Why a new Stadium should be built downtown Buffalo

[Linda_D]

People must have a vast interest to keep things the way they are, we ought to be a shame of ourselves . Lets get the slogan Buffalo talking proud and really mean it.

Is this good enough talk RES for the area , do you really want whats best for WNY ???

First off, "Buffalo" is NOT the same as "WNY". They are two entirely different entities. Buffalo is a city, the largest one, but still only a part of a larger region called Western New York. What benefits Buffalo is probably good for WNY but not necessarily, and vice versa.

Secondly, the last time I looked, Cleveland, like Buffalo, was continuing to lose population. All their downtown building, like Buffalo's, has done squat to change that. You can throw cities like Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Baltimore into the same boat, too.

The fact is that economic development in/near downtown areas does NOT necessarily mean that the people who work there will live in the city or that people who attend events at downtown sports venues will spend additional money at nearby venues, parking lots excepted. This is the great fallacy of economic development as the "solution" to declining urban populations. People do NOT necessarily want to live cheek-to-jowl to their jobs or to a sports venue.

The only way to stem population declines in cities is to make cities desirable places to live. People originally moved to the suburbs and continue to move to suburbs because they offer decent housing options in safe neighborhoods with reasonably decent public schools. If cities want to compete with the suburbs for population, they have to offer what people want in terms of housing options, safety, and schools, and Buffalo hasn't bothered to to do that. Instead, it's poured millions into economic development schemes in and near downtown that have mostly benefitted politically connected developers going back in an unbroken line to at least the 1960s while more and more residents have fled the city.

[Dougles]

It should built on the East Side. Tear down all the houses just south of the 33 and north of Genesee, half the hosues are empty anyways. This would help rebuild the East side into a great neighborhood and still provide plenty of access to the stadium from all directions.

[Frank Broughton]

First off, "Buffalo" is NOT the same as "WNY". They are two entirely different entities. Buffalo is a city, the largest one, but still only a part of a larger region called Western New York. What benefits Buffalo is probably good for WNY but not necessarily, and vice versa.

Secondly, the last time I looked, Cleveland, like Buffalo, was continuing to lose population. All their downtown building, like Buffalo's, has done squat to change that. You can throw cities like Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Baltimore into the same boat, too.

The fact is that economic development in/near downtown areas does NOT necessarily mean that the people who work there will live in the city or that people who attend events at downtown sports venues will spend additional money at nearby venues, parking lots excepted. This is the great fallacy of economic development as the "solution" to declining urban populations. People do NOT necessarily want to live cheek-to-jowl to their jobs or to a sports venue.

The only way to stem population declines in cities is to make cities desirable places to live. People originally moved to the suburbs and continue to move to suburbs because they offer decent housing options in safe neighborhoods with reasonably decent public schools. If cities want to compete with the suburbs for population, they have to offer what people want in terms of housing options, safety, and schools, and Buffalo hasn't bothered to to do that. Instead, it's poured millions into economic development schemes in and near downtown that have mostly benefitted politically connected developers going back in an unbroken line to at least the 1960s while more and more residents have fled the city.

Look out folks the sky is about to fall...... I agree with Linda on this!

[Frank Broughton]

Buffalo has one of the quickest commute times of a city its size, you really confused me with that comment

Driving to work and to a stadium are two different things.

[Bringthetruth]

Linda, I never mentioned people need to move back to the city, I mentioned building a state of the art "STADIUM" down town instead of the outdated Orchard PARK. wasting Millions to renovate when the owner could sell the team out of state. All we would have is a 80,000 seat arena for high school football. LOL

People have institutionalized segregation in place in WNY, that's most of the exciting things to do are there.

Linda, why does Cleveland that has a similar water front like ours, and they actually use it correctly ?

Why does Cleveland have multiple sports teams(FOOTBALL- BASKETBALL- BASEBALL) ALL DOWN TOWN with their own facilities not all in one.

This was my point, not all the housing issues you raised.

[WNYresident]

Bringthetruth
Linda, why does Cleveland that has a similar water front like ours, and they actually use it correctly ?

The people who are in charge in other communities are brighter than the people who are in charge in our community. Where have you been all this time? If it is not an intelligence factor then it's a self serving factor in some cases. Decisions based on how they benefit from the decision versus what benefits our community as a whole. What other factor can it be?

[therising]

Buffalo cannot handle the traffic it gets now, how will downtown handle a stadium of 65,000

Do you really think Buffalo has a traffic problem? Or was that a joke?

[Dougles]

The bigger question is... WHO pays for it?

[Bringthetruth]

Old money has trained many middle aged men and women to think just like them.

Who paid for all the renovations at "the Ralph" in Orchard Park of all places

I'm promoting the city of Buffalo, sellouts have already raped the city for suburbia development.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

First off, "Buffalo" is NOT the same as "WNY". They are two entirely different entities. Buffalo is a city, the largest one, but still only a part of a larger region called Western New York. What benefits Buffalo is probably good for WNY but not necessarily, and vice versa.

