Take a look at Pittsburgh for some inspiration. Much like Buffalo, Pittsburgh is a city that has seen better times. However, unlike Buffalo, Pittsburgh has rejuvenated its waterfront and created several active community areas to attract its residents and tourists. Buffalo is not ever going to be a Los Angeles or an Orlando, but that’s the reason so many people love it here. We need to build on what we have to work with and with a recognition that Buffalo is a northeastern city that is heavily climate controlled.

- Melissa Morton

Leave it as a nature preserve. Push to invigorate Niagara Street water views w/infrastrucure already in place.

- Craig Labadie

Erect a placard that reads “Coming Soon: Museum of Previous Waterfront Plans.”

- Anonymous

At the very least the Outer Harbor should become the location of the new Bills Stadium. There are better spots to build one downtown but having it in the Outer Harbor would be better than nothing. I do like the concert venue use and perhaps it could become a sight for a large multi-day music festival. That would be a blast. Part of it could be turned into a park as well.

- Robert Townsley

I think we should make a dock side shopping area, a place where you have a long dock out on Lake Erie and then shops and bars on land.

- Andrew Seltz

Get ahead of the curve, before everyone else does. Build a 20,000 seat soccer stadium that can double as a home for UB football as well. Take the summer concerts that are spread out to the suburbs and get them downtown. Create the infrastructure to allow a lot of people to get there regularly for events.

- Eric Schmitz

If I could do anything with the Buffalo Outer Harbor, I would develop the area following these development principles:

Maximize continuous public access to the water’s edge.

Create public spaces that are of high quality, rich in amenities and flexible in their use. Resturants, shopping choices, public comfort areas.

Preserve and interpret historical uses, activities and forms of the waterfront, and conserve lands with marine industrial use potential by increasing lake traffic to the area by providing a substantial and secure dock area.

Provide active and dynamic year-round destinations; such as a beautiful aquarium, specialty shops covering various interests, movie theater, and multi-interest entertainment complexes.

Exemplify architectural quality, have animated streetscapes, and respect and support activity at the water’s edge.

Ensuring high quality designs and maintenance of public spaces, including public marine recreational facilities.

Where economically and environmentally sustainable, provide alert 24x7 security services.

Encourage family participation events and entertainment.

Learn from other development success stories such as: http://www.pps.org/reference/turnwaterfrontaround

- Deborah Loke

Go to Chicago’s Navy Pier…Take notes.

- ­Patrick Ellement

Honestly, I would keep having shows at the Outer Harbor. Edgefest last year was one of the best concerts I’ve been to in a while. However, I would like to be able to showcase local bands there as well. Keeping the music scene alive here in Buffalo is a struggle and as a scene, we are doing as much as we can to keep out passion.

- Felicia Hunt

It needs something that can be available all year. Whether it be outdoor skating in the Winter and sailboat rentals in the Summer. It also needs a mixture of public and private businesses. So restaurants that cater to the sailing crowd or host skating parties would be a good idea. Milwaukee is a great example of taking unused space on the water and trasnforming it into a “neighborhood”.

The worst thing to do is build a stadium that’s empty 44+ weeks of the year and blocks the natural beauty of the lake.

- Kevin Smith

I would make it a gladiator arena.

- Michael Moretti

I would put a outdoor concert venue…forget about Dairen Lake. That place is wack, old, and in the middle of nowhere. It has plenty of parking, it has a great view, and can be by the train station.

- Christopher Tringali

Expand bike trail along lake to Tifft, make a beach with local shop and bars.

- Elizabeth Widzinski

Leave it just the way it is!

- Thomas Carrow

ANYTHING at this point. We are our own worst enemy whether it be costs imposed, opposition to just about anything, and still it sits empty year after year.

500 words doesn’t cut it, but I would suggest our “leaders” go to Chicago or Erie, PA and see what can be done just by being near water.

Quit talking and do something.

- L.w. Perry

I’d recreate St. Andrew’s Old Course for golfers, along with a state of the art Convention Center and Hotel. The golf course would have similar conditions to Scotland and create and great feel for it. It would be a cheaper destination for people to play a course like this. I see what golfers do for experiences like this and think it would be wildly sucessful. The ability to tie it into a convention center would be ideal.

- Josh Edholm

If I could do anything with Buffalo’s Outer Harbor, I’d make sure that the wildlife refuge at Times Beach would be preserved and remain a wild space. I would designate a spot for public art and for local arts organizations to offer waterfront programming. Community gardens would be great, and if the soil is not clean, we could build greenhouses with materials from demolished buildings. A beach with clean water and real sand (with public transportation to all sides of the city) is essential. A restaurant with local produce would be the perfect addition.

- Catherine Willett

Build a small amusement park a la Coney Island. One that doesn’t charge $45 bucks!

- Kelly Kroese

Dear Outer Habor, so sad to see you overlooked and underdeveloped. How so many people can see your potential but come so close and walk away. I have no money for you, nor grand plans to entice out-of-towners to swarm your parking lots. What I would do if I could is make you as family-friendly by day and hot-n-happening by night. I wish you luck Outer Harbor, I will watch and wait, hope and dream someone comes along and plucks you up!

My best regards,

- Leslie Staffone

Turn it into an all year access park for everybody. No big towers for well to do folks to block views. Design it for indoor as well as outdoor activites. Tailor activites to the season. Our friends to the north did a great job with their harbor. Let’s get somebody down from Toronto to talk about options and how to design them!

- Ziggy Zigmund

I would turn the Outer Harbor into a small amusement park with a handful of world class rides, bike paths and walking paths, a ranghe of restaurants, and two stages--one indoor and one outdoor. The outdoor stage would offer area theaters a chance to rotate plays into the space. The indoor stage would continue the rotation in fall and spring, with January and February dark.

- Gary Earl Ross

With Buffalo’s (and the larger metropolitan area’s) declining population, we do not need to be creating new neighborhoods or business parks. This would simply be another form of urban sprawl. If the Outer Harbor no longer has any use as an industrial area, then I think it would be best to let it return to nature (with some assistance from us to speed the process along by planting trees, etc.) and be used as a large recreational area, with trails for hiking, mountain biking, nature preserve areas, access to the water for boating and other aquatic recreations. Having such close access to a wild recreational area would be a terrific selling point for Buffalo, as it is in places like Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

- Jesse Smith

CLEAN UP THE LAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It doesn’t matter what we do, or what businesses come in-if everything is polluted and dying, nobody will want to be there.

- Nicole Abramo

Move the zoo to the outer harbor area. Give these poor animals some room and new habitats.

- Star Kubiak

I would set up a NYS Parks style campground with limited facilities like bathrooms and shower and simple sites with picnic tables and fire pits. I would combine that with developing actual forests and meadows out there.

I think the Outer Harbor is pretty nice the way it is other than the issue of access. I am not excited to see a bunch of shopping, housing, and parking out there. Whatever we build will compete with what we have, and we do not have anywhere to camp within the City.

- Mike Raleigh

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