The Downtown Summit series dates back to October 1994 when 300 citizens gathered
at WNED studios to strategize and set priority issues for Downtown Buffalo

Downtown Summit
And Strategic Plan Review

April 20, 2002 was a very good day for Downtown Buffalo. Over 200 people heard Mayor Masiello and County Executive Giambra present a shared vision for Downtown and then illustrate significant actions toward its achievement. With the vision and progress report also came a draft action plan for the short, intermediate and long term in each of nine separate categories. All this and more are reported in the revised draft of the plan available from Downtown Buffalo 2002!, the City of Buffalo’s Office of Strategic Planning, and the Urban Design Project. Drafts of the plan are also available in the Buffalo and Erie County Library at Lafayette Square. 

The abstracted vision presented defines a future Downtown as one where we will all live, work and play as both a regional destination and a neighborhood of neighborhoods. The plan also asks us to imagine five strategic investment areas that will help us build on our strengths. Finally it calls for the use of focused housing developments, an emphasis on the Buffalo radial street plan, and a better connection to the inner ring of neighborhoods. 

So imagine:

Buffalo is the Queen City of the Great Lakes…

Its Downtown is a regional center for culture and entertainment, health services, and commerce. It is the upstate center for government, finance, banking, and legal services that form the backbone of the regional economy. It is the neighborhood of neighborhoods for the whole region. And it is a bi-national waterfront city with an urban center fully connected to its river and lakes as well as to our neighbors to the north, south, east and west.

Downtown is for everyone…

To be successful, Downtown Buffalo must be a clean, safe, friendly, and beautiful place where a diverse range of citizens live their lives well. The activity program supports residential life, regional/local work opportunities, and cultural/entertainment venues. The program for Downtown is “live, work and play.” Major areas of Downtown must have life twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and twelve months a year.

The vision has five focus areas…

Focus investment areas include our waterfront developments, our financial district and government center, our Theatre District, a new Downtown education and public safety campus, and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Each focus area provides opportunities for all the rest of the Downtown and inner ring of neighborhoods. Each focus area establishes or reinforces residential communities and retailing opportunities. So, for example:

• The waterfront developments in and around the Erie Canal Harbor will establish the conditions for a buildout of the cultural, maritime, sports and entertainment venues planned for the entire Inner Harbor, including the Cobblestone District and the area to the north on Main Street. 

• Our financial district and government center will continue to anchor the employment and tax base for Downtown, provide markets for emerging retail and service venues throughout Downtown, and be the favored site for regional special events such as Taste of Buffalo and Thursday at the Square.

• Our Theatre District will continue to be the major regional source for live theatre and will further reinforce the entertainment district emerging on Chippewa Street.

• A new Downtown education and public safety campus anchored by Erie Community College supports the role of Downtown as a regional center and will add to Downtown employment and patronage. It will be a catalyst for connecting new neighborhood developments on the southeast side of Downtown to the Downtown core.

• The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and the bioinformatics facility will significantly reinforce the Fruit Belt and Home Ownership Zone neighborhoods even as it strengthens Main Street, Allentown and Downtown.

Downtown is defined by our radial plan, a mixed-use core, residential communities, and a series of gateways…

Taken together, the focus areas make up the core of Downtown connected by Joseph Ellicott’s historic radial and grid street plan. They are announced by a series of celebratory gateways surrounding Downtown. They are fused together through mixed-use development, overlapping activities, and an inviting street environment that all constitute a great Downtown. They are united by residential communities that help establish the twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week life that is essential to a vibrant downtown. Several of those same residential areas link Downtown to the inner ring of neighborhoods.

Imagine residential communities established throughout Downtown – in the 700 block of Main Street, on Genesee Street east of Main Street (north and south on Ellicott Street and south between Main and Washington Streets), in the Theatre District (building on the Allentown and Lower West Side neighborhoods) and at the foot of Main Street. Other areas with housing potential include the block bounded by Niagara Street, South Elmwood, and W. Huron Street.

The grid, radials, gateways, residential communities and mixed-use core are also the essential ingredients, to reconnect the Queen City to its lakes and rivers. Imagine the infrastructure barriers to the water modified and our grid and radial joining the life of the city to the water at every opportunity. Buffalo was, and will be again, the Queen City of the Great Lakes.

Click here to read the full text of the Revised Strategic Plan.

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