STEEL's Rant (A Study in Sarcasm)

Hell Yes!!

I agree. Buffalos worst enemies are the people themselves.

My friends that have moved out are sick of me telling them how great Buffalo is! Buffalo has bottomed out and is on the upswing. A lot of the "abandon" warehouses downtown are either under construction now or will be soon. That's a HUGE statement!

We DO have 4 seasons. I can go sailing, kayaking and mountain biking in the summer. Go hiking in the fall foliage. Go skiing and ice fishing in the winter. And if I have a death wish, white water rafting down the Buffalo river or Caz Creek in the Spring. Seriously, we're in a unique place geographically and we should exploit it.

My buddy in NYC pays $1200 a month for a **** 10x10ft room apartment. Can you imagine what kind of HOUSE you could buy for that here in B'lo?!?

The cool kids in Crooklyn can go on living in their cramped apartments, while I laugh in the backyard of my house.

Steel, you forgot to mention how pointing out the inequities that exist is a "victim mentality" How even though there is overwhelming evidence of cities being abused and neglected for decades we are just supposed to suck it up and not complain. Even as we have invested our time, money, and energy in making Buffalo a better place we still have seen our neighborhoods decline. We just must not be working as hard as our suburban neighbors.

The worst 'crack' houses in Riverside when I was growing up were all owned by people in the suburbs who moved out and just suck money and never reinvest it back into their property. When studying Urban Planning I did a study comparing the mailing addresses for property owners versus the condition of the house... It was strikingly apparent what was happening.

who are these "cool kids" you keep talking about?

Wegmans

Thank you thank you thank you! Those constantly negative comments are so exhausting to read! I guess it's a bunch of guys who are sitting around waiting to crap on anybody who shows some enthusiasm.

Imagine if they spent a bit of time building something positive. Everything that's good in this city is the result of people just making their environment better and fighting, sometimes for years, for change in a city with leadership problems.

The silent majority of people who want something good for this city just get overshadowed by those bitter commentors for whom moving away just isn't good enough.

We have negative people in this area. They will always be negative and the best thing to do is 'Ignore' them. Don't let them win by arguing with them or even responding to them.

If a city experiences a brain drain for 30 years, what is left?

Mrs. Steele,

The other cool kids and I have been talking and we are truly sorry about making fun of little David and his favorite city. We really don't mean to step all over his dreams, but living here is difficult at times, and we like to use humor to deflect from the fact that Buffalo is the third-poorest and least-effectively governed city in the US.

Also, your son doesn't know what 'Sarcasm' means.

Sincerely,
The Cool Kids!

except Karl Malone- not only won't he apologize, but he's taking your son's milk money next time he sees him.

As a side note: If you think their is nothing here or nothing to do? Check out: www.VisitBuffaloNiagara.com and see the many cultural venues, musuems, historic sites, the many tours, theaters, shopping districts, and more. We have MORE than what is mentioned on BR or in the news.

what steel said!

i just don't get the ikea/whole foods fetish. what a sorry measurement of civic pride, whether we have this or that big box store gleefully bankrupting our local retailers.

plenty of nowhere usa places with the full complement of big boxes sure wish they had a guaranty building or a darwin martin house.

i think that the problem is that a majority of young people who view the city in such a poor light have heard it from their parents who left the city at the start of its decline and the rise of the suburbs. To be fair, there isn't always an overwhelming amount of activities to do, but is there in any city of this size? I have friends in toronto (a much much larger city) that say they have nothing to do....so i guess you can't just blame buffalo for that. Growing up i never ventured into the city much until i was old enough to start going out, then i started to appreciate the city. I dont just mean chippewa either, people who only go there dont get a full feel for the city. I hope that canal side becomes a whole experience and not just a tourist attraction. I know that i'll be hated for this, but galleria has made amazing strides in the past few years, i can only hope that canalside can have the same type of feel, and garner the same type of interest. Buffalo will always have hope as long as there are even a few people willing to make the effort, but lets not bicker with those who dislike the city. If they dont want to see what the city has to offer, then its their loss, especially since if the city fails, the suburbs will soon follow.

It is so much easier to gain control and prove you're right through negative and outrageous posting. See, you don't have to do a thing except break down the positives. That way, when things don't get done, you prove you are right.

I have written a few articles here and on other sites to get people to research the topic and provide their opinion. I wanted to stimulate the thought process since, when venturing into a new concept, it's good to have varying opinion. But, that proved to be too hard for a few readers. Instead, they either slammed it down upon perception or demanded more information.

