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Last year Patti Smith, a punk rock legend, was asked if it was still possible for young artists to make it in New York City like she managed to back in the 60's.
She said, "New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie. New York City has been taken away from you. So my advice is: Find a new city."
Ok, so she didn't mention Buffalo. Unfortunately, Buffalo isn't the first place people think of when they think of if they live in New York City and need to quickly think of other metropolitan areas. Especially for those who have never been North of Yonkers. But I wanna propose an idea. Why not Buffalo? Why can't we find a way to attract young artists and other assorted creative minds to our city?
It's actually pretty simple. Young artists are primarily concerned with the cost of living when they are looking for a place to live. We all know that one of the good things about Buffalo is that it's actually dirt cheap to live here! If we can find a way to attract these young creative minds to areas that are now considered less than desirable than they will help build up the neighborhoods again.
They'll beautify the area with murals and gardens. They'll open businesses or sell their art out of the place they live. They'll do small things like that to bring culture back to the area. Before we know it, neighborhoods like Seneca & Babcock can be hip again. We would have to find a way to offer incentives to them so that they are attracted to other areas other than just Elmwood and Allentown. Those areas don't need the help.
When these areas become appealing to live in, they'll attract people who might be a little older and can bring more money into the neighborhood to make it even better. Then we have a thriving neighborhood! The artists act as a bridge between a less than desirable neighborhood and a thriving one. This has happened in NYC in Greenwich Village, SoHo, and now Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It's also happened in Portland, Oregon. Why not Buffalo?
In the days of Bob Dylan and the Beatniks (1960's) Greenwich Village was an up and coming neighborhood. Young artists moved in and now it is one of the most sought after neighborhoods in NYC. SoHo was an old industrial neighborhood, once the site of the infamous Triangle Shirt Waste Factory fire. Young artists took advantage of the cheap rent and large spaces to create art studios. I was just in Williamsburg, Brooklyn last year and I witnessed an area that was still a little rough around the edges but had plenty of potential and lots of neat trendy restaurants, bars, and hangouts to frequent. It can happen here.
If we can find a way to reach out to the young creative class in other areas by promoting Buffalo and our cheap cost of living, we might just have a plan here.
I'm interested in the input of people who really care about the city here. If you go to the actual City of Buffalo less than once a month or create threads like the "Save Cheektowaga" thread I really don't care what you have to say because I know you are not in the right frame of mind to think about this. All you care about is keeping your lawn trimmed and buying more guns to keep all of the "scumbags" from the city out. You're not interested in civic duty or trying to revitalize the city that is the reason any of us our here. Good luck with that lawn.
They must need more than low cost of living however. So what else would it take for Buffalo to be an attractive destination for young artists? What could the city/community due to attract and foster these young creative minds?
We could offer incentives for more established artists to open galleries. Obviously it would take a lot to get them to open a gallery on Seneca & Babcock but we could start slow. In the beautiful building First Niagara is in now on Exchange? Having established artists around would definitely attract younger ones and would add to the "scene."
Coincidentally, I know someone who has a studio/gallery right down the street from there in what used to be an old seed warehouse.
Or maybe the Albright Knox could help. Offer young artists who agree to move to the area some resources at the museum? It doesn't have to be exhibition space (that's obviously a very finite resource) but maybe access to the materials or experts there. All of that if they agreed to live within the city limits for 5 years. I would donate a $100/year to that program. So would anybody else who could see the potential in it.
I'm sure there's plenty of other things we can do. Let me think.
Last year Patti Smith, a punk rock legend, was asked if it was still possible for young artists to make it in New York City like she managed to back in the 60's.
She said, "New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie. New York City has been taken away from you. So my advice is: Find a new city."
Ok, so she didn't mention Buffalo. Unfortunately, Buffalo isn't the first place people think of when they think of if they live in New York City and need to quickly think of other metropolitan areas. Especially for those who have never been North of Yonkers. But I wanna propose an idea. Why not Buffalo? Why can't we find a way to attract young artists and other assorted creative minds to our city?
It's actually pretty simple. Young artists are primarily concerned with the cost of living when they are looking for a place to live. We all know that one of the good things about Buffalo is that it's actually dirt cheap to live here! If we can find a way to attract these young creative minds to areas that are now considered less than desirable than they will help build up the neighborhoods again.
They'll beautify the area with murals and gardens. They'll open businesses or sell their art out of the place they live. They'll do small things like that to bring culture back to the area. Before we know it, neighborhoods like Seneca & Babcock can be hip again. We would have to find a way to offer incentives to them so that they are attracted to other areas other than just Elmwood and Allentown. Those areas don't need the help.
