Which 4 big U.S. cities have fared best in recession?

Natural gas! The giant Marcellus natural gas field is on our doorstep. Historically this area played a big role in natural gas innovation. This is from Naturalgas.org:
The first instance of natural gas successfully being stored underground occurred in Weland County, Ontario, Canada, in 1915. This storage facility used a depleted natural gas well that had been reconditioned into a storage field. In the United States, the first storage facility was developed just south of Buffalo, New York.

It is time to play a big role again. Rochester has GMs fuel cell research group. Put the two together and you have unlimited clean, American energy.

Fracking, the process used to mine the natural gas, is an incredibly harmful process-it rapes the land. NYS has decided to put the drilling on hold, while PA has allowed it to proceed. The number of explosions and contamination of water sources (some of which comes right to NY City) is beyond scary. I recommend you do some serious investigation on the process (and how it has decimated parts of CO and TX where they did fracking) before promoting this. It is NOT "clean". Take a look at www.delawareriverkeeper.org

I have done research, and those are scare stories, not facts. The fracking happens way below the water table in upstate NY so even if they didn't retrieve the water and filter onsite like they do now, it wouldn't contaminate the water table. It is clean, and much, much cleaner than our main electricity source now which is coal.

And by the way, can we please stop name-dropping New York City or caring what they think? They have messed up the state and the country enough as it is. Buffalo should look out for Buffalo. No one is looking out for us....

How does Buffalo capitalize?

Well Buffalo is an incredible city that has great potential as we all know. There are many things we have done correctly such as:
1) Buffalo has a national and global recognition for food. Not 5 star michelin or zagats but good food and we have stepped forward franchising chicken wings, taste of buffalo, etc.
2) Buffalo has a national and global recognition for the arts and crafts and skilled trades where we have stepped forward with the Roycroft Campus, A-K, B-P, etc.
3) Buffalo has a national and global recognition for architecture but we came late (lost far to many critical buildings that branded our city) and still dont have a cohesive agenda to preserve/rebuilt (nor discussion on modern/contemporary architecture in Buffalo) what we have as the Richardson, AM&As, Graystone, Lafayette and Statler all currently languish...only Canalside shows commitment to reconstruct the canals
4) Buffalo has a national and global reputation on par with Boston, Philly, DC, Charleston but there are still large swaths of Buffalo history that are completely untold and unemplored as cultural and tourism venues such as PanAm and war of 1812.

So where must Buffalo go beyond what I mentioned above already started
1) stop depending on only 1 research center for excellence. Rochester adds 1 every couple years.Buffalo should be planning for its 2nd and 3rd and 4th off campus research center.
2) Can anyone say 450k sqft convention and conference center
3) Quality of life! You simply cannot attract employers to cities where they drive down denuded streets devoid of trees and where they need to Tie Rods and Ball Joints every 100 feet of driving. Buffalo fix your water mains, sewars, streets, curbs, sidwalks, trees, street lights. Clean your gutters and paint your home.
4) group all our local colleges together into a consortium so there are less generic degrees and less competition so kids dont need training and arent forced to leave.
5) group all our local business together into a consortium so where business can expand their employment base into areas where its tough to bring top talent to Buffalo.

Interacting with Canada is a fantastic idea. I mentioned to other groups and seem to fall on deaf ears. Is Buffalo/suburbs wireless? Another big area to explore is technology/information technology. How technology driven is Buffalo? Are we Wifi? Thanks and let me know if I can help.

All this really means is that Buffalo is closer to the bedrock than many other cities. It's going to be a slow, painful recovery and I wonder how well Buffalo can participate on any upside when all of the laws in NYS make it clear that this is the worst place to invest and create jobs.

Destiny,

Some of the points to capitalize on are great cultural assets, like architecture and history but the reality of how the world really works, and what Buffalo has missed for the last 80 years, is that it has to change with the times. Your points about what to capitalize on, some good, some flat out wrong (convention centers are proven sinkholes, even more so in moderate and cold climates), don’t address the one, singular glaring thing this region lacks… leadership and will.

