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Thread: New Waterfront Park

  1. #1

    New Waterfront Park

    I'm not sure if this is the correct place to put this. The park will most likely be used by locals, but...at a stretch...parks and tourism together.

    Tuesday, January 8, 2008 - 11:43 AM EST
    Funding in place for waterfront park
    Business First of Buffalo

    A $3.1 million appropriation from the federal government will clear the way for development of waterfront park space on land now occupied by the U.S. Coast Guard.

    The funding, announced jointly by Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, and Sen. Hillary Clinton, was approved by Congress and signed by President Bush in December. The site includes the area around the historic lighthouse at the Outer Harbor.

    Officials said 20 acres -- about two-thirds of the site controlled by the Coast Guard -- will be freed up for public access. The Coast Guard, Higgins says, oversees a total of 31 acres on the site but is developing a consolidation plan to meet its operational needs.

    _____

    This article is from Buffalo's Business First. I like the idea of waterfront parks. They inhance the character of a city. A great example is Chicago with its string of waterfront parks.

  2. #2
    Member 300miles's Avatar
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    This will be a cool park. The Erie Basin Marina already sees large crowds in the summertime.... but the lighthouse has been off-limits.

    Hopefully they will also address access issues, since it's not directly reachable from the marina area.

  3. #3
    I forgot about the lighthouse.

    There must be access, the Coast Guard members have to get in and out somehow. I have to admit I've never been over there.

  4. #4
    Member CAugust's Avatar
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    Thats wonderful, but Ill beleive it when I see it!

  5. #5
    Member 300miles's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gshowell
    I forgot about the lighthouse.

    There must be access, the Coast Guard members have to get in and out somehow. I have to admit I've never been over there.
    The access to the Lighthouse would be from Furhman Blvd, I believe... Which mean someone standing at the Marina can see the Lighthouse right across the river, yet would have to drive 2 miles to actually get there. There was some talk of building a pedestrian bridge connecting the two areas, but I'm sure that project is a long way off because of shipping access.

  6. #6
    Member Linda_D's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 300miles
    The access to the Lighthouse would be from Furhman Blvd, I believe... Which mean someone standing at the Marina can see the Lighthouse right across the river, yet would have to drive 2 miles to actually get there. There was some talk of building a pedestrian bridge connecting the two areas, but I'm sure that project is a long way off because of shipping access.
    How about water taxis or ferries? If there's really such a demand for pedestrian access to the Lighthouse, these should thrive. Erie, PA uses water taxis for access from its Bayfront to Presque Isle SP in the summer.

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    Member leftWNYbecauseofBS's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Linda_D
    How about water taxis or ferries? If there's really such a demand for pedestrian access to the Lighthouse, these should thrive. Erie, PA uses water taxis for access from its Bayfront to Presque Isle SP in the summer.
    I like this idea.

    In San Diego, you can take a water taxi from downtown to Coronado. A straight shot costs $10 on off hours. Give the driver a little more and he will take the long way around the harbor.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Linda_D
    How about water taxis or ferries? If there's really such a demand for pedestrian access to the Lighthouse, these should thrive. Erie, PA uses water taxis for access from its Bayfront to Presque Isle SP in the summer.
    If the NFTA runs/controlls them then NO....

  9. #9
    Member speaker's Avatar
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    Wouldn't it be a good idea to be thinking about basics first?

    We would like good fishing, swimming, boating, on our waterfront along with just a great getaway for the day. We really should be thinking about making the place habitable, and maybe improve our drinking water at the same time:

    "John Austin of the Brookings Institution says that if the government spends $26 billion cleaning up the Great Lakes, the economic benefit to America will be $80 to $100 billion.

    In 2006, economists from the University of Illinois came to Buffalo and made the same point. They calculated that cleaning the toxic gunk out of the Buffalo River would raise property values in the immediate area, so much so that new tax revenues from the higher values would totally offset the cost of the cleanup. They did the same analysis for the Sheboygan River in Wisconsin, with the same findings: Toxic cleanup can pay for itself. Clean means green.