I always felt the reasoning behind "Comment Sections" was to promote dialogue. Yes, we are all entitled to our opinions, but can we deliver them in a proactive manner with which to build upon ideas for the greater good?

Or simply just celebrate a victory, no matter how small or great the capacity, without sites like this becoming high school slam books.

Negativism is exhausting, with that exhaustion comes control, whether it be by breaking down the pioneer spirit we see every day throughout our city or simply creating enough discourse that others, who have ideas and concepts worth following, say "I'm not even going to open that site anymore."

I wish everyone here and other sites, the strength and fortitude to continue to fight for the dream - no matter what your definition is of it.

We need to clasp our hands and place them upon our hearts. Feel the heat; feel the energy. Now grasp it! Place your arms and hands over your head and let the energy and heat snowflake (add sic upon requote) upon all of us. Together we can harness the heat and energy and make the food (debate metaphor) to nourish and provide for us all. Together we can do anything…

I'm sick of the NIMBY's that stop prgress via lawsuits then when they don't win they appeal and appeal. By doing this your just increasing the cost of development thus decreasing the likeliness of developement happening.

I don't feel the need to make excuses for living in Buffalo. Every once in a great while I question my move, but I think everyone does that everywhere.

Steel, amazingly, you posted this article just minutes before a Buffalo News post about redeveloping the Statler started another round of city bashing "tear it down" comments. No realy, commenters there would actually advocate tearing down the Statler http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/924551.html

Obviously these people don't live in the city, hate Buffalo, and think the only good development downtown involves a wrecking ball.

Kinda makes me want to work even harder, to make sure development dollars go to renovating our historic city, instead of suburban sprawl. People in Buffalo need to work together.

I love your point about taxpayer dollars going to subsidize infrastructure in the 'burbs instead of revitalizing downtown.

Ranter>"...2 or 3 teenage commenters pining for an IKEA, followed quickly by the "cool kids," who come on to mock naive little Buffalonians and lecture them...."

I doubt the commenters pining for Ikea are "teenage" "native little Buffalonians" as you assume. What makes you assume that? Condescending, isn't it? Or do you seriously think think trendy expensive furniture stores are something the teen demographic usually pines for?

People who keep saying Ikea should open a store here sound like adults who aren't aware that Ikea has clearly said they're not interested in Buffalo. Mocking the Ikea pining and Main Place Mall fantasies helps cure ignorance about the retail industry.

Ranter>"don't ever say anything bad about the suburbs either. How dare you suggest that they should share that burden of the poor"

Not sharing at all? Did you ever hear of NY state's income taxes (near highest of any state) and the very high state-county sales taxes here?

Ranter>"ask any - and I mean ANY - expat if they would rather have a Whole Foods nearby or a Wegmans"

Why are you mocking and lecturing the 2 or 3 teenage native little Buffalonians who are pining for Whole Foods?

Starting with the silly: IKEA makes cheap, generic furniture that you have you put together yourself. So when did IKEA equate to anything more than bland furniture for small, bland city apartments? What does IKEA have to do with anything?

And on to the serious: I think Blackrocklifer's comments about poverty are interesting but I don't think they are subtle enough to convey the complexity of poverty, class structure, and urban/suburban tensions in America. I live, work, and spend nearly all my money in Buffalo, but I don't think that the average suburban dweller has an obligation to "share the burden" of the poor in Buffalo. Not, at least, until we have a metropolitan government (I keep praying).

Poverty is not a homogeneous experience in America--there are different kinds, levels, and reasons for poverty, and a simple paternalistic view towards people in poverty doesn't eradicate or even alleviate the disease. Poor communities, poor individuals, local governments and their citizens all have to be part of the effort to mitigate the effects of poverty. But blaming the suburban family struggling to keep their house in Snyder? No, it won't do. Buffalo government and its citizens need to embrace their own problems. We have not had any vision, intelligence or truly civic thinking in Buffalo politics for 40 years. That's solely the problem of Buffalo and its voters.

A few years ago a New York Times Magazine article compared nearby Whole Foods and Wegmans in New Jersey. Wegmans came out ahead.

Both stores are too large for my likes. I would like to see more individual fish markets and butcher shops. I think we have enough bakeries on Elmwood. I guess I'm old fashioned but returning to the days of specialty stores everywhere rather than super(?)markets with 12 acre parking lots is not my preference.

