New York Times on Buffalo Old Home Week
The New York Times article featuring Buffalo Old Home Week ran earlier today. The following piece was written by Dave Staba. It was accompanied by a photo of the Central Terminal shot by Mike Groll:
Frustrated by decades of watching friends and family flee New York’s second-largest city for warmer climates, healthier economies and sunnier images, a group of Buffalo boosters gave a party this weekend.
The idea for the event, Buffalo Old Home Week, which began with an outdoor concert downtown on Thursday and wrapped up with Sunday brunch in the city’s largest park, grew from an antique postcard promoting a similar observance in 1907.
“I found the postcard about five years ago and realized that this must have been a really great vehicle to get people back to Buffalo,” said Newell Nussbaumer, who at the time was running a store specializing in items with a regional theme.
This weekend, hundreds of people participated in tours of the city. Some viewed historic buildings along what was known a century ago as Millionaires Row. Others went to Central Terminal, a long-vacant structure, in one of the city’s most troubled neighborhoods that is the subject of restoration efforts.
More to the point, there was also a job fair, at which about 500 job seekers mingled with recruiters from several dozen local companies.
One visitor, Kathleen Thompson, said she was looking to return to Buffalo from Charlotte, N.C., after working as a mortgage banker there and in Atlanta for nearly 20 years.
“When I was younger, I wanted to see other places and do other things,” said Ms. Thompson, who is 46. “But now that I’m getting older, I want to come home.”
Ms. Thompson learned about Old Home Week through an intensive Internet marketing campaign waged by organizers, receiving an e-mail invitation after posting her résumé online. The event was also promoted on www.buffalorising.com, a Web site Mr. Nussbaumer helped establish, and on several regional blogs, including buffalogeek.com and buffalopundit.com.
“Buffalo has very poor self-esteem,” said Marti Gorman, one of the organizers, who lived in Bogotá, Colombia, as well as in Atlanta and Boulder, Colo., before she moved back to Buffalo last November after her daughter enrolled at Canisius College here. “There’s a disrespect for Buffalo that is unwarranted, and we’re out to change that.”
In 1907, Buffalo was the country’s eighth-largest city, a booming port connecting the frontier of the West to the cities of the East. The city’s reputation suffered because of the assassination of President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition here in 1901, though, and civic leaders conjured up Old Home Week as a way to brighten the city’s image, Mr. Nussbaumer said.
If the image problems of a century later lack the singular notoriety of the murder of a president, their roots spread wider and deeper.
Changes in modes of transportation and the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 rendered Buffalo irrelevant as a Great Lakes port. The steel industry, an anchor of the area’s economy, all but vanished during the second half of the 20th century, and thousands of jobs were lost. Population has plummeted, to about half its peak of 580,000 in 1950.
Mr. Nussbaumer and others argue that negative perceptions, both locally and nationally, helped prevent the sort of recovery experienced in other Rust Belt cities. Across Lake Erie from here, Cleveland, for example, has attracted corporate headquarters, and visitors to attractions like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Buffalo’s image grew even dingier after the Blizzard of ’77, which effectively shut the city and provided Johnny Carson with weeks of “Tonight Show” punch lines. Then there were the four straight Super Bowl defeats of the Buffalo Bills in the early 1990’s.
“I was taught to dislike Buffalo and to want to get out,” Ms. Gorman said.
Another organizer of the festivities was Chris Smith, who runs buffalogeek.com. He attended Thursday’s concert in a top hat, tails and white gloves, portraying the turn-of-the-century mascot designed for the week. Mr. Smith said he had lived in bigger cities for seven years.
“What those other cities lack is the sense of community you’ve got here,” he said. “There’s a sense that everybody is in it together. It’s a more solitary life when you live in Boston or Chicago.”
Mayor Byron Brown, a native of Queens, also said the city’s small-town feel drew him in.
“I came here at 17 to attend college and just fell in love with how friendly people are and how easy it is to get around,” said Mr. Brown, who took office in January. “I’ve been here ever since and I’ve never regretted it.”
Mr. Nussbaumer acknowledged that Buffalo had the same problems as other urban areas. For example, there were four shootings, including the city’s 50th and 51st homicides of the year, over the weekend.
“There are sections that are definitely struggling and we have to figure out ways to combat what’s happening there,” he said. “There’s violence in every city, and there are beautiful neighborhoods all over this city. I’ve lived in Buffalo for 38 years and I’ve never heard gunfire.”
