I like a lot of things in Buffalo, the art gallery is one of them, but do enough people go there YEAR AROUND to justify a hotel? Do enough peole stay at Buffalo State College YEAR AROUND to justify a hotel? The festivals on Elmwood are a good example, when they are going on. They are not a year around event. I like the art gallery, however; If I am a tourist, I don't think that Buffalo is on the top of my list to visit. No offense, but we have to look at it realistically. A hotel, a 72 room hotel, with 55 parking spaces 2 over priced shops and a resturaunt is not an attraction. And the Falls...well are they in Buffalo???
Last I checked there were not enough "conventions" or "seminars" in Buffalo YEAR AROUND to support even the hotels down town. In fact the ONLY time any of the hotels down town are full is during an event. Otherwise they are 60% full on average.
So we destroy viable businesses, that the COMMUNITY uses, to put up something we will never use. What's the sense in that?
This is a COMMUNITY issue. A NIEGHBORHOOD issue. Not a city issue or a tourism issue. If it was the hotel would be somewhere else and much much bigger. If you live in Amherst or Cheektowaga or Williamsviille or anywhere other than Buffalo or the surrounding NEIGHBORHOOD, and you want this hotel, then build it in your own damn city. Personally if you are that concerned about your family and friends then you would want it closer. So stop telling ME whats good for MY/OUR neighboorhood. You move here, and you use the shops and then you can tell me what is good for MY/OUR nieghborhood.
Also last time I checked everyone who lives in the IMMDEIATE area of this hotel is AGAINST it.
I remember a quote by Sam Savarino on the first and so far only community meeting on the hotel, and which I have on tape, saying:
"Some people have gotten emotional about this project. And I want to let the community know that we will listen to what you have to say. We're not forcing this down anybody's throat. If this is not something this community wants, we do not want to have it here."
The COMMUNITY does not want it. Knock on the doors all around Elmwood, Granger, Penhurst, Claremont, Ashland, you will see...they don't want it, and neither do I.
I live on claremont. I do not oppose a facelift to that corner.
> no one in buffalo will use
Which, frankly is a good thing. Outside dollars coming in is much better than inside dollars getting shuffled around.
> destroy the urban setting of elmwood
By replacing set-back converted houses with an urban, curbside, multi-use structure common in most large cities.
> While we are at it lets tear down the whole block.
While we are at it let's work on making our appeals to ridicule :::link::: a bit more subtle, shall we?
> Otherwise they are 60% full on average.
A baseline of 60% capacity is phenomenal. This means that even when you don't think anything is happening in the city at all, almost two out of every three Buffalo hotel rooms are occupied.
> Not a city issue or a tourism issue.
Arguing that putting a hotel in the city is neither a city issue nor a tourism issue is kind of ridiculous, wouldn't you say? Especially when you're arguing that there isn't enough tourism in the city to sustain it.
> build it in your own damn city
I am a Kenmore resident, true dat. I think you could put the exact same building on Kenmore's Delaware strip and it would be no less successful than if it were on Elmwood. I think it would be excellent to have that building in my neighborhood. But I would rather see it in the city rather than outside it. Why? Because Buffalo is far more important than Kenmore will ever be, and Buffalo could use the help. Perhaps the reason the suburbs are doing just fine even while the city crumbles is that there's so much less nimbyism :::link::: here.
- Z