    Good thing we’re getting a new president this year. The Bush administration has dis-invested in the pollution-control, health studies, environmental cleanup and economic revitalization efforts that Bill Clinton started in the 1990s—even when the numbers work.

    The presidential campaigns, however, don’t indicate much awareness of the economic or health consequences of the Great Lakes pollution problem. Nor is there much evidence that the national policy intellectuals have much to advise their candidates about the broad band of issues—legal, environmental, demographic and economic—that are common to all the Great Lakes states, but that are very much different than the challenges in the South and the West.

    Should presidential candidates get into the weeds? You betcha they should. Because if there isn’t a national presidential coordination of policy approaches, the revitalization of the Great Lakes—including the cleanup that George Bush and his appointees don’t want to talk about and don’t want you to know we need—won’t happen.


    Policy choices: the details matter

    The last ice age gave North America an astounding freshwater legacy called Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario. These five sweetwater seas have been, from the moment in August 1679 when LaSalle and Hennepin launched their sailing ship Griffon just upstream from Niagara Falls, a highway in continuous use for trade, immigration and traffic in everything that has been mined, farmed and fabricated in the interior. A century of heavy industry dirtied them up.

    The Bush administration has tried to hush up just how polluted they’ve become. Investigative journalists at the Center for Public Integrity recently exposed how Bush administration appointees shelved a report on the health effects of toxic pollution in the 26 “areas of concern”—areas like the Buffalo River, Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River, Detroit’s Rouge River, Chicago’s Calumet Harbor, Green Bay in Wisconsin and various sites along the coast of Lake Superior.........."


    http://artvoice.com/issues/v7n11/the...llion_question

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    Quote Originally Posted by Linda_D
    How about water taxis or ferries? If there's really such a demand for pedestrian access to the Lighthouse, these should thrive. Erie, PA uses water taxis for access from its Bayfront to Presque Isle SP in the summer.
    Didn't Rochester try this a couple years ago? And that cost them $80+ million, for a service that didnt even last a year. Oh, and the ferry crashed into a pier in NYC before it even made its way to Rochester.....

    I dont think anyone is going to take a water taxi from the Erie Basin Marina to the Lighthouse. Especially if it is going to cost in the neighborhood of $10. Just drive your car the 2 miles and it will be much cheaper.

    Besides, few people even know about the lighthouse, so generating interest and getting people there is going to cost a fair amout of money for advertisements.

  11. #11
    Member speaker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by crabapples
    Didn't Rochester try this a couple years ago? And that cost them $80+ million, for a service that didnt even last a year. Oh, and the ferry crashed into a pier in NYC before it even made its way to Rochester.....

    I dont think anyone is going to take a water taxi from the Erie Basin Marina to the Lighthouse. Especially if it is going to cost in the neighborhood of $10. Just drive your car the 2 miles and it will be much cheaper.

    Besides, few people even know about the lighthouse, so generating interest and getting people there is going to cost a fair amout of money for advertisements.
    What does it matter what Rochester did? People love these rides and they do know about the Chinaman's Cap lighthouse, and they would love a small ride along the front. The Miss Buffalo takes a good day and costs more and has to be planned on. If we had a swimming park, down the way, amusements like Clifton Hill in Canada, a ferry to the lighthouse and over to 'the Pier' and back it would make a lot of people happy.

    But let's get the crud out of our water, and the fed would probably contribute a huge part to this effort.

    Niagara river used to be clear light aquamarine blue. Lake Erie is a good depth for keeping clean but it needs help.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by speaker
    What does it matter what Rochester did? People love these rides and they do know about the Chinaman's Cap lighthouse, and they would love a small ride along the front. The Miss Buffalo takes a good day and costs more and has to be planned on. If we had a swimming park, down the way, amusements like Clifton Hill in Canada, a ferry to the lighthouse and over to 'the Pier' and back it would make a lot of people happy.

    But let's get the crud out of our water, and the fed would probably contribute a huge part to this effort.

    Niagara river used to be clear light aquamarine blue. Lake Erie is a good depth for keeping clean but it needs help.
    What does it matter what Rochester did? Well for one they are a similar size to us. Two they are on a Great Lake. Three they are in a similar economic climate as us. Four it shows that there isn't a need for such an endeavor.