When these areas become appealing to live in, they'll attract people who might be a little older and can bring more money into the neighborhood to make it even better. Then we have a thriving neighborhood! The artists act as a bridge between a less than desirable neighborhood and a thriving one. This has happened in NYC in Greenwich Village, SoHo, and now Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It's also happened in Portland, Oregon. Why not Buffalo?
In the days of Bob Dylan and the Beatniks (1960's) Greenwich Village was an up and coming neighborhood. Young artists moved in and now it is one of the most sought after neighborhoods in NYC. SoHo was an old industrial neighborhood, once the site of the infamous Triangle Shirt Waste Factory fire. Young artists took advantage of the cheap rent and large spaces to create art studios. I was just in Williamsburg, Brooklyn last year and I witnessed an area that was still a little rough around the edges but had plenty of potential and lots of neat trendy restaurants, bars, and hangouts to frequent. It can happen here.
If we can find a way to reach out to the young creative class in other areas by promoting Buffalo and our cheap cost of living, we might just have a plan here.
To some degree what you say is already happening, just not on a large enough scale. Buffalo is on the radar screens of some hipsters that are being priced out of Brooklyn, but Philadelphia is much closer to NYC than Buffalo is and has good train and bus connections to NYC. Many still want to have that easy link to NYC even if its just to visit a few times per year, so that is why Philadelphia attacts the hipsters in greater numbers.
Promoting the creative class is a good thing, but I have my doubts that it can be the basis of a new economy outside of a few selected metropolitan areas. It can help make a place more likely to experience higher level investment in some fields, but it is just one piece of the puzzle. If the underlying finances don't make sense then I don't think that a business will relocate to Buffalo (or stay if they are founded in Buffalo) just because it's a "cool" place to live. I'm not against trying to attract more of that element though, it certainly would help to some degree.
I do think attracting hipsters would be beneficial (especially for retailers selling skinny jeans ) but that alone will not be enough.
There needs to be a wholesale change in policy of the region. We have turned our back on Capitalism and the individual and instead allowed government to micro-manage our personal and economic lives. This has resulted in an economic system that awards political connections rather than merit - it will not work.
A system that uses the coercive powers of government to bestow privilege on politically connected groups and transfer wealth from the unconnected to the privileged is immoral - but that's the system we have.
Anyways, here are some things that I think could help the region:
1) Get rid of "prevailing wage" laws. In a region that is severely overtaxed and yet has crumbling infrastructure, why should it be mandated that we pay above market rates to repair or maintain this infrastructure? Shouldn't the government have a fiduciary responsibility to make the best use of taxpayer money and get the most services for that money as possible?
2) Right to work. Unions have priced the region's workers out of a job.
3) Replace defined benefit plans with defined contribution
4) School vouchers
5) Tort reform
6) Privatization of as many governmental functions as possible
7) Deregulation
I'd like to expand on these ideas and further explain the morality of capitalism, but I've got to get to work. Perhaps another day.
That survey has some flaws in it and it's always good to look at criteria for such surveys, whether it is good or based news.
I think the attitude if residents needs to change, first of all. When changes, other things fall into place. Second, diversify your economy as much as possible. People need to stop chasing smokestacks and use education to their advantage. Whether that is forming startups, having a certain vibe around your college campuses or having educational incentives. Third, consolidation of some services to some degree. Fourth, adjust you neighborhoods. Meaning, use open spaces for Parks/greenspace or for gardens/mini farms. It would promote a healthier way of living better than the corner store and when people are healthy, they feel and perform better. Fifth, community policing. Promote a civil relationship between the police and the people they serve. Create a community policing locations throughout the city and possibly consider a police athletic league that is city wide. Sixth, make all city high schools magnet schools, with small classroom/academy settings, as if your high school is like a college within a greater university system. It could or would keep kids involved in school past junior high and they could look forward to higher education through college or trade school. There's more, but I'll leave it there for now.
I really wanna keep this on the topic of my initial thought guys, the ideas presented are interesting but I don't want this thread to turn into the same old backyard b*tching (for the lack of a better term) about taxes being too high and the Bills being awful. I hear that stuff all the time.
If I can't get anymore relevant responses, maybe I'll reconsider continuing to post on this forum.
I'm not trying to be nasty, I just want this to be a useful discussion that might reach someone in power who can implement something.
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) but that alone will not be enough.
