We all know about Buffalo’s decline as a major metropolitan area. We hear daily of the flashy new cities and their accomplishments as Buffalo struggles with its new role as a second tier city. The common refrains are “Buffalo will never regain its status as a major city” or “Buffalo can make a place for its self as a back office center”. There is defeatism in these kinds of comments. These statements say “we give up”, “we are now second rate”, “no use trying anymore”, “we can settle for second best because we can not expect anything better”. This new mindset is setting in as official policy and has permeated the psyche of the population. Being 50th on lists and rankings is celebrated as an achievement rather than as a challenge to be 10th 5th or 1st. People are being conditioned not to expect 30th place let alone 1st place in Buffalo.
I came across the following list of statistics complied by Dan Tasman (Dan) at Cyburbia http://www.cyburbia.org/. They document the tremendous change in Buffalo’s status among American cities between 1950 and 1997. The information is no less than depressing showing cities that were once minor blips of populations now more than double and triple Buffalo’s size. In some cases these now major cities would not have competed with Buffalo’s suburbs for importance. It is easy to be defeatist in the face of this kind of information. In a span of 50 years Buffalo has been left far behind and is now threatened to be over taken by the next tier of small cities such as Mobile, Fresno, and Boise.
To some this list is proof that Buffalo must accept its fait and take a seat next to the less glamorous, less achieving cities. I look at the list in a much different way. I see a list, which shows how much growth is possible. A city as large and glamorous as Miami grew from a relative backwater of about 600,000 people to almost 4 Million. Charlotte grew from a metro of not much larger than the size of Amherst to one that now eclipses Buffalo and shows no sign of slowing down. Columbus has tripled its population. In the same time period the Buffalo area has added less than 100,000 people. But that does not mean Buffalo cannot grow in the dramatic way that these cities have. There is nothing inherent about Buffalo that determines unending stagnation unless of course the people of WNY accept stagnation as a status quo.
These cities have no particular advantage on Buffalo other than perhaps more enlightened state and local government (both of which can be made to work for Buffalo). Some have good weather, some do not. There is nothing particularly strategic about the locations of several of these cities and not all of them have advantages of a beautiful natural setting. So what do these cities have that Buffalo does not have? I don’t have the answer to that question. I do know that if Buffalo accepts a status of second rate, if Buffalo believes that is can not be a first tier city, it never will be. There is no reason that Buffalo can not grow. It just needs the will to do so.
Metropolitan area population:
Buffalo
1950 – 1,089,230
1997 – 1,164,721
Las Vegas
1950 – 48,289
1997 – 1,262,099
(1950 Las Vegas equivalent now – Flagstaff, Arizona – 57,700)
Charlotte
1950 – 197,052
1997 – 1,350,243
(1950 Charlotte equivalent now – Merced, California – 196,123)
Orlando
1950 – 141,833
1997 – 1,467,045
(1950 Orlando equivalent now – Las Cruces – 168,470)
Columbus
1950 – 503,410
1997 – 1,460,242
(1950 Columbus equivalent now – Colorado Springs – 480,041)
Indianapolis
1950 – 551,777
1997 – 1,503,468
(1950 Indianapolis equivalent now – Mobile – 527,118)
Kansas City
1950 – 814,357
1997 – 1,709,273
(1950 Kansas City equivalent now – Fresno – 868,703)
Portland
1950 – 704,829
1997 – 2,112,802
(1950 Portland equivalent now – Knoxville – 654,181)
Denver
1950 – 612,128
1997 – 2,318,355
(1950 Denver equivalent now – Bakersfield – 628,605)
Phoenix
1950 – 331,770
1997 – 2,839,539
(1950 Phoenix equivalent now – Boise – 383,843)
Miami
1950 – 579,017
1997 – 3,515,358
(1950 Miami equivalent now – Stockton, California – 542,504)
Atlanta
1950 – 726,789
1997 – 3,627,184
(1950 Atlanta equivalent now – Albuquerque – 674,837)
Photo queenseyes: City Hall gets a facelift.