The Urban Design Project : Queen City Hub Plan [header images/logo]
Mayor Anthony M. Masiello.

2. Achieving the Vision

Mayor Anthony M. Masiello on Vision

"If the idea of 'vision' is going to mean anything for making a better Downtown for Buffalo, it has to meet at least four criteria:

  • It has to be grounded in reality. It has to understand our current assets accurately. It has to see our possibilities clearly. It has to be rooted in real performance, getting things done. Private sector leadership is critical to the success of such grounding.
  • A real vision has to reach for the future. It has to aspire to a future that is different from and better than the present. It is not good enough for a vision to see more of the same. It has to imagine that things can really change in significant ways.
  • It has to be shared. It can’t be only one person’s vision – not even the Mayor’s – nor can it be the vision of only one group or organization or interest. That means it comes out of conversations conducted at the Downtown Summits and issue forums that have come before. It’s also the product of collaborative work across institutions like the Downtown 2002! program and the R/UDAT (Regional Urban Design Assistance Team) visit we held in 2001. If a vision is developed with a diverse base of participants and shared broadly enough, not only will everyone know it and understand it, most everyone will get behind it, too.
  • Finally, a vision has to have public leadership. That means it has to be more than shared broadly and out there for everyone to see. It has to be carried by City government with full support from County, State and Federal partners. It’s partly that City government has some of the tools needed to make things happen when the market won’t. It’s partly that City government holds the power to regulate building and land use. But more than anything else, making a public vision requires the democratic mechanisms of City government to determine that the vision is the people’s vision.

The Queen City Hub: A Regional Action Plan for Downtown Buffalo defines a consensus vision that belongs to all of us even as it provides an ability to make tough choices and a reason to say no when that is what must be said. It delineates priorities. It delivers a physical vision inspired by Joseph Ellicott’s 1804 radial plan for the city, Frederick Law Olmsted’s park and parkway system, and our waterfront history. Finally, It provides a programmatic vision of an inclusive regional city hub where citizens and visitors live, work and play in a beautiful urban environment. Consensus on this vision does not mean every one agrees to all the details, but it does mean that we have worked it out sufficiently to take decisive action. We all deserve the realization of this vision of The Queen City Hub."