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I agree with Garmin 100%. Forbes seems to come out with these very unscientific reports about twice a year. As far as I'm concerned, with every new one that comes out, Forbes loses more and more credibility.
It's not just Forbes though, that totally misreprsents the nature of Western NY living. This latest report is just another example of how the national media loves to bash Buffalo. Are there parts of Buffalo that have seen urban blight? Of course. Show me a city that hasn't. The fact is, Buffalo has come a long way in the last ten years or so, and most of the people that I know that live in and around it are not miserable at all. In fact it's quite the opposite; they are proud to live in a city that has so much to offer - warm but not humid summers, great food, little traffic, natural and man made beauty, and of course something else that too many cities lack these days - real, honest, hard-working, friendly people.
So let Forbes magazine and the rest of the country stay ignorant as to what a treasure we have here in Buffalo Those of us who know the truth, will continue to delight in all that the Queen City has to offer.
I agree with Garmin also. Forbes usually puts out a list based on one statistic. Hardly enough to judge a city. Most of the lists produced by Forbes are negative anyway. The information is useless. You don't look at a list of the worst places in the country to find a job, you look at the best. Forbes is just trying to make the homepage of Yahoo again by getting people to feed into their negativity.
Not just Forbes… Buffalo ranks near the bottom of almost each of these lists. I see a trend. You can attack each study as being biased, unfair, or unpleasant, but it doesn't change the perception of Buffalo as being a gloomy, unfree, high-taxed, poor, and bad-weathered city.
There should be a list that compiles a number of statistics. Jobs, economy, education, weather, entertainment, housing, transportation, etc into one study. And this should be produced on a yearly basis. It still wouldn't be 100% accurate for every situation, but it would be better than Forbes.
Not just Forbes… Buffalo ranks near the bottom of almost each of these lists. I see a trend. You can attack each study as being biased, unfair, or unpleasant, but it doesn't change the perception of Buffalo as being a gloomy, unfree, high-taxed, poor, and bad-weathered city.
I think the key word in this excerpt of your post OK, is "perception". I can't tell you how many times I've defended WNY to someone who had already formed an opinion on it, and then come to find out, they'd never been there. They're basing their argument on some nationally perceived belief on the culture and lifestyle of WNY. Unfortunately, over time, these perceptions come to be believed by many.
Yes, there are WNYers who have nothing good to say about the area, but I find in many cases these people have gone through tough times in life for a variety of reasons, and tend to put the whole blame on where they live.
Now, my glasses aren't rose-colored enough to make me fool myself into believing that everything is perfect here, I'm more of a realist than that. And as far as your assertion that Albany is doing a fine job of screwing up the lives of all New Yorkers, you'll get no argument from me there.
My SO was born and raised in Buffalo; we now live in the Midwest. In our trips back to visit his family, I have absolutely loved the time I've spent in Buffalo, find it to be a neat city with character. Granted, I've not tried to find a job there, but my general impression of Buffalo has been very positive.
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