By JAMES FINK
Business First

When Rep. Brian Higgins headed out of Shea's Performing Arts Center after a recent Neil Young concert, he looked north up Main Street and didn't see much happening.

That's when the South Buffalo Democrat started thinking.

"I kept coming back to the question of: Why aren't we doing anything more about bringing cars back to Main Street?" Higgins said.

He decided to provide his own answer.

Cars Sharing Main Street is an initiative that has been in the local pipeline since summer 2001, but it is bogged down in federal red tape. With strong support from influential groups and individuals such as Buffalo Place Inc. and Mayor Byron Brown, Higgins is putting pressure on federal officials to free up previously allocated funds that could bring two-way traffic back to the 700 block of Main Street, which runs from Goodell to Tupper streets.

"I think addressing the 700 block sends the right message," said Michael Schmand, Buffalo Place Inc. executive director. "It is a big step in the right direction."

Higgins is optimistic, saying he thinks work on the 700 block could begin this summer. The cost for that stretch is estimated at $1.5 million. The city has already secured $14 million to address the auto-traffic initiative. A portion of that came from a $6 million federal allocation made two years ago.

Higgins is pushing for all the necessary design work on the block to be completed within six months. That could clear the way for construction to begin this summer and be completed by 2009.

Those developments would be a critical step toward breaking the logjam that exists for Cars Sharing Main Street, Higgins said.

Current proposals have vehicles, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority's Metro Rail and pedestrians sharing portions of the Buffalo Place pedestrian mall, which was constructed in the early 1980s as part of a $500 million urban-renewal effort that also gave birth to the light-rail system.

The 700 block may be an economic-development and urban-planning example of low-hanging fruit. Open to one-way, southbound traffic, it was the only block left open to traffic during the pedestrian-mall construction project.