Buffalo, New York, is a city with a great industrial, culinary, and athletic heritage. Its privileged location on the Erie Canal, paired with a once flourishing grain industry, propelled it from a small trading village to the second largest city in New York State. It is also the birthplace of the eponymous “buffalo wing,” a dish enjoyed throughout the nation. The Buffalo Bills, an NFL team, is also a product of the city. Despite all of its notable contributions in the fields of industry, food, and athletics, Buffalo has undergone a precipitous decline in both its economic output and population in the postwar era. Indeed, Buffalo has gone from ranking as the eighth largest city in America by population in 1900 to the 78th largest in 2021[1] and has also lost many of its largest industrial employers. As a result, the city is now the second poorest in New York state, with an average individual income of $15,000 per year and 30.4% of residents living below the poverty line[2]. It may not come as a surprise to many that Buffalo is no longer the industrious city of yesteryear. Still, it is important to understand the history of Buffalo, specifically between the years 1900 and the 2000s, so that we can work to stymie its decline and work to rebuild the city.
At the turn of the 20th century, Buffalo had established itself as a prosperous mill town, surpassing cities such as Minneapolis thanks to its location on the Erie Canal[3]. Wheat was the main export of Buffalo, as the grain elevator had allowed for an expeditious method to store and ship wheat through the Erie Canal. European immigrants came to work in the grain mills and steel factories, and hydroelectric power utilized from Niagra Falls allowed Buffalo to be the first city with electric lighting, yielding it the title the “City of Light”[4]. Buffalo was also home to the Pan-American Exposition, a World’s Fair in 1901, mainly due to its strides in electricity. Many large corporations with primary interests in steel and grain relocated to Buffalo, including the Lackawanna Steel and Iron Company, which was formerly based in Scranton, Pennsylvania[4]. All of this made Buffalo a major metropolis and hub of industry.
Buffalo experienced tremendous economic growth until the 1930s, when the Great Depression took its toll on the nation and, consequently, its once prosperous cities. Buffalo was mainly an industrial city, and its workforce consisted primarily of working-class immigrants, most of whom were laid off. It also was during this time that the New Deal was in effect, and many public works were built, employing many of the aforementioned laborers who lost their jobs at steel and grain companies. The most notable example of these public works is the Buffalo City Hall, an Art Deco tower designed by the architectural firm Dietel, Wade & Jones[5].
During World War II, Buffalo returned to economic stability. The war required metalworkers to build arms and military tanks, and the metal came from industrial cities such as Buffalo, New York. It was during this time that Buffalo saw nearly all of its population employed and rose again to become one of the most populous cities in America. Lackawanna Steel and other companies employed tens of thousands of Buffalo residents, and it would seem that the city was beginning to prosper for the first time since the 1920s.
The economic success that came with World War II was short-lived, however. The city began to decline in the following decades and would continue to do so through the 2000s. The first catalyst for this decline was the national trend of suburbanization. As with many cities, white middle-class workers were growing weary of living in urban environments, many of them plagued with crime, industrial conditions, and increasing racial tensions. Real estate speculators and developers saw this trend, and suburbs such as Amherst, Orchard Park, and Williamsville began growing[6]. As a result, the city of Buffalo became increasingly black, as African Americans were often barred from homeownership in the suburbs. Many of these ethnic blacks were skilled, middle-class workers, but the city still suffered from the effects of “white flight.” Tensions between ethnic blacks and whites reached their peak in the 1960s with the 1967 Buffalo race riots. It was during this summer in 1967 that the city virtually shut down, with 400 police officers fighting the riots and over 40 people injured, many from gunshots[7].
While ethnic tensions and suburbanization certainly contributed to the decline of Buffalo, the main catalyst was the changing landscape of the industry. Improvements in electricity rendered the city’s proximity to Niagara Falls irrelevant, mechanization meant that fewer employees were needed for the production of goods, and automobiles meant that people and companies could leave the area altogether, moving to warmer environments designed for cars. When the Saint Lawrence Seaway opened in 1957, it connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic and allowed grain shipments to bypass Buffalo altogether, resulting in perhaps the largest industry in Buffalo being obsolete. This, paired with a smaller tax base and a declining population, resulted in Buffalo declining for many decades.
Today, Buffalo is one of America’s fastest-dying cities[8], and much of it is blighted and abandoned. Homes that were once proudly called home by middle-class Americans are now derelict and dilapidated. The factors that played into this decline are multi-faceted: some blame it on crime and the attraction of poor residents, some on a problematic local government, and others on the inability to keep up with the times. Regardless of what one believes, it is important to realize that while Buffalo may never return to its industrial heyday, there may still yet be hope for a brighter, more prosperous future.
WORKS CONSULTED:
- https://www.biggestuscities.com/city/buffalo-new-york
- Yasminwblk. “These Are the 7 Poorest Cities in New York State.” Power 93.7 WBLK, 2 Feb. 2023, https://wblk.com/poorest-cities-new-york-state-23/.
- Mini-Historical Statistics 13. https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/los_angeles_pop.pdf.
- Kendevapts. “Buffalo, NY: The City of Light (Thanks to Niagara Falls).” Apartments For Rent in Buffalo NY, 27 Dec. 2018, https://kendev.com/history/buffalo-ny-city-light-thanks-niagara-falls/.
- “Buffalo City Hall.” Photography of Buffalo, NY, https://buffalophotoblog.com/buffalo-city-hall#:~:text=Buffalo%20City%20Hall%2C%20one%20of,anniversary%20of%20being%20a%20city.
- Puma, Mike. “The History of Hamlin Park Part VI: Post WWII Transformation and Changing Demographics.” Buffalo Rising, 6 Sept. 2013, https://www.buffalorising.com/2013/09/the-history-of-hamlin-park-part-vi-post-wwii-transformation-and-changing-demographics/.
- 1967 Riots, http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/1967riots.html.
- Staff, WGRZ. “Report: Buffalo among Fastest Shrinking Cities in America.” Wgrz.com, WGRZ, 28 Aug. 2020, https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/report-buffalo-among-fastest-shrinking-cities-in-america/71-1eccef84-874f-4500-983f-2c2e582597cc#:~:text=from%202014%2D2019.-,Buffalo%20ranked%209th%20on%20the%20fastest%20shrinking%20cities%20list.,the%20span%20of%205%20years.
