As seen in the May/June Issue of Buffalo Magazine:
View From the Second Floor:
MAYOR ANTHONY M. MASIELLO
These are exciting times for the city of buffalo. As the new millennium approaches, the city is poised for a period of revival, reinvestment and reinvigoration.No one can deny that the Queen City, like many other communities in the northeastern United States, experienced hard times following the restructuring of our nation's and region's industrial base. Our once thriving port is a shadow of its former self, while the steel mills that once dominated our southern shoreline are virtually gone. The challenge before us is to take advantage of a diversified local economy that has evolved away from the heavy industries of the past and toward the service and high tech businesses of the future.
With the presence of firms such as Adelphia communications, reciprocal inc., Prime communications, Edgenet and a downtown fiber optic network that is virtually unrivalled, buffalo is positioned ideally for the development and expansion of businesses that are leading the high tech revolution here and across the globe. I realize such a statement may raise eyebrows and cause people to question the accuracy of my comments, but the previously mentioned firms are here, in downtown buffalo and are daily broadening the reach of their businesses. I am convinced the future of the city of buffalo will be inextricably linked with such cutting edge high tech businesses.
Beyond the commercial element of our city, there are myriad reasons to optimistic about buffalo's future. Over the past several months significant developments in and around downtown's theatre district have given credibility to our longstanding contention that there is simply no better arts and entertainment district in western New York.
The opening of the Irish classical theatre's Andrews theatre, the continuing success of the studio arena theatre, the impending arrival of the Angelika movie theatre complex and the reopening of the stunning Shea's performing arts center all contribute to a vibrant and diverse performing arts community. But the strength and vitality of the city's cultural institutions is not limited to the theatre district. Perhaps we take them for granted, but the various neighborhoods and smaller scale performing and visual arts organizations all contribute to our rich, urban landscape. The ultimate theatre, hallways contemporary art center, the Cepa photography arts gallery, El museo francisco oller y diego rivera and the Burchfield-Penney art center are representative of buffalo's deserved status as a cultural beacon for the entire western New York, indeed New York state, community. And all of these institutions mentioned without invoking one of the world's greatest repositories of modern art, the venerable Albright-Knox art gallery.
Our community contains so many attributes that to list them would fill a column without any accompanying narrative. And what would be the point? As citizens of this great city, we like to believe that despite the cruel vagaries of economic fortune, we still possess a firm foundation upon which will be built a city that can lead the way for similarlysized cities into the 21st century.
With the redevelopment of the inner harbor and lower mainstreet, the commercial potential of the south buffalo redevelopment zone, the construction of new market-rate single family homes on our east and west sides and significant parks improvements citywide, the city truly stands at a pivotal point of our collective history. I am pleased with the progress we have made over the past five years and i am excited by the prospects that await implementation. Our strength rests in our collective effort to make buffalo great again and i am honored to share in these critically important undertakings.
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