As seen in the May/June Issue of Buffalo Magazine:

View From the Second Floor:

MAYOR ANTHONY M. MASIELLO  

 

Thousands of Western New York residents flock to Lafayette Square to listen to live music on a balmy summer night; performing arts patrons fill Main Street theatres, enjoying touring Broadway company performances and quality live drama and cutting edge cinema; young city residents occupy sold-out market rate apartments in the Theatre District; Chippewa Street thrives; sports enthusiasts fill the city's streets, reveling in quality professional sports; the long-awaited Inner Harbor redevelopment project breaks ground; a U.S. Navy war ship visits the Port of Buffalo for the first time in ten years; a new convention center plan takes shape; a new downtown hotel development on Delaware Avenue gets going, while another is transformed with a multi-million dollar facelift; and the downtown district's crime rate plummets to its lowest level in over a decade. If that sounds like a vision we would all like for our city's future, I suggest you take time to visit the heartbeat of our city, indeed our region, downtown Buffalo. That is not a vision of the future; that is the reality of today.

For five years one of the central tasks of the Masiello Administration has been the revival and strengthening of our downtown. The task has not been easy, but the shared commitment of our elected leaders, business community and other interested stakeholders has enabled us to score significant victories. We are now positioned to take advantage of our collective success and take downtown to another level as we move into the 21st Century.

On September 14, 1999, I unveiled the Downtown Buffalo Strategic Plan, which was developed in partnership with the city's Department of Community Development and the Urban Design Project of the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Buffalo. The objectives of the Plan are to develop consensus as to which downtown projects should be managed; create tasks and deadlines for those projects; develop criteria against which progress can be measured; and to hold accountable the project implementers to those agreed tasks and measures.

In order for the Plan to succeed, however, it was necessary to establish a formal partnership with the downtown business community to provide key project management services, thereby guaranteeing that this was not another pie-in-the-sky proposal that would gather dust on a faraway shelf. After careful deliberation, the city approached an organization that has proved its ability, time and again, to affect positive change throughout the downtown district and has had a profound impact on the very character of downtown Buffalo: Buffalo Place Inc.

Buffalo Place Inc., which represents downtown business interests, has provided vital and invaluable leadership in developing creative downtown marketing opportunities (e.g., Thursday in the Square; Main Street Farmers' Market; Buffalo Rocks the Harbor), as well as indispensable services to the downtown community (e.g., park and ride shuttle service; sidewalk and street cleaning; security services). Their success is unquestioned and their commitment is unassailable; they were the natural choice for partners in the development and implementation of the Downtown Buffalo Strategic Plan.

Another critical element to the establishment of the Plan was the participation of Buffalo-area foundations that could provide capital to fund the initiative. In true community spirit, four area foundations - The Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, The John R. Oishei Foundation, the Baird Foundation and the city's Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency -- came together to provide critical financing to get the project rolling. If anyone should doubt our community's ability to come together on a given strategic plan, I suggest they examine this effort, which has brought together the combined vision and strength of our city's public, private, academic and philanthropic organizations.

Born out of the Downtown Summit Series, and refined through subsequent public forums, the Strategic Plan will provide a framework within which all stakeholders accept the challenge to implement projects of mutual benefit as expeditiously as possible, and who agree to resolve their differences within a constructive and formalized process.

With Buffalo Place Inc.'s oversight, and the key participation of the University at Buffalo, the project will evolve through a Plan Review Process, which will involve the review and adjustment of the Plan and establish priority projects. An Implementation Council, comprised of senior implementers representing the public, quasi-public, private and not-for-profit sectors, will serve as a neutral body where project help can be provided where and when it is needed. Finally, Action Teams will be created, composed of those responsible for each project. They will focus on the actual accomplishments of respective projects. They will work with the Implementation Council to develop timelines and accountability measures that will guide them through a given project.

The entire process will occur over a two-year period, beginning in December 1999 with the review of the Draft Downtown Buffalo Strategic Plan, Project Identification and Priority Ranking, and the establishment of the Project Schedule. Actual Project Implementation will take place from January 2000 through Fall 2002.

Is this ambitious? Yes. Is the process workable? Yes. Can it really succeed? Absolutely.

We have made great progress in a brief five-year span, but we must prepare for the future. Our community has suffered setbacks, but we are unbowed. Overcoming economic and development challenges is one thing, but overcoming self-doubt and lingering pessimism strikes at the core of who we are as a community. We have the blueprint for our future success; we have laid the necessary groundwork to ensure that success; now is the time to roll-up our sleeves, together, and get to work.

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