# WAIT WHAT? Buffalo 3rd Cleanest city in the nation?
**URL:** https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565
**Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic
**Created:** [June 5, 2008, 5:22am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565 "2008-06-05T05:22:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@LAFENGAS](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/LAFENGAS)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 5:22am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/1 "2008-06-05T05:22:25Z")
something doesn’t seem right…i find this hard to believe
[http://www.wgrz.com/news/news\_article.aspx?storyid=58415](http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=58415)
> Readers of the national publication “Reader’s Digest” say Buffalo is the third cleanest city in the country.
> Readers gave the Queen City high praise for cleaning up brownfields and contaminated industrial sites.
> It also mentions the city’s garbage tote initiative, that helped curb Buffalo’s rat problem.
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### Author:  [@JayS](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JayS)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 5:28am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/2 "2008-06-05T05:28:38Z")
I guess it makes sense. When you start with a river that caught on fire 3 times and clean it up to the point where it doesn’t catch on fire that’s a huge improvement.
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### Author:  [@9c1](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/9c1)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 5:29am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/3 "2008-06-05T05:29:40Z")
Reader’s Digest? We’re going to believe that Buffalo is clean from a publication that is meant to be read while on the shitter? :crap:
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### Author:  [@Adictd2b00st](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Adictd2b00st)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 5:32am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/4 "2008-06-05T05:32:34Z")
no way in hell its the 3rd cleanest city. almost every other major city i’ve been to is cleaner haha
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### Author:  [@justa4door](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/justa4door)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 5:33am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/5 "2008-06-05T05:33:13Z")
> [@JayS](#):
>
> I guess it makes sense. When you start with a river that caught on fire 3 times and clean it up to the point where it doesn’t catch on fire that’s a huge improvement.
no shit really.never knew… do you have a link i need something to read today
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### Author:  [@Paulo](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Paulo)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 5:42am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/6 "2008-06-05T05:42:16Z")
I wonder what they base this on. There is no fucking way this could be accurate.
It’s hard to believe too many cities in the North would even come close to the top of that list.
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### Author:  [@slowtalon](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/slowtalon)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 5:43am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/7 "2008-06-05T05:43:42Z")
there not saying cleaner like theres no garbage, there saying we were horrid and are now much better through the cleanup programs. its not like there driving around the eastside checking shit out they are looking at paperwork and buffalo has done alot to clean up
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### Author:  [@Janus](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Janus)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 5:57am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/8 "2008-06-05T05:57:15Z")
Denver alone is spotless. no way does buffalo do better
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### Author:  [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 5:57am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/9 "2008-06-05T05:57:42Z")
I’d believe that if improvement counts. This place practically glowed at night thanks to all the nuclear waste not too long ago. Huge chemical industry + manhattan project = lots of scary waste. Lets just say Praxair will not be able to sell this site for, oh, the next 10,000 years. :ohnoes:
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### Author:  [@JezikaTee1983](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JezikaTee1983)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 6:22am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/10 "2008-06-05T06:22:03Z")
> [@Fry](#):
>
> I’d believe that if improvement counts. This place practically glowed at night thanks to all the nuclear waste not too long ago. Huge chemical industry + manhattan project = lots of scary waste. Lets just say Praxair will not be able to sell this site for, oh, the next 10,000 years. :ohnoes:
you can thank POOPRAs company for cleaning all that ish up.
:tup: to buffalo. reader’s digest obviously wouldn’t make it up. in comparison to other cities of our size, industry, etc., we’re cleaner. positive national attention is a good thing.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 6:39am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/11 "2008-06-05T06:39:04Z")
> [@slowtalon](#):
>
> there not saying cleaner like theres no garbage, there saying we were horrid and are now much better through the cleanup programs. its not like there driving around the eastside checking shit out they are looking at paperwork and buffalo has done alot to clean up
bingo
hell, look at lake erie as a shining example
About 4-5 years ago when a friend of mine came home on leave (RIP) he brought this southern girl up with him. We were hanging out at his rents house the one night drinking and I asked her what she had thought of Buffalo since she went sight seeing the day before.
she replied " it’s uhhh… dirtier than I thought it would be"
lol
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### Author:  [@JayS](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JayS)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 6:49am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/12 "2008-06-05T06:49:43Z")
> [@justa4door](#):
>
> no shit really.never knew… do you have a link i need something to read today
Something I learned about in a history of NY class I took in college. Not finding a whole lot about it online.
