I started blogging in late 2003, and started focusing on local issues about a year later – after John Kerry lost the presidential election. Soon after that, in early 2005, George Johnson contacted me about Buffalo Rising – it was then a print publication that was starting a blog, and they were going to cover “New Buffalo”. George even made these handy widgets that said, “New Buffalo” and were used to promote not just Buffalo Rising, but the idea that Buffalo was finally shedding its rustbelt image of failure, and that great things were coming. They were just around the corner. This time, we’re going to get it right.
Some, like Christopher Byrd, say it was stupid to think it ever existed. We at WNYMedia.net promoted the notion that there wasn’t a “new” or “old” Buffalo, but One Buffalo. I had bought in to the notion of there being a “new Buffalo” because I know first-hand how dramatically a city, a region, and a mindset can change. The city I grew up in, White Plains, was once a typical little suburban city with a bustling main street (Mamaroneck Avenue), and you had your drug stores, Woolworth’s, movie house, music store, donut shop, photography store, Macy’s, etc. Then they built the Galleria mall, and Mamaroneck Avenue started looking dingy and forgotten. But in the last decade, a massive transformation took place right downtown in the shadow of a newer, fancier mall – Mamaroneck Avenue is booming again and features names on it like “Target”, “Ritz-Carlton”, and “Trump”.
Likewise, when I first moved to Boston it was a lot like Buffalo. Clinging to past glories, still thinking it was the hub of the universe, gritty but progressive thanks to a massive yearly influx of young, energetic people with disposable incomes. Now, it’s Boston.
Buffalo? I think the idea of “New Buffalo” is dead. The time of death, in my estimation, was the moment Byron Brown was re-elected Mayor of the City of Buffalo in 2009. He’s had 5 years to do something palpable to change not just the city for the better, but also its culture of back-scratching and backbiting. But it’s only gotten worse. And if you think about it – who’s out there who could take that job and possess, much less articulate, a coherent, credible vision for Buffalo’s future? We always come back to: no plan, no vision, no goals, no aspiration. Just make sure Goin’ South and Grassroots get their promised jobs, and STFU.
New Buffalo existed, after all, in the aspirations and hopes of people who love this area and want to see it grow. People who are here not because they have to be, but by deliberate, conscious choice. People who know it’s good elsewhere, and want to make it good here, too.
My goodness, January 2005 was filled with hope. And that’s just one example. Half a decade later, and Tom Suozzi is no longer going to be in elected office, much less Fixing Albany or its 3 men in a room. The Brennan Center’s simple recommendations for legislative and rules reform haven’t been completely implemented, and Albany pols don’t seem energized to make those changes. Revitalize Buffalo? Gone. WNY Coalition for Progress? Gone. Kevin Gaughan’s push for regional, metropolitan government? Gone in exchange for downsizing town boards and consolidating towns & villages.
We cheer small successes and are mentally and emotionally numb or immune to our disappointments. But as far as movements of the young and plugged-in, the big trend seems to be to get together and pow-wow about social media. You know who’s not using social media? The Erie County Legislature, the administration running the City of Buffalo, the Mayor of the City of Buffalo, the Buffalo Common Council, your town/village/city government, and most likely your representative in the State Senate/Assembly/town or city council. And if they were using social media, chances are they’d use it for one-way announcements rather than conversations about WNY and its government.
The red/green budget crisis seemed like a cathartic moment when we would finally get our political, economic, and social act together to jettison the past and work towards the future. Didn’t happen. The same fights get fought by the same people. Some who seemed as if they could be positive actors for change turned into raving, indecent lunatics. Others gave up.
New Buffalo as a concept may be dead, but plenty of people and organizations are taking little steps towards making a better WNY and a better life for them and others. Buffalo isn’t just a place, it’s something of a state of mind.
Buffalo needs goals, a plan to reach them, and leadership to steer us through the plan. When those three things converge, then we’ll have a truly New Buffalo.