When I think about this New Buffalo that we are all trying to achieve, I often times flip-flop from development, to the waterfront, to the environment, to the breweries, etc. Every day brings about new advancements that I get excited about, even though there are still a handful of NIMBYs that need to be combatted on a regular basis. But it’s not the NIMBYs that I want to address today. Rather, I want to simply post a photo that I took yesterday, as I was biking along Elmwood Avenue.
The photo is of Amish roof builders working on an old residential structure, and on the roof next door is a cluster of solar panels. There is something about the juxtaposition of this old world craftsmanship brushing shoulders with alternative energy that got me to stop, pull over, and contemplate New Buffalo.
To me, this image reveals so much. It talks of acceptance, and sustainability, and craftsmanship, and preservation… it’s old world meeting new world, in a way that only a photo could manage to capture. We’ve come so far as a city, and we have so much further to go. This image is both invigorating and humbling at the same time. This fleeting scene says so much about Buffalo, past, present, and future. This is the type of Old Buffalo that I love, meshed with the New Buffalo that so many people are fighting for.
