Despite consistently high levels of snowfall and a lacking rapid transit system, Buffalo has proven itself to be a city worth staying in, according to one online top 10 list.
NerdWallet, a finance website that helps consumers make money decisions, recently ranked the Queen City as No. 6 on its list of cities with the highest quality of life. The findings were based on common sources of stress: income, affordability and health benefits, local economy and work-life balance. Much of the City of Good Neighbors is happy to celebrate the above-average marks, but others question the validity of what the study examined.
“It’s great when these studies tell the rest of the world how great Buffalo is,” said Brad Hahn, the executive director of Explore Buffalo, a non-profit organization that provides tour services around Buffalo.
Hahn said when Buffalo is evaluated based on standards of employment and rent, it is easy to see why the city comes out on top.
Buffalonians work less than 36 hours a week in an office and only spend about 21.9 percent of their paychecks on rent, both relatively low figures compared to other larger cities, according to NerdWallet. Rent prices in Buffalo are a fraction of what people pay in cities like New York or Boston, where the average monthly rent is $2,902 and $1,752, respectively, according to Forbes. The average monthly rent in the Buffalo area is $816, according to RentJungle.com.
Hahn said, moreover, the average 20-minute commutes to work are “practically legendary.”
But Macy Todd, an English professor at UB, finds fault with the accuracy of the study. He said the study does a poor job of representing anyone’s real life.
“Thirty-six hours of work a week is good if you’re making enough money,” Todd said. “But if your wages are cut from a lack of hours, this can be a great source of stress. Similarly, having exceptionally low rent can be either a blessing or a curse, as the conditions of this housing are not discussed either.”
NerdWallet took stress, a negative concept, to determine quality of life, which is a positive concept, according to Todd. Instead of basing quality of life on positive indicators, the idea is based entirely on the absence of stress-inducing factors, he said.
Todd contrasts qualities like affordability and accessibility between Buffalo, where he resides now, and New York City, where he has resided before. Although Buffalo is more financially affordable, New York City provides a convenience that Buffalo doesn’t offer, like close proximity to entertainment and everyday necessities.
In 2013, 258,959 people called Buffalo home in comparison to 19,651,127 residing in New York City, according to the United States Census Bureau. Despite criticisms of Buffalo’s living conditions, the city ranked as part of NerdWallet’s study results while New York City was not.
Henry Taylor, a professor for the Center for Urban Studies who disagrees with the study, said Buffalo has a large divide in terms of quality of life.
Black people, on average, pay around 50 percent of their income on housing, nearly twice the amount listed in the study, Taylor said. There is a gap that runs between those with high qualities of living and low ones in Buffalo.
“In the city as a whole, the quality of living is good,” he said. “But in the black community it is not.”
Vineet Madasseri Payyappalli, a second year industrial engineering graduate student living in the University Heights, does not think Buffalo has a high quality of life compared to other cities like New York or Calicut, the nearest city to his hometown in India.
“I say so because I understand there are a lot of poor neighborhoods in Buffalo,” Payyappalli said. “There is a considerable number of people much below my estimate of American living standards.”
He said Buffalo is better in terms of hygiene and cleanliness in public places, but overall, it is lacking compared to other comparable cities.
But Buffalo also boasts a population of longtime citizens who enjoy what the city offers.
Savanna Skarbowski, a senior health and human services major, has lived in Buffalo her whole life and thinks her hometown is worth staying in.
Skarbowski said other cities she has visited are more expensive to live in. She said Buffalo’s family-oriented lifestyle – the idea that people live in Buffalo with family in contrast to other cities of mostly single people – adds to the city’s quality of life.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” she said.
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