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Since nearly every thread turns into a Buffalo's booming or dying rant, I thought I'd start one, getting right to the subject.
There's no question that a LOT of money has been spent in Buffalo, private and mostly government. Despite having the job openings, there hasn't been the influx of people to fill them. There's 80,000 college students. About 20,000 graduates every year. Why are they leaving after making Buffalo home for 4 years? If existing companies can't find employees, why would a new company set up shop, or and existing expand?
The US is massive, and home to countless world class cities and mid range boom towns. Portland, Austin, Nashville, Denver, nyc, Boston, Chicago, LA, Miami. Imagine being able to pick up and move anywhere within this huge country and then deciding to voluntarily park yourself in Wichita, Kansas or Saginaw, Michigan or buffalo, NY. That seems like a tough ask for the average joe without extremely deep ties to the area.
The US is massive, and home to countless world class cities and mid range boom towns. Portland, Austin, Nashville, Denver, nyc, Boston, Chicago, LA, Miami. Imagine being able to pick up and move anywhere within this huge country and then deciding to voluntarily park yourself in Wichita, Kansas or Saginaw, Michigan or buffalo, NY. That seems like a tough ask for the average joe without extremely deep ties to the area.
And yet over 90% of Americans do not live in the superstar cities and never will - the issue that this country needs to address is if this country can survive being divided this way.
Even cities like Miami and other superstar cities have been described as similar to cities in 3rd world countries with massive differences between rich and poor, and huge areas of poor people. Dade County Florida (Miami), Dallas County Texas, and Fulton County Georgia (Atlanta), among many others, all have a much higher poverty rate than Erie County, for example.
And yet over 90% of Americans do not live in the superstar cities and never will - the issue that this country needs to address is if this country can survive being divided this way.
Even cities like Miami and other superstar cities have been described as similar to cities in 3rd world countries with massive differences between rich and poor, and huge areas of poor people. Dade County Florida (Miami), Dallas County Texas, and Fulton County Georgia (Atlanta), among many others, all have a much higher poverty rate than Erie County, for example.
Im not really sure what you’re getting at. Of course other cities have poverty. But the question is are eligible members of the workforce going to actively choose buffalo over other cities. And the answer is it seems pretty unlikely. The competition isn’t just with superstar cities. Phoenix, Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, salt lake, Charleston, minneapolis, Nashville, Denver, Tampa, etc etc etc. People without deep ties to wny aren’t voluntarily bypassing these countless other options to move to a place like buffalo.
Since nearly every thread turns into a Buffalo's booming or dying rant, I thought I'd start one, getting right to the subject.
There's no question that a LOT of money has been spent in Buffalo, private and mostly government. Despite having the job openings, there hasn't been the influx of people to fill them. There's 80,000 college students. About 20,000 graduates every year. Why are they leaving after making Buffalo home for 4 years? If existing companies can't find employees, why would a new company set up shop, or and existing expand?
I couldn't read the article due to reaching the article limit(Yup, it happens with mainstream papers too guys), but I would say it can be a complex issue in terms of stigma, mismatch of skills/education in relation to openings, limited experience within the metro area(i.e.-staying within the campus bubble or to select parts of the city/metro), a desire to get back to where they are from and may get a better opportunity elsewhere, among other things.
In terms of setting up shop, I think the area still offers a relatively low cost of overall(key word) living for those gainfully employed people, its location regards to one of the most affluent economic regions in North American, access to fresh water/that acts as a power source, multiple high quality school districts/options(inc. private, charter and magnet within the BPS), has a low risk of natural disasters and some other factors that have been mentioned in recent threads.
I will also say that even with the development that is taking place or posted on here, I wouldn't use/nor have I used the word "booming" to describe what is going on in Buffalo. Some areas are seeing revitalization, but "booming", no.
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Originally Posted by JWRocks
Since nearly every thread turns into a Buffalo's booming or dying rant, I thought I'd start one, getting right to the subject.
There's no question that a LOT of money has been spent in Buffalo, private and mostly government. Despite having the job openings, there hasn't been the influx of people to fill them. There's 80,000 college students. About 20,000 graduates every year. Why are they leaving after making Buffalo home for 4 years? If existing companies can't find employees, why would a new company set up shop, or and existing expand?
Many kids go to a school because thats where they can afford, got accepted, has their desired major offered or their parents said their going there...
