Buffalo: I Will Stay If...

All about jobs and quality of life. Offer jobs that pay over $10 an hour and make the city streets safe at ALL Hours, then more will stay and more will move in.

It really is all about the jobs. I have A LOT of family members and cousins who got their degree in Buffalo and had to move to get a job, or got a degree somewhere else in the state and had to move out of state to get a well paying job. Start attracting more jobs to the city and county and more people will move back in. The city and suburbs need to work together, not try to steal from each other.

It's all about jobs and economic opportunity. Buffalo has a wonderful quality of life that makes it an extraordinarily desirable place to live. But in order to do so, one is faced with a difficult predicament: accept mediocre access to opportunity, lesser earnings, and take longer to achieve less in one's career in exchange for living in a City that people genuinely love. That's not that easy to do, particularly when all of the forces of the global economy and our popular culture are pulling people into the glamor cities of the coasts. Much of this stems from the inevitable forces of globalization and urbanization that we can't control and that we can barely mitigate.

But it's not all inevitable, and our economic development strategy can help.

For too long Buffalo Niagara has taken a "low road" economic development strategy. That is, we've decided to compete on "lowest cost." But that strategy necessitates low wages. Indeed, with this strategy we'll be the call center capital of the continent, but very little else. And, frankly, maxing out our economic potential at $11 p/hr is a unfathomable policy option that our region's leaders have embraced for decades.

The alternative (and we've been moving in this direction, given the BNMC and UB2020) is to take the "high road". That is, to compete on providing the highest quality, most skilled, most educated, and most productive workforce that enjoys the most productive infrastructure. And that infrastructure must facilitate the existence of industrial agglomerations (clusters of firms in a given industry) that will allow for implicit firm cooperation and collaborative opportunities that will reduce costs (particularly related to supply chains and sourcing relationships). Those industrial clusters make place relevant. The fact that each firm will use each others' pool of labor and innovative talent with specialized skill sets, each others' suppliers, distributors, contractors, and professionals with expertise in given transactions, those firms will be bound to Buffalo because they wouldn't be able to achieve the same level of productivity and flexibility in a region that was devoid of those networks (as media is bound to Southern California, tech is bound to Silicon Valley, financial services to NYC, pharma to Jersey, etc).

People want to stay here. They crave that option. But when you're forced to decide whether you want to realize your full potential, or not, that takes a level of commitment that suspends rationality.

This is 100% about jobs and economic development. Unfortunately, there is not a single WNY politician that talks about this (for fear of not being able to deliver?).

JOBS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT!!!!It has to be promoted by OUR leader (Should be Mayor Brown to get it started). Look at how NYC turned itself around starting with former Mayor Rudy G. he fought to have Times Square cleaned up by getting a Disney Store to move on 42nd. Street then went after the Police Department and MTA to clean up the Subway system, then after each section of the ENTIRE CITY to clean up and work on Economic Development AND Housing Plan to make dead and crime infested areas brought back to life full of new businesses, places to live and where people want to MOVE To. If a big city like NYC can turn it self around dramatically in the last 10-15 years, no reason why a smaller city such as Buffalo can't fight to do the same. We have the resources and potential already, LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN.

And please, someone say, "We aren't NYC so it can't happen here"...That'll just prove WHY we are in the rut we are in today, because noone will stand up and DEMAND the same development plans to bring jobs and vibrant streets BACK to Buffalo.

It's also about the weather. Some people love the snow and can't wait for it. Others, probably the majority, don't like 5 months of it each year, and also don't get much enjoyment from the persistent gray sky for much of the winter.

Our examplars are not NYC or Chicago or Boston, They are Portland and Seattle. Two out of the way former industrial age power houses that had reinvented themselves not through silver bullets; but by tennacity and planning. Seek out the next bread an butter industry; greenpower..biotech.. bioinformatics...data storage whatever and give them the incentive to be here! good paying jobs begets stabilty begets regional fanaicial well being.

Frankly, I have a good paying and stable job, live in the city, and do not want to let our secret out. I can afford a nice house and i pretty damn good quality of life compared to others in said cities...

"The Great Lakes Urban Exchange ... wants to know what it will take to make their friends "stick" in Buffalo. And they want to take that message to the region's elected officials."

It's well meaning but useless to tell elected officials that the biggest reason for this area's population loss is long term lack of job growth. It's so obvious that even they are well aware.

