It was a cold January evening but a warm gathering and Happy Hour at CBW for our first meeting of the year. We recapped 2019 and introduced projects for 2020.

Thanks to all who participated and connected! We were happy to meet architects who are working on WEDI’s project on Niagara Street, future home of the popular West Side Bazaar. We also had updates on the Niagara Street construction project, and input about a park we envision at 1318 Niagara Street. More on that to come. We introduced events for 2020 including this year’s Jane’s Walk.

March 4 @ 4:00 pm will be our next get-together. We’ll be at a smaller venue so give a shout out if you’d like to join us!

info@VisionNiagara.org

1318 Niagara St., at the foot of Lafayette Avenue, was once a gigantic building used for malting, an aspect of beer production. The lot has been a contaminated DEC site for over a decade. Cleanup began in November and is nearly finishing up. So what next for this site, that offers a view shed of Black Rock Canal?

Vision Niagara advocated that the site be preserved as a green space. On November 26th, zoning was changed to D-OG (Green), thanks to the work of Councilmember David Rivera and staff!

We’d love to hear from our community on the Niagara Street corridor – what would you like to see here? Tell us at our next meeting and happy hour on January 8th (CBW, 4:00 pm) or pop us a note: info@visionniagara.org. We’d love to hear from you!

Buffalo Sewer Authority will give Vision Niagara participants a tour of their treatment plant on Thursday, August 8th at 4:00 pm. Count on a two hour fascinating session where you will learn about what happens to sewage and overflow, as well as the importance of our infrastructure, green and otherwise.

Send an email to info@visionniagara.org before Wednesday, August 7th, if you would like to secure one of the limited spaces for this tour. We will send you instructions where to meet.

We were delighted to announce at our June Vision Niagara meeting that a new mural will enhance our Niagara Street Corridor. Artist Nicole Cherry designed this bicycle themed image for the south side of 1330 Niagara Street. And it fits so well because the next tenant will be Campus WheelWorks, when renovations are complete.

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery has teamed up with the artist and owner, Buffalo Spokes LLC, as part of their public art initiative. The surface was just primed – the artwork should be completed by the end of July.

We at Vision Niagara have a goal to turn the adjacent lot into a park. What a perfect backdrop this will be! Hearty thanks to Nicole Cherry, AKAG and Buffalo Spokes!!

Wednesday, May 1st @ 5:00 pm @Resurgence Brewery – side room next to the chalkboard.

Tom Duk and Julie Fetzer, City of Buffalo Department of Public Works – update about the long-anticipated, now underway complete street project for Niagara Street.

Jeff Empric, Bootleg Bucha– business and rehab progress in a big section of the corridor of Upper Rock (the middle section of Niagara Street).

Howard Rich from Rich Products – what’s happening @ Rich’s.

helping out at the clean up

Join us on May 11 from 10am to noon! We’ll be shining up beautiful Broderick Park including spreading mulch and a bit of weeding. Cuz we love this park so much and want it to look its best! Refreshments and free t-shirts for our volunteers!

Vision Niagara is excited to host Jane’s Walk Buffalo 2019 to be held on the first weekend of May. Look for specifics on the walks on our Special Events page.

This might not look like much, but it’s a real start on our long awaited project for Niagara Street. Pictured here is one bike lane on the south side of One Robert Rich Way, base of West Ferry Street into Broderick Park. Clear sailing for our bicyclists heading into the park in the future!

Yes, it’s a late start for 2018. The project was tied up in Albany for far too long so here is the scope for this year:

• Niagara Street from Hampshire Street to the Bridge over Scajaquada Creek –
• Busti Avenue from Columbus Parkway to Niagara Street –
• Robert Rich Way from the Lift Bridge to Niagara Street

The work will consist of milling the pavement; hot mix asphalt concrete inlay; PCC pavement; spot replacements of the sidewalk and curb/underdrain; new curb ramps; curb extensions at all signalized intersections; improvements to the drainage system; green infrastructure treatments; a new street lighting system; a protected bicycle lane (cycle track); replacement of existing traffic control signals; a new traffic control signal; signs and pavement markings; landscaping/tree plantings and street amenities; site restoration and other incidental work.

Cannon Design featured a forum about Niagara Street’s future at Rich Products beautiful atrium last month. Panelists included Paul Ciminelli, CEO of Ciminelli Real Estate Corp., Dr. Lorrie Clemo, President of D’Youville College, Barbara Rowe, Board President of Vision Niagara and Howard Rich, VP @ Rich Products. Michael Tunkey, Cannon Design moderated. (Summarized here).

This forum is part of Cannon’s Buffalo Urban Futures Forum.

A unique feature of this event was an interactive map where attendees had the opportunity to plug in what they would like to see on the corridor. And the map isn’t finished! If your organization will be having a meeting this summer, you could include this activity and have it recorded for posterity! Contact Michael Tunkey if you are interested!

Work will begin this summer on improvements to the Jesse Kregal Pathway. John Bidell, city engineer with Buffalo’s Department of Public Works, was very kind to walk the path with two of our board members to describe the changes to come. Also joining us, were Phil Galbo and Tom Buckley from Watts Engineering.

The illustration above shows before and after of the western head of the trail. Note, however, the blue surface will not be part of the changes.

We will see lighting installed at a few locations. The chain link fencing that is overgrown with weeds will be replaced with a cable fence which will make maintenance efforts easier. See current status in photos below.

Cable fencing will eliminate some of this sort of vandalism – a determined person can just crawl through!

Other changes include a new access road, again to ease maintenance loads but also will be a new way for folks to get to the path.

Changes will allow pedestrians and bicyclists to navigate easily around the Army Corps of Engineers which now closes off part of the path on weekends. New signage will ease the confusion of navigation. It should be clear where folks can choose between the new bike lanes on Niagara Street and the path.

And this lovely but sad historical marker will be refurbished!

We’ll all have to be patient! The path will be closed while the work is going on – if all goes well, we’ll have a sparkly Jesse Kregal Pathway to enjoy late summer or early fall! Jesse would have been so pleased!

A big thanks to Andy Rabb, City of Buffalo Deputy Commissioner Parks and Recreation, for spearheading this project!