Buffalo Rising Online

I lived in Cleveland for a few years but never received a Cleveland license plate? What gives?

In all seriousness, this is great news for the city. Cleveland and Buffalo should be working together more. Both are in the same boat economically and might benefit if some partnerships were formed.

I know what he meant, I was just joking around.

This is Buffalo's future. Watch it grow. This is just the beginning.

Older Ohio plates have the county on them, so maybe he was refering to Cuyahoga plates.

I agree with above, now if only these new employees were given brochures about our city before they run off to the suburbs only to return to work.

While I do see this as growth the city needs to be able to capture the spin off effects to really see the benefits of these new employees. If it doesn't there won't be much of an effect except for 31 more cars of the road. The city has a lot of offer and drawing power. The question is has anyone told them about it?

Good Point, sbrof. I wonder if Newell was able to get any information on where the new Buffalonians chose to live. I would hope at least some of them chose or choose the city.

There is a brochure put out by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus called "Getting Around..." that describes neighborhoods downtown and has some nice maps. I know it's in the lobby of the Center of Excellence. http://www.bnmc.org/BNMC/Images/BNMC_Amenities.pdf

I am just saying that if we don't get the word out about neighborhoods within walking, biking or public transit routes, especially those which are nice, up and coming or stable then the most likely scenario would be that they would go were they perceive the best outcome for them and their families, which for the last 50 years in the American psyche has been suburbia which their only real options would be a commute via car. Not saying that is the situation but without proper information happens all the time.

Yeah just imagine doubling the impact of Old Home Week! Just please be sure those foundation-funded ads and interactive web sites clearly state if they want to live in a suburb and drive a car on our roads, to please stay away.

Oh and welcome former Clevelanders. If you already decided using your own preferences and your American psyche to move to one of our burbs, it's ok - we won't hold a grudge this time. You didn't know how much we frown on that sort of thing here. We'll try to be more proactive from now on about explaining such things. As soon as your lease is up, just move into the city near a bike path and everything will be fine.

BRO, you're already pissing these people off by calling their lab a "crazy scene." No too smart considering these are the first intellectuals to relocate here in over 50 years.

al-alo, great ideas! Buffalo needs to market itself and promote all things good about our much-maligned city. Flip through the LA Times or SF Chronicle...hmm...I can pick up a new tract home in that new Quake-a-De-Este for $750 G's, it's only a two hour commute...  Wow!  Check out the prices of the homes in Buffalo, we can really live large there!  Of course, it's not just about homes and real estate, it's quality of Life. Like Louse said, imagine doubling-- heck, let's triple the impact of Old Home Week.  It's just the beginning, but there is a website that expands on the OHW concept - Buffalo By Choice.  You can sign up for e-newsletters on the site and keep informed.

We need  a good slogan- "City of Good Neighbors" is good, but how about something that  fits Buffalo of the 21st century.  I'm sure we can put our collective craniums together to come up with a slogan or phrase that really sells our city.  After all, Buffalo is the Genuine Article.   

...and now that John Rzeznik of thr Goo Goo Dolls is moving back home, a few celebrity endorsements are a good thing...

Like Louse said, imagine doubling-- heck, let's triple the impact of Old Home Week.

George is refreshingly sincere and upbeat. I don't have the heart to tell him I was being a snide sarcastic jerk by mocking the small impact of OHW. Maybe my mocking needs improvement.

Doubling or tripling a very small impact is still pretty small. Instead of attracting "new folks" to move here as al-alo suggests, we need the "new jobs" first don't we? Otherwise isn't it just feel-good exercise?

I suppose some folks will move here without job offers and be willing to look... but that doesn't add a resident if it results in somebody else leaving (whoever didn't fill the job). Or some people might bring their own job with them and yes that's a total positive but it just seems that those are such a small percent.

After all, this Cleve Lab article is about a company with jobs being recruited here, and THEN the people followed - not vice versa.

Darn, where is that sarcasm font? Seriously AtwaterLouse, I lifted part of your post to emphasize the point that the impact does need to be bigger, and your point is well taken that it has to be more than a feel-good exercise to yield significant results.  But that's an important part of putting a positive spin on the rea. And al-alo is right on about attracting people whose jobs do not require a specific location to work (a little company called Microsoft has done that), and after 35 years in broadcasting I know the effectiveness of good buzz (not to be confused with beer buzz, which I really enjoy.) One of Buffalo's assets is plenty of bandwidth, and the current trend for corporations is for more and more employees to telecommute and perform all their work from home via VPN (Virtual Private Networking: working remotely using the internet to connect to the home office on your PC.) We're transitioning from a manufacturing to a service-based economy, and the bean-counters have figured out they can save a lot of money by not having to provide a mini-cube in an office building for their workers to produce. So in the next few years we are going to see a steady increase in the number of workers performing their duties from home.

A few years ago the formula would dictate more jobs first, then the people will come to fill those jobs. But now and in the future, especially with fossil fuels becoming increasingly scarce, I believe there will be less dependence on hopping in your trusty V8 and commuting. And what's cool (for me anyway) is that I'm an expert at setting up remote access (I'm a IT guy) One of the jobs for which I'm negotiating will allow me to do all my tech support work from home. I also do freelance voice-over work, I have my own studio in which I record my voice tracks, mix them down on my PC, and email the mp3 file to the client.

And thanks for the plaudits, I am a big proponent of Buffalo Old Home Week, and am working hard with Marti and the staff to make it have a bigger impact. Some may say we're being overly optimistic, but ya know, I feel a whole lot better every day looking forward to a positive future...it's the old "life is too short" thing, let's have a good time. Count our blessings and appreciate all the good things we have here. (yikes, cliche attack!) Will Robinson!) Being away from Buffalo has made me really appreciate that which I took for granted. And if you put something positive out there, and enough people support you, it's gotta help. At least we won't be miserable trying.