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Sorry, I see it as a knock on Buffalo when people talk about its easy access to Toronto and how it's the Gateway to Niagara. Nothing else is good about it except for its proximity to other places?
Sorry, I see it as a knock on Buffalo when people talk about its easy access to Toronto and how it's the Gateway to Niagara. Nothing else is good about it except for its proximity to other places?
One of the failings in promoting Buffalo is a tunnel vision that somehow limits "Buffalo" and it's amenities to merely the area within the city limits, let alone all that is adjacent to it, including much of Niagara County, Southern Ontario, and the Southern Tier.
"Buffalo" needs to accept credit for all - good and bad - because a tourist who arrives at Buffalo-Niagara Airport pays little attention to municipal boundaries, but wraps the overall experience into his "Buffalo" trip.
So, it is possible to "go to Buffalo" and enjoy the Elmwood Village, Casinos in Niagara Falls, small town feel of East Aurora, wineries of Niagara-on-the Lake, beaches of Lake Ontario - and still be on a vacation in "Buffalo."
Did anyone ever go to the mountains in Denver? Go to the beaches of Corpus Christi? How about Stone Mountain in Atlanta? Or seen the Giants play on a trip to NYC?
If you arrive in Buffalo, then the whole experience becomes part of "Buffalo."
Sorry, I see it as a knock on Buffalo when people talk about its easy access to Toronto and how it's the Gateway to Niagara. Nothing else is good about it except for its proximity to other places?
I am sure people in Baltimore count their access to DC as a local asset. Same for the people in San Jose vis a vis San Francisco.
The region Buffalo is a part of stretches from Rochester to Toronto , it is one mega region with 10 million people. That in and of itself IS a najor selling point. It's like SoCal with out a catchy nick name. (and of course half the population)
One of the failings in promoting Buffalo is a tunnel vision that somehow limits "Buffalo" and it's amenities to merely the area within the city limits, let alone all that is adjacent to it, including much of Niagara County, Southern Ontario, and the Southern Tier.
"Buffalo" needs to accept credit for all - good and bad - because a tourist who arrives at Buffalo-Niagara Airport pays little attention to municipal boundaries, but wraps the overall experience into his "Buffalo" trip.
So, it is possible to "go to Buffalo" and enjoy the Elmwood Village, Casinos in Niagara Falls, small town feel of East Aurora, wineries of Niagara-on-the Lake, beaches of Lake Ontario - and still be on a vacation in "Buffalo."
Did anyone ever go to the mountains in Denver? Go to the beaches of Corpus Christi? How about Stone Mountain in Atlanta? Or seen the Giants play on a trip to NYC?
If you arrive in Buffalo, then the whole experience becomes part of "Buffalo."
What a perfectly made point. Great post rocketsci!
I hear you on your point Rocketsci. If Apple only saw itself as a computer company not an electronics company, it never would have invented the iPod and would cease to exist today. Myopia is never a good thing.
However, I decided to join this forum because I really wanna be a proponent of the City of Buffalo. I've lived within the actual city my entire life and I would really like to offer some of the information I know to help people who are looking to move to the area or might be recent transplants.
I can't stand the sprawl our area has seen. Everything in our area is focused on the suburbs now and it drives me absolutely nuts. Everyone has left the city to rot and the core is dying. We need educated, dynamic people to come back to the city and I want to do my part to help the cause. No metropolitan area has ever been successful with a dead core. Successful cities don't have empty streets and sidewalks in their main business districts after 6 PM. If I can somehow convince one person that the city is worthwhile it will be all worth it.
To get to the point, I really don't care about the suburbs or outlying areas because they're doing just fine. Also, Niagara Falls can be counted as part of our area but I think that saying that access to a place as far away as Toronto (and in another country) is a positive of living here, it really puts us down. Especially when it's first on the list of positive things someone has to say about the area. It's like saying, "I love living in the Cheektowaga on Cleveland Drive because it's so close to Williamsville!"
In addition, I also joined this forum because I was discusted that people actually recommended The Anchor Bar and Duff's as places to get good wings. Are you kidding me? They could have gotten that out of a guide book.
First of all if you want to bring people back into the city you need to 1) fix the school system as no transplant with children in their right mind wants to play Russian Roulette with the Buffalo School District 2) get rid of the blight & abandoned buildings. A lot of old time Buffalo residents think these abandoned mills, factories, grain elevators, etc are some kind of great historical landmark & they stand in the way of demolition but in reality they are nothing more than eyesores that turn visitors & new residents off 3) Actually get some development going on downtown & at the waterfront. Why would anyone want to live downtown when they have to drive to the suburbs just to go shopping? Unless there's a Sabres game downtown its a ghost town after 6pm.
Sorry to bust your bubble but as it stands right now the suburbs, their quality schools & safe neighborhoods are Buffalo's selling point. If it wasn't for places like Amherst, Williamsville, Hamburg, Orchard Park, Kenmore, Lancaster & East Aurora no one would be moving here & the population loss would be even worse. Toronto is a world class city & there is also nothing wrong with Buffalo selling its proximity to Southern Ontario & GTA.
As far as your Duff's/Anchor Bar complaint .... I've had Wings from the local bars & pizza shops, there is really nothing special about the majority of them. Wings are wings & I don't care if they are made in Buffalo, Boston, Baltimore or wherever ..... what usually sets them apart is different spices and sauces & that is where Duffs excels.
