Cities: May 2022 Archives

The Magic of Legacy Shops Comes Back to Life in Buffalo

Buffalo's new zoning code allows for long-abandoned neighborhood retail -- corner stores, bars, and other commercial buildings -- to be reopened as commercial, with reduced regulatory hurdles and no minimum parking requirement. Bernice Radle provides several examples with photos -- a couple of coffee houses and a bar that honors the history of local labor unions. There aren't nearly as many such spaces in Tulsa -- urban renewal took out most of them -- but they exist and could be neighborhood gathering spots once more.