Neighborhood advocates Marty Biniasz and Eddy Dobosiewicz have a letter in the Buffalo News today about the Market.
From the News…
What is needed is vision. The myopic view that the market exists solely to serve the residents of the neighborhood is shortsighted. When the market shifts its view to that of a regional attraction, the neighborhood will be serviced, only more so. We would not be the first. Markets are flourishing in Rochester, Detroit, Hamilton, Cincinnati, etc. Read a magazine or watch the Food Network and you will see people clamoring for locally produced or exotic food items. Go to Clinton-Bailey or any other farmers market. You’ll see bustling business.
They hit the proverbial nail on the head.
The Market is part of fabric of WNY…it already is a regional attraction during Easter. There is no other Broadway-Fillmore institution which attracts the volume of people the Market does on a consistent basis throughout the year.
Foodies in other cities would die to have such an institution in its midst.
More from their letter…
It’s the area we should look at, not just the market. Vision for market leadership is needed, but that vision needs to look beyond concrete walls and integrate the market with the entire historic neighborhood. This district has too long been forgotten.
For the Market to succeed, it can’t be an insular place…it needs to be part of the larger picture for the neighborhood and a vehicle to aid in its rebirth.
Read the full letter by clicking here…
Just heard that the market board voted itself out of bussiness
You did hear correctly…
Yes!! The area HAS been neglected. Who has been in charge of this area for the past few years? Who are the politicians who govern this area? Where have they been?
The Market can once again be a bustling place, but food alone won’t do it. We’ve got Wegmans and Tops for that and as we’ve heard before in these Market discussions, people aren’t going to leave their convenient suburban stores to come to the city to buy a head of lettuce. How about a museum inside the Market? One organization I saw at the Polish Festival at Town Park this summer is planning a museum about the East Side/churches/schools, wouldn’t the Market be a great place for it? A community center, a nicer food court, a “mini mall” in the heart of the city.
The suburbanites who moved from this area at the first sign of “ethnicity” moving into their neighborhood is to blame with this urban plight. The church that decided to close it’s beloved schools and move them to the suburbs, the landlords who don’t care who they rent to as long as the government gives them a check each month, these are the people to lay blame on. I feel like everyone is pointing fingers of blame at the people who manage the Market and the people who run businesses there, the neighbors, etc. That is not fair. There are still there, they didn’t abandon the city. Some of the people now in charge of finding the new vision for the market NEVER even lived in the city. They would NEVER buy a house in the city and would NEVER send their kids to city schools, yet they “know all about” a city shopping center? That’s like having Amherst residents vote on City of Buffalo issues. It doesn’t make any sense.