Is Buffalo New York and Orphan City?

[steel]

Is Buffalo New York and Orphan City?

I was just honky tonkin around over at this new architecture site (new to me) and discovered that they have several regional forums just like everyplace else. The problem is they have no region that includes most of New York State. It is just cut out for no reason so there is no place to post Buffalo info.

look at the map of their regional forums. The white part has no coverage. THE ONLY PLACE WITH NO REGIONAL FORUM IS UPPER NYSTATE!!!!



I have tried to get them to change what they call the North Atlantic Seaboard Forum into a North East forum but they refuse. I think that they think Buffalo is next to NY City because they keep saying to post in this forum which is described as the American Megalopolis. They don't understand that Buff is not a port of this group of cities.

YEEEEEESSSSHHH!!!

Here are some links
http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?
http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/i...showtopic=11794
http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/i...?showtopic=2523

So I was thinkin

Buffalo New York is considered to be in the Northeast. But it is in many ways much more Midwest. Though it is in New York State it has more in common with Cleveland and Chicago than it does with New York City. It is also next to Canada (you can spend Canadian Money in Buffalo) which further complicates things. Because of this Buffalo suffers an identity crisis.

Many people think that it is near NYC because it is in NY State. In reality it is over 500 miles from NYC on the Great Lakes! Often times NY STATE is not even considered to be a Great Lakes state!

Urban Planet does not even have a regional forum in which to post all things Buffalo.

Is Buffalo and Orphan City?????

[DetroitPlanner]

It is also next to Canada (you can spend Canadian Money in Buffalo) which further complicates things. Because of this Buffalo suffers an identity crisis.

I never thought of that, maybe thats why Detroit is in such bad shape! It has canadian suburbs and accepts canadian money!! I'll run that idea by my boss right now.... hmmm I smell a big ole raise!

[Dan]

Is Buffalo an orphan city?????

Good question, Steel.

Go to any bookstore -- Barnes and Noble, Borders, Chapters, Indigo, whatever -- and head to the travel section. Look at the various books covering the United States, and you'll find books covering just about every part of the country -- except upstate New York. All the "New York" books are about New York City. There's a few New York state travel guides, but they're hard to find on the shelves.

Even in the travel guides that have national coverage, there is a small tree's worth of paper used for NYC coverage, and Upstate is either skipped or given just a passing mention. A graphical representation:

NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC NYC

albany adirondacks syracuse rochester finger lakes buffalo niagara falls

Metro regions that are the size of Buffalo in other states get far more attention. Why? Because they're in states that aren't dominated by one of the largest, wealthiest, and most influential conurbations on the planet.

On the various international skyscraper forums with regional discussion (Skyscraper City, Skyscraper Page; Buffalo fans on SSP seem to be migrating to SSC), Buffalo is represented quite well in the Northeast US subforums; a foreigner reading those subforums might think that the city was one of the largest in the Northeast. The number of Buffalo-related blogs I've seen online -- not those related to 'da Bills, but about the area's culture, built environment, and future prospects -- is staggering, even compared to my adopted home of Cleveland. Even blogs from Buffalonians that aren't related to the built environment or local politics have a much stronger flavor of place than in your typical Anyplace USA blog.

Why? I've always said that "you can take a person out of Buffalo, but you can't take the Buffalo out of a person" (A qoute Masiello now uses quite often!). Being a Buffalonian is almost akin to a nationality; place is a far more integral part of the identity of those that hail from the Buffalo area than perhaps anywhere else.

[DetroitPlanner]

Good question, Steel.

Go to any bookstore -- Barnes and Noble, Borders, Chapters, Indigo, whatever -- and head to the travel section. Look at the various books covering the United States, and you'll find books covering just about every part of the country -- except upstate New York. All the "New York" books are about New York City. There's a few New York state travel guides, but they're hard to find on the shelves.

Thats not true, at least you're not Illinois! Chicago and Corn... okay maybe some soy and cows too.