It's like this quote -
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Homer-Simpson-Quotes/81654318461?v=feed&story_fbid=175024566065

I WILL STAY IF....Albany reforms itself, the 800 special authorities (of which they have no control over) and ends all the oppressive mandates on the municipalities of nys. I WILL STAY IF....wny adopts regionalism and begins to consolodate duplicate services in each town. why does nearly each town need its own seperate police chief, school board, sanitation dept, ect, ect, ect....

i think albany knows that. but there is to much money in representing special interests.....then there is in representing US.

I agree with several posters here. It's not just jobs, but jobs that pay a reasonable, living wage in proportion to the skill of the worker.

I have Bachelor's degrees in Business AND Computer Science, and received my MBA in Economics in 1996. I ended up in Minnesota, mainly because I couldn't find a company that was willing to pay me more than $40K... with an MBA no less.

The last two jobs I had in Buffalo that paid me enough to live on were as a bouncer, and a concert security gig. Obviously neither one of those was putting any of my degrees to use.

It's a sad state of affairs when a bouncer/security guard job pays better than a corporate or IT job.

while i agree with much of what is said here, i think there is a larger overarching issue that haunts the region: a leadership vacuum.

no vision. nope, none. a rudderless city in a rudderless region in a rudderless state.

where are the leaders? where is the grand vision? the closest we get is Kevin Gaughan seeking the reduction of town boards. i know Kevin is good intentioned, but c'mon - its low impact populism.

i ask, where are the leaders fighting for change and relentlessly perusing their goals? there are lots of elected officials who agree with lots of issues - but i want someone who is insatiable for getting an idea from paper to bricks and mortar. split up city schools into multiple districts? - interesting. create boroughs of Kenmore and Lackawanna? - seems like something worth going for. expanded metro rail and better service to TO? - im with you.

whatever it could be, let me hear vision!

I want ideas! I want someone who go out and demands action, and gets it. i want fist pounding. i want leaders. frankly, i want somebody to just act like they care.

I would stay if our "world class" university decides to accept local college graduates to their professional schools instead of out of staters so they can get more money. Then, these people leave after their education and the locals moved away for the education and remain away......brain drain.

As an "outsider" who chose to move to Buffalo last fall from another, smaller Rust Belt upstate New York city, I have a different perspective. I am an entrepreneur who chose to stay in New York state, but wanted a larger city with more opportunity. There is a lot about this state that I fight to change on a daily basis, but that will only be partly successful. What I CAN do is work hard on growing my jewelry business, and with a very supportive community that likes to think local, that is becoming easier! I am thrilled to be a part of a city with an amazing history, gorgeous architecture, a (generally) great positive attitude, TONS of grassroots community organizations, and the will and determination to turn things around. We all know that most real change comes from individuals rather than politicians or huge corporations, so let's harness that human potential and work together to get this region where it should be! I am proud to be an adopted Buffalonian, and am interested in where this conversation goes.

I am already moving back so Buffalo sold me I guess. I have been in DC for 7 years and the traffic has finally got to my wife and I. She moved back a few months ago after finding a job. So far I have not found a job but have not looked that hard yet. Yes we are taking huge paycuts but the quality of life in Buffalo for us far outweighs that. Now if I can only find a job.

Dismantle the duplicated, outdated, governmental archipelago throughout WNY and replace it with a strong and lean regional structure to provide services at a lower unit cost and coordinated and comprehensive planning.

I don't hold out for this anytime soon - obviously it won't be under my Christmas tree [LOL] - but some steps and efforts can be undertaken now.

I also know this means big time turf challenges and likely getting those ineffectual ciphers in Albany involved. It's long overdue that the earn their pay and begin to represent our interests instead of theirs.

A lot of you talk about what it would take to make you stay in Buffalo. As someone who left the Buffalo area at the age of 20, I can understand that there are many things that irk people. But there are many things that make it a very attractive place to live.

At 32, I am looking to move back and have been trying to for the past year. Talk about a hard task! IT jobs for qualified people seem to have dried up over the past year. I have traveled back and forth from Boston multiple times for great 2nd interviews, only to find out that the employer was not hiring for a MYRIAD of reasons. Sorry for the rant, it's just been frustrating when all you want to do is move back to your hometown and it's that very place that is preventing it. Especially after reading this thread.