Queen City vs. Salt City

I will be going down to Syracuse this weekend to have another advisor visit for my study because I have noticed that I have gone off to a tangent from my initial study and need some guidance. Once again, I reminded myself that this study needs to be something that is visible and that can be studied through observations in the landscape. Along with my Off Campus Program advisor visit, I plan on meeting with my academic advisor to discuss about the follow up courses I will be taking the spring of 2013 right after my Off Campus Program prior to graduation: May of 2013. So far, this Off Campus Program/Study has been quite stressful in terms of trying to figure out what and how to execute a procedure in your methods in order for you to gather inventory and at the same time analyze what you've obtain so that the study question can be answered. After a careful reflection of the nine weeks here in the city of Buffalo, I can honestly state that developing a self-timesheet to complete your task at hand while juggling ten other things is a skill I've obtained from this Off Campus Program.

The city of Buffalo (Queen City) is similar to the city of Syracuse (Salt City) in many ways. Both the cities are in college campus environments with history in manufacturing of exporting goods. Both have common segregated communities of poverty and low income living, but at the same time have busy downtown/city halls that consist of many courts, bars, restaurants, and skyscrapers.  But the question to ask is: Why is the city of Buffalo not thriving like Syracuse, NY?

On another note, my parents called today informing me that there will be a hurricane in the city of New York this coming week. I pray everybody will be safe and sound prepped with their families. I have not heard much regarding this hurricane in the city of Buffalo, NY besides some rainfall and winds, but let’s all be safe and prepared.  

- Edward L

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