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Hey- I'm not from Buffalo. I find the place kind of fascinating, and would like to visit some day. I'm posting here because this forum is the best place I can find (short of actually going there) to see what the various attitudes/ideas of the people of Buffalo are like. Please don't be alarmed: I just think you live in an interesting place and would like to learn more about it and those of you who live there.
So here's my first question: I see a lot of posts on this forum about "I'm finally leaving Buffalo," where the theme is usually, "Can't find a job, sick of trying..." etc. My question is WHO is leaving? What's their educational background? Is it mostly blue collar people or professionals? What's it like there if you're, say, a doctor or a lawyer compared to a more middle class occupation like an insurance salesman or a skilled laborer?
Most of the people I know who have left are teachers. Too many teaching students, not enough open job openings. I heard that at one school there were 1000 applicants. There are cities in other areas of the country that are in desperate need, but not here.
The high schools need to tell kids where the jobs are in the area. Health, manufacturing and services are still the main job sectors in the Buffalo area. If teaching is your destiny, I won't stop you, NYS teachers are paid well. But you have to consider you may need to make a move.
There are some that don't care for the weather, taxes, older historic looking town. But in my opinion, a job changes everything. Buffalo has always had high taxes and is not why the primary reason the industry left. Take Raleigh for example, there isn't even a downtown per say, housing costs are much more, wait time is traffic is way up, but people flock in numbers because of the continued job growth.
Cheese makes a good point - most people follow jobs.
Looking deeper - those with income and savings have the ability to move. Those with education are more curious and want to go to other places, some to stay.
Perhaps its better to ask Who stays? Poorer people are less mobile- they stay gangs have their turf which they might not obtain somewhere else - they stay.
Trover asked about professionals - that's a two way street . Doctors and attys build a practice and moving may mean a start from scratch. This contradicts to some extent the higher income and education tendency towards more mobility.
An example is Rockport Texas where I currently live. Nice safe quiet ocean town near Corpus. Well attorneys assume practicing in one state is the same no matter what county as the laws are the same so "Why not go to Rockport?" They come and find there's more attorneys than criminals, or more bad attorneys than bad marraiges etc lol if they do family law.
Hey- I'm not from Buffalo. I find the place kind of fascinating, and would like to visit some day. I'm posting here because this forum is the best place I can find (short of actually going there) to see what the various attitudes/ideas of the people of Buffalo are like. Please don't be alarmed: I just think you live in an interesting place and would like to learn more about it and those of you who live there.
So here's my first question: I see a lot of posts on this forum about "I'm finally leaving Buffalo," where the theme is usually, "Can't find a job, sick of trying..." etc. My question is WHO is leaving? What's their educational background? Is it mostly blue collar people or professionals? What's it like there if you're, say, a doctor or a lawyer compared to a more middle class occupation like an insurance salesman or a skilled laborer?
I appreciate all your responses.
For the past couple of years almost everyone I know complains about our government, though none I know have said they've left for that reason. In fact, they're all still here and all still complaining about all of the same things. I (personally) know 3 families that have left, 2 of which came back and the other says they wish they could afford to move back. Jobs (lack of/loss of) is their reason for leaving, only to find it not so "greener".
Despite my user ID, I love Buffalo and my children are 5th generation born and raised. I'll not leave here. I probably didn't answer your questions, I just wanted to get it out there, somewhere, that Buffalo is a place more than any map can pin-point.
I would say the profile of a typical person who leaves Buffalo is a young college-educated professional who typically leaves for a larger city or a metro with job growth.
There is also another group of blue collar and skilled labor, again mostly young people, who flock to high-growth sunbelt locations for construction and service-sector employment opportunities.
Health care professionals are in demand everywhere and a young person pursuing a career in healthcare can do quite well in Buffalo because they can actually afford a nice lifestyle on the salary (nurse, physical therapist, etc.).
To other professionals working in areas like technology, marketing, finance, and communications for example, Buffalo offers less opportunity for decent entry-level and managerial employment, opportunity for advancement and good pay.
I'll repeat something I've often posted: If you are "set" in your career, Buffalo is a great place to live, but getting to that point is the challenge, especially for young people.
My husband and I are teachers who never left. We got jobs here in the late 60s/early 70s, kept them to retirement, still live in the same little house we bought 36+ years ago, where we raised our 2 locally college edcated 30ish kids who both stayed in the area and have good job. Our friends have moved on to warmer climes, our kids have friends who have done the same. OTOH, we have no intent on moving at all. [My husbands family got here before the Erie Canal opened. ]
I left Buffalo for better job opportunities. Received my degre from SUNY at Buffalo and away I went!!
I miss it though. A majority of my friends are still there but alot have also moved too for better job opportunities.. It is a great area though to raise a family....
Moving elsewhere would nearly guarantee not only better job prospects but lower cost of living (Buffalo has the highest or near highest taxes and gas prices in the nation, maybe why it's also one of the poorest regions).
But more importantly, living elsewhere would nearly guarantee more successful pro sports teams less apt to break your heart over and over again. I'm hoping that 2012 is the magical year when the Buffalo curse will finally expire.
Your right that the taxes are higher. But the housing is also cheaper. I moved up from NC, a state where everyone said the cost of living was cheaper. The income tax was actually slightly higher. We had an apartment in the city that cost per month as much as our house in east Rochester WITH the property and school taxes. Then there is the electric bill, ~$130 a month in the summer to cool an apartment. Our last bill with electric and gas was $240 for a three story house. I can't imagine how much water is.
The travel time was way up and you had to drive everywhere, traffic is stop and go there, so I went from filling up once or twice a week to once every two weeks. My wife is about the same, she commutes 1/2 hour. Then NC hits you up with a car tax every year, and you have to pay for an additional sticker on your license plate.
AGAIN, the cost of living upstate is cheap, the problem is the jobs. And more importantly how the cities tax the employers.
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