Hi Shawn. Glad you chimed in as you and I talk about this same stuff when we’re hanging out anyway.
The area is shit, there’s no denying that. However, I try not to focus on what it is but what it could be. Writing it off as a shit neighborhood and giving up on it is certainly the easiest thing to do, but it just can’t be the right thing to do.
I really don’t care either way, it’s a poor person store in a poor person neighborhood that I would never go to whether it gets built or not. But it does seem like a case of beggars trying to be choosers. How many groceries can you really carry on foot anyway, unless you steal the shopping cart like so many people seem to do around there.
As for Mopar, if you prefer Broadway/Fillmore over Snyder I have some great property in Detroit you may be interested in. That or I’ll gladly buy you a house in Broadway/Fillmore and trade you for yours. Maybe even two.
Do you live in the burbs?
Maybe you just overlooked this when you wrote it. Did you mean only 1/3 of Buffalo city dwellers own cars?
Yep, Snyder. Did 5 years living on/around campus at Canisius and getting my car broken into and seeing my friends get mugged every week or so and had just about enough of diversity and the city. Great to party, not so much to live.
Not trying to knock you or anything considering I don’t know you at all, but the attitude of the city is shit and we should all pack up and leave and do the same if and when the place we moved to meets the same fate is crap. Have I never experienced break-ins, shootings, muggings, or similar during my time in Snyder? No, but I didn’t experience any of those things while living in University Heights. It takes a certain kind of person to look past all the shit and see the beauty in the city and I am one of those people. If I’m getting you wrong here I am sorry, I am surrounded by people of the like mind and would totally be down for grabbing a beer and seeing the other side of things, totally not trying to be a dick here by the way.
Snyder is by all accounts a nice neighborhood, but it lacks so much of what I want in my neighborhood. Walkability, other races and cultures, block parties, a sense of community, etc. When I’m done with school my plans are too immediately move into the city, work for/in the city, and rarely return to the burbs. The suburbs have never been and will never be sustainable. Depending on what you believe or who you listen to, myself and many others see a great change in the next 50 years. As resources diminish, prices increase, and people are more or less forced or desire to live, work, and play all in the same place Buffalo will become and already is much more desirable. It would not be surprising by all accounts to see a reverse exodus, if you will. While it may be bullshit and I don’t claim it to be accurate, I have heard from multiple sources that a large majority of those born after 1990 desire an urban lifestyle meaning a return to the city. Buffalo is great, not as great as it once was, but none the less you could not pay me to live in the suburbs after living in and getting a taste of city life.
I believe in this city and while there are many, many challenges ahead of those who also do, Buffalo will be ok. I’m not on my ass doing nothing about it, not to get too personal, but I rarely do anything in the burbs, I always leave to go into the city, I help in the little ways I can to improve it, I write for a website that saw over 2 million individual visits last year about all the great things going on in the city, I’ve even started an organization which has an official booking for the National Trust for Historic Preservation when they come in October. I am nobody, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be somebody for Buffalo.
Cliffnotes: There is a lot of work ahead of those who care to do it, but Buffalo is beautiful, unique, and will be great once again. Those who doubt it of course are entitled to their opinion just as I am, but I am willing to put in the work, to make the sacrifices, to deal with the bullshit so by the time I die I can say that I helped in my own way to exemplify how truly incredible my city is.
I’m pretty sure I have it the proper way, let me double check and get back to you
Joe, a lot of crimes like that are preventable.
Mopar, I started to read the first paragraph of your post and was thinking I would reply saying we should grab a beer haha.
Then I read further and saw that you brought it up. Even though it wasn’t directed at me, shoot me a PM if you’re down. I need to meet more pro-Buffalo people and less “let the city rot” people.
They want it on a sidewalk so they don’t have to run as far with the stolen street steaks.
Do they want Aldi to put bars on the windows too? Maybe just not have any shopping carts at all, this will prevent the stealing of carts and whatever it is that the individual will be carrying home the groceries in (Aldi does not supply free bags) can also be used in the store (stolen carts from elsewhere, stolen wheelchairs, stolen bicycles with baskets, stolen _______ )
The Broadway Market blows and the entire area surrounding it needs a match and some gasoline. The 3 times a year I have to go into that fucking excuse for a “community” I want to do them all a favor and burn it down. Progress will never be made in that area again. The people occupying that area are not creators, builders, workers or play any role in anything productive, so how can you possibly expect anything other than what is there to come out of there?
Am I over simplifying it or is it true and nobody wants to admit it? There is a reason (several hundred reasons I would assume) people with jobs left the area and the only people left are unemployed…
Those same reasons are preventing those same people from investing any money back into the area.
EDTT - And I don’t live in the burbs either for a completely unrelated reason.
The city of Buffalo is perfect for poor people and until they get some competition the poor people will not leave.lol Maybe the best thing would be a bulldozer and I mean that literally. Elbow room and soccer leagues are bringing people to the suburbs not Aldis. I want to say everything in the poor neighborhoods sucks but that would only be 99% true.
Oh, and one other little thing; jobs. Since they let the criminals take over companies are not lining up to invest there at this point. If Buffalo gave me a building and let me operate there tax free I MAY think about it but I still probably wouldn’t move there without armed guards. lol
Mopar, you lived in University Heights and didn’t experience break-ins and muggings? My fiance had a wrist cast for over a month from being thrown to the ground by some thug. I’ve known more than a handful of people who have had their houses AND cars broken into there as well. From what I understand, it’s gotten even worse since I left too.
yea, i lived in the heights for 2 years, and i wouldn’t recommend it for anyone, but I never had any issues.
Nope, never a single incident and I lived on Brinton off Englewood which dead ends at the old railroad right of way. I agree it has gone down hill since I left as well, absentee landlords and shitty college students don’t help at all.
^This.
If you lived in U-Heights for 4 years without incident, you were lucky. It’s true that most of that stuff can be prevented, but shit still happens and there’s a fairly high concentration of shitty people mixed with drunk as fuck college kids. Something is bound to happen.
I lived there for 12 years
Are you sure you don’t have amnesia from a gun shot wound to the brain?
I actually lol’d
I lol’d too, but no I don’t
i work in the city every day. broadway and filmore is a shithole. filmore is a shit hole. humboldt/e.ferry is a shithole.
granted, i do walk around that area a lot for my job, and nothing bad has happened to me (knock on wood)
seeing how people live in that area and how “normal” people live is just kind of wacky. you see things that cant be explained. no one knows how to use cross walks, it blows my mind
let it rot, fuck it
and for all the polish people who go to broadway market once a year to get their butter lambs and perogies STFU i am honestly shocked that place is still open. i have never been there, and dont ever plan on going there, im sure a lot of buffalo feels the same way
It is still open because Buffalo has an unhealthy obsession with the past.
A good friend of mine lives in Amherst and actually listed that his wife makes him take her to the broadway market a lot on the application to convert his target/hunting pistol permit to a full conceal carry. True story, it was approved. What does that tell you about the area?