The ongoing effort to reclaim the waterfront for something cool in Buffalo - rather than scrub brush and highways - continues to be hampared by sorry governance, according to Donn Esmonde's latest column in the Buffalo News. But Dr. John Braden is coming to town tomorrow. The University of Illinois scholar will announce the results of a two-year study on the economic benefit of cleaning up the Buffalo River. A similiar report conducted by Dr. Braden in Waukegan, IL found that restoring the degraded harbor there could lead to hundred of millions of dollars in gains for local property values.
"It is time we caught on to what every place from Chicago to Chattanooga knows," Donn Esmonde writes. "To develop a waterfront, you need roads, bridges and byways that lead to it. We have $30 million in our pocket for waterfront walkways, parks, roads and bridges. Build them, and people will come. Where people go, developers follow. That is when we get the marinas, office buildings and condos that inflate the city's wallet and turn a barren embarrassment into an asset."
