We're Buffalo babies, and over the past 20 years we've fallen in love with our hometown.
As Buffalo natives, we're apt to see our city through a prism – we filter out the bad and focus on the aspects that make this city a place we call home. Still, we can't help but notice the empty parking lots, collapsing buildings, and impoverished neighborhoods that hide only two blocks from the "Good Part of Town" – places like Elmwood Village or the renewed areas of Grant Street on the West Side.
We're concerned that everyone is so keen to focus on what is going right in a few certain neighborhoods that they ignore those struggling in the urban landscape.
Buffalo can do better.
It starts with our generation. Those with the brightest futures – the stars of universities in the area – are leaving Buffalo soon after graduation. Maybe it's to find a job (the unemployment rate in Buffalo stands at 7.3 percent in 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). Maybe it's to attend graduate school or return home to family with a degree in hand.
Or maybe it's apathy, cynicism, and lack of connection to the city that harms Buffalo the most.
During their time here, students don't give to the city and in return, the city doesn't give back. Students who dorm find themselves anchored to campus and allow the unwelcoming brick and concrete shell of Ellicott to become their downtown, their city, and their college experience.
From campus, you can't see Buffalo's beauty and you can't see Buffalo's need.
The university takes pride in the civic engagement of its students. Look at the list of projects, however, and it is clear that UB's brightest students are globally-minded: they are working abroad to establish irrigation programs in Tanzania, exploring caves in Mexico to study parasites, and travelling to Greenland to study climate change. These are fantastic ventures but it is hard not to mourn Buffalo's loss. Homegrown talent is being exported at a disheartening rate.
Each fall, nearly 30,000 students return to UB for the semester. The city is waiting for these fresh faces to venture into urbanity and bring a new vitality to the area. Students can get involved in community activities through programs such as the UB Academies, the Center for Student Leadership and Community Engagement, or simply by reading the newspapers to keep tabs on the neediest areas and programs in the city.
We need the minds and the ideas to transform this city into not only a nice city, but into the haven to which our ancestors fled. We need the architects, the engineers, the doctors, the writers, and the mentalities to replace the zeitgeist that has led to so much destruction of our city's history.
Did you know that Buffalo is also known as the City of Light? Buffalo was the first city in America to have electric streetlights after the Pan-American Exposition and the World's Fair in 1901.
Clearly, Buffalo has the potential to be innovative and forward thinking. It is inexcusable that a city stuffed with great minds and thinkers is declining in population.
Starting Wednesday and continuing through Saturday, Buffalo is hosting the Alternating Currents National Preservation Conference – a national event that studies the leading innovations in preserving history, one city at a time. It's bringing visitors from across the nation who will recognize Buffalo's charm, rich history, and the need to protect and invigorate Buffalo, as a whole.
Buffalo is also known as the City of Good Neighbors. It's a city known for its ability to care about every single member of the population. Rush hour isn't really rush hour; it takes nothing more than a nod or a wave to the driver next to you if you're trying to switch lanes – something that is unheard of in cities like Toronto or New York City.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came to Buffalo in 2009 to demolish and rebuild Dolores Powell's West Side home. Over 6,000 of Buffalo's kindest souls volunteered to help the cause – the largest volunteer turnout in the show's history.
Not only was Powell's home completely restored – volunteers worked tirelessly for over 53,000 hours combined on over 100 homes in the surrounding West Side neighborhoods. Simply inspiring.
As citizens of Buffalo, we have a responsibility, too; it's not just outside talent that will change Buffalo for the better. It's the commitment and altruism of our neighbors that will help us grow.
We're from Buffalo and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
