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Buffalo is very much a "street by street" basis for "quality".
I read this a lot but I guess I have no idea what it means. "street by street" makes it sound like it's totally random whether a street will be wealthy or not, but the well-to-do areas in Buffalo are all pretty much coterminous, right?
i'm not sure if you'll be working near UB, but avoid UB-South Campus's Univeristy Heights. the rent is cheap, but so is quality of living ... if you like living in fear.
i've spent too many years at Ub, and every year there are problems that increase in number and severity every year. and after every instance, ub posts general warnings that they'll increase patrols or something .... after 3-4 separate incidents in as many weeks, those "increased patrols" have no effect.
I read this a lot but I guess I have no idea what it means. "street by street" makes it sound like it's totally random whether a street will be wealthy or not, but the well-to-do areas in Buffalo are all pretty much coterminous, right?
If you mean in the same area, not necessarily. Think about Amherst St. West of Elmwood it is going downhill. It gets worse west of Grant. Between Delaware and Colvin it is quite decent, but by the time you get to Amherst station at Main, the entire character has changed. East of Main, it is ratty again. If you go south of Amherst ( and Delaware Park & Forest lawn) onot Delevan you get into some areas which go into ratty, some nice. Stay west of Delaware, it is fairly decent. East isn't.
I look at the streets and look at the street. You look at it as a defined chunk. So, I think it is rather random. You can't just say all areas on Amherst or Delevan are safe. East / west roads change more than North / south, I think. Then again, it is relevant on the area.
If you mean in the same area, not necessarily. Think about Amherst St. West of Elmwood it is going downhill. It gets worse west of Grant. Between Delaware and Colvin it is quite decent, but by the time you get to Amherst station at Main, the entire character has changed. East of Main, it is ratty again. If you go south of Amherst ( and Delaware Park & Forest lawn) onot Delevan you get into some areas which go into ratty, some nice. Stay west of Delaware, it is fairly decent. East isn't.
I look at the streets and look at the street. You look at it as a defined chunk. So, I think it is rather random. You can't just say all areas on Amherst or Delevan are safe. East / west roads change more than North / south, I think. Then again, it is relevant on the area.
I agree with your evaluation of Amherst St. And, of course, it would be dumb to say that the upper-class areas of Buffalo are a "defined chunk" because, of course, the transitions are gradual to an extent. My point is that Amherst St is at its zenith around Lincoln Pkwy and gets gradually less well-to-do the further you go in either direction. It's predictable: not random. It's not as though every other block of Amherst St is going to be destitute; on the contrary wealth and poverty are pretty much hierarchized (sic?) along this and other major east/west thoroughfares like Delavan.
If you pick a random street or intersection from the city, the next couple of streets/intersections away from it are going to be pretty similar. I'm having trouble finding a wealth-distribution map for Buffalo online. But I'm confident that if I could the wealthy areas would be largely coterminous, centered around Delaware ave.
I guess what people mean by "street by street" is that if, for example, you live on Richmond Ave, you might have extreme poverty a few blocks west and extreme wealth a few blocks east. But these kinds of transitions are common in any American city, so it doesn't seem like that useful of an observation for Buffalo. Since large demographic changes come so slowly to our city and major income dividing lines (like Main St) are so rigidly adhered to, it's actually a lot easier to predict which streets will be well-to-do in Buffalo than other parts of the country. People moving here should know that it's not terrible difficult to grasp how the nicer areas of the city are laid out.
So that's why I think the phrase "street by street" is misleading. But maybe that's just me! I guess we're just arguing semantics here.
South Buffalo is also a very narrow minded racially bigoted area and as a result very same same - culturally and antiquated attitudes. Allentown is the funkiest with great friendly folks without pretention of any sort in the main part. Elmwood Avenue Village is also upbeat, progressive minded folks, more big city attitude as far as hip cafes, salons, shops. Seems everyone in Elmwood Village has a dog and they are all out walking them at the same time! Delightful but not as funky and not as down to earth as Allentown where everyone lives together - rich poor black white gay straight well off and down and out! Amazing neighborhood indeed. A microcosym of the world.
I disagree that east of Delaware is bad area!! What???!! There are lovely homes and streets east of Delaware as well. In fact the east side of Delaware is lined with lovely old mansions and then there i Linwood Avenue east of Delaware and west of Main Street. Fabulous period homes and nice neighborhoods. Also North Pearl Street in Allentown where I live. Ridiculous to say all areas west of Delaware are not good. I beg to differ --- Big time.