Michael A. Tritto Jr., a Buffalo native who teaches theater at a community college in Hyannis, Mass., said the weekend’s events had helped ease the doubts of his wife, Virginia Riordan, about moving here; she comes from Bohemia, on Long Island.
“I’ve been talking about moving back for 16 years,” said Mr. Tritto, who is 44. “This weekend helped open her eyes to the opportunities there are for her here.”
Mr. Tritto, who said he planned to return for good next July, added: “There’s this perception that Buffalo is a great place to grow up, but that you have to go elsewhere to prosper. This city can never be the blue-collar factory town it once was, but there’s a real entrepreneurial, forward-looking spirit here.”
I would have loved to attend this and I would absolutely love to move back home to buffalo. However, i knew nothing about this until i saw the story in today's ny times. I've lived away since 1989 and the city has a terrible reputation all over the state. it's unwarranted. I would have come back for the job fair had I known about it.
I find it interesting that two of the area's brightest examples of communication skills collaborate on the same issue.
I thought he was in town to do an article on the waterfront?
or is that forthcoming?
I thought he was in town to do an article on the waterfront?
or is that forthcoming?
We'll cut you some slack this time Matt, But stay tuned for next year's event. It will be great!
MJS, that's coming up next...
matt, check out their website. The companies should still be on the list and you could contact them if you're serious about coming back!
oh, sorry, website is www.buffoldhome.com
I'll take it...
Matt, let us know when you think the right time to host Buffalo Old Home Week is next year. We're always looking for feedback from our expats.
Also, I was the committee member in charge of the career fair, if you want more information about the employers or positions, send me an email at buffalogeek at hotmail dot com
Congrats to all for a majorly successful event, and even more national press! Queensyes, you really "walked the talk", and I love seeing your ideas come to fruition. More lives impacted for the better... thanks for making our ciy brighter every day.
Newell Nussbaumer- "the Duke of Buffalo"......well done my friend!
Congratulations to the entire committee, not just Newell, who worked tirelessly to pull it all together and rolled with the punches...
I second that Jim, well done Newell. It looks like this weekend was a great hit, and I wish I could have been there.
Marti, Newell and all the others who staged this superb weekend--you've done a stellar job. This weekend had such high spirits and genuine warmth-- thank you for your valiant combat against ignorant Buffalo negativity. This will be remembered.
As for the NY Times article--I 'm glad to see the coverage--bravo. But what a spiritless and drab piece of writing. I have yet to see any writer capture Buffalo's character. Is it that hard? That's the best the Times can do?
A question: Was anything about this published or broadcast locally? If so, I guess I was out of the loop. I only knew about it from this website...and my mom, who lives in the southtowns, said she only found out about because she happened to catch an item about it on a NATIONAL morning news program....Any way to get the local media more involved so more of us who live here and did move back (like me) can support it next year?
Newell,
Great job...your indifatiguable spirit and energy is an inspiration to us all. You've created a ripple effect of enthusiasm that, as a result of Old Home Week, is now being felt coast to coast (and in Canada too!)
Mouse,
I saw quite a bit of local coverage on this, including many articles in the News,
Eric,
I actually thought that the piece was well balanced. Its not the Buffalo News. The Times does a great job of providing contextual info. The Buffalo news would never have mentioned that the city's 51st homicide occured on the same weekend of the event because its the Buffalo News. And the Buffalo News is crap. The Times in not. Thank God
Eric, you are as sometimes as dogmatic as Steel. The Times piece is dreary. The problem is that Buffalo makes a not-so-good first impression. The place seems empty, dis-spirited and dull if you haven't had exposure to its special nuanced atmosphere before, and you have not WALKED its streets and breathed its loveliness. Has Dave Staba been here before? Does anyone know? More importantly, does anyone care?
Come on, everyone. This is a city that needs to assert itself without outside approval-- without taking cues from people who ultimately count for nothing in the scheme of things. It will be what it will be, and I am optimistic that it will be great again.
Eric,
Back in 1998, the NYT ran a very fine piece on Buffalo. See:
http://niagara-falls-bed-breakfast.com/APPLE-BU.htm
Hats off to ALL the organizers they did an incredible job!
It was a pleasure stamping your hand at the Brunch Michelle. Forgive me for not introducing myself when you came up.
