[URBAN NOTE] "Buffalo in the rear-view"
NOW Toronto's Jonathan Goldsbie visits the city of Buffalo in upstate New York and comes back with the story of a city that has hit rock bottom but which is caught up in the penumbra of a booming Toronto.
[Kitty Lambert-Rudd, executive director of Buffalo ReUse] moved to Buffalo from Arizona in 2004, when she bought a house at auction for $3,000. A decade later and after extensive renovation work, it’s now worth $15,000.
“God, Buffalo is such an affordable place to start,” she says. “You can start a business here: there is so much real estate available where you walk in the door and start a factory. Walk in the door and start a retail business. Walk in the door and start a restaurant. Walk in the door and start anything that you can imagine can be done here in Buffalo."
A city with so little is full of possibility.
[. . .]
Buffalo is in many ways the Great Lakes mirror-image of Toronto. Here, our issues are the management of growth and the equitable distribution of prosperity. There, their issue is contraction, dealing with shrinkage and poverty. What happens when your best days are behind you and never coming back?
[. . .]
Remarkably, the city supports an alternative newsweekly, Artvoice, whose cover story is a recap of Toronto's Hot Docs festival. The same issue contains a guide to Toronto neighbourhoods outside the downtown core.
“I probably make the trip up the QEW to Toronto 10 or 12 times a year,” the piece by M. Faust begins, “and every time I do I swear the skyscape seems to have changed: less sky, more buildings.”
It’s a rare glimpse of how Buffalo views us.
"But even as Toronto seems hellbent to become the Tokyo of North America, many non-downtown neighbourhoods are hanging onto their identities, or building new ones that utilize and maintain the city's past."
[Kitty Lambert-Rudd, executive director of Buffalo ReUse] moved to Buffalo from Arizona in 2004, when she bought a house at auction for $3,000. A decade later and after extensive renovation work, it’s now worth $15,000.
“God, Buffalo is such an affordable place to start,” she says. “You can start a business here: there is so much real estate available where you walk in the door and start a factory. Walk in the door and start a retail business. Walk in the door and start a restaurant. Walk in the door and start anything that you can imagine can be done here in Buffalo."
A city with so little is full of possibility.
[. . .]
Buffalo is in many ways the Great Lakes mirror-image of Toronto. Here, our issues are the management of growth and the equitable distribution of prosperity. There, their issue is contraction, dealing with shrinkage and poverty. What happens when your best days are behind you and never coming back?
[. . .]
Remarkably, the city supports an alternative newsweekly, Artvoice, whose cover story is a recap of Toronto's Hot Docs festival. The same issue contains a guide to Toronto neighbourhoods outside the downtown core.
“I probably make the trip up the QEW to Toronto 10 or 12 times a year,” the piece by M. Faust begins, “and every time I do I swear the skyscape seems to have changed: less sky, more buildings.”
It’s a rare glimpse of how Buffalo views us.
"But even as Toronto seems hellbent to become the Tokyo of North America, many non-downtown neighbourhoods are hanging onto their identities, or building new ones that utilize and maintain the city's past."