While this is true..should not be considered one section either. The downtown core should be separate from other areas like the east side and south/north Buffalo.

Secondly, the last time I looked, Cleveland, like Buffalo, was continuing to lose population. All their downtown building, like Buffalo's, has done squat to change that. You can throw cities like Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Baltimore into the same boat, too.

You should look at Pittsburgh and Baltimore again. They still have issues but they do have a vibrant core. Need to get off the farm more often Linda.

The fact is that economic development in/near downtown areas does NOT necessarily mean that the people who work there will live in the city or that people who attend events at downtown sports venues will spend additional money at nearby venues, parking lots excepted. This is the great fallacy of economic development as the "solution" to declining urban populations. People do NOT necessarily want to live cheek-to-jowl to their jobs or to a sports venue.

That is not a fact..that is an opinion. Not everyone is going to want to live downtown..but there are some if a real downtown exists. Again, if you got off the farm more often, you would see the transformation in other areas.

I am not talking about 60K people living downtown. Hell...there are less than 3,500 people living in the 'core' if you will. It is not that much of a reach to think 7k to 10,000 is reasonable with a plan.

The only way to stem population declines in cities is to make cities desirable places to live. People originally moved to the suburbs and continue to move to suburbs because they offer decent housing options in safe neighborhoods with reasonably decent public schools. If cities want to compete with the suburbs for population, they have to offer what people want in terms of housing options, safety, and schools, and Buffalo hasn't bothered to to do that. Instead, it's poured millions into economic development schemes in and near downtown that have mostly benefitted politically connected developers going back in an unbroken line to at least the 1960s while more and more residents have fled the city.

You are 100% wrong on this. The COB should not be competing with the burbs. The reason is they are never going to win that game in our lifetime. They need to go to the edge cases. My edge cases are folks without kids. They would be young orempty nesters. If you want to add 'urban farmers' to that go ahead as they really can not exist in the 1st ring either. Additionally, the COB has tried to compete with the burbs in housing options. But they fail because the housing stock they build competes with 1st ring burbs and for families with kids who care about specific things like schools.

[sharky]

improve the existing or build a new one downtown. I don't care which as long as not one cent of tax payer money is used for it
Let the billionaire owner pay for it

[Linda_D]

Look out folks the sky is about to fall...... I agree with Linda on this!

Could the Mayans have been right???

[WNYresident]

Did anyone ever question was businesses sprouted up around the current stadium for the 8 home games a year?

One day I think people should scribble up how it financially benefits our community if tax funds are used for any purposes. It does benefit the few business that deal with the Bills but that's about it. We end up with a radio station broadcasting the games but the majority of that money go to the corporation that owns the stations minus the few sales people who work at the station.

[Linda_D]

Linda, I never mentioned people need to move back to the city, I mentioned building a state of the art "STADIUM" down town instead of the outdated Orchard PARK. wasting Millions to renovate when the owner could sell the team out of state. All we would have is a 80,000 seat arena for high school football. LOL

People have institutionalized segregation in place in WNY, that's most of the exciting things to do are there.

Linda, why does Cleveland that has a similar water front like ours, and they actually use it correctly ?

Why does Cleveland have multiple sports teams(FOOTBALL- BASKETBALL- BASEBALL) ALL DOWN TOWN with their own facilities not all in one.

This was my point, not all the housing issues you raised.

What is the purpose of using tax dollars to fund any kind of economic development if the end result isn't to "grow" the population? The theory behind publically funded economic development is that these projects create jobs that in turn create other jobs, and that all these new jobs will bring in people.

I repeat, despite the money sunk into sports venues in downtown Cleveland, the city continues to lose population. I don't know if that means that people are leaving Cleveland for the 'burbs or leaving the Cleveland area for elsewhere, but leaving they are, so having the sports venues downtown does very little for the city itself for investment that the taxpayers have made there.

The Bills have a structurally sound football stadium in Orchard Park that is a perfect venue for NFL football. It requires refurbishing. Just acquiring the land to build a stadium in/near downtown would probably cost more than refurbishing the Ralph because all the politically connected developers would quietly buy up land cheap before the site was announced, and the city/county would buy their land at 10-100x what they paid for it, and easily twice what it's worth.

The stadium is in Orchard Park. Deal with it.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

What is the purpose of using tax dollars to fund any kind of economic development if the end result isn't to "grow" the population? The theory behind publically funded economic development is that these projects create jobs that in turn create other jobs, and that all these new jobs will bring in people.

You're in favor of land banking right? If so, the goal should be to close down sections of the city and rebuild others.

The Bills have a structurally sound football stadium in Orchard Park that is a perfect venue for NFL football. It requires refurbishing. Just acquiring the land to build a stadium in/near downtown would probably cost more than refurbishing the Ralph because all the politically connected developers would quietly buy up land cheap before the site was announced, and the city/county would buy their land at 10-100x what they paid for it, and easily twice what it's worth.

The stadium is in Orchard Park. Deal with it.

The Bills are going to leave town anyways...I do not even think they should spend money on refurbishing the stadium. F*ck Ralph and his team.