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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