Buffalo By Choice

I have to comment here on something.
I’m a new guy in town. I hail from Canada, moved to the states in 1976 and have lived the last 25 years in Los Angeles, but I spent about 15% of that time outside the country travelling the world.
I crash landed in Buffalo, quite unexpectedly last year, having no intentions of moving to this city, but finding that I actually really liked Buffalo. Surprisingly for me after having lived in a megatroplis ala monster-tinsel-sprawling-whatever Los Angeles, seeing London, Paris, Sydney, Amsterdam, and countless other cities around the world. Uhh, why Buffalo?  And you know, people here in Buffalo ask me the same question. Why the hell did you come to Buffalo from Los Angeles?
For several months I usually answered the same way. It’s a nice city, nice cool architecture, LOVE the Elmwood district (where my wife and I relocated to) etc.
But after attending some local networking meet-ups, reading blogs, and such about Buffalo. I realize what it is about Buffalo that I really like. People here are ACTUALLY friendly. Case in point. Los Angeles, while it is a great city in some ways, one of the richest in the world and certainly the headquarters of the film industry and other industries too, is like walking in a fishbowl when it comes to people. Compared to Buffalo, people in LA don’t talk to you. I think that in one month in Buffalo, I had more people that I didn’t know, make eye contact with me, smile (a real smile) and say hello, than in 25 years in Los Angeles. LA is called the Tinsel town and not for no reason. It’s a town of transients, Hollywood wanna-be’s and a lot of very agressive people trying to get rich or whatever. But Buffalo, the people are actually friendly. My god. You can walk down a street and they say hi. It’s a “big town” with small-town heart. That is very marketable - I must say. Buffalo cannot compete with Los Angeles, NYC, Chicago, Boston or Houston in terms of steel-chromed skyscrapers, expensive parking meters and all the glitter that money offers. Unfortunately, Buffalo’s past administration hasn’t been progressive enough, or agressive enough to ensure that this city rode out the rough times and developed with the times, unlike other cities that have done so and have come out ahead.  But all of that notwithstanding, and no doubt, Buffalo WILL catch up eventually, Buffalo has heart. It has a quality that honestly you cannot find everywhere in America, or elsewhere. Here people are STILL friendly. Buffalonians haven’t bloated their heads or their ego’s or their pocket books to the point where the “other” guy is no longer important enough to say hello to or to smile at or to give a friendly hand. So as much as I love the Elmwood district and some of the charm of Buffalo, I think intrinsically, Buffalo can market itself as one of the friendlier places in America. Not only a place where the housing market is good, or where there are great colleges, or a decent place to raise a family, but a place that still epitomizes the foundation that made America AMERICA. Friendship and values. Money won’t save the world. But people will.