Interview from the Philippines

This marks the end of week 7 and start of week 8 for the Off Campus Program. This week flew by as I prepare for my trip to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls State Park or as it’s called in the Canadian side: Queen Victoria Park or Niagara Parkway Boardwalk. I also plan on going to the neighboring city of Toronto this weekend after passing by the Park. Toronto is the capital and largest city in the province of Ontario, Canada with over two and a half million people.

Regarding my study topic, I met a family this week while working who were visiting from the Philippines who asked about the Niagara Falls State Park. The first thing that came to my head was that there was an abroad family from South East Asia that came to Buffalo to visit Niagara Falls State Park and I thought that was insane. I quickly told them that I was actually doing a study on Niagara Falls State Park and the impacts it has to the city of Buffalo, NY.  Moments after, I asked if I could have a quick interview with them asking them a few more questions regarding their visit. From that interview, I realized they were here in Buffalo for professional/work reasons for a week and the first big attraction they thought of in Buffalo is Niagara Falls State Park to see The Falls that separates the U.S from Canada. It was quite an interview as well as the rest of the day at my job after meeting a family from the Philippines who came for job purposes and then later decide that they will go to the Niagara Falls State Park. Meeting the family and having the interview defiantly made my day and week. However what I noticed is that it does seem like there is this big misinterpretation that the Niagara Falls State Park being in the city of Buffalo when it is actually located in Niagara Falls, NY.

Furthermore, after coming back from New York City last weekend I noticed that I have got a lot closer to my family because of this Off Campus Program. I find myself calling my family more and keeping in contact more than I did when I was in Syracuse.

- Edward L 

Columbus Day Weekend

After turning 22 this past weekend I feel the growth of responsibility hit me harder than last year. It was an additional year in which I developed friends, professional networks, and experienced life changing events that will get me closer to reach my career path; for all that I am thankful. I would like to thank my family for all the support and guidance that they gave that got me to where I am now. I would also like to thank my professors, advisor, and the director of this program for making this Off Campus Program a reality, without you all I would not be writing this blog entry and this website would have never existed.  Thank you.

Going back to my study, the advisor meeting in which I mentioned last entry did not go how I planned for it to go. The three goals that I have developed for myself did not get achieved. Unfortunately, the meeting did not even take place. There was a football game in Syracuse last Friday and all faculty needed to be off parking grounds by 5pm, which is when I arrived on campus. However, on the bright side I got in contact with my advisor for this Off Campus Project and we will be skyping to keep in contact as a more efficient means of communication in order for the evaluation of the work done so far and guidance to the following steps to progress on this project. I hope this will be soon because this week marks the start of week 7 in the Off Campus Program, which is half of the 14 week Off Campus Program.

After self- evaluation, I have kept up with my journal entry, journal sketchbook, project notebook, and blogging my progress, but lacking in terms of the start in my thesis project. The weekend away from my project gave me the perfect inspiration and motivation to get me back on track and evaluate what I have done and what I need to do in order to answer my study question for my Off Campus Project. Time management and good communication with professors could really make or break this Off Campus experience. 

- Edward L

Advisor Visit

This is the end of week 6 and my first post to another month of my Off Campus Program here in Buffalo, N.Y. After a self- evaluation of what I have done, I must say that I have gotten a late start. I am one week later than planned from my schedule created in my proposal, which means that I have to be on my A-game for the next few days/weeks to catch up what I have not completed. Later this afternoon, I will be making a trip down to Syracuse for my advisor visit, which is actually supposed to be in between week 4 and 5. In this advisor meeting, I hope to achieve three goals:

1)    Have closure to my past study in Puerto Rico

2)    Evaluation to work completed thus far in Buffalo, NY

3)    Guidance to the following steps I will need to progress from work completed in order to answer my study question

As a result to this meeting in Syracuse, I've actually decided drive back down to New York City for my birthday weekend. I will be taking this weekend as a means of reliving home sickness since I haven’t had any physical contact with my family for 6 weeks. I hope after making this long trip down to Syracuse and then New York City and back to Buffalo will give me the adrenaline that will recharge my body to start working on continuing my process on finding the answer to my study question to my Off Campus Program, which is refresh everybody:

What is the influence of Niagara Falls as a tourism icon to the surrounding community of Buffalo, NY?

