Walking Around Hertel Avenue

I've never walked around Hertel Avenue in the two years I've been living in Buffalo, I have driven through numerous times but never walked around the area. And for the sake of this particular assignment I did an initial drive on Hertel Avenue before parking and taking a walk around the area. The first impression I had was amazement at how many stores one could miss because they are in a car. I took note of multiple stores that I have never noticed because the are located on the side streets rather than Hertel Avenue proper. Places like this Clam Bar, martial arts dojo and dance studio.

     

The martial arts dojo is particularly significant because just a few weeks ago I was looking for one to join and it would have been nice to know this place existed. Another thing I noticed is that it looks like the dance studio is located in the upper stories. Unlike many of the other stores along Hertel Avenue that don't seem to make use of their upper stories. In fact I always have wondered what exactly was up there. Especially considering many of the upper stories have air conditioning installed in them.

Even these closed down storefronts have air conditioning units installed in them. Which leads to another thing I noticed is that there were quite few closed down store fronts. You don't really notice but Hertel Avenue seems to have these clusters of businesses that seem to be doing well, and then just out of those clusters there are places that appear to be have been closed for some time. I wonder why that may be the case? Were they simply too far out of the ideal business spots? Or are there other factors at play?