The current cast of do-nothings and placeholders for the next generation of do-nothings are career politicians who only care about getting re-elected. The Browns, Hoyts, Stachowskis, Fontanas, Fronczaks, Schmmingers have done absolutely zero in the way of progressive, move-it-forward decision-making critical to the success of other regions and so lacking in this one.

It’s a rather simple economic concept to understand, and BRO seems to be heavily culturally-bent (Let’s have pretty streets and everything will be swell) and not understanding, or even considerate, of the fact that the political and business climate is what will determine the quality of a region. If we can all agree that things were better when we were growing, when the mills and plants were cranking and everyone was employed, than we can then agree that until we return to an era of growing businesses and employment, we’ll continue to decline.

So who ensures the business climate is one outside firms will invest in? The people everyone elects to look out for themselves! The system here is our biggest obstacle, and as Rod Watson alluded to this week, by proxy, those who elect these same buffoons are also the problem.

Why isn’t this region at the forefront of the so-called green/sustainability economy? We’re at the site of the largest freshwater reserves in the world. We have immense energy resources, both in use and potentially developable (wind essentially). We have vast areas of arable land for local agriculture. We have all the variables necessary to be successful in the green economy, to go along with the cultural, educational and social aspects. And by the way, these cultural, education al and social things we love to say are so wonderful aren't unique to this place. If it were, and that matter as much as people would loike you to think they do, we'd be overflowing with people. They don't matter as much as jobs, sorry. Name any city that consistently gets rave reviews for those things and we're no better and are wrse off jobs wise (both the number and types of jobs).

What we don’t have are leaders and champions of that future. Small groups can make small strides on a small scale. We need real political will and change that supports the progress, not puts obstacles in the way.

We’ve beat the “great things about Buffalo” debate to death.

When does the public discourse turn to the real problems?

I still say that the best thing about Buffalo and Niagara Falls is that we do pretty much have unlimited energy. As long as Lake Erie keeps flowing into Lake Ontario, those turbines at Niagara Falls will keep turning and generating electric power. And it's a sizeable amount of power too (that we probably give away way too cheaply to the rest of the state). And as the majority of the rest of the country struggles in the future to meet their increasing energy demands, especially in a clean, green manner, we can just sit back and watch the Bills lose and the Niagara Falls power just keeps on humming (I'm simplfying a bit, but you get the point). Now all we need to do is add some more wind power, and also add in the natural gas which seems pretty plentiful when we figure out how to best extract it, and BAM, you have yourself a pretty dang secure and clean energy future for this area. What can you say for other cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix or Dallas?

Nice to know we're still considered big!

I think Buffalo would be foolish not to at least attempt to lead this century's green revolution. The "green" movement has moved past its orginal purpose of saving the environment and conserving energy. It's now evolved into a beleif, a mindset and a way of life. Green makes us feel better for living more responsibly, and saving when we can. Green encourages us to find a simpler, more efficient way to do something. Green is a big, big idea that seems to only be getting bigger.

I feel the need to mention this because it presents a unique situation. What other economic industry has this much power behind it? When has banking, manufacturing or medicine motivated mass society to live and think differently? The green revolution represents more than just an industry which can create jobs and stimulate an economy. It also represents a much bigger idea that more and more people want to become a part of.

With the steady increase in green demand and popularity, there is sure to be a city or region to emerge at the center for the green revolution- much like NYC for finance, Detroit for automobiles and the Silicon Valley for technology. That city is going to benefit tremendously not only from the jobs it creates, but also from the position it will have earned as a major leader in the 21st century.

It sounds somewhat crazy to suggest Buffalo can or will be this city, but it holds many advantages over other cities in the USA. Although it's talked about a lot, I think the power and opportunities of the green revolution are not fully recognized by many people. And with so much to gain, why wouldn't Buffalo pursue this opportunity more aggressively?

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

Any thoughts on this?