Good post (rant) Steel.

Don't you love how almost everyone is apparently in the witness protection program and can't use their real name?!

Not everyone is comfortable with the idea that his or her name can be put in a Google search and have his or her address and phone number come up. You can't blame people for placing value on their privacy, because we live in a crazy world with lots of crazy people. Just look at what happened at Merge today for an example of the terrible senseless things people do to one another. I wouldn't like the idea that just any random person could read something I write, possibly feel offended by it, look up and see that I live on, say, Lancaster Ave.

By the way, I prefer Whole Foods. Doesn't mean I'd take kindly to any Wegmans fans showing up on my porch.

Whole Foods: Nice for the people who enjoy paying $5 for a loaf of bread. I preferred the same thing at Trader Joe's for $2.29 (when I had access to both)... same thing at ALDI is $1.89. If Trader Joe was in Boofalo, I'd shop there twice a week.

IKEA: disposable cardboard crap. Why would anyone want that?

Putting names online: bad idea. Crazy neighbors turn you in for imaginary tall grass or peeling paint - and if the City gets a complaint, they WILL find a violation.

Whole Foods: Nice for the people who enjoy paying $5 for a loaf of bread. I preferred the same thing at Trader Joe's for $2.29 (when I had access to both)... same thing at ALDI is $1.89. If Trader Joe was in Boofalo, I'd shop there twice a week.

IKEA: disposable cardboard crap. Why would anyone want that?

Putting names online: bad idea. Crazy neighbors turn you in for imaginary tall grass or peeling paint - and if the City gets a complaint, they WILL find a violation.

Being "negative": sometimes it's really just being "realistic", as in : " This city is a ghost town, but we can still make the best of that" .

All this chatter just makes me want to pull down my pants and scream: freedom.

Steel, I love the diversity of nerves that have been stricken with these points. Don't forget that the cool kids also always preface everything with "third poorest city" smack.

i am a buffalonian by choice. i was not born here, and i have lived in other "cooler" places with both Whole Foods and Ikea. The reason i live here in the city is the QUALITY of my life, and it is excellent!

I feal sorry for the un-enlightened, and their shackles of high property taxes, high mortgages, and commuting times in their world of cul-du-sacs; just so that they can propogate the mythe that they are "safe" in the 'burbs. and you know what? when i am walking back from Delaware park tomorrow morning, and stop into the coffee shop to grab the paper and a joe, I will shed a tear for you.

Wow, lots of these comments are just a bunch of nonsense people are putting in other peoples mouthes.
For the record, I own a home, and live, in the city, I also own a home in Orchard Park which I rent out. I live in a nice 2 family home, a mere steps to Hertel and all it has to offer, and a mere 5 minute walk to Delaware park. My home in OP is a nice single family home on a quite dead end street with a entrance to Green Lake at the end. I bought that house a couple years ago for about the same I could sell my city home for now, and my property taxes are about the same for both houses. SO to enlighten some of you who feel like you know both sides of the fence, its fairly relative. A mortgage and taxes in a very upscale development in the burbs is about the same you will pay to live in a upscale section of the city. With either option you will have certain positives and negatives for both, which is why certain people make particular decisions on what suits them best. I live in the city because thats what suits me best, I like the close amenities, things are open later, more culture, bars, restaurants, etc... For someone who is just starting, or has a family, these people make their decisions because their children are their number one priority, good school, safe neighborhoods where their child can play freely around the neighborhood and ride their bike freely around town, a larger yard, etc... Its different strokes for different folks and people cant be faulted for making a decision that is best for them and their family. As far as the commute goes, with traffic my drive into downtown every morning takes only 5 minutes less than it would if I were coming in from OP.
A lot of you are talking about how all suburban people loathe the city and this and that, i'm not sure where you get this from because I know plenty of people who live in the burbs and that isn't their opinion, some really don't venture into the city, but the majority of them do enjoy the amenities of being a 15 minute drive to the city, in addition to the what they have in their current town. I guess I must just be in a different demographic.

"A lot of you are talking about how all suburban people loathe the city and this and that, i'm not sure where you get this from because I know plenty of people who live in the burbs and that isn't their opinion"

Well, here's my experience: Grew up in Cheektachooga, hearing the family and neighbors decry how "those N**gers" were ruining Buffalo. "Let the N**gers have Buffalo", is what I heard (they thought us kids didn't hear - that "n word" got us slapped, if WE said it). Note that none of my family had ever lived in any city (1910 Jamestown & Niagara Falls hardly count), let alone had contact with "minorities".

