//nedward.org

Cen­tral Sta­tion, Buf­falo, NY, circa 1930.

Presley’s sister Kelly was in town this past week­end, and she left yes­ter­day on the Amtrak train from Back Bay Sta­tion, which got me think­ing about train sta­tions and trains in gen­eral. Every­one in these New Urban­ist books that I read can’t fathom how Amer­ica ended up wedded to the auto­mo­bile, while the Euro­peans remain con­tented with trains.

I think it’s a simple answer: after the war, we just could. It was the thing to do, and we had the resources. But, isn’t there some­thing won­der­ful about trains? And more impor­tantly, big city train sta­tions? Grand Cen­tral in Man­hat­tan is gor­geous. Mod­erin­ists moan on about how style should be down-​played because it is the taste of eco­nomic elites, but I don’t care if putting a build­ing like that up was a cap­i­tal­ist show of wealth and power — it had beauty, craft­man­ship and it was a place where people of all races and incomes passed through. They destroyed Penn Sta­tion in the six­ties to put up Madi­son Square Garden. big whoop. If any­thing, MSG is more capitalist-​minded than the build­ing it replaced.

So, it brings me around to Buf­falo and Kelly’s departure… Ear­lier in this cen­tury, Buf­falo actu­ally was in the top 5 for most rail­road track — Buf­falo had indus­try, and it was located on the impor­tant route between new york and chicago. The city built some beau­ti­ful train sta­tions (sub­se­quently demol­ished), who’s archi­tec­ture seems won­der­fully as grand as Grand Cen­tral itself. The last remain­ing sta­tion, Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal, still stands on the East Side, though it’s falling apart. I wish to God the city could find some new use for the facil­ity — prob­lem is, it is located in the most eco­nom­i­cally depressed area of the city.