Linda_D
October 26th, 2010, 10:54 AM
I visited the city on Saturday, and drove north up Delaware from downtown on my inbound trip and then drove south down Elmwood while going home. Here are some observations:
The landscaping around the McKinley monument in Niagara Square is quite nice, especially when I remember when it was all paved (that was quite the thing in its day).
The new federal court house looks better than I thought it would.
The Statler looks even uglier with the boarded up windowns and fence all the way around it. I think it might need to go. It looks like what it is: a dated building that probably has real future.
There seemed to be a lot of "For lease"/"Leasing" signs in the commercial spaces along Delaware. In fact, this really disturbed me because the signs continued all the way up Delaware almost to Gates Circle. There were also signs for condos for sale, and "apartments for rent/for lease" signs were also much more noticeable than I remember. Maybe it's just a change in real estate marketing -- or more competition.
Delaware Park is looking good. The OPC has done a nice job. Having the port-a-potty by the soccer field is nice, too.
The Burchfield Art Gallery at Buff State isn't as disgusting as I though it would be, but maybe I'm just getting used to it.
Elmwood Village continues to be the funky, truly urban space it has been for decades. Very busy. Lots of traffic.
There were many fewer vacancies, at least from the signage, along Elmwood than along Delaware. Most of the storefronts were occupied.
Chippewa looked to be doing well, too. There were a few obvious vacancies, but most of the commercial spaces were occupied. Of course, I was there in the afternoon, so there might have been places that were actually shuttered that might not appear so until evening.
I took a detour over to Michigan Avenue and then east of South Division. I was looking for the 500 block of North Division where my aunt and uncle lived from the 1920s through the early 1950s when the Ellicott District was destroyed in the name of urban renewal. Alas, not only was the entire area flattened, but North Division is no longer a through street -- or a street at all -- in many places.
I followed Michigan south until I found Ohio Street and followed it through the old First Ward. It was a very haunting drive, especially on a rainy day with the abandoned grain elevators and other old industrial sites on all sides. I thought to take some pix, but it was raining pretty hard, so I passed. Maybe another day.
The residential neighborhoods in the shadows of the grain elevators looked surprisingly better than I expected. They certainly looked better than many of the neighborhoods of the same age in Black Rock/Riverside.
The restaurant at the SMBH remains open, so I'm supposing that something was worked out with the NFTA about the lease. There were several sailboarders (I think that's what they're called) already in the water and more getting ready to unload their boards by Gallagher Beach despite the rain.
The landscaping around the McKinley monument in Niagara Square is quite nice, especially when I remember when it was all paved (that was quite the thing in its day).
The new federal court house looks better than I thought it would.
The Statler looks even uglier with the boarded up windowns and fence all the way around it. I think it might need to go. It looks like what it is: a dated building that probably has real future.
There seemed to be a lot of "For lease"/"Leasing" signs in the commercial spaces along Delaware. In fact, this really disturbed me because the signs continued all the way up Delaware almost to Gates Circle. There were also signs for condos for sale, and "apartments for rent/for lease" signs were also much more noticeable than I remember. Maybe it's just a change in real estate marketing -- or more competition.
Delaware Park is looking good. The OPC has done a nice job. Having the port-a-potty by the soccer field is nice, too.
The Burchfield Art Gallery at Buff State isn't as disgusting as I though it would be, but maybe I'm just getting used to it.
Elmwood Village continues to be the funky, truly urban space it has been for decades. Very busy. Lots of traffic.
There were many fewer vacancies, at least from the signage, along Elmwood than along Delaware. Most of the storefronts were occupied.
Chippewa looked to be doing well, too. There were a few obvious vacancies, but most of the commercial spaces were occupied. Of course, I was there in the afternoon, so there might have been places that were actually shuttered that might not appear so until evening.
I took a detour over to Michigan Avenue and then east of South Division. I was looking for the 500 block of North Division where my aunt and uncle lived from the 1920s through the early 1950s when the Ellicott District was destroyed in the name of urban renewal. Alas, not only was the entire area flattened, but North Division is no longer a through street -- or a street at all -- in many places.
I followed Michigan south until I found Ohio Street and followed it through the old First Ward. It was a very haunting drive, especially on a rainy day with the abandoned grain elevators and other old industrial sites on all sides. I thought to take some pix, but it was raining pretty hard, so I passed. Maybe another day.
The residential neighborhoods in the shadows of the grain elevators looked surprisingly better than I expected. They certainly looked better than many of the neighborhoods of the same age in Black Rock/Riverside.
The restaurant at the SMBH remains open, so I'm supposing that something was worked out with the NFTA about the lease. There were several sailboarders (I think that's what they're called) already in the water and more getting ready to unload their boards by Gallagher Beach despite the rain.