I moved into the City when I was 19, and have been here since (except for a few years in NYC, though I maintained my Buffalo home) ... meantime, Mom has been living in my downstairs apartment for about 11 years - and she's never been visited by my siblings or her grandchildren, because we're in the City. That says a lot, but says nothing good.

I have nearly stopped reading the comments posted @ this website....the only articles people weigh in on in bulk are stories regarding architecture, structure, preservation and the rehabitation of the city....and what I really pay attention to is how many EXPERTS there are....everyone is a PhD with the ONLY credible answers. I have lived in the city for my entire life and state this with enthusiasm, you can have the suburbs with your chem-lawn grass, idiotic strip malls,ticky-tacky neighborhoods, gigantic parking lots & equally gigantic traffic jams. You can have your residents with long noses and narrow minds who think the entire city is a drug infested slum unworthy of their presence. I spend my resources patronizing city businesses to help build on the dynamic foundation already in place, I don't drop bombs on the dreamers who can see that splendid foundation. Take that to Aberzombie & Itch!!!!

just a sad reminder that all of the horrible car accidents in which teenagers and young adults lost their lives recently were in suburban or rural areas. traumatic teenage accidents like this are unusually rare in the city because kids can get around without a car and often have to because of low incomes.

given how statistically dangerous teens are behind the
wheel, i think you should have to get a high school diploma or ged before you can apply for a learners permit. that would simultaneously cut the dropout rate and the automobile fatality rate.

suburban and rural roads are far deadlier for cyclists than city streets, in no small part because rural drivers feel entitled to menace cyclists. if you want your kids to be able to ride bikes and live to see 25, your best bet is the city.

I cant say anything that hasnt already been beaten to death here.

I don't agree with everything you post, Buffalo Rising, but thank you for existing, because this post alone shows how desperately we need a voice to tout all of Buffalo's successes; the big, and especially the small ones.

I've been reading BRO for years and I'm finally finding the nerve to dip my toe in the comment pond.

I'm an expat who's so ready to come home but I'm trapped in the fiscal fiasco of the moment and can't quite do it yet. While there are plenty of whiners everywhere there is a quality to the people of Buffalo, NY that isn't found anywhere else. They are kind, hardworking, REAL people. I'm so looking forward to coming home and being a part of this amazing group and to add my spark to the rekindling of this remarkable area.

As a sustainability advocate I'm delighted to see new urbanism and green in the lexicon of the contributors to this delightful dialog. Buffalo is a diamond in the rough and doesn't need to be saved by any mega corporations. It's like Dorothy and the slippers. Buffalo has everything it needs to be successful and thriving right now. It just has to believe it.

I don't understand this city-suburbia ongoing war we have here in the Buffalo area. We have the best of both worlds. If you live outside the city it's a short drive to go to a museum and amazing restaurant. If you live in the city it's a 30 minute drive to hike in the hills and lose your cell phone signal. Neither is superior. Can't we all just get along?

Any expansion in Western New York is unsustainable as long as the population continues to decline, along with tax revenue and government representation. So-called "sprawl" cannot be supported right now, whether inside or outside of the city's borders. We live on the poor side of a nearly bankrupt State. So It seems funny that when the suburbs experience growth/development, it's dismissed as "sprawl" and "unsustainable." But when new developments are considered for the city, those projects (that rely heavily on funds from our nearly bankrupt government) get cheers. We need to realize that we're all invested in this together, whether we live in the Elmwood Village or the OP. If one goes down, we all go down together. How about getting some jobs in Western New York, turning the economy around, and actually growing the number of residents in Erie and Niagara Counties? Until that happens, any "growth" or "development" is unsustainable, which makes this city Vs. suburbs debate moot and just plain silly.

A city that is rotting and unattractive at its core fuels sprawl. Sprawl is a bad choice in a healthy metro area. It is disastrous in an unhealthy metro like Buffalo the.

By investing in the core you invest in the entire metro. Investment in the city is an investment in the entire area. Investment in the city takes advantage of existing infrastructure which results in savings to the people of the metro area. Investment at the fringes only benefits the few at the fringes while putting additional demands on the people of the rest of the area.

