The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System

[@jimsheibley4125]

I am thankful for the wisdom of creating the Conservancy to preserve this design and legacy.

[@artshake9524]

Agreed, I have great admiration for those with the foresight to invest in the future of Buffalo. A society grows great when 'citizens with vision' plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit

[@Ascertivon]

Quality video on some quality landmarks. Excellent content.

[@craignunnallypurcell]

Olmsted’s work has stood the test of time.

[@ezafcrash3986]

I had no idea that my city was regarded so highly. I am a student at University of Toronto going into urban planning, and a large part of that reason is to try and help Buffalo. When I think of my hometown, I think of the bone-headedness that went into its design in the 50s and 60s. Despite the fact I live in an area of the suburbs that wasn’t even conceived when olmstead drew up his designs, I am only a short distance from his park system. It’s really sad to hear that the east side once had a great parkway, matching like the one on the west side. It’s so frustrating to hear not only that it was destroyed, but that it ended up cutting off the east side in an act of systematic racism. For those who don’t know, the new Humboldt parkway is LITERALLY cut into the ground in a massive trench. It has very few bridges and it isolated majority black neighborhoods. In the time since, the East Side became the most unstable part of the city. Buffalo needs to become a leader again in development city-wide, as well as equity and fairness for the east side especially. It all starts with the planting of trees, access to green space, and good ways to access these amenities. Here’s to hoping they rebuild Humboldt parkway and make this city into the place Buffalonians deserve. Go Bills!!

[@robertewalt7789]

@@elwoodstanislav9068 Buffalo can really use your help, along with Niagara Falls, NY.

[@sweens1138]

check out the eastside parkways coalition. They are actively trying to restore Humboldt parkway as close as possible to Olmsted's design.

[@debean5670]

My grandfather was born on Sidney St., off of Fillmore Ave., near E. Ferry, in 1910. He used to speak fondly of Humboldt Parkway and its beautiful trees. As a boy, it was his job to carry a ladder up and down the parkway and climb the old gas street lamps to put them out, before school (by the mid-late 1920s, there were still approximately 10,000 working gas street lamps in the city of Buffalo). He was devastated when they blasted the canyon through that neighborhood to put in the expressway.

[@craigellsworth3952]

@debean5670 My GGGG Grandfather was on the other side of the border. In exchange for his service he was given 200 acres of land at the brink of the Canadian falls. It extended from the waterfall to what is now Lundy's Lane. His first name was Francis.

[@RobertaFierro-mc1ub]

All his memories were rooted there.

[@racker9999]

Thank you for this splendid presentation which hopefully will inspire a renaissance in the Olmsted/Vaux model of humanistic thought and action.

[@HansBjorgman]

5:30 That tree to the left is like a bunch of trees formed together.

[@releventhurt]

Its possibly regrowth of the original single trunk that they didnt thin out

[@bobweber4140]

Thankyou lived in buffalo my whole life very in formative

[@kenhunt5153]

A National treasure.

[@andrewbnash]

Let's bring back some of the progressive thinking that inspired the parks and parkways illustrated in this film. Let's tear down the expressways built through Buffalo's parks and build a sustainable transport system linked to community based economic development. That's the future, Buffalo could lead the way.

[@seanjankowski9016]

Andrew Nash I agree. It is also funny, that expressway. I saw another documentary with the politicians in Buffalo that decided that expressway would be a good idea -- they all regret it now and agree it is having a negative effect.

[@taylorgall9516]

Buffalo needs to revive its industry along the water, that's the only thing that will carry the city into the future. Cheers, from across the river

[@anthonysiracuse]

@@taylorgall9516 you couldnt be more wrong my friend

[@anthonysiracuse]

7 years later and look how close we are now!!!!! And now Kathy Hochul is Governess and its looking more and more plausible!!!

[@craigellsworth3952]

@anthonysiracuse The thought that you'd believe your state tax dollars would come back to Buffalo is fiction.

[@joymcguire]

thanks! It's still beautiful!

[@hermanmarie333]

Excellent Documentary.

[@Boots27J]

Cazanovia Park in South Buffalo is beautiful. The surrounding neighborhoods were a great place to grow up. Getting more and more trashed now.