    People love these rides? Did you take a poll of Western NY to see? How do YOU know what everyone else wants?

    I have no idea what a Chinaman's Cap Lighthouse means and I have lived here my whole life. I know where the lighthouse is. I even went into it before. Its not going to induce people to drive down there just to look at the lighthouse. Its a lighthouse, whoop-de-do.

    The reason Miss Buffalo is a chartered boat cruise is because there isnt demand for there to be a boat that takes people out whenever they want. You need to pre-schedule it or else they would lose tons of money. Isnt that why they sold the one boat a couple years ago?

    If we had a swimming park, amusement park, yada yada yada. Maybe, and I say maybe, if we had all these things built on the waterfront, then maybe a water taxi surface should be looked into. Otherwise it's the cart before the horse. Oh, and the Pier is a pile of rubble.... so you want to take people from the marina down to a pile of crap and back to the lighthouse? Yeah, thats a reallll good idea to boost Buffalos tourism.....

    It is a waste of money and in this case it would be a waste of taxpayers money for a service that isnt needed, or wanted.

    We should use any excess funding to concentrate on the people and things that NEED funding in this area.

  13. #13
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    Whew--you really are a crab!

    Buffalo is much more of a water city than Rochester.

    And Chinaman's Cap is the name sailors had for that lighthouse at the marina. And there are plenty of lighthouse aficionados in the country who do travel around looking at them.

    Although this one is not on the sea.

    I don't have to take a poll. Just go to Clifton Hill any night of the summer and you'd see there's enough business to make a good profit.

    Let's see, what else do you have to gripe about? Oh yeah, a pier. Right! Well I guess we'd just have to build a new one.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by speaker
    Whew--you really are a crab!

    Buffalo is much more of a water city than Rochester.

    And Chinaman's Cap is the name sailors had for that lighthouse at the marina. And there are plenty of lighthouse aficionados in the country who do travel around looking at them.

    Although this one is not on the sea.

    I don't have to take a poll. Just go to Clifton Hill any night of the summer and you'd see there's enough business to make a good profit.

    Let's see, what else do you have to gripe about? Oh yeah, a pier. Right! Well I guess we'd just have to build a new one.
    You are right. Buffalo is much more of a water city because we are barely afloat compared to them. But seriously, both cities are on Great Lakes. To say that one is more of a water city than the other is ridiculous. If anything Rochester has more public beaches and boat accesses on their Lake....

    While some people may come to see the lighthouse, I am sure it is not going to bring in a wave of people. But thank you for the information. I honestly had no idea what a Chinamans Lighthouse meant.

    Again, Clifton Hill built the businesses and the people came. We need to build things before we start offering useless water taxi services. Its the cart before the horse.

    You cant argue that there are more things for this area to put its tax money than a service which might be used for 4 months a year that doesnt offer much to see.

    After seeing how many politicians have talked and talked about the waterfront, I have a right to be crabby about this issue. Its like the Peace Bridge. It will eventually happen, hopefully before I die (Im in my mid-twenties) or before the current bridge collapses.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by crabapples
    You are right. Buffalo is much more of a water city because we are barely afloat compared to them. But seriously, both cities are on Great Lakes. To say that one is more of a water city than the other is ridiculous. If anything Rochester has more public beaches and boat accesses on their Lake....

    While some people may come to see the lighthouse, I am sure it is not going to bring in a wave of people. But thank you for the information. I honestly had no idea what a Chinamans Lighthouse meant.

    Again, Clifton Hill built the businesses and the people came. We need to build things before we start offering useless water taxi services. Its the cart before the horse.

    You cant argue that there are more things for this area to put its tax money than a service which might be used for 4 months a year that doesnt offer much to see.

    After seeing how many politicians have talked and talked about the waterfront, I have a right to be crabby about this issue. Its like the Peace Bridge. It will eventually happen, hopefully before I die (Im in my mid-twenties) or before the current bridge collapses.
    I would rather see things like a Great Lakes Cruise ship, and things like that stationed in Buffalo.
    That would be cool.
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