Buffalo's metro area population has dropped by about 200,000 people since 1970 but now supports 100's of miles of additional roads, sewers, water lines, telephone lines and electrical lines not to mention who knows how many miles of widened roads. All this additional infrastructure is paid for by not investing in the aging city (and aging inner suburbs) and its infrastructure.

Amen to this article.

Buffalo has it's problems, the Suburbs have their problems. I chose to make my home and invest in the city. So far I couldn't be happier. It's all what you make of it and depends on your individual priorities. The only time I get in the burbs vs city argument is when I hear people saying things about the city that are just plain false. The truth is we need both to make this region survive and boost the quality of life here as a whole as they both have things to offer.

And this isn't only a city vs suburb in the context of what we think of as the suburbs today but maybe it is better to frame within historic infrastructure. The county has numerous villages around it, each as old as the city itself and with established infrastructure, walkable neighborhoods and nice housing.

All of these are just as threatened as the city by unrestricted suburban sprawl, in a region loosing population.

That new subdivision in OP just as much hurts the historic village of Hamburg as Buffalo. Those new subdivisions in Wheatfield and Amherst have been stripping what little life remains from North Tonawanda's historic downtown.

Each of our historic centers deserve better than that and our last 50 years of development puts more importance of the Transit Roads of the region than anywhere else. What do we want our community to look like in 50 more years. Will there be anything left in any of these historic communities, perhaps but how many more transits will there be? How far will people need to drive 'out of their way' to get to them, and where is the ghetto that is ignored and run away from going to spread next?

Cheektowaga from Harlem to the city line is slipping fast, Tonawanda \ Amherst around Eggerstville just had some murders and their housing values are dropping fast. If we want to stop MORE communities from suffering like Buffalo then we need to stand together to focus on the issue or poverty and education in the place that needs it the most.

But as history has shown, people are right now just fleeing while they can. Away from the problem so they can look back and say... man sucks to be them, they should be more like us.

Yeah yeah yeah, the suburbs are EEEEVIL!

But it's all us suburbites' fault that the city sucks. Yeah yeah yeah yeah.

I don't see anyone saying that, just that you need to step up to the plate and do your part in fixing a problem and stop pretending it is not your responsibility because of a political boundary.

Jesse, all of Buffalo feels ignored and dissed by you so we demand that you and your neighbors "step up to the plate" and move back to Buffalo from Chicago and "do your part" in... oh wait... uh, well... never mind. LOL!

Oh, I get it Buffalo no one in the Buffalo area can do anything to improve the city and the metro unless I live there. Is that really what you are saying? Sounds kind of goofy doesn't It?

-sorry, I was ediing my response because the comment system is messed up and submitted early-

Anyway, Buffalo has poverty similar to many older midwest farming communities where an aging populace has moved from active employment to Social Security. The remaining workforce suffers from traditional blue-collar employment and it's wage-based compensation and the large numbers of people in the city who are unemployed. Buffalo not only needs jobs, but jobs that pay well. Education suffers from all the same dynamics seen everywhere in the US. I doubt there are many communities where people are satisfied with the progress in their schools. There is less overall mobility these days. people who want to flee can't and it's very telling that their 'last suburban refuge' is Clarence, a quite small community. In the 1950s, people fled to Cheektowaga and grew that suburb to over 100,000. Now they flee to Clarence and it has what, 5,000? You could write a book: "The Last Suburb".

So far, 129 people before me commented to this ranting steel stuff. So then, who the heck is "STEEL"?
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Is he employed by BRising?
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Is he also a guy with a long-past connection to this City through his father's dealing witin Buffalo before and after the 1960s? SEE: the old BRO.
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Is this particular "STEEL" and his history researchable www? If his first name is David and his last actually Steel, as far as "David Steels", there appear to be a ton of them www.
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What is the purpose of using such a ferocious face to express comments? Yikes! TOO intense, that.

I happen to like IKEA, Trader Joes and Whole Foods.

"The guys rebuilding Buffalo don't hang out with the cool kids, the guys doing the Larkin Warehouses, and the Web Buildings, and the Granite works are bringing the city back one step at a time without you, and they don't really care if IKEA comes to town or not."

So...do those guys rebuilding Buffalo hang out with STEEL?

No matter where an individual falls on the suburbs/city continuum, they exist in a state of symbiosis. Isn't it a bit more harmonious than some posters imply?

