The skyway: to go, or not to go?

[300miles]

Develop the Inner Harbor and Canalside. Maybe investigate converting the industrial buildings that line Niagara Street north of the Peace Bridge into lofts. Maybe put up some highrises along Niagara Street north of Ontario Street.

See? Even Linda is an urban hipster at heart.

[keyboard150]

see? Even linda is an urban hipster at heart.

[Linda_D]

I agree with most everything you say, Lefty.

However, the statement by Linda that it is an "isolated area" is just a joke and a farce.

One day she points out the expressway can't be torn down because SOOOOO MANY people use it.

The next day she says on a messageboard we couldn't put anything down there because it is so isolated.

So, which is it?

There's nothing on north end of the Outer Harbor except the Coast Guard Station and some industrial sites, some in use and others abandoned despite the highway running through it. Abandoned neighborhoods on the East Side are also isolated, even though they are physically close to inhabited neighborhoods and filled with buildings. I-88 is a major expressway between Schnectady and Binghamton that cuts through some of the most isolated areas of the state. It's the lack of people and facilities/amenities that make these areas isolated not distance from a highway.

[Rhiannon]

People coming in from the Southtowns to work in the City use it... but as far as people actually living near the city thats another story. besides the mass Exodus from Buffalo and the overall low income of most of the people living in the city who exactly do you think would be able to afford or have the desire to leave the burbs and move there?

[bflonum1fan]

Hell, the Outer Harbor is isolated from So Bflo, and it's in So Bflo !

Geographically it is what it is and it will always take some effort to get there. Let's keep on thinking of ideas but at the same time remember that it will always be isolated.

Let's stay on the water taxi idea for a while. Think of all the stops along the way from the inner to the outer harbor. It would be like a mini cruise. It could be popular.

[Rhiannon]

Hell, the Outer Harbor is isolated from So Bflo, and it's in So Bflo !

Geographically it is what it is and it will always take some effort to get there. Let's keep on thinking of ideas but at the same time remember that it will always be isolated.

Let's stay on the water taxi idea for a while. Think of all the stops along the way from the inner to the outer harbor. It would be like a mini cruise. It could be popular.

People say that having a person run a lift bridge would be expensive, what about paying for and maintaining a crew and ferry or water taxi?? beside the fact our water freezes here for 9 months out of the year!

[300miles]

True, but a water taxi could more easily be privatized than a bridge. I don't think the harbor freezes completely because of shipping, but the shorelines might... also docks would need to be built to safely transfer people.

[Linda_D]

Hell, the Outer Harbor is isolated from So Bflo, and it's in So Bflo !

Geographically it is what it is and it will always take some effort to get there. Let's keep on thinking of ideas but at the same time remember that it will always be isolated.

If you get the opportunity, take a ride out to Presque Isle SP in Erie, PA. If you go in the summer, bring your swimsuit and towels. Bring your bike (I think they rent bikes but I'm not sure) or in-line skates or just good walking shoes. The OH could be a place like that. With a ferry/water taxi, there could be some seasonal retail/eateries near the CG Station/lighthouse.

Let's stay on the water taxi idea for a while. Think of all the stops along the way from the inner to the outer harbor. It would be like a mini cruise. It could be popular.

I think a water taxi that you could hire to take you around the harbor on your own route would be great. There's a lot of things that could be done to make better use of the waterfront that don't cost a lot of money that the COB/NFTA just are not interested in.

[Rhiannon]

If you get the opportunity, take a ride out to Presque Isle SP in Erie, PA. If you go in the summer, bring your swimsuit and towels. Bring your bike (I think they rent bikes but I'm not sure) or in-line skates or just good walking shoes. The OH could be a place like that. With a ferry/water taxi, there could be some seasonal retail/eateries near the CG Station/lighthouse.



I think a water taxi that you could hire to take you around the harbor on your own route would be great. There's a lot of things that could be done to make better use of the waterfront that don't cost a lot of money that the COB/NFTA just are not interested in.

I say we all shake our fists at Robert Moses for his brilliant idea of cutting the entire waterfront off to the whole WNY area... moot as it may be I still think its all his fault.

[bflonum1fan]

I say we all shake our fists at Robert Moses for his brilliant idea of cutting the entire waterfront off to the whole WNY area... moot as it may be I still think its all his fault.

It was Gov. DeWitt Clinton's fault !

[granpabob]

It's been awhile since blaim clinton was used. it's normaly Bush or Obama. Almost Forgot my old friend Dewitt Clinton

[Linda_D]

I say we all shake our fists at Robert Moses for his brilliant idea of cutting the entire waterfront off to the whole WNY area... moot as it may be I still think its all his fault.

I don't know if Moses was actually responsible for it, but certainly his "vision" was.

Of course, Buffalo's "City Fathers" aren't exactly blameless either. They were the ones with the bright idea to put the 198 through Delaware Park because they just had to have an expressway linking the would-be Kensington Expressway to the I-190. They would have put another expressway (the never started Westside Arterial) right through the heart of Allentown to Main Street where they had visions of the new UB campus being located. Luckily for Buffalo, SUNY was never interested in wiping out urban neighborhoods to put up new college campuses, and NYS DOT wasn't into building expressways through urban neighborhoods that didn't connect to other expressways, so the WSA never got built.

BTW, if you doubt that the WSA was on the drawing boards at one time, ask yourself why the I-190 has entrance/exit ramps at Virginia Street, just a short way from downtown and from the Porter Avenue/Peace Bridge entrance/exits.

[Linda_D]

It was Gov. DeWitt Clinton's fault !

<>

Think of all the really usable waterfront Buffalo would have had if Clinton's Ditch hadn't been filled in from downtown to the Black Rock Channel to form the roadbed for the I-190.

[Frank Broughton]

He took me over the father baker bridge. When we hit the top I looked at the speedo and we were going over 100mph.

Yes - I topped 100 several time over that bridge!

[Linda_D]

Thanks, speaker.

I think there's an assumption that thousands of people want to cross the Buffalo River from downtown by foot and bicycle and are prevented from doing so because there's no lower bridge. I don't think that's so, simply because there aren't that many people living in downtown, and the only "attractions" currently on the Outer Harbor within walking distance of downtown are the CG Station and the lighthouse, the marinas, and the Time Beach NP.


Maybe the city should investigate allowing somebody to start a water taxi or ferry service across. Erie, PA has water taxis that run from their Harborfront across the bay to Presque Isle SP. The Stow/Bemus Point ferry still runs on weekends in the summer because tourists love it -- even though the I86 bridge is faster.

• A water taxi/ferry would cost pennies compared to building a bridge of any kind (and the costs would be born by the service owner not the city/county/state).
• It could be flexible on routes/docking.
• It would not block any kind of traffic on the river.
• It could become an "attraction" in and of itself -- think Staten Island Ferry and the water taxis in Baltimore harbor.
• It would be an excellent way to determine the demand for pedestrian/bicycle/vehicle traffic specifically between downtown and the Outer Harbor.

Somebody's been paying ATTENTION!!!!

Water Taxi Comes to B-LO