve got a waterfront in downtown Buffalo that people will bother to visit.

We’ve got the building blocks. The development of the area around the canal terminus proves that the inner harbor can be an attractive, fun place to visit. Concerts and fireworks during the summer help make it a brand new and integral part of Buffalo’s warm-weather repertoire of venues. The Aud is down and gone. The Donovan is poised for re-use. The plans are there.

People just need a reason to go down there.

Now, winds whipping off the lake at hurricane force aren’t conducive to wintertime waterfront fun, but we can’t ignore the fact that other cities in cold climates make the most of their wintertime weather. Quebec City’s Winter Carnival, Ottawa’s Rideau Canal rink – it happens. The pond hockey tournament at Erie Basin Marina proves we can do it, too.

And so it is that Governor Paterson comes to town and holds a press conference with Congressman Brian Higgins, County Executive Chris Collins, and NYPA President Richard Kissel to announce that they’re going to get something built down there that will make it worth people’s while to go down there.

Paterson said, “I want to make this crystal clear. We are going to revitalize this harbor, and we’re going to do it in the next few years.” Part of the announcement today had to do with some financial hocus-pocus to transform 50 years’ worth of NYPA relicensing fees into a 20 year plan that means $8.5 million per year to ECHDC, rather than $5 million. The price tag for Canal Side is said to be $315 million, which is really probably closer to a half a billion in New York dollars. But it’s hoped that by compressing this NYPA resettlement will make it easier for the project to find private financing.

As an aside, Bass Pro still hasn’t signed anything yet, and there’s no guarantee that it will come. I realize that Bass Pro owner John Morris is fishing buddies with Bob Rich, but perhaps other anchors should be pursued. The closest Bass Pro to Buffalo is in Vaughan, ON (103 miles), and Auburn, NY (126 miles).

The nearest LL Beans, by contrast, are 173 miles away in Pittsburgh, or 283 miles away in Albany. Just saying.

Canal Side

There was a lengthy public hearing yesterday regarding the Canal Side project. Here is a fly-through video that they generated to show off what the plan du jour is:

Look, it looks great. Then again, everything that’s been proposed up until now has looked pretty great, too. I have no idea if we’ll ever see something that looks like that in Buffalo, and I can only hope that people will go to it when it’s finally done.

I want to go to there.

I watched coverage of the hearing on channels 2 and 4, and was amazed that the only opposition mentioned in their reports revolved around a parking garage set to be built not far from Marine Drive. Yay parking!

Obviously, parking would be required for a project of this size. Naturally, it’s better to have a nicely designed parking ramp than more surface lots.

Build it, please. KTHXBAI.

Shorter Canalside Scoping Session

Fewer waterfalls, more museums, outraged preservationists, retail is bad, and Bass Pro hasn’t signed shit yet.

Other than that, it’s full steam ahead!

ECHDC Canalside Public Hearing 2/25/09

Last night at Buffalo’s Waterfront School, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (ESDC), as Lead Agency on behalf of its subsidiary corporation, the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC) held a scoping hearing in preparation of the General Environmental Impact Study (GEIS) for the Canalside Project.

Once the public scoping period is complete, NY ESD will publish the Draft GEIS in the summer of 2009 with more public hearings to follow.  Once that process is complete, the Final GEIS will be published and work can begin, likely in late 2009 or early 2010.  That timeline assumes this project sails through the process and there are no legal challenges or negative impacts found.

Damn, that was a mouthful.

If you’d like to read the Draft Scoping Document, click here.

This is the first step in the process of getting the project ready for construction. If you want a refresher on what the Canalside project looks like, I’ll direct you to this post from December.

My analysis after that press conference is summed up as follows:

What I’d like to talk about is that this whole presentation was a steaming pile of horseshit.  It’s a pie in the sky conceptualization of what the ECHDC would like to do with a plot of land in Buffalo.  A plot of land, mind you, that already has an approved master plan that was codified into law in 2004.

Photos of the current design:

Last night, we heard from several people who are concerned that the original 2004 master plan is being ignored and they feel the design is antithetical to a cultural tourist destination on the waterfront.

