City Hall is taking another look at the future of the concrete medians on Main Street in North Buffalo. Removing the barriers, however, would be a costly effort.
A large crowd gathered at the Gloria Parks Community Center Wednesday night for a meeting called by the two Councilmembers with parts of Main in the area, Rasheed Wyatt and Joel Feroleto. They are reacting to years of complaints about the medians, the ill-looking vegetation and the continual damage caused by auto collisions. There are very mixed feelings about the future of the medians
"It sort of gives you the sense of being on a divided highway so there isn't that sense of you're on a local, walkable street," Darren Cotton told the meeting.
"It feels like you're on a highway when there is a median and I would also argue that with $1.4 million invested in Rails to Trails, this is really an opportunity for us to completely reconfigure Main Street."
City workers have had a hard time keeping up with the necessary repairs so volunteers have chipped in to help.
"A couple of the medians have been hit repeatedly," one of the volunteers, Patty Ralabate, told the gathering.
"In one summer, the one at Humboldt in front of Sisters Hospital was hit 13 times in one season, in one spring to fall season."
Public Works Commissioner Steven Stepniak says there's an estimate of $1 million to remove the concrete flower boxes. But, after listening to public comment, he and City Engineer Mike Finn will go back at take a look at why they were started 15 years ago and what they appear to be doing to traffic safety for cars, bikers and pedestrians.
