Check out
High Hopes - The Rise and Decline of Buffalo, New York by Mark Goldman. I've got a copy that I would let you borrow, but it's packed away now.
Why did the Buffalo area fall into such a deep decline? Some reasons, IMHO:
1) Buffalo has never had any major corporate headquarters, so there is no tradition of corporate stewardship in the community. Buffalo has been a back-office city since the turn of the last century. It's easy for a company to lay off workers from a plant in Buffalo, because they're emotionally disconnected from the site.
2) There was no attempt made to diversify the economy after World War II, when growth in heavy industry began to level off, and avation, aerospace and electronics began to boom. Buffalo has a flegling aerospace industry in the 1950s, but most companies relocated to regions where there was a greater agglomeration of such industries, suh as Wichita and Southern California.
3) Buffalo's political culture is reminiscient of Chicago, circa 1960. Partonage jobs aren't seen as unusual, and old-fashioned political machines that care more about self-survival rather than the best interests of the region are a part of the landscape to this day.
4) Buffalo's VERY dominant ethnic, blue-collar culture is the antithesis of the "creative class" found in prosperous cities. Young, educated professionals leave the area soon after college graduation both because there are few job opportunities in the area, and because they're fish out of water. An educated Gen Xer or Yer can't relate to the dominant old-school bowling/VFD/sports fanatic/bingo/lowbrow cultural norms of the area; they're not among peers if they stay in Buffalo. The fact that Buffalo has a few bohemian neighborhoods like Elmwood Village and Allentown can't make up for the region as a whole.
5) Local economic development agencies compete not with other regions, but with each other. Thus, businesses get tax incentives to relocate from Buffalo to Amherst, or Cheektowaga to Lancaster. There is no net gain; in fact, there's a loss in overall tax revenue. Tax incentives are often offered to low-end commercial uses, such as fast food restaurants and chain drugstores.
6) Land use and long range planning is nearly nonexistent. The planning staff in the City of Buffalo is in the single digits. Many large local municipalities, such as Tonawanda, Cheektowaga, and West Seneca don't have planning egencies. The bulk of planning-related work tends to be in community development (free paint programs, low income mortgage programs, etc) and economic development.
7) The Buffalo area faces the highest income and property tax burden of any region in the United States. My parents pay $5,500 a year in property taxes on a $135,000 house.
8) Many manufacturing firms are reluctant to locate in Buffalo because it is one of three cities in the United States that cannot be reached on the Interstate highway system without paying a toll. (The other cities are Tulsa and New York.) The cost of shipping goods to and from Buffalo is higher than in an equivalent US city that is not located behind toll gates. There is also no direct north/south Interstate from Buffalo; it's only easy to ship north, east and west via truck.
9) Since the 1950s, there have been an assortment of poor planning decisions. Some cities have expressways thoughtlessly places on the waterfront, or new university campuses placed in the suburbs. However, every bad example of post-WWII planning can be found in Buffalo, and unlike other cities there are no plans to correct them now.
10) A disproportionately large amount of land in the Buffalo region is owned by the State, the Catholic Church, and other non-profit agencies. There isn't much land in the City itself that is actually on the tax rolls.
The burdens that Buffalo has are not unique to the region. Minneapolis and Chicago have brutal winters. Taxes for businesses are high in California, and real estate taxes are high in Wisconsin. Atlanta and Houston are poorly planned cities. Detroit and St. Louis have racial tension. However, the few burdens that other regions have ... well, imagine collecting them from throughout the country, and dumping them ALL on Buffalo.
The miracle ... Buffalo's central city hasn't experienced the massive decline of Detroit. Buffalo still has an urban middle class and elite, although they are now in the minority, a downtown that is considered safe, a relatively intact urban fabric outside the East Side, and a relatively decent urban nightlife. Unlike Detroit, though, the suburbs are now going through the same malaise as the city.