Generally speaking, east of Main Street and west of Richmond Avenue are not good areas (but Richmond itself is a very nice street). The areas in between (Linwood, Delaware, Elmwood and streets in between) are beautiful.
Allentown seems like a really cool neighborhood. Buffalo has a lot of potential for a moderate-size big city. I really wish you could extend the subway. For only 1 small line, it seems a lot of people use it.
The reason the rail gets used is that many kids need it to get to school (Buffalo schools get free passes; UB students go from N. Campus by bus to S. campus and by rail downtown, commuter students choose it for cheapness), downtown employers have rotten/or/no parking and many pay for the passes, there is a free ride area way downtown ( unless it recently stopped), and LOTS of people see the parking downtown as WORSE than riding the rail from the FREE park-and-rides.
It was supposed to go from S. Campus out to burbs. It was squelched. Fast.
I agree with your evaluation of Amherst St. And, of course, it would be dumb to say that the upper-class areas of Buffalo are a "defined chunk" because, of course, the transitions are gradual to an extent. My point is that Amherst St is at its zenith around Lincoln Pkwy and gets gradually less well-to-do the further you go in either direction. It's predictable: not random. It's not as though every other block of Amherst St is going to be destitute; on the contrary wealth and poverty are pretty much hierarchized (sic?) along this and other major east/west thoroughfares like Delavan.
If you pick a random street or intersection from the city, the next couple of streets/intersections away from it are going to be pretty similar. I'm having trouble finding a wealth-distribution map for Buffalo online. But I'm confident that if I could the wealthy areas would be largely coterminous, centered around Delaware ave.
I guess what people mean by "street by street" is that if, for example, you live on Richmond Ave, you might have extreme poverty a few blocks west and extreme wealth a few blocks east. But these kinds of transitions are common in any American city, so it doesn't seem like that useful of an observation for Buffalo. Since large demographic changes come so slowly to our city and major income dividing lines (like Main St) are so rigidly adhered to, it's actually a lot easier to predict which streets will be well-to-do in Buffalo than other parts of the country. People moving here should know that it's not terrible difficult to grasp how the nicer areas of the city are laid out.
So that's why I think the phrase "street by street" is misleading. But maybe that's just me! I guess we're just arguing semantics here.
I gues it is semantics of a sort. Buffalo morphs, constantly. I am going for "what I see today"
Amherst, between Elmwood and over to Main is generally nice. Take the next main cross street south (Delevan) and you have it lovely from the Elmwood area to Delaware. Buffalo is very much a city where you can go 2 or 3 blocks and see the area change drastically. Areas also change -- when I was in college, Chippewa was bums and what came with them. You couldn't walk down the street if you were female; now it is hip and trendy. The Elmwood Village wasn't hp or trendy either; there was some activity near the college, but we didn't go too far south unless you were going downtown ... when there were still about 6 dept. stores and lots of little stores. Grant was an really nice area in the 1970s and so were the streets between Elmwood and Grant... not so now. So, Buffalo morphs, and more than most cities. I still wouldn't live on Delevan east of Delaware.
hi rosslynx: welcome almost to buffalo! do you have children ? that would be a big factor to consider. Buffalo schools (with exception of the city honors school - top ranking) leave much to be desired, and i would suggest suburban locations in that instance. there is almost NO traffic in buffalo and almost whereever you live in suburbs you can be in buffalo in under 30 minutes - even if you want land wiht a horse, you can jump of the 400 and be in town really in 35 minutes! as for the city: if we didn't have a child, and i knew when we moved here what I know now, i would have loved to have lived int eh city. great places just west of elmwood ave before you get to richmond...not sure of the areas, nottinghamd terrace(del park ares) if you have money (by British standards event those homes wont' be expensive), north buffalo, all nice areas. threre are some great suburbs around too that offer small villages within them...williamsville, east aurora (personal favorite of mine),..and we have a british pork pie co here (yep..rated the best in the world! you can get all you back bacon, pastties, etc.. there is even a club of ex pats taht meets there on saturdays to watch futbal!!! good luck. private e mail me ifyou want to (my husband is frm essex!)
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East of Delaware in Buffalo NY