[@joeconrad9147]

Sure would love to see some photos of these magnificent buildings under construction

[@caiomonteiro4995]

thanks for the subtitle. I can't understand everything when it has only voices. :)

[@r.peterreinhardt1091]

Replant the city with tree types that will grow tall like the old Elms. There are Elm trees highly resistive to the Dutch elm disease, among other species. Tall trees, cool the city in the summertime. Neighborhood kids used to love to play in the streets when I was a kid back in the 50s.

[@MercuryCold]

Like elm Street and Delaware park

[@armusc757]

Great documentary, however the city of Buffalo resides in WESTERN NY, not "upstate".

[@stella-gx8ne]

it’s WESTERN NY😡

[@Mike-pb4cd]

Buffalo native, but I live in NYC now and I always correct them when someone says "oh you're from upstate" lol.

[@MatthewOnAFireMissionFromGod]

According to Long Islanders and NYC anything north of Westchester is "Upstate" New York

[@MercuryCold]

Everything North of Westchester is upstate NY including Western NY.

[@Mike-pb4cd]

@@MercuryCold That's like saying everything above the south pole is the north pole.

[@sherylchapman4168]

Niagara is still the same way. Cheap, shoddy and circus like. Even JohnMuir hated it. The city of Buffalo turned the Humboldt Parkway into the 33 fwy. Why do people take beautiful things and turn them into crap??

[@CD-ev2vy]

I grew up on Humboldt pkwy near Kensington ave ìn the 60's. This is a nice historical presentation

[@MercuryCold]

When I was a kid they would read the Niagara falls police blotter on the morning radio show..... hilarious like a northern version of Florida.

[@ryanmonahan1336]

Same person that did central park NYC also did , Duke's Estate,, Hillsborough NJ

[@JC-nl3nh]

did not know that, but can totally see it now that you mention it

[@RrawzZ]

And what about McKinley Pkwy. & South Park? There is no mention of them..

[@adrastos9464]

People in the 50’s and 60’s left the cities for suburbs. Then tore down what was left of cities to build interstates and parking lots. What did they think was gonna happen?

[@ISeeItThisWay]

There's more than Niagara Falls! Another Buffalo s story is the projection that it may be a popular destination for climate refugees relocating from our increasingly heated South!

[@philup6274]

No1 from the south moved up there.

[@sierrachoco5271]

@@philup6274 I think what John Bos is referring to is that many areas are now suffering from lack of fresh water (especially the SW). I saw on PBS people are re-thinking where they live and looking to areas where there is an abundance of water - the Buffalo- Niagara area was one of the places!

[@philup6274]

@@sierrachoco5271 stop watching PBS. It's brainwashed you ....

[@sierrachoco5271]

@@philup6274 versus what? Fox that brainwashed you!

[@philup6274]

@@sierrachoco5271 I don't watch what you consider TV.

[@michaelsnodgrass1808]

And then…..the first lake effect snow storm hit!

[@BillyPLilly]

The area is very confusing to look at on a map until one turns the map so West is up...

[@krakhedd]

3:15 Buffalo is in Western New York; there is nothing "upstate" about us, except to snobby elitist denizens of NYC who waive their hands at anything outside of NYC and Long Island as "upstate". Kind of a rookie mistake and quite the insult.

[@Emancipatriot]

The term upstate literally refers to everything not on the island

[@JC-nl3nh]

the removal of the erie canal was a devastation for so much of the USA, it should have been preserved.

[@depsny]

What are you talking about? It's still used today.

[@bigben3648]

It most certainly was/is preserved. Certain parts like the Black River Canal (out of Rome NY) were removed but the main corridors is still used by thousands of people a year. There is now a bike trail along side most of it was well.

[@robertewalt7789]

I saw a KZbin series a few years ago about a couple who brought a boat from Lake Superior, through Lake Erie, through the Erie Canal, to the Hudson River.

[@depsny]

@robertewalt7789 they would have gone by my house in Brockport.

[@TaylorMcChaney]

Restore Humboldt Parkway

[@smilergrogan1725]

The male narrator sounds like the guy who narrates "The Food That Built America".

[@hisnamewasSam]

I’m pretty sure I hear Campbell Scott’s voice in their as well.

[@mrs.g.9816]

I went to Buffalo State College back in the 1980's. I sure hated what my parents' generation did - destroying a lot of Olmstead's beautiful work with the Scajaquada Expressway and other highways built for the car culture. I'm glad people have been working to preserve the remnants. But I did love being a young person in Buffalo. It was a more livable, friendlier city than NYC. I don't know how Buffalo is now, though.

