The Vision - Downtown is for Everyone

Downtown Buffalo has the capacity to attract the world, the region, and nearby residents. The 1999 Strategic Plan envisioned a Downtown with life twentyfour hours a day, seven days a week, twelve months a year. The plan also envisions a growing number of residents and expanded related services in the core of Downtown. It reinforces restaurant, entertainment, theatre and cultural venues. And it expands the number of employees working a full range of jobs Downtown.

Buffalo is a central actor in many powerful and world-famous stories. We need to tell these stories of our region’s natural heritage, architecture and cultural history. The western gateway of the Erie Canal was here. The Underground Railroad ran through here. Important battles of the War of 1812 were waged here. Some of the best architects in the world built here. These are important stories to tell, not only to strengthen our visitor-based economy, but also to enrich the lives of all who live in the region and in the city.

The “live, work, and play“ activity program will achieve its full potential when Downtown employees and residents of the inner ring of neighborhoods choose Downtown as their place for specialized neighborhood retail services, entertainment, and work. It is not possible or desirable to build enough Downtown housing to support such retail services. But the combination of more than 15,000 residents in the inner ring neighborhoods with the growing Downtown residential population and the workforce of what will be more than 60,000 people is sufficient to provide the market for retail services. Becoming a preferred retail venue, in turn, requires an inner ring of neighborhoods with strong connections to Downtown.

All entrances to Downtown require travel through the inner ring of neighborhoods. All of our visitor-based economies depend on a Downtown and neighborhoods that are clean, safe, friendly and beautiful. All of our retention and new business development efforts depend on these same qualities. The vision for Buffalo is an inclusive one that brings the full diversity of the City and Region to Downtown. As the city goes, so goes the region. As the inner ring of neighborhoods goes, so goes Downtown.

• Summary
• Volume I: Overview
• Volume II: The Work Plan
• Preface
• 1. Vision
  • Regional Center
  • Neighborhood of Neighborhoods
  • For Everyone
  • Ellicott, Olmsted, Waterfront
  • Decades of Progress
• 2. Priorities
• 3. Progress Report
• 4. The Work Plan
• References
• Acknowlegements
• A New Story