I hear you on your point Rocketsci. If Apple only saw itself as a computer company not an electronics company, it never would have invented the iPod and would cease to exist today. Myopia is never a good thing.
However, I decided to join this forum because I really wanna be a proponent of the City of Buffalo. I've lived within the actual city my entire life and I would really like to offer some of the information I know to help people who are looking to move to the area or might be recent transplants.
I can't stand the sprawl our area has seen. Everything in our area is focused on the suburbs now and it drives me absolutely nuts. Everyone has left the city to rot and the core is dying. We need educated, dynamic people to come back to the city and I want to do my part to help the cause. No metropolitan area has ever been successful with a dead core. Successful cities don't have empty streets and sidewalks in their main business districts after 6 PM. If I can somehow convince one person that the city is worthwhile it will be all worth it.
To get to the point, I really don't care about the suburbs or outlying areas because they're doing just fine. Also, Niagara Falls can be counted as part of our area but I think that saying that access to a place as far away as Toronto (and in another country) is a positive of living here, it really puts us down. Especially when it's first on the list of positive things someone has to say about the area. It's like saying, "I love living in the Cheektowaga on Cleveland Drive because it's so close to Williamsville!"
In addition, I also joined this forum because I was discusted that people actually recommended The Anchor Bar and Duff's as places to get good wings. Are you kidding me? They could have gotten that out of a guide book.
I appreciate your perspective. It has always amazed me that there are actually some people who take pride in "never going into the city" from whatever exurb they live in. I have some cousins like that, who grew up in the suburbs and can't seem to move far enough away to make themselves happy. That is not just a Buffalo issue, however. Much of the central core of Houston, you know that economic miracle city, is as vacant and dilapidated as the East Side of Buffalo, while growth takes place 20 or 30 miles from downtown.
Until there is a sea change in how the current majority of Americans see our cities, Buffalo will have to make do with 10% of whatever regional growth takes place, since that seems to be the norm for city/suburban growth in most growing metropolitan areas. If the region doesn't grow as a whole, then neither will Buffalo. That's why WNY needs to be considered regionally. When the region thrives, so will the City.
So should access to Canada be considered an advantage? Of course! Few other cities have this advantage - and it is an advantage. In the same way, I am sure that visitors to Southern Ontario are also sold on its proximity to Buffalo - "great shopping" "lower prices" - I remember seeing a billboard in Toronto advertising beer (I don't remember which one) that said "Milwaukee flavour at Cheektowaga Prices" - This regional proximity stuff goes both ways.
So, I agree with you that I want the City to do better, and I do want to encourage people to take advantage of the City. But, I don't want the region to be in competition with the City - it should be a complementary relationship. If proximity to the Shaw Festival or a Canadian NASCAR track gives someone a reason to visit or stay in Buffalo, then the City needs to take advantage of it.
First of all if you want to bring people back into the city you need to 1) fix the school system as no transplant with children in their right mind wants to play Russian Roulette with the Buffalo School District 2) get rid of the blight & abandoned buildings. A lot of old time Buffalo residents think these abandoned mills, factories, grain elevators, etc are some kind of great historical landmark & they stand in the way of demolition but in reality they are nothing more than eyesores that turn visitors & new residents off 3) Actually get some development going on downtown & at the waterfront. Why would anyone want to live downtown when they have to drive to the suburbs just to go shopping? Unless there's a Sabres game downtown its a ghost town after 6pm.
1) It is mostly the parents and not the schools. These days, school performance is typically proportional to the wealth and income of the parents. The likely only real solutions to this problem will be (a) neighborhoods will gentrify and the poor people will get pushed into other school districts, or (b) income growth among the poor will increase at a greater rate and will lead to more stable families with higher regard for education and respect for good study habits. (Or, it could just all stay the same or get worse) SAT Scores and Family Income - NYTimes.com
Did you know that according to US Census Bureau staisitics, The Buffalo Metro is one of the least sprawling of the 376 metros that they track. In fact the Buffalo Metro (as of 2000, I do not know if 2010 data has been compiled yet) was the 15th most densly populated metropolitan area out of the 376 with a population per square mile of LAND at 746.64 putting us just behind DC and just 2 ahead of metro Atlanta. Number one of course is the NYC Metro with a density pf 2,028.72 per square mile. Rochester's metro comes in at number 72 with 320.59 people per sq. mile.
Of those with more than a half million in population the Buffalo Metro is the third smallest in land area, after Providence and Hartford. Sprawl is an issue across the country but not really in Buffalo.
By comparison the Buffalo 2000 metro poplation of 1.2 milllion was living on 1,567.16 square miles of LAND while neighboring Rochester's 1.09 million people were spread across 3,425.52 square miles of LAND.
An interesting calculation is that if Buffalo had the same population density as Charlotte NC we would need to spread the same population over an additional 1,068 square miles of land. If we wanted to match Phoenix for density we would have to add an additional 3,676.41 square miles of land which would be the the equivalenty of adding the Buffalo and Rochester metros together land wise but just spreading Buffalo's population over that entire area. Now that would be sprawl.
Or Buffalo could look into a program like thttp://sayyestoeducation.org/syte/index.phphis:
Are there community police substations in the city of Buffalo? How is the relationship between residents and police? What about promoting the good magnet and charter schools in the city? How much influence do the colleges have on the neighborhoods they are in and in a positive way?
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