That means, in essence, that neither one can exist independently without the other. Webster defines the term as: living together in intimate association or close union of two unlike organisms especially when mutually beneficial. I think this applies to Buffalo and its suburbs.
People who have a choice exercise that ability and decide where to live according to their desires and needs. When I had children, I chose the suburbs for two reasons: schools and safety. As a retired person, I chose the city. That was my criteria. I no longer have a need for a big house, schools, parks, or sports leagues. In fact, I now have a two bedroom so the kids can't come home. Works for me!

STEEL - Your comments about the suburbs do fuel the city v. suburb debate, but they do not hurt my feelings. I do not believe in the least bit that the suburbs are a perfect place, this is more of that stereotypical BS that you regurgitate when you talk about the suburbs, or suburban sprawl to be more specific. I could go back and cite your posts about the 'burbs being dull, whitewashed, sterile, all houses looking exactly the same, blah, blah, blah. These are the comments I refer to when I say you over-generalize. But anyway...

I have stated in many posts that the suburbs contributed a lot to the decline of the city. I also state that the suburbs were created and grew for many reasons, including government built highways, subsidies, prejudice, city corruption, over-crowding, carcinogen spewing factories built near homes, the two-income household, declining schools, aging housing stock, and ultimately free choice over where you want to live. I also state in many posts that the city is responsible for some of the conditions that continue to drive away residents, and it is probably better for us to address and resolve these issues if we want to make the city a more attractive place for future residents.

The suburbs did contribute to the decline of the city because they are a more attractive place to live for many would-be city residents. Read Pegger's comment from earlier today regarding the choices that people make when it comes to schools and safety. Two prime areas that we can focus on in the city, but we can't seem to get past ourselves to make it happen. We lack guidance and direction in the city, we do not have a clear plan on how to improve the schools or make the city a safer place. Many people comment on why they choose the suburban schools over the city, and they are met with defensiveness. When people post about moving to the suburbs due to high crime in the city, others cite examples of crime in the suburbs or go into inequalities in the distribution of wealth. We miss the point and the opportunity when we get defensive and assail the decision without fully understanding the cause.

I share your concerns on sprawl, and also have concerns about overpopulation. I do not, and never have, believed the sprawl model to be sustainable, and would love to rebuild the city instead of spreading out the suburbs. We have some obstacles to this that we, as a city, should work to overcome. To think that the suburban residents are suddenly going to 'see the light' and abandon their homes in Wheatfield for a house on the east side, is absolutely naive. We lack a plan for the east side, we lack a plan for most of Buffalo. How are we going to rebuild the city of Buffalo? What do we do with vacant houses that could be renovated and reused? Our current plan is to demolish homes, that seems to be the end of the plan from City Hall. The suburbs do not own our definition of this plan. The suburbs do not own what we need to do to make houses easier to purchase from the city. The suburbs do not own our lack of direction from our elected officials.

I fully understand the inter-dependencies of the regional model, I understand how it all comes together. I wonder if you do though? I am not defending the suburbs, or even praising them, beyond calling out the naivety or stereotyping done by those who want to put down the suburbs to defend the city or those who want to blame all urban ills on suburban existence. The suburbs exist for a reason, and the suburbs are expanding at the expense of the city for a reason. It is these reasons that we fail to acknowledge at times.

I think it is pretty safe to say that our entire area is anemic at the moment. This goes for city and suburb alike. The suburbs are doing a better job at attracting investments, attracting residents, attracting wealth, than the city is. The fact that we, as a region, are competing with ourselves is a sign of just how depressed and dysfunctional our region truly is. We need to fix that, it is up to us to fix the city and the region. The problem is that we fail to acknowledge just how dysfunctional we are, at both a city and regional level. Instead of working to improve it, we point fingers and blame others. The city blames the burbs, the burbs blame the city. We are too busy infighting and blaming to see the bigger picture.

We are not, in fact, driving the young out of the area. The young (and old) are leaving because we lack opportunity and a future for them. The fact is that other regions, other cities, other states, are better than we are right now. Look as far as your own keyboard to see the lack of opportunity in Buffalo. You are in Chicago for a reason, correct? Lack of opportunity in Buffalo, I think you said before. What are we doing, as a city, to attract new companies? What are we doing to make this area more attractive as an investment? What are we doing to get out of our own self-serving way to allow for development downtown? We are just getting started with Canal side, nearly 40 years after discussions first started. We finally have the courthouse and the Avant, after years of delays. We spend more time wishing that we could undo bad decisions of the past than we do actually planning for the future.

