Buffalo,New York-an interesting city...
Everyone: I have had major computer problems trying to chime in on this topic-I am familiar with Buffalo,NY myself-I first visited BUF in 1979 while traveling around Upstate NY-I found it to be quite interesting-from a interesting DT area that has historic structures like the Ellicott Square Building and BUFs City Hall-the 2nd largest in the USA behind Philadelphia's; The BUF Waterfront is one of it's greatest assets; Ethnic neighborhoods such as the old-style Polish neighborhoods in N and E-BUF has the 2nd largest Polish-American population behind Chicago and trendy neighborhoods such as Allentown. Buffalo has a lot of things going for it-institutions such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery for culture and festivals such as the Taste of Buffalo. BUT-Buffalo has a down side-BUF and Erie County are struggling economically and keep losing population-EC now has just slightly under a million residents nowadays. I have explored neighborhoods in BUF-I remember Central Terminal on Paderewski Drive-it closed in late 1979-in my early travels I traveled by train quite a bit-and I recall that every scheme that came along to redevelop the main waiting room/ticket hall and tower building has fallen thru-there are now a group of dedicated people that are working to save CT. I last went to CT in June 1998-I drove up to WNY with a buddy and we stopped there and took a look-I noticed the neighborhood had changed-the old "dividing line" between Black and White neighborhoods was Fillmore Avenue back in the 80s I recall. The nearby Broadway Market is a good food market-one of BUFs secrets. Another thing I liked about Buffalo was the somewhat freindlieness in the neighborhoods-unexpected to a Downstater like me.
I must also remark-as a NYS resident about the Upstate/Downstate divide-Upstate cities like Buffalo and Rochester have had economic as well as urban problems - when compared to Downstate NYS-The 5 Boros/Counties of NYC,Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island and the Hudson Valley counties of Westchester,Rockland,Putnam and southern Dutchess and Orange Counties. The Downstate areas are booming-with a decent economy and population growth but Upstate-particularly its cities-are in financial and urban pain and well as having a stagnant economy as well as losing some population. BUF and ROC have urban problems-Rochester in particular has an area called the Crescent-with NYS's highest per-capita murder rate-with a large poor underclass. West of Syracuse NYS has a much more midwestern flavor-on everything from attitude in general to language accent. BUF and ROC have much more in common with other Great Lakes cities then Downstate. I find it interesting that NYS is literally a state divided in many ways just more than geographically. That's my thoughts on NYS for now-Long Island Mike - June 8,2007
