Cracks on the sidewalks, potholes in the street. Bums and unfinished construction as far as the eye can see.

Am I quoting Doctor Seuss’s saddest nursery rhyme ever?

No, I’m talking about downtown Buffalo — a place that was said to be booming for businesses and an altogether hot spot in the city 20 or so years ago.

Having grown up in the city, it honestly hurts to go to an area that’s supposed to be the most bustling part of the city only to find street vendors selling junk, an Army recruitment office and a Tim Horton’s. There’s also a Subway next to some extremely drab office buildings and down the block is Central Library — the only real reason to go downtown, in my humble opinion.

The whole setup is depressing.

That’s not to say that progress isn’t being made. The Lafayette Hotel recently finished a $35 million rehabilitation and the waterfront sees improvements every year. According to the Buffalo Urban Development Corporation, “downtown has received $1 billion in public and private investment. This compliments the $100 million dollars in streetscape and infrastructure projects.”

What I’d like people to understand is that the situation is much more noticeable to those who live downtown and see the area every day. While it’s nice to read about renovation projects in the news, the process of rejuvenating the city is a slow one. Change may be happening, but to those who live here it can’t happen fast enough.

I want downtown Buffalo to be like it used to be, when everything was lit up and people seemed happy to be there. For now, it seems as though we’re stuck with the shell of that.

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