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A Simple Plan

I agree that the old bicycles of the former Burgwardt Bicycle Museum should be brought downtown and to the waterfront. Why not have them in the Pierce-Arrow/ Buffalo Museum of Transportation? (Failing that, the Maritime Museum on the lakefront.) The BMT should also display the facts that the windshield wiper was invented in Buffalo, the automobile itself and several auto parts were invented in Rochester and the traffic signal was invented in Syracuse.

Also, the “Fandemoneum” museum of Buffalo’s sports history is looking to be a restaurant/museum in the former Donovan Building. This would be great, plus, the former artifacts of U.S. sports history that were in the short-lived Sports Museum of America, most of which are in a storage locker in New Jersey should go there, plus things from Canada’s sports history, and this could be “Fandemoneum- Sports Museum of North America,” while the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame of the Women’s Sports Foundation that was in SMoA should go to Rochester. Moreover, the Sabres’ plan for the Webster Block across the street would fit well with this.

Also, the City of Buffalo and Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation takeover of waterfront development where the Buffalo River and Union Ship Canal meet Lake Erie, should happen, much as the City of Syracuse has taken over their waterfront development from the New York State Canal Corporation where Onondaga Creek meets Onondaga Lake and Rochester is trying to develop their waterfront where the Genesee River meets Lake Ontario. All should happen with the help of Empire State Development and each city’s respective state regional economic development council.

The NFTA, should, however, keep their former ferry terminals and have one for a new ferry crossing to Canada to replace the former Canadiana. The other should be used for the Buffalo Fire Museum to connect with the Edmund Cotter fire boat. Meanwhile, the waterfronts of Rochester, Syracuse, Youngstown, and Oswego could also be candidates for a fish and wildlife museum for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Administration, Region 5, since this was rejected by Buffalo. Also, all of those waterfonts, except Syracuse, should also have ferries crisscrossing Lake Ontario to different Canadian ports and Youngstown should also have a ferry across the Niagara River to Niagara-on-the-Lake.

- Kevin Yost, Henrietta



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