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.
Sounds more like a dictator to me. Democrats just don't have any respect for the law, the citizens, elections, even the Supreme Court. They've completely dumbed down the schools, so I guess they won't figure it out until it's too late.
Sounds more like a dictator to me. Democrats just don't have any respect for the law, the citizens, elections, even the Supreme Court. They've completely dumbed down the schools, so I guess they won't figure it out until it's too late.
All they care about is being re-elected nothing else matters. Mortgaging the future health of the young people of NYS for revenue from weed sales is beyond disgraceful.
Sounds more like a dictator to me. Democrats just don't have any respect for the law, the citizens, elections, even the Supreme Court. They've completely dumbed down the schools, so I guess they won't figure it out until it's too late.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thundarr457
All they care about is being re-elected nothing else matters. Mortgaging the future health of the young people of NYS for revenue from weed sales is beyond disgraceful.
That was still a rosy view of the 70s, based on my personal experiences. I went to public grade school in North Buffalo, graduated Catholic HS in the late 70s, and stuck around the city 4 more years at UB, including working jobs on the West Side and Kensington-Bailey. I knew of, witnessed, and experienced a lot of crime and criminal activity, to a level much greater than that I see today. There were a lot of street gangs in the neighborhoods (the "frats" in North Buffalo through the mid 1970s, at least, even got one of my older brothers involved), and it was common for large groups of young men to hang out on street corners and parking lots at all hours. I believe that statistically the 1970s were the worst crime Buffalo had experienced (up to that point) not to be exceeded again until the 1990s rolled around. Not sure how it all compares with today, but I feel much safer in general today than I did back then. Though I was one of the "good" kids in North Buffalo, I couldn't say the same for numerous people I grew up with or their families. The movie "Goodfellas" isn't too far from some of my experiences or those of acquaintances. I could probably write a book about it (or at least a couple of juicy chapters). Hell, we even had an abusive priest and one of the later named molester priests over at St. Margaret's (in hindsight, it probably wasn't a coincidence that our troop's leaders and the pastor kept the priests away from our Boy Scout meetings).
There was also a lot of racial tension. The 80s started the year out with the .22-Caliber Killer, that had the whole city on edge for several months until he was caught. That was a big gut punch to the whole city, analogous to the Tops shooting, but as it went unsolved for so long things just simmered, everyone was looking over their shoulder until he got caught, and people stuck to their own neighborhoods. I was working on Bailey at the time, and the neighborhood was very quickly transitioning from 100% white to majority black. Of course, the white supremacists decided to have a rally downtown on MLK day, before the killer was caught, to try and stir up more trouble.
One side note is that the Erie County Sheriff's Office, and a good part of the BPD, were very corrupt at the time. During the race riots of the 60s, they met with the heads of the frats and told them they had free rein to go into the black neighborhoods to kick ass (which they didn't do). Had they gone in, the police were going to arrest them all and blame them for starting the troubles. The police did the same thing again during the UB riot in 1970, but this time a few frats did go in to bust some students heads, and then in turn all were arrested along with the students during a sweep (sources on this are my brother, and an article in the UB Spectrum published in 10 years later). I was aware of many undercover police (they stood out) in my neighborhood, and out at the parks and bars, trying to set people up for one thing or another. And there was a brutal murder where 4 off-duty police beat a man to death in front of his own home (in North Buffalo) who just happened to be the son of the Reader's Digest publisher (turned out that the man's twin brother had an earlier run in at a bar with one of the cops). The cops almost got fully away with it, if I recall correctly, as a jury "not guilty" verdict was overruled by the judge, but it was for a lesser charge.
Oh, and there was the arson epidemic that went on for years. Buffalo blaze busters battling 3 alarmers.
So, in my opinion, "what the heck is happening to Buffalo" is that it has gotten much better over the years than it was in the recent past.
Good stuff. One of the books I'm currently reading is 'City on thr 'Edge' by Mark Goldman. It's basically a history of 20th century Buffalo. I look forward to gaining some knowledge of Buffalo's past
Good stuff. One of the books I'm currently reading is 'City on thr 'Edge' by Mark Goldman. It's basically a history of 20th century Buffalo. I look forward to gaining some knowledge of Buffalo's past
I need to re-read that. Keep in mind it's from a 2007 perspective, and I'm curious how much has held up. FYI Goldman was probably the single person most responsible for converting Chippewa Street from a seedy red light district into a respectable entertainment district in the 1990s, so in a sense he may have been the fuse on the city's "revival" of old and neglected neighborhoods (through certainly not the first to try).
Back when I first got my driver's license in the 1970s, a cruise down Chippewa to see what was happening was a thing to do - seedy bars and hotels, dirty book stores, prostitutes in windows waving people in, pimps in full-out 70s pimp clothes and cars, and lots of cars with Ohio and Ontario plates (they were white and stood out) parked on the street. It was a dump, but pretty wild. (No, I never spent my money there, but I know people who did).
Status:
"Smartened up and walked away!"
(set 23 days ago)
11,774 posts, read 5,787,833 times
Reputation: 14190
Well since most of upstate won't accept the migrants now NYC is issuing housing vouchers that can be used anywhere in the state. Problem is - will landlords actually get pd as NYC is not doing so well fiscally right now.
Well since most of upstate won't accept the migrants now NYC is issuing housing vouchers that can be used anywhere in the state. Problem is - will landlords actually get pd as NYC is not doing so well fiscally right now.
Good stuff. One of the books I'm currently reading is 'City on thr 'Edge' by Mark Goldman. It's basically a history of 20th century Buffalo. I look forward to gaining some knowledge of Buffalo's past
If interested in contemporary attitudes and thoughts, I just finished a book from the library called 'The Anatomy of a Riot: Buffalo, 1967' by UB professor Frank Besag that was written in the weeks after the riots. It is very short on statistics, but loaded with interviews of participants, businesspeople, police, and neighborhood residents (both black and white). All I can say is holy crap, it's hard to read most of the interviews without alternately being disgusted or depressed. Not to say that there aren't problems today in race relations, but the interviews make clear that it was orders of magnitude worse at the time. The last couple of interviews of white East Siders especially go down a deep dark hole (which explains a lot about some people's attitudes today, even on these boards).
Side note, I was 7 at the time of the riot (I assume this one, but could have been the MLK shooting a year later), and was downtown with my mother when businesses were shut down early, as it was expected the rioters/looters just a few blocks away would go there next. My recollection is of mobs of people at every bus stop frantic to leave, every bus overloaded, and us having to stand the whole way back once we were able to find one we could board.
Last edited by RocketSci; 09-28-2023 at 07:14 AM..
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.