Mentioned here but only one sentence:
> **[Myths surrounding Cuyahoga River fire 35 years ago](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/707225)**
>
> Jonathan H. Adler, Case Western Reserve University law professor and director of the Environmental Law Center at the Case Law School, revisits his environmental studies of the legal issues surrounding the fire on the Cuyahoga River in 1969 and...
> Nor was the Cuyahoga River the only fire to burn during that era. Pollutants fueled fires on a river into the Baltimore Harbor, the Buffalo River in upstate New York and the Rouge River in Michigan.
But basically the polution was so bad that 3 times the river was actually on fire. Obviously it was all the polution floating on top burning, but that’s pretty serious polution when it’s so bad you can set a river on fire.
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### Author:  [@eMKay](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/eMKay)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 6:54am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/13 "2008-06-05T06:54:13Z")
> [@Janus](#):
>
> Denver alone is spotless. no way does buffalo do better
Except for the constant brown haze that hangs over Denver. Air is a big part of it.
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### Author:  [@dozr](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/dozr)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 7:01am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/14 "2008-06-05T07:01:01Z")
> [@JayS](#):
>
> Something I learned about in a history of NY class I took in college. Not finding a whole lot about it online.
>
> Mentioned here but only one sentence:
> [http://www.eurekalert.org/pub\_releases/2004-06/cwru-msc061704.php](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-06/cwru-msc061704.php)
>
> But basically the polution was so bad that 3 times the river was actually on fire. Obviously it was all the polution floating on top burning, but that’s pretty serious polution when it’s so bad you can set a river on fire.
Welcome to every steeltown. I think the same happened in Pittsburgh.
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### Author:  [@sureshot](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/sureshot)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 7:01am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/15 "2008-06-05T07:01:42Z")
I’m not surprised to see San Jose as #2 and Portland as #1, but I’m very surprised San Diego is not #1 or #2 or #3.
The smog is not as intense there as there is really no industry, all commercial. Furthermore when I lived there graffiti of any kind was always painted over/cleaned in a matter of days. It’s so clean there I can’t even believe it. Oh well, San Jose is good too.
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### Author:  [@JayS](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JayS)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 7:17am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/16 "2008-06-05T07:17:52Z")
> [@sureshot!](#):
>
> I’m not surprised to see San Jose as #2 and Portland as #1, but I’m very surprised San Diego is not #1 or #2 or #3.
>
> The smog is not as intense there as there is really no industry, all commercial. Furthermore when I lived there graffiti of any kind was always painted over/cleaned in a matter of days. It’s so clean there I can’t even believe it. Oh well, San Jose is good too.
Again, it’s not cleanest in respect to zero trash/white glove sort of test. It’s cleanest when taking into account what it was like in the past. So if you city has always been clean and it still clean today you probably lose to a place like Buffalo that isn’t spotless today but used to be an absolute cesspool.
Buffalo really has come a long way in terms of cleanup.
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### Author:  [@hondaride22](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/hondaride22)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 7:25am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/17 "2008-06-05T07:25:21Z")
yea now we just need to clean out the (people that annoy you SP episode?)
: /
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### Author:  [@boardjnky4](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/boardjnky4)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 7:33am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/18 "2008-06-05T07:33:39Z")
looks like its based on improvement.
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### Author:  [@JEG](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JEG)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 7:51am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/19 "2008-06-05T07:51:58Z")
Don’t forget that Buffalo is one of the most forrested cities in the US as well. That massivly improves the air quality.
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### Author:  [@Matt\_Danger](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Matt_Danger)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2008, 10:34am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/wait-what-buffalo-3rd-cleanest-city-in-the-nation/49565/20 "2008-06-05T10:34:25Z")
I was in Portland in October. Other than a serious amount of homeless the city was pretty nice.