That said if the bulk attending are not from that region of the state it is quite possible that the weather weighs heavily on their decision to leave the region after graduation. I think the largest reason is the jobs in the fields they have studied for are not available or not available at a price that attractive. Even here most if not all who graduate from 2 of the largest schools in the state will leave those areas because the job opportunities do not exist in them, its nothing unique.
Many kids go to a school because thats where they can afford, got accepted, has their desired major offered or their parents said their going there...
That said if the bulk attending are not from that region of the state it is quite possible that the weather weighs heavily on their decision to leave the region after graduation. I think the largest reason is the jobs in the fields they have studied for are not available or not available at a price that attractive. Even here most if not all who graduate from 2 of the largest schools in the state will leave those areas because the job opportunities do not exist in them, its nothing unique.
I would think that with 2 of the largest schools in the state, that they would have a few courses geared to the local major industries
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Originally Posted by JWRocks
I would think that with 2 of the largest schools in the state, that they would have a few courses geared to the local major industries
In the case of UVA it is the quintessential college town with the college being the main focus same with Blacksburg where Virginia Tech is located. Both localities are nice but for kids graduating they go where the job are. Our other big school is VCU located in Richmond they do get a lot of graduates staying on in various industries to start their careers but the jobs are here for them.
Is it really different with any other school look at Darmouth, Ithaca and Brown how many kids are staying in the localities of those Ivy League schools i'll bet not much. At one point I had family at many upstate schools including Buffalo, after the Blizzard of 76/77 they all were like hell no! I am not staying up here...
Last edited by VA Yankee; 10-21-2019 at 03:30 PM..
In the case of UVA it is the quintessential college town with the college being the main focus same with Blacksburg where Virginia Tech is located. Both localities are nice but for kids graduating they go where the job are. Our other big school is VCU located in Richmond they do get a lot of graduates staying on in various industries to start their careers but the jobs are here for them.
Is it really different with any other school look at Darmouth, Ithaca and Brown how many kids are staying in the localities of those Ivy League schools i'll bet not much. At one point I had family at many upstate schools including Buffalo, after the Blizzard of 76/77 they all were like hell no! I am not staying up here...
IDK, Ithaca seems to be on a nice growth rate, so there are jobs. The problem as I read it from the Buffalo News is that Buffalo has the jobs, just not the people to fill them.
1) A lot of students at UB come from places like Great Neck and Yonkers and Schenectady and Beijing and other points beyond. These kids never intended to stay here permanently and we never expected them to.
2) As VA Yankee noted, the same effect happens at most big universities, or at least at ones that aren’t located in global cities.
3) In this era of economic globalization that started a few decades ago, small towns are dying and and international cities are booming. Buffalo is somewhere in between. We’re big enough to take in folks fleeing places like Elmira and Cortland, but we’re also small enough to lose folks to New York, DC, and Chicago. If you really want to sing the blues, look at the small towns like Elmira - they’re in a freefall, whereas Buffalo is fortunate to be steady overall.
4) Buffalo is also benefiting from a trickle-down from the overheated economies of New York City and DC and so on where a starter home costs upwards of a million dollars. Young professionals struggle to be able to afford to live in these overpriced cities, so they’re coming back to their hometowns - places like Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, etc.
5) Speaking of Pittsburgh, they seem to be kicking our tails as a regional employment hub. Google located there. Ouch. So now the top graduates from Cornell, Carnegie-Mellon, UB, U of R, Case Western, and so on all go to Pittsburgh if they want to stay in driving distance of their hometowns and work for a global tech company.
6) Buffalo’s geography has been unfortunate in some ways. We’re trapped between 2 lakes and right next to a foreign country. If Americans could ever easily work in Canada or vice-Versa, Buffalo could become a feeder to the Toronto region.
7) Did folks actually read the article linked? It was positive about Buffalo’s economy, not negative. And it wasn’t a great article. Everyone should know that the national economy is in a recession right now.
8) All this obsession over job numbers is old-school stupidonomics that ignores everything else that matters, like health and quality of life and happiness and the environment and equality and community and so on.
9) Buffalo is also gaining from globalism in that we’re taking in a lot of folks from poor, developing countries that make Buffalo look like paradise. These folks work hard, pay taxes, start businesses, and add to the local culture.
10) If you’re not a professional economist, you shouldn’t embarrass yourself by trying to argue about Buffalo’s economy, one way or the other. You should stick to arguing about the Bills or something where you know what you’re talking about. And if you really care about how Buffalo’s economy is doing, relax. The fate of a million-person metro area is much larger than whatever happens to you.
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