For a city under a control board, a fleeing tax base and a crumbling economy, Buffalo Mayor-elect Byron Brown will be expected to make change.
The changes are vital ones, and he'll need help. Some of that help is coming from UB, which has played a key role in many city initiatives. From award-winning urban design programs to working on projects to develop Buffalo's waterfront, UB students and professors alike are working on city projects that may help incoming Mayor Brown succeed where his predecessor did not.
"Brown has reached out to all kinds of community members during his campaign," said Marsha Henderson, UB vice president for external affairs. "Clearly he's interested in the wider issues of the city and the community."
Brown will take office as Buffalo's new mayor amidst a declining city population and under the shadow of a control board. The city has seen a loss of business, with a larger number of households whose incomes are lower than those in neighboring suburbs. And those households can no longer afford to shoulder the tax burden alone.
"People have left because jobs have left," said Alfred Price, professor and interim chair of urban and regional planning at UB, who has served as a consultant to city hall on both a paid and volunteer basis. "There's an imbalance between the city's tax base and the amount of services the existing population requires."
"The mayor's biggest challenge is to find, if he can, creative yet responsible ways for balancing the city's budget," Price added.
In order for the control board to move to an advisory role rather than a power position, Brown must keep a balanced budget for three years. Many say balancing the budget and keeping it balanced won't be easy, but some say it's certainly possible.
"We're not like the county," said Buffalo Common Council member Bonnie Russell. "We're actually seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and good things are happening. We're actually digging ourselves out."
"That's what makes communities thrive: paying attention to concerns no matter how big or how small. If the new mayor listens to the people, I think they'll give him a chance," she added.
Kathryn Foster, director of UB's Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth, said the position of mayor is always a hard job, no matter the incoming situation.
"The city has multiple interest groups, whether it's poor and rich or white and black," said Foster, whose institute has played a role in many city initiatives and is currently working on Buffalo's vacant lot challenges. "The mayor's job is to make sure those differences are addressed. We'd be crazy to believe we all think alike. It's making people feel that they're a part of the city, too."
"The mayor must put forward a vision for community that people can be excited about," Foster said. "What can our city become? What can it be?"
Through projects like the Queen City Hub Plan for downtown, UB has been an active part of the planning many hope just might turn Buffalo around.
Robert Shibley, director of UB's Urban Design Center, recently won a national award from the American Planning Association for the project. City Hub is part of Queen City in the 21st Century, also known as Buffalo's Comprehensive Plan, which is a partnering of businesses, government and UB, and provides a framework to guide public and private investment and development in the city.
It includes a waterfront plan, the Queen City Plan and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Complex.
"The planning infrastructure right now is very solid and UB has had a key role in that," Shibley said.
The plan has not yet been fully adopted by the Buffalo Common Council.
"One of the challenges the new administration faces is appropriately putting the past administration behind," Shibley said. "There's a tendency to throw everything out and we want to make sure we stay the course on all the things that have been started. We don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water."
"We're going to see a kind of celebration of things that will be breaking over the next few years," he added. "This project has been in the planning for 12 years and we're going to begin to see the fruit of that."
Buffalo has been receiving a lot of national play in architecture and planning publications for a city its size.
"In 10 to 12 years, people are going to refer to Buffalo as a comeback city and they're going to forget that this work took 20 years to achieve."
Sean Brodfuehrer, a UB graduate student in architecture and urban planning was involved in the City Hub project and is currently working on a Buffalo waterfront initiative.
"It's been a great experience," he said. "It's always fulfilling to see these things come to fruition and then to hear people talk about it out in the field."
The SUNY Board of Trustees stipulates that professors earn tenure based on three categories: teaching, research and service. Service opens an area for UB and students to become involved in a wide array of city issues, and UB students are frequently employed as research assistants and earn academic credit for community projects and internships, including internships at city hall.
"We believe strongly in internships, and we're looking for ways to expand that," said Steve Casey, campaign manager and senior advisor to Mayor-elect Brown, who is finishing his tenure as a state senator.
Brown has said he plans to create 1,000 new summer youth jobs to help give students government experience at the city level.
"We want to create opportunities so that college kids stay here," Casey said.
