East Side Buffalo
Buffalo's East Side – How it Is, and How it Was
Melanie Harrison
A century ago, Buffalo was a vibrant city with a burgeoning economy and a cohesive sense of community and purpose. It was one of the largest ports in the United States, and was an important shipping and industrial center. People worked and lived in an intact community that provided them with the work that they needed to survive. There was some talk that Buffalo would become America's “second city”, a title which went in the end to Chicago.
After the war, the first wave of people began to leave the city for the suburbs, as they were doing all over North America. The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1957 meant that Buffalo as a port was rendered insignificant to a large degree. Industries shut down, people migrated west, and the once vibrant city saw its population decline from 500,000 to half that today.
Buffalo has been on the list of failing cities for the past ten years. It is one of the few American cities to see its population declining, a trend that has been steady since the 1970's. Life in Buffalo today doesn't hold the promise that it did 100, or even 50, years ago.
This work looks at the part of Buffalo that has been hit the hardest by the population and economic shifts – Buffalo's East side. The warehouses and factories that served as the engine of the city are shuttered and disused. The vegetation is creeping up, and slowly taking over. At a time when the American government spends about five billion dollars a month in Iraq “defending Americans”, it turns a blind eye to the reality of places like Buffalo's East side. I feel that these realities are what we need to look at sometimes, in their sadness and beauty.