Nothing depresses me more than desperate machinations because, unless they're Houdini's, they don't usually work out. But desperation moves were an everyday occurrence growing up in Buffalo. It wasn't the people, individually speaking... at least not those around me. It was the city itself -- the Population, the History, The Chip on The Shoulder, The Economic Condition, and The Reputation working in concert to function as one clumsey and cancered organism. When the steel industry took a dump, the city began shrinking. It's still shrinking today, as far as I know. Plans are hatched. Funds are allocated. Stadiums are built. Nothing works, because they're all desperation moves.

I picture Buffalo as an emaciated old man, picking at shackles with arthritic fingers while sinking slowly toward the rust-covered floor of Lake Erie. But Buffalo is still picking, and I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

It's impossible to convince anyone that Buffalo isn't as bad as its reputation, especially after an opening paragraph like the above, but it's not. The downtown is actually quite lovely. The skyline has been left almost completely unscarred by the Miami Vice-era skyscrapers that make downtown LA look so laughable, thanks to the miserable economy and utter lack on interest in urban development. The same goes for the homes -- there's a grandeur and grace to the buildings common to wealthy industrial age cities. Not to mention what's sorely missing from younger cities like Las Vegas and LA -- proximity.

Those things are nice, but the element that's central to what I personally consider Buffalo's biggest boner is that it's home to New York's largest public university. There are more than 17,000 undergrads enrolled at UB and around 8,000 graduate students. That's a whole bunch of exactly the kind of people you want rescusitating your downtown. They have a need for cheap housing, a desire for night life and culture, a need to shop, a tendency to eat our, and a dearth of cars. They're a captive audience, and a ready-made community.

So when the '70's rolled around and it came time to build a new, larger campus for UB, rather than going with proposals to put it downtown, they moved it way out into the suburbs.

The nice thing is, that suburb has really grown. There's a mall out there now. A Fuddruckers and a Hooters, too.

Analogcabin @ 11:30 AM
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