Buffalo Row Houses

Row houses in Buffalo, NY. Side by side. Shared walls. Front stoops. Beautiful materials and details. There are four to five levels of living space in each of the houses. Some have probably been subdivided into apartments. It's a shame the street is so wide. Imagine a narrow street and wide sidewalks with two rows of trees. 

Buffalo, NY Sidewalk

 

The way the grass and plantings overhang the sidewalk. Trees for shade. Everything is green, but nothing is perfect. Trash cans are out. Trash day today? Maybe tomorrow? Homes with porches built close to the sidewalk. Single family? Maybe Buffalo Doubles? Definitely carriage houses behind. 

Building placement matters.

This the the intersection of Chippewa and Delaware in downtown Buffalo, NY.  Look at the difference the proper placement of a building at the sidewalk can make on a neighborhood.  Two of the buildings are built to the sidewalk and a third is built like a tacky strip mall. Shame on Starbucks. So desperate to be across the street from a local coffee shop that they choose to lease that hideous building. The building under construction on the fourth corner will be placed at the sidewalk edge as it should be and help make this a vibrant intersection. Perhaps the Starbucks corner will follow suit.

Don't try to compete with the suburbs.

This is a dead mall in downtown Buffalo, New York. One day before I took these pictures Andres Duany insisted that cities should never try to compete with the suburbs because the city will always lose. In other words, the correct response to "competition" from the suburbs is not to become more suburban. The response should instead be to double down on the urban character of the city. And now that we are witnessing the death of malls in even the suburbs we should especially avoid trying to mimic the suburban shopping experience. (That empty food court in the last photo is the most depressing image.)

Does Family Dollar really need all this parking?

The zoning code probably says so, but the reality is that parking codes are usually outdated and based on poor assumptions. I walked past again on Saturday afternoon and there were even fewer cars and I observed six different people walking home from the store rather than driving. This property is on a corner and kills the otherwise pleasant walkability of the neighborhood. Nothing to look at as you walk by. Not even some softening with decent landscaping. Just barren asphalt. Can you imagine what that experience must be like in the dead of August? 

The developer chose to highlight the abundant free parking rather than take advantage of the prominent corner location by placing the building at the street where it can be seen and easily accessed by pedestrians. In the developer's defense, it's possible the zoning code REQUIRES this.

Developments like this are deadly to the urbanism and contribute to making neighborhoods places that are not worth caring about.

Related

How wide does a street need to be?

This street has been temporarily narrowed for construction,  but it's clear that only half the width is necessary to move the same amount of automobile traffic.

Buffalo has a subway. (?!)

Yep. A 6.8 mile subway down Main Street that comes above ground in the Theater District.  They are reconstructing Main Street to again accommodate cars and the rail would function like a street car.

Buffalo, NY

I have an infatuation with Rust Belt cities. I think it stems from the fact that I did my undergrad in Steubenville, Ohio. An old steel mill town 40 miles west of Pittsburgh. Rust Belt towns fascinate me because you can see in the homes and the beautiful old buildings how wealthy these places used to be. And I wonder: Could these places be prosperous again? Some Rust Belt towns seem to have gotten their acts together and stabilized their populations after decades of population loss.  I'll be attending a conference in Buffalo, NY next month so I'm very excited to see how this particular Rust Belt city is reinventing itself.

This is a great video about Buffalo. It seems like a place that is still worth caring about.