The crowd seemed to rally around the idea that the ECHDC needs to be more senstitive to the historic district of the waterfront.  There was also a lot of support from the community that there needs to be a fallback option in the event that Bass Pro does not sign a contract to place a store in the Canalside District.  As of now, if Bass Pro does not eventually sign on the dotted line, we have no alternative.

Angelo Coniglio has an alternative plan that could be incorporated, but to date he has had little success getting traction on the idea.

Oh, if you didn’t catch my allusion to it, Bass Pro has still not signed any formal agreement to place a store on Buffalo’s Waterfront.  Eleven years and counting on that one…

Canalside Plans Unveiled…Again

The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation hosted a press conference on Sunday to announce their updated master plan for Buffalo’s Inner Harbor.  You can watch the full press conference video on the frontpage of WNYMedia.net in our video player.

Facing a contracting retail market, a tight commercial credit market and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression; the ECHDC demonstrated their confidence that this project would eventually be completed.

Larry Quinn, Chairman, Canal Side Development Committee said, “This project defines New Buffalo. This allows us to define the image of our city”.

I could do the whole “5 W’s” thing with this story, give you the quotes and present the information even-handedly but, I’ll leave that to The Buffalo News.  I could crib the press release, make this article about the design, historic sensibilities or preservation considerations, but I’ll leave that to Elena at BRO.

What I’d like to talk about is that this whole presentation was a steaming pile of horseshit.  It’s a pie in the sky conceptualization of what the ECHDC would like to do with a plot of land in Buffalo.  A plot of land, mind you, that already has an approved master plan that was codified into law in 2004.

Let’s talk about what we know:

- There is a sizable amount of public money allocated to this project as part of the NYPA settlement.  Additional funding for the initial costs of the $315MM project will be covered by a combination of federal, state, county and city funds as well as private funding from Benderson and “future Canal Side tenants”.

- In the last six months, there has been a massive, never-before-seen shakeout in the retail sector.  Chains across the country are shuttering their doors and are threatening to leave malls underpopulated and urban retail districts looking like, heh, Buffalo’s current downtown retail district.

- After ten years of hemming and hawing, there still remains no binding agreement or contract with Bass Pro to place a store at Canalside.  When Larry Quinn was asked at the press conference if there was a binding agreement, he said “The final SEQR has not yet been completed and we cannot sign a binding agreement with Bass Pro until that time.”  “Cannot” is the key word in that quote.  There is no law or regulation which prohibits a binding agreement or contract prior to SEQRA compliance.  In fact, it is often the case that contracts are signed pending approval in order to offer security to both parties.  Not here. There is no existing agreement aside from the 2005 Memorandum of Understanding to investigate the project

There was no representative from Bass Pro at today’s announcement and when Todd Benderson was asked to add to Quinn’s statement, this is what he had to say:

Yeah, so there’s that.

New York Empire State Development will soon begin the Generic Environmental Impact Statement process and will then proceed to a public scoping period in early 2009.  If you aren’t familiar with the term “public scoping” and what it means in Buffalo, it means Tim Tielman time…and the inner harbor is his special purpose and baby rabbit.  Once the public scoping period is complete, NY ESD will publish the Draft GEIS in the summer of 2009 with more public hearings to follow.  Once that process is complete, the Final GEIS will be published and work can begin, likely in late 2009 or early 2010.  That timeline assumes this project sails through the process and there are no legal challenges or negative impacts found.

- This design, while pretty, is a concept and a guideline.  What we are looking at in this diorama is a development wish list with neighborhoods plotted out and boats drifting in the water to and from.   Water paths that lead to nowhere, three tiered canals and boats which seemingly swim upstream like salmon.   It is meant to be a public relations tool and the media swallowed it hook, line and sinker without much critical analysis.  Is it a starting point?  Absolutely.  If this faux-historic wonderland is ever built, I will be the first guy down there with my kids, celebrating a triumph of planning, development and financing that runs counter to every local, regional, state-wide and national economic indicator.

