Census of Buffalo

This week I decided to start developing my hypothesis to whether Niagara Falls State Park really influences the city of Buffalo economically in a beneficial or negative way. Going through all the research and inventory that I’ve gathered, I personally don’t think The Falls as a tourist attraction has much of an economic effect to the city of Buffalo. I decided to side track a bit and started to dig deeper into the history of Buffalo, New York. Based on the data, I noticed some patterns; the city of Buffalo seem to be in an exponential downfall in terms of population and an increase in poverty.  

According to Census, during the 1950s Buffalo was the 15^th  largest city in the country being the nation's largest inland port, 2nd biggest rail center, 6^th  largest steel producer, and 8^th  largest manufacturer. Currently in the 21^st century, the United Nations released a report entitled "State of the World's Cities" in which the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area was specifically cited as having one of the worst rates of economic inequality in the world and that it was racially based. The report stated "… western New York state, where 40 per cent of black, Hispanic and ethnically mixed households earned less than $15,000 in 1999, as compared to 15 per cent of white households. In addition, the United States Census department also released information placing the Buffalo-Niagara metro area, as the 8^th  most segregated area in America. Segregation and job loss leads to population loss to the city, which is exactly what is occurring in this Queen city.

 

With a downfall in population, Buffalo faces issues such as vacancy and abandoned houses. The Queen city currently ranks 2^nd only to St. Louis on the list of American cities with the most vacant properties per capita. - Vacant Houses, Scourge of a Beaten-down Buffalo.New York Times. Retrieved September 14, 2007.

Below are the principal employers trying to keep the people of Buffalo to stay and make this Queen city thrive once again. According to the City's 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the principal employers in the Buffalo Metropolitan Area as of 2011 are:

#	Employer	# of Employees
1	State of New York	27,955
2	University at Buffalo	10,898
3	Kaleida Health	10,000
4	United States of America	10,000
5	Catholic Health System	6,230
6	Employer Services Corp	6,089
7	Buffalo City School District	5,200
8	Tops Markets	5,103
9	HSBC Bank USA	5,000
10	M&T Bank	4,611

- Edward L