What is Downtown Buffalo 2002!

On September 14, 1999, at a press conference at the new Angelika Film Center and Café, Mayor Anthony M. Masiello unveiled the new Strategic Plan for downtown Buffalo. Emphasizing the theme of Downtown as a good place to work, live and play, the plan presents a vision of the future for Downtown, and offers a preliminary action plan to achieve that vision. Following presentation of the Downtown Buffalo Strategic Plan, the Mayor announced a new initiative to move the plan to implementation.

This newly created plan represents the culmination of five years of conscientious visioning and action. The process began on October 22, 1994, when 300 people gathered in the newly built public television studio of WNED-Channel 17 to outline their vision of the future for downtown Buffalo. Focused on the topics of living, working, meeting, feeling safe, shopping, learning, accessing, and having fun in downtown, the event laid the groundwork for developing community consensus about the vision and priorities for downtown Buffalo.

Since that day, there have been two additional summits. The second, held in March of 1996, focused on the details of housing and security, as well as on a critique of the vision work to date. The third summit, held that same fall, refined the vision and focused on more details of downtown improvement. This initial community thought process, plus other focus groups and interviews, has helped with continued action downtown, as well as defining a strategy for the future. For example, a workshop held in April 1999 added still more value to the emerging strategic plan, and in particular, called for a comprehensive implementation campaign.

Now a path has been laid that capitalizes on the work to date, and merges it with the vision of the future, to create a framework for more comprehensive action.

Named Downtown Buffalo 2002! this initiative is a working partnership between the City of Buffalo, Buffalo Place Inc., and the Urban Design Project of the School of Architecture and Planning, University at Buffalo.

Goals and Objectives

The goal of the campaign is to facilitate the advancement of specific high priority projects in Downtown which are identified through a broad professional, public, and stakeholder review.

The objectives are to develop consensus as to which projects should be managed; create tasks and deadlines for those projects; develop criteria against which progress can be measured; and to hold work with the project implementers to achieve those agreed-upon tasks and measures.

Approach

The approach is based on a three-way system of coordinated action:

Plan Review Process

The draft Downtown Strategic Plan will be reviewed by stakeholders, plan implementers, elected officials, legislative bodies, design professionals, and the public at large. The results of this review will be adjustment of the plan and identification of priority projects, and in some cases, requests for additional planning. Throughout the campaign, progress reports and newsletters will be published, keeping critical lines of communication open.

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