It dawned on me at the intersection where Elmwood crosses the Scajacqueda. The expressway is surrounded by Buff State's Rockwell Hall, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Historical Society and a high school with it's own greenhouse. Art lines the highway, including Michelango's David sans an Ashcroft fig leaf.
Hoyt Lake and Delaware Park (designed by the same man who laid out Central Park) stretch out as you head up the expressway. The area is vibrant with people year around.
It's like someone forgot to tell Buffalo a shrinking city should not have vitality.
When I worked in downtown Houston I was in easy walking distance of Alley Theater, Jones Hall and a handful of spectacular, well-funded performance venues... yet in the absence of a show-- the streets were absent of anyone not in a car heading elsewhere.
In Buffalo's daily newspaper Friday, the regular club review feature was about a gay bar, written by a gay man explaining the "bear" culture. No voyeurism or senstionalism and no hint of "hide the women and children" panic. Just the introduction of another new neighbor.
I could not imagine seeing anything like it a "family" newspaper in the South and was instantly proud of my town.
The population of Buffalo is less than 400,000 and shrinking .. in Houston and Atlanta the millions are growing every day.
Buffalo still tries to be a large city, with a small population. The sunbelt centers are small towns -- with a lot of people.
There is little individuals can do about the quantity of life here, but I love what we do with the quality.


Copyright 2005 Judi Griggs