My initial opinion of Buffalo (Amherst, Orchard Park: apartment complex, city hall, crime)

[ajacques]

I love the weather. But I can't say theres anything else I love. I see some things I like. The people for one. My g/f and I have been all around buffalo from downtown to amherst and haven't run into one *******. You can't say that from where i'm from (orlando)

I'm not used to everything looking so old. I've been looking at apartments and call boxes are broken and yellowed, carpets are worn. But the insides of the apartments are beautiful. I don't get it.

Do Buffalonians eat anything other than pub food and italian food? I'm mean the vegitarian options here are very limited its soo frustrating. But I will say that the pizza and the deep fried mixed veggies at Anchor Bar were very yummi! Oh I love spot coffee.

Stopped to take a look at buffalo state college. Why are there thing held together with tape in the bathroom?

[BuffaloLight]

Originally Posted by ajacques

I love the weather. But I can't say theres anything else I love. I see some things I like. The people for one. My g/f and I have been all around buffalo from downtown to amherst and haven't run into one *******. You can't say that from where i'm from (orlando)

I'm not used to everything looking so old. I've been looking at apartments and call boxes are broken and yellowed, carpets are worn. But the insides of the apartments are beautiful. I don't get it.

Do Buffalonians eat anything other than pub food and italian food? I'm mean the vegitarian options here are very limited its soo frustrating. But I will say that the pizza and the deep fried mixed veggies at Anchor Bar were very yummi! Oh I love spot coffee.

Stopped to take a look at buffalo state college. Why are there thing held together with tape in the bathroom?

Seems like a fair first impression. Buffalo is an old place and was mostly developed between 1890-1940. If you are a perfectionist when it comes to the outside of buildings being pristine Buffalo will surely drive you crazy. It worn because it's weathered. If you stick around for winter you will understand that no amount of fiddling with your boots will keep you from tracking in salt and dirt and slush and snow. I had to stop and think about a call box was but that is also probably due to weather.

There are restaurants that are healthier and there are restaurants that are not pub or Italian. They are just not as abundant as pub/Italian and you learn where they are. The ones I mostly know about are in Allentown. Merge, Betties, Cafe 59 are my three favorites when it comes to healthy although there are healthy option up Elmwood as well.

[ajacques]

Originally Posted by BuffaloLight

If you stick around for winter you will understand that no amount of fiddling with your boots will keep you from tracking in salt and dirt and slush and snow.....

.....The ones I mostly know about are in Allentown. Merge, Betties, Cafe 59 are my three favorites when it comes to healthy although there are healthy option up Elmwood as well.

Ok I can understand the traking in snow slush thing causing damage. I didn't quite think of that. Though I will say that the bathrooms in Bacon at Buffalo state look like something out of a horror film. Thats not attributable to snow and salt.

But I did find something I love. WEGMANS. There's everything there. In orlando I usually have to make a trip to two or three places to get evething I need. Cafe in a grocery store! Thats is so cool.

Ventured into williamsville today. Beautiful quaint area. I found an apartment complex b/t there and the elmwood area that I like. So thats a plus.

Betty's wasn't bad. Gonna try merge tomorrow. I won't complain anymore about the lack of vegitarian places when you have such an amazing selection of vegitables and whatnot at Wegmans and the co-op.

Love the veggi pho @ red pepper chineese and veitnemese restaurant. It was great until I dropped my cell phone in the soup!

[Checkered24]

Things are old, and some areas show the wear of time more than others.

The farther you get in the burbs, the newer and more modern things will be. Amherst, Williamsvile, Orchard Park all have some fairly new and modern luxury apartment complexes that won't have the weathered feel to them.

As for restaurants, you just have to get a feel for where everything is. Buffalonians do eat a lot of bar food/fast food type stuff. There is more than that, but those places are abundant.

Best of luck in your search for places you like!

[BuffaloTransplant]

This city already settled and then entirely burned by the British in the War of 1812. What you see in the city is built after 1812. Golden age of the city really was mid 1800s to 1920s. You will find the most beautiful buildings of that age -- real buildings, homes and businesses, now weathered and often changed inside, but beautiful all the same. While yo will see some new buildings downtown which are all shine and glitz ( look at the new courthouse on Niagara Sq., still being built) look next to it and see the beauty of the exterior of City Hall -- built as a WPA project in the Depression.

