I drove downtown last Friday night and the most wonderful thing happened. It took me 20 minutes to find a parking spot.

The streets were alive! Couples were strolling from one brighly lit venue to the next. Gaggles of girls in short skirts and high heels were bobbing and laughing along the broad, nearly snow-free Main Street sidewalks under fairy lights lacing the bare branches overhead. The line to enter Shea's wound down nearly to Chippewa, And every single parking spot - even all of the new ones on the 500 and 600 blocks of Main Street - was taken. 

This is what downtown should look like on a Friday night, thronged with theater-goers and diners and shoppers and tourists. It was magnificent, a far cry from the deserted cityscape of just a few short years ago when there were just a handful of restaurants, two galleries, and far too many bars on Chippewa. Main Street looked like what Mark Goldman must have envisioned when he opened Bacchus in the Calumet building all those years ago, in the heart of what was then both the Theatre District and a rundown Red Light district. And this is mid-January, albeit during a very mild winter.

I love to walk and I hate to pay to park. I could have parked in the $3 lot on Washington and Chippewa, but I ended up scoring a spot just south of the Western New York Book Arts Center, less than two blocks from my destination - the new Main Street Gallery at 515 Main. The Grand Opening of the Gallery featured an exhibit called Resurgence: Growth of a City and a People. Who could resist? The place was packed. I am not an art connoisseur, so I will refrain from reviewing the quality of the exhibit. I will, however, give the event itself two thumbs up.

In addition to the excellent fare and the fine Chateau Buffalo ciders, beyond the delightful jazz downstairs and the various vendors selling everything from earrings to peanut butter cookies upstairs, were the people. In Buffalo, it's always all about the people, isn't it? But this event epitomized the unconsciously diverse, color blind community that Buffalo must become. Millennials rubbed elbows with baby-boomers. I found myself conversing in Spanish nearly as much as in English. Black, white, asian, hispanic, gay, straight, female, male - all came together seamlessly in this versatile space designed as an arts incubator by Erica Eichelkraut Zilbauer back before the 500 Block became cool and she became a mom.

Furnishings, the new upscale home furnings and gift shop at 500 Main in the former home of Berger's, was a bright beacon across Main Street. Lured by the lights and the crowds, I started walking toward the waterfront. Just four blocks later I found myself rinkside at Canalside. Ice bikes scooted past skaters, people posed with Shark Girl, hot chocolates and hot toddies took the edge off the chill on a clear, cool evening with a brilliant full moon suspended low in the eastern sky. All the way down to the river I walked, drawn past the HarborCenter shops, under the gaze of the Silent Poets, to the water's edge. I was not alone. There must have been more than 100 people perambulating the Boardwalk last Friday evening. In mid-January. In Buffalo.

I hopped on the train and headed back uptown to my car.

Are you ready to check out the Downtown scene? You're in luck. There are not one but three openings at CEPA Gallery in the Market Arcade this Friday (January 29, 7:00-10:00pm) Totems for a Flattened Now by Nando Alvarez opens in the CEPA 1st Floor Flux Gallery, Resemblance and Representation by Frank O'Connor opens in the 2nd Floor Passageway Gallery, and the CEPA Member's Exhibition opens in the Basement Level Underground Gallery. Right down the street at the Western New York Book Arts Center (where I found that great parking spot), The Log Lines by Jill Kambs and Timothy Frerichs Opening Reception is from 6:00-9:00pm.

There's tons more to do in Downtown, but CEPA Gallery is a great place to start! Just wait until Expo opens in the Market Arcade in just a few weeks (pssst - soft opening is February 1). In the meantime, consider Seabar just one block over on Ellicott for a truly fine dining experience.

We don't need more parking in Downtown Buffalo. We need more people, more cars, more trains, more art, more openings, more restaurants, more shops, more, more, more. And if that means we need to walk a bit farther or use that handy, dandy FREE train that runs up and down Main, so be it.

You can't have it both ways, folks. You can't complain about Buffalo being a dying dump and yet whine when free parking is scarce because the Queen City is becoming a burgeoning metropolis. With new life comes some growing pains. But these are good problems to have as Downtown comes alive again.