Buffalo's Economic Down Fall

The city of Buffalo, New York is the second biggest city in New York in terms of city population according to citypopluation.de, but one of the poorest cities in the state of New York. The city’s population has been dropping ever since the 1960s when it use to be just over 530,000. What’s the cause of this population decrease? An article in one of Buffalo’s newspaper (The ArtVoice) actually had an article stating that the Dows Jones Industrial average stock market index increased from 2008 to the present year of 2012 a total of $3 billion. According to New York State’s Department of Labor, employment has also rebounded creating over 330,000 new jobs. So the question is why isn’t more people coming to live in the city of Buffalo? Does Niagara Falls have anything to do with it at all? Maybe families dislike moving into a city that is next to a tourist site such as Niagara Falls. 

After looking at the source of Buffalo’s economy, I have noticed that a majority of the income is coming from the University’s at Buffalo, the local/ public banks and steel manufacture. There does not look like there is a big influence of economic impact from the tourist attraction of Niagara Falls going into the city of Buffalo. The only major influence in terms of economic impact from Niagara Falls State Park to the city of Buffalo are major holidays like Independence Day in which tourist reservations increased by 30% according to the article below. However, other than major holidays the tourist site of Niagara Falls State Park just does not seem to have much beneficial economical influence to the city of Buffalo.

http://niagara-gazette.com/local/x1058724636/WALK-THIS-WAY

- Edward L.

Active Nightlife on Rosh Hashanah

Due to the lack of attendance in the Falls last weekend (Labor Day), I decided to go again to see if this three day weekend (Rosh Hashanah) would have a better turnout in terms of the amount of visitors and tourist that will be there at night for the illumination. At my arrival, I realized that there was a casino called Seneca Niagara Casino and Hotel within walking distance to the Niagara Falls State Park. The casino had free self-parking in which I parked in and made my way to the surrounding streets in between the two locations. Between the casino and the Falls was a pedestrian plaza that included The Conference Center of Niagara Falls, several hotels, and many restaurants and bars. I felt like I was in a very active community full of nightlife.

While exploring these busy streets, I approached a huge crowd of people in what looked like tents playing loud music and dancing freely. I kindly went up to one of the people and was informed that they were participating in the Roller Derby After Party due to the fact that the Queen City Roller Girls had made it to the playoffs in The Thrill of the Spill. For more information on this event, click the link below:
http://www.qcrg.net/

I joined in for a bit and decided to make my way to the Falls. While walking to the illumination, I noticed a majority of their recreational activities or if not all of their recreational activities were already closed at 9:00pm, which is when I have arrived at the State Park. However, what caught me off guard was that there was still an active public bus that arrived right in front of the Park, NFTA Metro- 55T Trolley. 

- Edward L