Buffalo is a city built by the strong backs of immigrants -- Germans, Irish, Poles, Italians and others. They came and built the city which, for a time, had more millionaires per thousand people than anywhere in the state ( we are talking about the time of the Pan American Exposition , 1901 ).

What you see as "dirty" is actual grime of age and time, not anything "phony". This is a real city, not just tossed up buildings which are all the same.

Enjoy the real city. Wander around and look at it. You will be surprised at the jewels here. I have been here 40+ years and I still am. Oh, yeah, the bathrooms in Bacon were bad in the late 60s; you might check Rockwell: they were the nice ones with all white marble in them. Don't know if they are still there.

[ajacques]

I discovered Amy's. Lots of vegitarian options. Love it! We did venture to see the falls yesterday. Such beauty in stark contrast to such horridness. The falls are beautiful, but the drive through the city of niagra falls was scary. We drove up N.F. Blvd to get there and drove 342 (i think thats its its the one that turns into delaware ave). OMG. The city is... like... I can't put words to how horrible it must be to live there. Then when you get close to the falls its tourist trap hell. I thought orlando/disney area was torist trap hell but it doesn't even compare. Please don't think I'm dissing your city. I have mad respect for some of the great things i've seen here but...that was crazy.

And I still can't get over how things are laid out here. Literally one side of the street is nice and the other is ghetto. I'm used to the good/bad being sectioned off by neighborhood, not by street. I know I was warned of this before I came here but the significance of that didn't set in until I saw it for myself.

All things considering my g/f really likes it here. I think it may take a while for me to adjust once we actually move. Oh And i discovered I love sponge candy!

[jblake78728]

Buffalo's Gothic architecture isnt for everybody. I certainly prefer newer & taller buildings but the other things I like about the area make the buildings less important.

NF,NY is an awful place. Junkies, pimps, ho's & tourists. Sure it has a few nice neighborhoods but the bad far outweigh the good IMHO. On the other hand, Niagara County has some beautiful areas & towns with the city of NF being about the only bad place. Hopefully the city will get its act together soon. NF has seen an increase of tourists this past year due IMO to the fact that you now need a passport or EDL to get into Canada or back into the US from Canada, so people choosing to visit the American side instead of getting these document, even though the Canadian side is much more tourist friendly. NF,NY needs to start cleaning up their city in a hurry & keep people coming back. Unfortunately, if there is a city in this state who's government & citizens fight change & progress harder than Buffalo's does its NF.

The neighborhood thing is hard to get use to. People can tell you all about it but until you see it first hand its truly hard to believe that bad & good can be so close together. To me it wasn't such a shock but I grew up in Baltimore. Buffalo & Baltimore are very similar in many ways & that is definitely one of them. As a parent I wouldn't want to live anywhere within the city but that has more to do with the low quality of the Buffalo School District & the uphill battle to get into one of the districts few good schools than it does crime in the city. The city has plenty of good, safe neighborhoods you just have to be real careful & know the area before choosing where to live.

[Port North]

Originally Posted by jblake78728

NF,NY is an awful place. Junkies, pimps, ho's & tourists. Sure it has a few nice neighborhoods but the bad far outweigh the good IMHO.

Don't forget all the toxic waste dumps in the NF, they are literally everywhere! Some of the nastiest materials on earth have been dumped over the past 100 years in the NF area in close proximity to (or actually under) what became residental neighborhoods!

Hearing about all the dumb criminal reports from there, I think its made some of its residents mutants!

[Krisps]

Sounds like an accurate and fair assessment of the area.

I brought some visitors from Europe to the falls once and made the mistake of driving through Buffalo along rt. 5 and through N.F. city. They were in complete shock at the ugly industrial wasteland and toxic smells. People not knowing the area expect a more pristine area near one of the world's biggest natural attractions. I've always figured the free electricity from the falls attracted too much early toxic industry and the city has been full of corruption for it to be as bad as it is now. Allowing industry to leave vacant industrial shells with minimal usage as opposed to doing the proper environmental cleanup is a real killer. There's nothing that I'd place more important for the area than cleaning it up, making it more friendly to the environment & visitors, making it appropriate as a city by the one of the world's greatest waterfalls, and making it a place people might like to live in.

[ajacques]

Originally Posted by Port North

Don't forget all the toxic waste dumps in the NF, they are literally everywhere!

Yes, Isn't the love canal superfund site near there? I learned the case law behind it and saw some pictures but I completely forgot about it when I was in the area. But now that I think about it we did pass by some large fensed off areas.