[@jamescombs2118]

Unfortunately the city planning has not stood the test of time. Seems to be one of the more dysfunctional city layouts in the country.

[@alphonsobutlakiv789]

They compare a parkway to Paris, but no, they are an invers, Paris put monuments at the ends of theres, but he puts the the center without a street and at the intersection, nothing much to see

[@ecamp6360]

Yeah, but they only did planning in Summer.

[@stella-gx8ne]

When they put the expy through the park they destroyed that area.

[@cracploufglou]

When all quality spaces are replaced with car's infrastructures, "It was called progress", well I guess they could have said - It was liberalism beginning-

[@DavidJGillCA]

What do you know, a simplistic willful misunderstanding of the use of words is a fun way for knot-head Republicans to peddle their bullshit.

[@grandillusion4258]

WHAT ?!?! Somebody actually designed this dump? Perhaps back in the day it was fairly ok but, damn !! Its time to move ahead and to stop dwelling in the past. Buffalo is like that balding, 260 pound, bearded, pot bellied father that keeps recalling and attempting to relive his high school glory days. The old guard just can't come to grips with practicality over nostalgia. The city is completely infested with 75-150 year old eyesores, including a great deal of their schools, the skyway and thruway that never should have been built in the first place, the garbage pile of rusted, rotted grain elevators and other relics that are of no earthly good to any Buffalonian. The downtown area is completely unusable except for legal and government business. Other than the Bisons, Bandits and Sabers there's absolutely no reason, whatsoever, for anyone outside of the Buffalo city limits to even consider a trip to the city. There's nothing there !! ok, big deal... a run down zoo and an art museum..... and that's about it. Buffalo seems to think that "festivals", bars, restaurants and "culture" are some kind of unique quality when in fact its just a big cafeteria to the people that already live there and are so damned bored that even a two bit restaurant is better than spending one more god damned miserable minute at home staring at the brick wall next door. If not for the local college kids, Buffalo would be a ghost town because people just don't have that kind of disposable income, so they pretty much rely on the influx of college student with Daddy Dollars to keep the bars and clubs open. Most of the infrastructure is just basic and the population is just stagnant, in day to day, somebody please get me the hell out of here, survival mode.

[@ieie12_4]

Now that I think about it, I will let this slide

[@atrank]

Too bad it’s now crippled by decades of decline, high “administration costs”, big government, corruption, poor business environment (New York State), taxes…. The people are great, but in the modern day, are moving out of New York faster than any other state losing population.

[@SteveJC]

We left. Never looked back. I'll save about 250k in taxes by not giving it to Hochel or whoever the Democrats select.

[@winterwatson6437]

@SteveJC poor little guy! won’t anyone look out for the 1% 😢

[@belindafalgout1675]

🤣🤣🤣🤣 #tartarianempire #buildings #worldwide #timereset #mudflood #orphantrains #fakery #frequency

[@ipomoeaalba936]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Nope.

[@jay-quinthunder7967]

And the sad thing is if I can go back in time to1876, And look at these Parks in their original state I couldn't go probably to certain areas, and or I would be harassed or even hurt or killed! Because I'm African-American sad good old America!

[@sierrachoco5271]

Hello Jay Quinn - I know you would be welcome in North Buffalo. We have a great diversity of ethnicity and nationalities here. Everyone is respectful of one another and there are very few problems here. So come on over and live with us - I know for a fact you would be welcome! Best wishes!

[@ireekofbeans9397]

sussy amogus :( susussssss susssss

[@russell2910]

Fun fact, thousands of people disappear in buffalo's parks every single day

[@zekzo]

there arent thousands in a park in a single day 💀💀

[@russell2910]

@@zekzo I know. They all disappear 🫥

[@stella-gx8ne]

I’m sorry but “whaaaaaat.”

[@jamesjoslin7586]

Huh ?

[@johnnicholas1488]

No place to park Now a dump. Few Hills Weather chills Go Bills.

[@MR-tu9dj]

Might of been planned well but it’s a dump of a city today.

[@albieh2563]

Buffalo is not a "dump of a city".

[@SteveJC]

Thank a Democrat.

[@josephpullen1153]

Too bad they messed it up with expressways

[@povertyspec9651]

That you probably use all the time.