Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Great article. 15 years ago this would have been a joke article on the Onion! Things are really turning around in Buffalo. You can feel the positive energy up there.
Nice to see, I agree things have been on a positive, albeit slow trajectory since I got out of college in 2004. I never left and I am glad I didn't have to. I could see things getting better for the next 20-30+ years, we have nowhere to go but up. I never will forget seeing those cranes at canal side for the first time.
I saw the NY Times article a while back. I remember graduating from Syracuse's business school and the class' mentality was NYC or bust. I think the emergence of Denver and Austin along with the economic crisis of half a decade ago are contributing to this. Graduates are getting smarting in filtering out the BS that schools are selling them. It's not so much of a "career-first" mentality, but more of a quality-of-life mentality. Sure, big cities such as NYC, LA, SF, Boston, DC and Chicago have more to do, but it isn't worth moving there if you can't afford to do any of those extra things. Now many graduates look for places that are affordable, have decent jobs, and have a decent amount to do. When I was growing up in Austin it was the red-headed step child of Texas. Dallas and Houston were the places to be. That has since flipped.
Obviously, Austin didn't have to deal with the amount of abandoned buildings that the rust belt cities do, but you can see Buffalo on a similar rise. Sure, it might take a quarter of a decade, but I wouldn't be surprised if Buffalo and Pittsburgh move up to Austin/Portland/Denver status eventually.
Great articles about the City of Buffalo . . . . While the economy here in Denver is outstanding for many, I don't think you want to see some of the problems we have here in Denver engulf Buffalo.
Great articles about the City of Buffalo . . . . While the economy here in Denver is outstanding for many, I don't think you want to see some of the problems we have here in Denver engulf Buffalo.
Cost of living: Getting Absurd
Traffic: Brutal Congestion
Housing Availability: Poor
Sports Teams: Suck
Things are not growing so fast in Buffalo that the first three are a problem.... yet.
But the fourth? The Sabres may be the worst team in the history of hockey and the Bills have not made the playoffs in 15 years. Denver's sports teams look like dynasties by comparison!
But the fourth? The Sabres may be the worst team in the history of hockey
I wouldn't go so far as that. The Sabres may be terrible this year but were pretty good a few years ago. Every franchise has up and down years. At least the Sabres are still around unlike the Whalers who spent 18 mediocre seasons in Hartford before hightailing out of there without a Stanley Cup win (they later won as the Hurricanes to add insult to injury). The Sabres and even the Bills at least have an opportunity to win a major league championship for their home city. Other cities like Hartford don't even have that chance anymore.
It's not so much of a "career-first" mentality, but more of a quality-of-life mentality.
I strongly concur with this.
I grew up on the outskirts of Scranton, PA, which is pretty much the smaller cousin of Syracuse or perhaps Binghamton's bigger brother. I attended college nearby in Wilkes-Barre, PA, a struggling post-Industrial city not much smaller than Scranton. My college graduated hundreds of brilliant young minds annually, yet it also encouraged these talented individuals to move out of the area via inviting recruiters to campus that were almost exclusively from outside the region. Colleges are BUSINESSES, folks, even the "non-profit" ones. The higher the salaries their graduates earn, the more money they stand to reap in the long-run during annual alumni donor appeals. It's not in their best interest to encourage a fresh graduate to be underemployed in Scranton (or Buffalo or Syracuse), earning $35,000, when they can be earning twice as much in NYC, NoVA, DC, MD, CT, etc. and funnel more money back to their alma maters.
When I graduated in 2009 I hoofed it to Northern Virginia with a job offer in hand. After a year-and-a-half of living in absolute misery in that bland, rude, materialistic, congested, overgrown suburban cess pool I abruptly quit my job, subleased my apartment, and hoofed it to Pittsburgh on a leap of faith---moving someplace I wanted to LIVE instead of moving someplace because of WORK. I've been happy ever since. I only earn $40,000/year here compared to the $70,000/year I'd probably be earning now back in Northern Virginia, but my stress level is much, much lower.
Places like Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, etc. may not carry the "cachet" of the immediate BosWash Corridor; however, do you want to spend your entire life trying to be the biggest fish in the biggest pond, only to die before ever making it there, or do you want to ENJOY your entire life being a medium-sized fish in a small pond? With my Federal job back in VA I'd be able to retire relatively young and relatively affluent, but who wants to just start enjoying their life when they're 60 or 65---when all of their most prime of years have already passed them by?
I think Buffalo, Cleveland, and Cincinnati are all going to be "rising stars" to really watch over the course of the next decade now that Pittsburgh has been "discovered" and is experiencing a rising cost-of-living. Buffalo, to me, is just like Pittsburgh---but less congested, cheaper, and with a better-integrated park system, thanks to Frederick Law Olmsted. Do you want to live large and relaxed in Buffalo on $50,000 or live frugally and stressed on $80,000 in NYC?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
