No I'm not having a class reunion, I've just finally gotten around to bringing over a few of my favorite posts from the old blog that I want to get into the archives here. I started to blog in the first place (nearly four years ago) because I was so frustrated by the lies being told to us about (mostly) government-sponsored projects that would supposedly turn the city around. These five essays are on that topic.
As I read them again, it occurs to me that there's been a substantial shift in Buffalo's thinking. Just three years ago we were beating ourselves up over our "failure" to decide on a new Peace Bridge. Now the discussion is much more rational, and much of the community has realized that the reason for the delays at the border is due more to short-staffing of Inspection Agents than because of too few lanes on the bridge.
With the prospect of a privately-financed truck bridge further upriver and the excellent suggestion by the New Millennium Group for a relocated American plaza that would allow the restoration of Front Park, we can begin to see that our stalling was sensible. Better ideas have emerged. The same can certainly be said for the delays on the Inner Harbor Project. We could have had a big patch of concrete down on the waterfront a couple years ago. By waiting and rethinking it, we stand to have much more now.
And I hear less and less about Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore as role models for Buffalo. There too, maybe the realization has set in that those towns, while having accomplished some big building projects -- are still dying just as fast as we are. There's more to rebuilding a city than improving our image.
We're not completely out of the woods, of course. The supporters of spending millions to resuscitate the Niagara Falls Airport are still biding their time, and I suspect that if the Air Base closes, the cry will rise again to bring passenger traffic back to the Falls. It would be a mistake, of course. While there are potential uses for the Falls airfield -- freight hub comes to mind -- we've got to be careful about hurting the main airport just a 1/2 hour away. Hmm, guess you might call that regional thinking.
But, all in all -- just maybe. I think we're starting to get it.
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