However, I’m not going to hold my breath.  It’s not cynicism…it’s reality.

Dear Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation

I understand that you’ll be building at least one parking “ramp” (quaintly referred to elsewhere as a “garage”) in order to serve the Canal Side shopping & heritage district.

During a recent trip to San Diego, I saw this building (click to enlarge):

It is a parking garage near the Padres’ PETCO Park. It doesn’t look like a parking garage. It actually has an art gallery in the street-level storefront. It’s nestled between two hotels.

Please keep this in mind when designing things for Canal Side. Thanks.

Love, BP

Historical Accuracy

Score one more point for the preservation community. The unique nature and “sense of place” of the Erie Canal Harbor Terminal has been re-created almost perfectly.

Floating human shit and other trash and garbage have become problematic in the channel. Given that the Canal district used to be filled with whorehouses and other seediness during its 19th century heyday, it is only fitting that the district revert to its pre-sanitary sewer days.

Cronk saw manure piled over two stories high in back of the bams. As one approached, the pile would give the appearance of shaking, quivering. Closer examine (sic) this, if your nose could stand it and you could cut through the clouds of flies, would reveal millions of crawling impure maggots feeding on the excrement.

Hamburgh canal caught most of the garbage from the city. This collected in the almost stagnant waters of the Hamburgh Canal. One hundred and 50 feet below Louisiana at a small slip that reached to the harbor a large propeller from an old tug swiveled continually sucking in the filth-polluted water and kicking it into the harbor. This stirred up huge chunks of concentrated filth, created huge gas decay, babbles, .7 feet in diameter, which would shoot to the surface, explode and fill the air with such a nauseating smell thatpeople would be sick for a week.

The manure piles, the filth of the canal lured swarms of scavenger flies, while the stagnant waters attracted mosquitoes whose stingers inhabitants thou ht must have been fille-I -ith (indecipherable) files. Aboard the canal boat the stable housed two horses. The crew protected themselves with netting. It was the horses in addition to the two which were housed in the barns on the waterfront.”

I can’t imagine anything more enjoyable than enjoying an ice cream cone by the water and …. eew, someone ate corn!

Hindsight is 20:20 and Expensive

The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation has asked its daddy, the Empire State Development Corporation, for some changes to stuff that’s already been done to the Canal Side site. From a letter penned by ECHDC chair Jordan Levy:

Removing the interpretative facade and relocating its glass map along the bottom half of the structure to another location on the site. The top panels should stored and used later in a proposed Erie Canal museum, Levy said.

The lime green “Commercial Slip” lettering across an existing bridge be removed and the bridge re-painted to hide the sign’s presence.

Small signs offering historical information, perspective and back stories should be installed along the brick ruins from what remains of the Steamboat Hotel that sits alongside the commercial slip. A second series of signs designating which stones along the commercial slip are original should also be installed.

Relocating see-through, glass historical signs along the railroad bridge walkway down to the commercial slip.

Adding a second locator sign along the west side of the commercial slip.

Building a temporary fence with a historic feel that separates the public portion of the harbor project from those sections still under construction.

The “interpretive facade” is dumb as bricks, cost $200,000, and it’s incredible to me that this was permitted to move forward in the first place.

The lime green lettering? I say spread it around! Tourists should always know at all times what they’re looking at, and it should be in lime green lettering 5 feet high.

The scoreboard thing?

Hell, it was the only opportunity for the state to recoup some money. It should just be leased to Lamar and feature the smiling faces of Mssrs. Cellino and Barnes. (If you think I’m kidding, I’m kind of not. I think the state should make an effort to monetize everything it does through advertising because its mission should be to minimize the taxpayers’ cost. Why is EZ-Pass not sponsored? Why aren’t there ads or coupons on the back of the parking slips you get from the pay & display meters? Why aren’t certain displays at the canal project “brought to you by Rich Products” or similar?)

Seriously, after so much hand-wringing over the location of a store, is it too much to ask that items that cost public money to create be vetted before the fact?

HT All Things Buffalo for the pix.