Selling Our Streets: No Cheer for Cheerios
3 Comments Published by fixBuffalo on 4/03/2012 at 3:28 PM.
General Mills, the global food giant and maker of Cheerios, has filed an application with the City of Buffalo to buy the dead end portion of Michigan Avenue between Ganson Street and the Ship Canal. This map, part of that application shows what one of world's largest food companies wants. Here's the street shot showing the portion of Michigan Avenue General Mills wants to buy.
The sale of this City street should not go forward. In every neighborhood City residents are fully engaged in reversing 50 years of bad urban planning. Waterfront access is part of citizen engagement in the process of reclaiming the City from past planning abuses. As seen in the last photo this portion of Michigan Avenue once connected Kelly Island to Fuhrmann Boulevard. The City removed the South Michigan Street Bridge in 1964.
Site of the former South Michigan Street Bridge
The application that General Mills submitted is before the City Planning Board and is on the agenda for their April 10th meeting. This part of Michigan Avenue at Ganson Street is in South District. Currently South District is without representation on the City Council as former Council Member Micky Kerns has moved on to the New York State Assembly. Please voice your concern and help stop this application from moving forward. Connect with Council President Richard Fontana and Mayor Byron Brown today. This application must be rejected.
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I agree with you. City streets should not be for sale.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention David!
Without this section of Michigan Ave there would be no chance of ever seeing the reconstruction of the South Michigan Ave Bridge, which could provide the most cost effective, quickest build, city connector to the Outer Harbor. Historically Michigan Ave was the downtown link to the Outer Harbor and the street infrastructure is still in place but now is threatened. I wish General Mills and the City of Buffalo recognize the great potential and restore South Michigan Ave Bridge benefiting both private and public interests. The other proposed new bridge locations just do not make sense economically or logistically!
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David W. DeBoy, Architect
Architecture-Environmental Design-Planning
a member firm of the Buffalo Design Collaborative
What an impressive post. It is worth reading and discovering. Good job and keep posting.
Charles A