Buffalo

Finally a locale that gets about as much respect as New Jersey. It's about time.

“I’ve lived in Buffalo for 38 years and I’ve never heard gunfire.” Thus spoke Newell Nussbaumer, an organizer for Buffalo Old Home Week, a festival aimed at attracting warm bodies to the beleaguered upstate New York locale. Not, we must say, a ringing endorsement.

Comments

[Eric Smith]

Wow. I grew up in Niagara Falls, NY and I never saw a tornado, earthquake, flood, huge falling asteroids, cannonfire, nuclear mushroom clouds, or al dente pasta.

Except for the pasta it was a perfect place to grow up. However once grown up, it's primary inhabitants are elderly Democrats which never bodes well for a community that wants to thrive...

[Phoenix]

Great article. Superb. I wonder why the cracked young staff of hate-filled people referred to with the reflexive, imperial 'we', otherwise known as 'Chip' went up there. To declare the city 'moribund'? Wow. Good work

[When one uses the imperial 'we' as the cracked young staff does, it should be capitalized.] Small grammar note.

[ajacksonian]

Grew up in Bflo and environs and got to see it rustify during the '70s and '80s.

I remember that Poland bought and shipped out the old Bethelhem steel works lock, stock and barrel as it was far, far superior to the old wehrmacht work the Soviets so generously gave them after WWII. Crime was never much of an issue, it was there but rather limited even as the area grew poorer after the industrial jobs left. Figure that you have temps cold enough to freeze your hand to a gun from November to March or early April. Summer always seems to be 90%+ humidity and a daily temp swing from 60 at night to 90 during the day from late June to late August. After all the industrial jobs moved out, the largest single employer in Erie County was... State University of NY at Buffalo. I kid you not. I matriculated there and got an education in spite of its leftist leanings... the sciences were pretty much devoid of those... all that hard math!

Still, I remember fondly Parkside Candies, the Pizza Plant and many a fine restaurant. The entire region had more good restaurants per square mile than any other city its size. But when an add-on to the sales tax is labeled as 'temporary' you know that it will be permanent. Got a good job elsewhere and rarely return, for all the good memories of the place. Except the winters. Those I miss not one little smidgen of a bit.