Don’t blame the East Side for Broadway Market woes

When presented with the unique and the authentic, the residents of Western New York have repeatedly demonstrated their support.

To completely blame the immediate Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood for the decline of the Broadway Market ignores the facts of the past few years.

Holiday crowds at the Broadway Market refute the own contention that no one will shop there. Give the public what they want and they will come.

Dyngus Day 2008 saw crowds estimated at 10,000 at the various area sites (St. Stanislaus, Adam Mickiewicz, Artie’s, Market Bar, 222 Gibson Street, Corpus Christi and the Central Terminal). All the venues mentioned are within blocks of the Broadway Market.

In addition, Hallwalls’ recent “Artists & Models” drew more then 2,400 for an event at the Central Terminal that ran from 9 p. m. to 2 a. m. The Variety Club’s Halloween Party for two years running has drawn even larger crowds.

Events over the past few years at the Central Terminal have drawn crowds of well over 50,000 with more then half of the events taking place after dark. I would argue that numbers like these should end once and for all the idea that “no one will come on the East Side.”

The blaming of the neighborhood for the market’s failures is a smoke screen for the current leadership’s lack of imagination and vision.

Russell E. Pawlak
Broadway Market board member and past president, Central Terminal

[link to original in Buffalo News]