What is our plan for economic growth through 2020? What direction are we taking for declining neighborhoods beyond land banking and wishful thinking? What is the final plan for Main Street, for Broadway, for Canal side? These are things we control, not the suburbs. We have lacked direction on all of these things for decades. They contribute to our problems, I point out that Amherst has a clear strategy for economic growth and get branded as a suburb lover, well where is Buffalo's plan for economic growth?

BTW, I have read the Geography of Nowhere twice and I loved it. I have The Long Emergency sitting about three feet away under one other book and will probably read that before the end of February. I am very familiar with Kunstler's writing and believe that it can indeed be scary, enlightening, and a bit preachy at times. At the moment I am reading Hope and Despair in the American City, a good book on our failing education system, and Why the Garden Club couldn't save Youngstown. I recommend both as good reads that are on topic with some of the discussions on BRO.

Please don't take my comments about the city and suburbs as an endorsement or condemnation of either. I believe that we need to make some seriously large strides towards coming together as a region to plan for our future. We have gotten ourselves into the mess we are in, and only we can get ourselves out of it!

STEEL - Your comments about the suburbs do fuel the city v. suburb debate, but they do not hurt my feelings. I do not believe in the least bit that the suburbs are a perfect place, this is more of that stereotypical BS that you regurgitate when you talk about the suburbs, or suburban sprawl to be more specific. I could go back and cite your posts about the 'burbs being dull, whitewashed, sterile, all houses looking exactly the same, blah, blah, blah. These are the comments I refer to when I say you over-generalize. But anyway...

I have stated in many posts that the suburbs contributed a lot to the decline of the city. I also state that the suburbs were created and grew for many reasons, including government built highways, subsidies, prejudice, city corruption, over-crowding, carcinogen spewing factories built near homes, the two-income household, declining schools, aging housing stock, and ultimately free choice over where you want to live. I also state in many posts that the city is responsible for some of the conditions that continue to drive away residents, and it is probably better for us to address and resolve these issues if we want to make the city a more attractive place for future residents.

The suburbs did contribute to the decline of the city because they are a more attractive place to live for many would-be city residents. Read Pegger's comment from earlier today regarding the choices that people make when it comes to schools and safety. Two prime areas that we can focus on in the city, but we can't seem to get past ourselves to make it happen. We lack guidance and direction in the city, we do not have a clear plan on how to improve the schools or make the city a safer place. Many people comment on why they choose the suburban schools over the city, and they are met with defensiveness. When people post about moving to the suburbs due to high crime in the city, others cite examples of crime in the suburbs or go into inequalities in the distribution of wealth. We miss the point and the opportunity when we get defensive and assail the decision without fully understanding the cause.

I share your concerns on sprawl, and also have concerns about overpopulation. I do not, and never have, believed the sprawl model to be sustainable, and would love to rebuild the city instead of spreading out the suburbs. We have some obstacles to this that we, as a city, should work to overcome. To think that the suburban residents are suddenly going to 'see the light' and abandon their homes in Wheatfield for a house on the east side, is absolutely naive. We lack a plan for the east side, we lack a plan for most of Buffalo. How are we going to rebuild the city of Buffalo? What do we do with vacant houses that could be renovated and reused? Our current plan is to demolish homes, that seems to be the end of the plan from City Hall. The suburbs do not own our definition of this plan. The suburbs do not own what we need to do to make houses easier to purchase from the city. The suburbs do not own our lack of direction from our elected officials.

I fully understand the inter-dependencies of the regional model, I understand how it all comes together. I wonder if you do though? I am not defending the suburbs, or even praising them, beyond calling out the naivety or stereotyping done by those who want to put down the suburbs to defend the city or those who want to blame all urban ills on suburban existence. The suburbs exist for a reason, and the suburbs are expanding at the expense of the city for a reason. It is these reasons that we fail to acknowledge at times.

I think it is pretty safe to say that our entire area is anemic at the moment. This goes for city and suburb alike. The suburbs are doing a better job at attracting investments, attracting residents, attracting wealth, than the city is. The fact that we, as a region, are competing with ourselves is a sign of just how depressed and dysfunctional our region truly is. We need to fix that, it is up to us to fix the city and the region. The problem is that we fail to acknowledge just how dysfunctional we are, at both a city and regional level. Instead of working to improve it, we point fingers and blame others. The city blames the burbs, the burbs blame the city. We are too busy infighting and blaming to see the bigger picture.

