Buffalo is the nation’s third most impoverished city. Buffalo’s East Side and West Side neighborhoods are two of Buffalo’s most impoverished areas. If any two neighborhoods are in need of economic development, it is these two. And yet, despite spending billions of dollars on economic development programs each year, the State, County, and City have largely ignored these neighborhoods and their increasingly desperate residents. Programs, funds, and subsidies meant to help blighted neighborhoods have instead subsidized sprawl, rewarded large, non-local companies, and, even within Buffalo, done more for downtown law firms and upscale condos than for the East and West Side.