What Could Possibly Make Someone Want to Leave New York and Move to Buffalo?

Buffalo #1

Lisa’s tattoo confirms that Buffalo is indeed #1.

New York mag­a­zine has an inter­est­ing fea­ture on New York­ers moving to Buf­falo, NY, the very city that Lisa and I were raised in and sub­se­quently couldn’t wait to leave from after high school.

Some people will read this as a story of defeat. They will look at Her­beck and Cloyd and think, They came; they couldn’t cut it; good rid­dance. That’s also a famil­iar New York nar­ra­tive, one that’s espe­cially com­fort­ing to those of us who stay and stick it out. Because, sure, stained glass and spare bed­rooms are nice and all, but no one moves to New York because they think they’re going to get a great bar­gain on an apart­ment. You move here because you want to live in New York City.

The writer then goes on to say that this is not a story of defeat, but rather an opportunity:

But New York, for all its mythol­ogy, is no longer a fron­tier. Buf­falo is a fron­tier. And when you think of the actual fron­tier, you’ll recall that no one ever packed up and moved West to a gold-​rush town because they heard it had really good local theater.

Um, okay… Truth is, I know more former 716 area coders that are now in 212 or 718. But, it’s a pro­vok­ing premise for a city famous for little more than snow and four con­sec­u­tive failed Super­bowl bids.

4 Responses to “What Could Possibly Make Someone Want to Leave New York and Move to Buffalo?”


  • Umm… i read that arti­cle and for­warded it on to my family. Now my sister, mar­ried, preg­nant, and living in LA, is talk­ing about moving back to bflo!

    O, and badass tat pres­ley.
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  • Hey Joel! Yea, god­speed to her, I’m stay­ing put.
    ReplyReply
  • all i can say is i’m still talkin’ proud.
    ReplyReply
  • this is the thing that truly annoyed me about that arti­cle – why does some­place have to be the “next hip brooklyn” to be worthy of atten­tion? the point is, there are many amaz­ing things about buf­falo, but it is not because it is the next hip­ster hang­out. and did they men­tion the soul crush­ing win­ters? i heart buf­falo, and always will, but not for any of the rea­sons in that arti­cle. god forbid it became the next williams­burg.
    ReplyReply

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