 - Edward L

Road Bump

This weekend was just a break for me and my car. Unfortunately, my car was put into the car shop to be fixed. Taking a break from this study, I started to think about other factors of my Off Campus Program. Some issues that came up were my financial stability currently in this program. My budget slightly went off to a tangent due to some minor fees and maintenance. I am trying to support myself and have been working part time to support myself and this Off Campus Program.

Prior to this Off Campus Program, I developed some goals for myself which included: being more independent and finding my own design process without having any supervision from my parents and professors. But what I realized was that I do in fact need or if not need, want some supervision to help guide me in this process of finding my own pathway of design and independence. I realize that I need guidance and some supervision in my design process. I get lost and at times can’t find the way out. As for now I roam the hallways of Capen Hall Library searching for guidance through these selves of textbooks and journals until I run into some interesting articles that get me back on track. One article I found interesting was this one:

Can Buffalo Ever Come Back?

http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_4_buffalo_ny.html

- Edward L

The Queen City

Taking a break from visiting the Falls this week, I decided to look up more on the history and the correlation between the tourist site to the city of Buffalo. Niagara Falls State Park is actually placed in the corner of a few little communities that surround the park. Niagara being the border of the community that separates Canada from the U.S. is actually connected to the north side community of Gorge. The community of Gorge then extends the border line between the Canadian border and the American border where Rainbow Bridge is in. To the east of Gorge is the Main Street community; a lot of bars, hotels, and restaurants fill up the busy night life streets. Below the Main Street is the Old Falls community adjacent to the Niagara community (please refer to picture above). The Old Falls community is full of historic aspects from statues to plaques of the fighting ground.

Along with all the communities is the famous Seneca Niagara Casino that I mentioned in the past post. Although the tourist map states that this Park is broken into different communities, I feel like they together act as one. These communities are all almost adjacent to each other which help one community get the visitors to the other. Ending on a positive note towards my study, I found that in the early 20th century, the city of Buffalo began calling itself the City of Light both because of the plentiful hydroelectric power made possible by nearby Niagara Falls and because it was the first city in America to have electric street lights!


- Edward L

The To-Do List

Pay tolls, I dislike them. However you need to pass by one when you are on your way to the Falls if you want to get there the fastest way possible. The route that I take, which is the I- 290 to the I-190 is the fastest route to reach Niagara Falls and back to Buffalo, but at the same time is the 25 minute route each way worth the $1 pay tolls back and forth each time as oppose to the 40 minute  each way that avoid the tolls? Instead of cutting through Grand Island, you could re-route and drive up north towards North Tonawanda.

Prior to arriving at the Falls once again, I saw some interesting attractions that I personally thought could bring more people to the Niagara Falls region as well as the local city of Buffalo. First was an advertisement of a Winery in Niagara Falls. Second was a large Culinary School in which still looks like in developmental stages. However being so close to the tourist attraction, I felt many visitors or tourist may have felt the same way I did when I saw those attractions. Where is this place, is it close to the Falls and how much is it to attend? In a way, I felt like there was an attraction in an attraction. Attractions mean a source of income. This income means a thriving economy for the city.

As I continued into the Niagara Falls State Park, I saw that there were actually many recreational activities in which visitors decide to do themselves, activities that are not online nor in the pamphlets. For example I saw a person practicing riding a unicycle right next to a group of people doing yoga. This state park has the perfect combination of recreational activities and relaxation due to the natural landscape it provides. Signs are almost on every corner of the State Park’s grass fields guiding and providing information for first time visitors and local residents who like to come to the park every day. For more information please refer to the link below:

http://www.waterfallswest.com/waterfall.php?id=53

- Edward L

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.