A few things;
- Dave Staba lives in Buffalo and is a tremendous Buffalo booster.
- If you didn't see BOHW in the local news, I'm guessing you're a shut in or a luddite. :-)
We had at least 20 news stories done on us between Channels 2/4/7. We had three columns and four feature pieces written about us in the Buffalo News. We were also featured in Job Finder, HomeFinder and had a contest sponsored by the News. We were also the cover story the day before the event. We were also featured in two Buffalo Business First articles, a Wall Street Journal column, the CBS Sunday Morning show, and made appearances on WBEN, WGRF, WEDG, WNED, and WBFO. The Buffalo Bills, UB Alumni Association, Buffalo CVB, Buffalo NIagara Partnership, and Buffalo Niagara Enterprise also sent our mass emails advertising the events.
- While I appreciate Newell's efforts at inspiring Buffalo Old Home Week and his countless articles on BRO that shined a light on the event programming, there were many people who directed each of the events and you should also congratulate them for the thousands of hours they sunk into making it a great success.
The BOHW crew is not a personality driven organization and no one wishes to take credit for the success of this past week. We are first and foremost a team and Newell is a big part of it.
Cobalt, that is a nice piece, which I had forgotten about.
Dave-- I don't find a lot of fresh writing in the NY Times; it's grown predictable over the last thirty years. Including the fact about the murder may have been "balanced," but that seems a tiny success. The article was dull and missed the tone and flavor of the city and the weekend. It's no crime, just disappointing. Of course the B-News is lousy, but there are acres of lousy writing at the Times as well.
The article is serviceable, but I was hoping that a detailed piece like this would have been more infectious in conveying the good spirits and vitality of the weekend. It wasn't.
Perry--I'm sorry you think that Buffalo seems so dull and dispirited to people when they visit--that has not been my experience at all when showing the city to visitors. In fact, quite the opposite. But your logic seems to be that the NY Times writer found Buffalo so dreary that he couldn't help but write a dreary piece, but who cares, because we don't need those people. I'm afraid that in a media-driven, hype-loving, perception-driven culture like ours, we do, sadly, need the mediocre writing of the average Times or Newsweek or MSN story. I just wish we had better writing all around because there are so many tales in this city.
Perry may not have had this in mind, but if you come downtown from the airport via Genesee Street, dull and dispirited is a kind way of describing one of our more damaged thoroughfares.
If you come downtown any time other than Taste of Buffalo, Thursday in the Square, or the Farmer's Market, or a big hockey/baseball game, it definitely feels dull and dispirited. That's what life is like in a half-empty city.
Cobalt, I agree that a trip to downtown via Genesee street does not give a visitor a good first impression. However, I disagree with the broad statement made by Perry about Buffalo. Most of my out-of-town first-time visitors are absolutely blown away when visiting. They come expecting little and are blown away when they see activity on Hertel, Elmwood, Allentown and University Heights, beautiful city parks and neighborhoods, amazing Delaware Ave mansions and gorgeous architecture of downtown. Empty, dispirited and dull are not words that jump from their mouths. Instead, it is an incredulous sense of underachievement.
If Buffalonians want outsiders to see the city as we do, we need to try to see our home through the eyes of outsiders. How many people come and stay at the Hyatt and have no idea about the wonders of Elmwood, Hertel or Allentown? How would they get there if they did? The view from a Hyatt hotel room down onto Main Street is dreary.
Is there a way to better inform our guests about what is available to them? Many who come to town can't even find places to eat -- when we all know the treasure trove that is just behind the curtain!
Buffalo Geek,
This guy LIVES in Buffalo and that is the most enthusiasm he can muster?
Fascinating. Depressing.
Buffalo Rox: I have had the same experience: people I have introduced to Buffalo (who come with an open mind) love it.
Eric: Your comments are always among the most reasoned and thoughtful of any regular contributor. God knows! We may make our way back to Buffalo, after all.
Perry, I hope you do find your way back. You'd bring a lot to the city. (and consider yourself invited for dinner when you do).
Thank you, Eric, most sincerely. When these overgrown puppies have gone on, and we don't need this farm anymore, I'd love to be there. Yes, I could in all modesty bring a lot to an already great city. Though Buffalo is still awfully far from my beloved opera, and sister, and brother (not necessarily in that order)! The future belongs to the young-- and Buffalo has so many young devotees. Isn't that just great? I admire their vision and energy.