Buffalo Niagara - How Are We Really Doing

Abstract

There has been a lot of good news lately in Buffalo: Harbor Center and Canalside, RiverBend and Solar City, the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus expansion, new hotels and restaurants, even an uptick in employment and population. But most of this good news is economic, and there is much more to our region than just economic activity. These positive developments have prompted reactions such as “rebirth” and “resurgence.” But perspectives on Buffalo vary widely, depending in part on how long you have lived here and where you live. People who came of age or moved here in the 1970s experienced the rock bottom in Buffalo’s trajectory. From that perspective everything looks like up. But for those of us who were here in the 1950s, during Buffalo’s heyday, well, we are not back to that yet–back to the times when there were pedestrians crowding the streets of downtown Buffalo and stores open every night of the week on every block. And for people living in many neighborhoods, concentrated poverty and blight have been getting worse in recent years, not better, and jobs are still hard to find. So, Buffalo Niagara, how are we really doing?