Periodically a number of articles and books cross my desk that fixBuffalo readers may find valuable. The most recent issue of New York Magazine contains an article by Adam Sternbergh - Where the Urban Dream Life is Going Cheap - the sort of article that you'll want to read. It's an amazingly candid look at this City.
I've heard a number of people describe Buffalo today as if it were New York City in the '70's - a place that's raw, sexy and a place that remains open to the imagination. I know something about this as the barrier to entry here in Buffalo is remarkably low. After a few short months of consistent blogging, I was sitting at the table and participating in policy debates that I'd been commenting on here. This experience of direct involvement and participation in helping to shape the City's future is shared by so many people that I meet.
I'm fond of saying for every bus load of people that leave - fifty people/week - a car load of new arrivals appear on the scene. If we continue to capture the right people - as we have - the City's future will remain bright. In addition, some of the best and brightest, people who left twenty years ago, are returning and joining a growing list of new arrivals.
I've added this article to my archive - Writing the City - that also contains writings by Nicholas Howe and Craig Reynolds. In the months and years ahead, as we dig ourselves out of this current malaise - as other rustbelt cities are beginning to do - we will be look back at this article as a critical moment, one that contributed to the long slow revitalization of this City on the lake, finally.
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4 comments:
David:
http://www.buffalonews.com/145/story/408929.html
U. S. Census Bureau estimates being released today show the young adult population in all of Erie County is actually increasing.
The data, which includes county-by-county breakdowns on age, sex and race, shows that Erie County had 69,566 people between the ages of 20 and 24 in 2007 compared with 57,441 in 2000 — a 21 percent increase. The 25-29 year-old age group saw a slight bump from 55,035 in 2000 to 56,061 in 2007.
What Chris points out is interesting. The increase of 25-29 age range is negligible - less than 2%, likely close to the Census estimate's margin of error over seven years. But I agree the 20-24 age range county-wide increase of around 8,000 people (21%) is significant. I wonder, maybe have colleges and universities around here collectively increased enrollment by around 8,000 from 200 to 2007? Otherwise, I can't think of anyhing else that could cause the 20-24 range to jump so much more than 25-29.
According to this, UB enrollment grew by 3,674 from 2000 to 2007, which might explain almost half the 8,000 increase. And if their portion of NYC or international students grew over that time (if a larger percent of their student body comes from outide Erie Co in 2007 than 2000), that could explain even more than half.
That Buffalo News link Chris posted has a nice lookup tool for Census info per state and county since 2000 per age range. It looks like Niagara and Monroe counties also had good percent jumps in the 20-24 range, similar to Erie Co. Niagara also had a big percent jump in 25-29 (casino workers maybe?), but Monroe decreased for 25-29.
Btw David, Smart City had Ed Glaeser on tonight and Buffalo came up quite a bit. If you missed it, might want to catch their podcast.
Buffalo State College has another record enrollment this semester, and is continuing overflow student housing downtown at Hampton inn, Holiday Inn, and the Adams Mark.
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