2015 Census Data

[RocketSci]

Originally Posted by VA Yankee

Agree with the infrastructure upgrades when needed but that is where the communities development person puts a package together. You had mentioned annexation that is why I asked the question on that seeing that seems to be a factor for the region.

Maybe the biggest problem is Buffalo as a city operates like Sears or GM thinking this is 1950 and this high tax, excessive layers of regulation/laws and the good old boy /nepotism culture (as outlined by other posters) is the way business will done. A bigger problem is NY States regulations and policies, the thruway, weather (for many) and removed from the bulk of the US markets and it's a hard sell.

Whatever problem Buffalo has is shared with the entire rust belt, to varying degrees. As far as being a good old boy network, it will lessen as labor demand exceeds local supply.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by JH6

Persons in poverty as a percentage, 30.9% for Buffalo.

Median Household Income in 2014 dollars $31,668.

Those two stats alone tell me that 1 in 3 households is on some form of government welfare.

Those are some tough numbers.

The city where I live in central Texas has 9.8% of persons in poverty and $70,952 as the median household income.

Why are we comparing Buffalo to Las Vegas anyways? A true comparison would be another northeast city that has struggled, something in Michigan or Ohio perhaps?

Not necessarily true about poverty being equated to some form of welfare. Poverty can also include off campus college students that are technically in poverty, but likely aren't in reality.

A part of that may be due to refugee resettlement and you have you typical poverty.

Also, this is another factor of how differences in city limits can impact a stat in comparison and you'll notice the same thing with crime as well. Once you open things up to County or metro area, things start to "even out" in regards to these factors and you may even have an area like Buffalo having lower crime and poverty rates than even growing areas. So, people can not underestimate governmental boundary differences.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by RocketSci

Whatever problem Buffalo has is shared with the entire rust belt, to varying degrees. As far as being a good old boy network, it will lessen as labor demand exceeds local supply.

I'd also say that Buffalo's location actually isn't that bad in relation to a couple of the biggest population clusters in North America(Bos-Wash and Canada's Golden Horseshoe) and the Great Lakes(including the metros on them). It may be more about some of the other factors.