I think drum118's excellent pictures should be a reminder to us not to take pictures of other cities seriously when making some kind of comparative argument with respect to Toronto. The area looks kind of good but it is an utter failure on the ground.
I visited Buffalo on tourist grounds (well actually to help someone out with an immigration issue + tourist grounds) in the summer. There was literally no one using the transit mall and no one on that transit mall street. Talking about detailed aspects of transit planning in the context of Buffalo's downtown core is like trying to hammer in a nail with a rubber chicken. If I owned property there I would kill for there to be a traffic jam. Buffalo would be so lucky as to have a traffic jam. If someone could generate a traffic jam in downtown Buffalo and would ask as compensation for the total utter removal of all transit connections as mayor I would do it in a heartbeat! First generate the traffic jam then worry about transit.
If one look at what the transit mall was like before the LRT was built as well what the LRT in mix traffic was like before the full conversion to what there now, that area was dieing no matter what was going on.
I don't have a link to the EA study, but the last thing I read on it a few years ago stated that the LRT did not caused the problem in the the mall area, but the lost of industries and employment did.
I don't know what the area looked like before the LRT was built, but remember part of the mall being haft traffic in one area and transit only in another. We did some shopping in the mall area, but mostly to other areas that don't exist today.
I have done a fair bit of rail fanning around Buffalo the last 20 years and have seen that disappear also, with sections of housing now vacate land. If one drives around the downtown within in a 2 mile radius, you will find all kinds of vacant land and empty business.
You need industries investing in new plants and building to get people back to work as well attract new residents so housing can be built within the downtown area. Buffalo like most US cities, lost residents to the suburbs along with various business as the cars took over the streets.
If one takes the time to walk this transit mall as well other cities downtown and look at what there, you will understand why they have fail or are in rough shape. I have photos of that mall area taken only 3 years ago at noon on a weekday and it was empty to the point a bowling ball would not hit anyone once you throw it.
Just walk along Queen, King, Dundas and you will see some of those issues there also.
It been over 10 years since I was last in Cleveland and have no idea what it looks like today, but not nice the last time I was there.
Was in Detroit a few years ago and it was a bomb out downtown from the days I worked there and visit. The office building I work in is a vacant piece of land, considering it was 20 storey in the first place.
The question people should be asking "who does the city belong too, the car or people", as both cannot exist on equal plains??
As for taking photos elsewhere and compare them to Toronto, you will be amassed how Toronto does not stack up in various areas to those other places.
