Thousands flocked to Buffalo's Broadway Market last week in the days leading up to Easter. For the rest of the year, however, large crowds are rare. The disparity has prompted Jim Fink of Business First to wonder, "Is the Broadway Market in 2016 viable?"
Fink offered his thoughts during his regular appearance on WBFO's Press Pass.
"The fate of the Broadway Market, what should happen there, has been debated for decades. Nobody wants to see it go away, but at the same time you have to wonder, has its time has come and gone?" Fink said.
"It really is an urban headache. You look at other cities with their markets, they're doing much better."
The Broadway Market is not the only headache for city officials. Another is finding a developer to take control of Buffalo's tallest building, One Seneca Tower.
"There are a lot of people who say they want to buy it," Fink said.
"The reality is, with all due respect to these people, they do not have the financial backing to do this."
Fink believes the building may be too large for modern-day Buffalo.
"Nobody wants to see the building mothballed. It's going to have to be a development partnership, a development collaboration between the the public and private sector."
Fink maintains that to make One Seneca Tower viable, "(public)subsidies and incentives will be part of the package."
In Niagara Falls, officials are trying to reverse course on some decisions made long ago
"The Robert Moses Parkway was an urban planning mistake that never should have happened," Fink said. He applauds plans to alter the Robert Moses Parkway "from a speedway to a more pedestrian and tourist-friendly parkway. It's going to be easier to walk to the river's edge, to the trails."
State officials recently allocated more funds to make the plan a reality.
"The (plan to modify) Robert Moses Parkway is to Niagara Falls what cars sharing Main Street is to Downtown Buffalo, it's correcting an urban planning mistake.