We are not, in fact, driving the young out of the area. The young (and old) are leaving because we lack opportunity and a future for them. The fact is that other regions, other cities, other states, are better than we are right now. Look as far as your own keyboard to see the lack of opportunity in Buffalo. You are in Chicago for a reason, correct? Lack of opportunity in Buffalo, I think you said before. What are we doing, as a city, to attract new companies? What are we doing to make this area more attractive as an investment? What are we doing to get out of our own self-serving way to allow for development downtown? We are just getting started with Canal side, nearly 40 years after discussions first started. We finally have the courthouse and the Avant, after years of delays. We spend more time wishing that we could undo bad decisions of the past than we do actually planning for the future.

What is our plan for economic growth through 2020? What direction are we taking for declining neighborhoods beyond land banking and wishful thinking? What is the final plan for Main Street, for Broadway, for Canal side? These are things we control, not the suburbs. We have lacked direction on all of these things for decades. They contribute to our problems, I point out that Amherst has a clear strategy for economic growth and get branded as a suburb lover, well where is Buffalo's plan for economic growth?

BTW, I have read the Geography of Nowhere twice and I loved it. I have The Long Emergency sitting about three feet away under one other book and will probably read that before the end of February. I am very familiar with Kunstler's writing and believe that it can indeed be scary, enlightening, and a bit preachy at times. At the moment I am reading Hope and Despair in the American City, a good book on our failing education system, and Why the Garden Club couldn't save Youngstown. I recommend both as good reads that are on topic with some of the discussions on BRO.

Please don't take my comments about the city and suburbs as an endorsement or condemnation of either. I believe that we need to make some seriously large strides towards coming together as a region to plan for our future. We have gotten ourselves into the mess we are in, and only we can get ourselves out of it!

I love the city, but some of you robots, some of you lemmings, just repeating what you have been told, not knowing you you are speaking of, tossing insults, makes me not want to be your neighbor. I see lots of you clowns bashing people who chose to live outside the city and putting words of hate in their mouths, but there is not a single post from a person living in the suburbs bashing the city or any of its residents.

What is the record for number of comments recorded on a BR post, anyway?

It's nice to read substantive discussion on the city/suburb divide.

I'm a little unclear why I'm posting a comment at this late date on this thread, but I chalk it up to at least two things: personal irritation at suburb derogation, and the inability to avoid intellectual confrontation that comes with being an academic (I'm a professor at UB).

So, here are the two things I'd like to say to anyone who cares to read.

1) Stop blaming the suburbs.

Lots of urban areas have suburban sprawl. Many of them vastly worse than Buffalo's pittance of a problem. In Steel's Chicago, or in Washington, D. C., or in countless other cities, the suburbs/exurbs extend so far that people routinely commute more than an HOUR each way into work. But these are thriving cities, and Buffalo is not. With this evidence in mind, blaming the suburbs seems like scapegoating, and ducking the real problem, whatever that may be.

2) Don't get on a high horse about urbanism (yet).

About 2 years ago, I had the opportunity to move to Buffalo. My family and I seriously considered both Elmwood and the close-in, walkable suburbs. After much agonizing, we settled on Williamsville (the village, not the surrounding sprawl, thank you). In our case, the reason wasn't that we wanted a huge yard, a homogeneous collection of neighbors, or even low crime rates or better schools. The reason was that we wanted a thriving urban neighborhood, but we simply couldn't find it in Buffalo. A thriving urban neighborhood (see city examples listed above) has more owners than renters, has great (not merely OK) shops within walking distance, and has good public transportation, at the bare minimum. The Elmwood Village has the best shot of any Buffalo neighborhood at being this kind of place, but its housing is largely rental (with clear implications for community-building), its stores are not especially useful (I'm looking at you, Lexington Co-op), and it's relatively hard to get from there to anywhere else in the metro area that's not on the narrow subway line. Given the lack of these pluses that supposedly come with urban life, we chose to compromise in Williamsville, which at least offered the low-crime and good-schools benefits that take more effort in the city. Granted, my family and I have perhaps been spoiled by living in some truly great cities (Ann Arbor, MI, is one pertinent example), but I can't undo those experiences. If Steel and others want people to choose the city over the suburbs, they should realize that the problem lies not with the kind of people who choose suburbia, but the fact that Buffalo is an incompletely-realized city.