Thursday, June 18, 2009

Down on Main Street - Part 2

In today's Buffalo News there's an article about redeveloping the former AM&A's. In it there is a reference to the area largely pictured in yesterdays post:
"(Termini) said the AM&A’s project, the Statler Towers and the 500 block of Main Street should be priorities for redevelopment efforts downtown."
The 500 block and upper 400 is where I was roaming with my trusty camera. Later yesterday I added more pictures to the Down on Main Street post (go look), but I still have a few left.

Fast food tried to establish a presence on Main, but their business model - long hours at high volume- is at odds with the reality of downtown as it now exists. To their credit, McDonald's and Arby's (pictured below) built on the ground floor of established buildings, although it didn't work out in the long run.


Burger King had to have it their way and built new but with similar results. Built right across the side street from McDonald's, and a block away from Arby's, no one whined about competition then, crowding being the norm among this type of business.


McDonalds has been cleaned up and now houses an architectural firm I believe. Couldn't get a picture due to a crew digging up the sidewalk, but right next to it is a closed Christian Science Reading Room. Looks like a nice building. Perhaps there are plans in the work for it also.



Back to AM&A's...I'm assuming that that the "Bridge to Nowhere" will come down. After all, it wouldn't be cost effective to maintain it, as well as a security nightmare, so that higher end (as opposed to low income) apartment dwellers could shop at a dollar store in Main Place Mall.

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