The Editorial Board: Beyond the flowers

Buffalo News

The Editorial Board

As thousands of visitors tour West Side and Parkside gardens on the last day of Garden Walk Buffalo, all the oohing and aahing over artfully designed landscapes and perfect blooms could obscure the reasons this nationally known event was started in the first place.

When it was founded in 1995, Garden Walk was not really about plants or landscaping. It was about dispelling stereotypes. As with many cities over the decades, Buffalo has sprawled outward, with former rural enclaves developing into the inner and outer rings of suburbia. Back then, many who remained in Buffalo’s urban center felt it was being left behind. It seemed like suburbanites only came into the city once in a while, to see a traveling Broadway show or a hockey game. At least that’s how the founders of Garden Walk – Marvin Lunenfeld and Gail McCarthy – felt. The couple, who lived on Norwood Avenue at West Utica, decided it was time to highlight the beauties of city living, particularly for those who dismissed Buffalo’s urban core as run-down and crime-ridden.

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