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People like you are exactly why we can't grow. I'm sure that you're happy with everyone moving away, more WNY for you then right? I'm going to guess that you've never moved into a city with quick growth, because if you had, you'd know it's pretty nice to see old areas with nothing turn into shopping malls and nice divisions that create thousands of jobs.
Honestly, the why people here are, we are one banjo away from Deliverance. I'm proud not to have been born with the genetics and welfare mentality of this area, and proud to say that I was NOT born in New York.
We didn't grow, we shrunk. I moved here and there were 7 dept. stores downtown, good transit and a thriving area. There were few malls. The city was nicely middle class. Then came the rail , urban renewal and massive changes... the city I moved here to is no more and it is people who cannot see why it changed, the way it changed, are the ones who need a history lesson in the city. It can be found at the library or historical society, any day.
FWIW, I am not from Buffalo so I see it differently than those born here. I came here over 40 years ago from downstate NY. I grew up in an old settled village founded in the 1700s. It was nice but oh, so crowded! I grew up spending lots of time going into NYC and it was insane. The entire experience was so different from 1905 when my grandfather bought a lot to build a home and to escape the city... he built a large victorian and raised 8 kids there.
My "genetics and mentality" come from the other end of the state and sure do not fit your description of the people of WNY. My husband's family was one of the first to buy land in Cattaraugus County when the Holland Land Company opened it for development about 1804. They came from MA and VT. The father and the oldest son built homes. As each son became of age, he got a chunk of the land -- eventually 6 large family farms. [2 are still in the family, owned by his cousins. ] My husband's grandmother left the farm to come to Buffalo.
Buffalo, c. 1900, was a proud, economically stable and well heeled city. Lots of well off people. You change the economics, you change the city. This is what you fail to recognize. In 50 years, the city disintegrated. Politics built roads and expressways and divided neighborhoods and created havoc with housing. People didn't keep up homes always losing value...The people get sensible and move away from areas where there is crime. So, when we got married, my husband bought this place, in farmland, in the early 1970s. He was tired of people looking in the windows, having lived in a house 10 feet from the neighbors. We bought this house, from the original owner and builder. We cherish our little plot of 4 acres on a reasonably rural road.
He'd never go back to the city where he was raised -- too crowded, too dirty, too full of trash now. I would never go back to the NY/LI area - same reasons.
The reason we can't grow is lack of good paying jobs. The beautiful old homes are still there in the city, but the homes of the working class in what used to be middle class areas are not fancy nor well built. They are utilitarian. Many need to be totally renovated -- in many cases, tearing 2 down and rebuilding one on 2 lots might work. The city has lots of room, many lots vacant, prices are cheapo. If you want to "build up the city", you need to go urban... What we do not need is more development in the burbs and rural areas. It does mess with the watershed and strain the services like the FD and Police in any town
People like you are exactly why we can't grow. I'm sure that you're happy with everyone moving away, more WNY for you then right? I'm going to guess that you've never moved into a city with quick growth, because if you had, you'd know it's pretty nice to see old areas with nothing turn into shopping malls and nice divisions that create thousands of jobs.
Honestly, the why people here are, we are one banjo away from Deliverance. I'm proud not to have been born with the genetics and welfare mentality of this area, and proud to say that I was NOT born in New York.
We didn't grow, we shrunk. I moved here and there were 7 dept. stores downtown, good transit and a thriving area. There were few malls. The city was nicely middle class. Then came the rail , urban renewal and massive changes... the city I moved to is no more and people who cannot see why it changed, the way it changed... you are the ones who need a history lesson in the city. It can be found at the library or historical society, any day.
FWIW, I am not from Buffalo so I see it differently than those born here. I came here over 40 years ago from downstate NY. I grew up in an old settled village founded in the 1700s. It was nice but oh, so crowded! I grew up spending lots of time going into NYC and it was insane. The entire experience was so different from when my grandfather bought land and built a home in 1905 to escape NYC in a quiet town. The quiet, when I was a kid, was gone; it was overbuilt and crowded.
My "genetics and mentality" come from the other end of the state. However, I do not agree with your view of the people in WNY. My husband's family was one of the first to buy land in Cattaraugus County when the Holland Land Company opened it for development about 1804. They came from MA and VT. The father and the oldest son built homes. As each son became of age, he got a chunk of the land -- eventually 6 large family farms. [2 are still in the family, owned by his cousins. ] My husband's grandmother left the farm to come to Buffalo.
Buffalo, c. 1900, was a proud, economically stable and well heeled city. Lots of well off people. However, when you change the economics, you change the city. This is what you fail to recognize. In 50 years, the city disintegrated. Politics built roads and expressways and divided neighborhoods and created havoc with housing. The nice homes are still there; blue collar homes weren't fancy and many weren't kept up well as the city went downhill. Eventually, people get sensible and move away from areas where there was crime. The burbs developed. The city suffered. I doubt it will fully rebuild until people trash all the land left in the county and it is a necessity.
We bought this little 4 acre lot from the man who built this house here. We love it. He'd never go back to the city where he was raised -- too crowded, too dirty, too full of trash now. I would never go back to the NY/LI area - same reasons.
The reason we , as a city, can't grow is lack of good paying jobs. The old homes are still there in the city, but the ones in the poorer areas ( which were middle class when built and most up to 50 years ago) need to be totally renovated -- in many cases, tearing 2 down and rebuilding one on 2 lots might work. The city has lots of room. What we do not need is more development in the burbs and rural areas.
Last edited by BuffaloTransplant; 04-11-2011 at 10:45 PM..
I can just envision the late Ayn Rand, exhaling from a cigarette, after reading the latest Buffalo census information. Probably nothing in the statistics that would surprise her. The inept government of Western New York is voted in by the people who then question "Why are our lives in continuous decay?" The real question those in Buffalo should be asking isn't "Who is John Galt" but "Where is John Galt". Something tells me he isn't in Cheektowaga.
The old Arcarta Graphics/Qubecor Printing press plant
on George Urban in Depew is closing at the end of the year
hundreds of more jobs leaving Buffalo.
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