Buffalo, N.Y. vs. Detroit

[buildingsofdetroit]

Just got back from a three-day trip to Buffalo, N.Y., and let me tell you, it is everything that Detroit could have been and should be. The parallels are striking:
*Lost half of its population since 1950.
*Has no major, thriving industry [[top five employers in Buffalo are all government, from state to county to federal).
*Rust Belt city.
*The median income is below $25,000 a year.
*Has a downtown that dies at 5.
*Has a gorgeous collection of old, pre-1930s buildings and houses.
*Has a large suburban population.
*Has a reputation for crime.
*Has a university.
*Has an artistic, youthful community.

The only things that were noticeably different about the makeup were a lack of a major race riot in the '60s, Detroit is about FOUR times bigger population-wise, and the population is 53% white and 38% black. And yes, Detroit is bigger, geographically [[Buffalo is about 43 square miles compared with Detroit's 138).

But everything else, whoo boy. A city that embraces its architecture and past, with nice signage telling you about the buildings, who designed them and what happened there. It's clean. Very little graffiti and little trash, either attributable to city services or people who care and don't throw their empty 25-cent chip bags on the sidewalk. You can drive for blocks and blocks in the residential areas around downtown and not will you not see a rundown, burned-out or boarded up house, even in the real-estate collapse, but you don't even see empty lots where houses used to stand. That is, their 1900-1920 housing stock is not only in great shape but complete and well-preserved.

Now, that's not to say there aren't empty buildings. There were many for-sale signs on commercial properties downtown. Their Statler Hotel [[much, much, much bigger than Detroit's) is right across from City Hall and is up for auction next week. There are chunks of the cornice missing, either removed or fell.

So maybe it's the leadership. Maybe it's the schools. Maybe it's because Detroit has too little spread out over too much land [[another argument for consolidating people and returning sparsely populated ones to wilderness). I have no idea, but I cannot tell you how depressed I got walking around seeing what we COULD have had. There's no reason why, that I can tell, Detroit couldn't have been like Buffalo. It breaks your heart, even more so than living amid the shambles.

There was an article in Buffalo's morning friendly while I was there that helps to illustrate the differences between Detroit and the DEGC's line of thinking and how things are done there:

"It became an icon for everything that was wrong in Buffalo and our local economy," Douglas G. Swift said, shaking his head that a building with such a rich history could be lost so quickly. "We have a chance to change that. It can now be a symbol of determination and new ideals. This city is slowly growing, but there is hope for downtown yet."

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/753380.html