Can't Cut It In Brooklyn? Try Buffalo.
Want a three-bedroom apartment on the park with front and back porches, an office and stained glass windows for $795? Try Buffalo. New York Magazine has the tale of a Brooklyn couple who decided to forsake their $1,300-a-month Sunset Park pad for bigger and better digs on New York State’s western frontier. Several ex-New Yorkers…
Want a three-bedroom apartment on the park with front and back porches, an office and stained glass windows for $795? Try Buffalo. New York Magazine has the tale of a Brooklyn couple who decided to forsake their $1,300-a-month Sunset Park pad for bigger and better digs on New York State’s western frontier. Several ex-New Yorkers wax philosophical about their post-NYC lives, too. I don’t miss my old life in New York,” one says. “I only miss the life in New York I know I never would have had.
Where the Urban Dream Life Is Going Cheap [NY Mag]
Buffalo Neighborhood. Photo by jeffk42.
I’m so sorry I missed this thread. Now nobody but me is reading it. But as a born and bred Buffalonian, I love it that a thread (mostly) about Buffalo got this much attention. It was a great place to grow up. My mom is a nurse and my dad is a piano teacher, but we still had a good standard of living once their careers got going. The public schools were really good – especially the magnet schools – and there’s a ton to do if you’re in to art, music, dance, or theater. There are beautiful parks, and Niagara Falls is a twenty minute drive away (the Canadian side is where to go).
I go back every two or three months to visit family, and I miss it. Yes, the winters are cold. But in the summer, when we’re suffering here through 99-degree heat and brownouts, it’s 80-degrees there with a nice breeze. You don’t technically need a car I guess, but my family didn’t have one when I was little and I would have to say that you wouldn’t want to live there without at least one car. But that’s OK, because you’d be able to afford it.
The job situation is not great, but I can totally see someone moving there because of a job. It really is a pleasant place to live. And after being made fun of incessantly for decades, Buffalonians tend to have good senses of humor.
I’ve never looked for 50 kinds of bleu cheese, I’m guessing most people just want the kind that goes on Duff’s wings. Buffalo has the best subs, and I can’t believe the thread got this long without anyone mentioning Mighty Taco. I’ve got six of their burritos in my freezer right now.
I think Buffalo is like any other place, in that people who grew up there and know it well can see the good things while knowing that the bad things don’t affect them much. The east side is a hole. My school bus took me through it every day for 13 years. But I bet most Buffalonians never go there, just like most Brooklynites don’t find themselves in East New York very often (unless we’re driving to BJ’s). The Elmwood strip is hip and interesting and artsy. And not merely on a Buffalo scale, just hip and artsy enough for anywhere. To a large extent a city is what you make of it. Buffalo has a lot to offer. We talk about moving back all the time. If we weren’t happy with our lives in Brooklyn, there’s a good chance we’d be back in Buffalo before the Sabres home opener.
OMG Vidler’s! My parents used to take me there often as a child.
And beef on weck…mmmm….with REAL horseradish.
BTW, I’m not saying pack the U-Haul. I love to visit, but can’t imagine moving back. Simply no jobs, can can’t see that changing any time soon. Great houses though
Just read this thread, and my heartstrings went zing at the mentions of the bar bill. Never did I expect to see one of the best bars ever, in my hometown, show up on Brownstoner. East Aurora is another reason to consider Buffalo, a beautiful town a quick 20 minutes south of the city, lots of history, the Roycroft Inn, toy museum (because headquarters of Fisher Price), nice downtown, the incomparable Vidler’s Five & Dime–and no Wal-Marts!
bar bill definitely the best beef on weck in Buffalo area, but for truly sublime beef on weck you need to visit the Beef n’Barrel in Olean, another 80 miles south. However, there is absolutely no other reason to visit Olean, so unless you are already making a trip through the southern tier stick to bar bill.
And for those of you who never heard of beef on weck, well, call Jet Blue, book a flight, your life cannot be complete without a taste of this sublime sandwich.
Thanks Dyker!
I Haz:
I’m an ex-pat Brooklynite, and have been out here in Columbus for about 4 years. I like to call it “A nice place to live, but I wouldn’t want to visit here”. It’s pretty low-key, more cosmopolitan than you’d think, and quite affordable. The who place kind of revolves around Ohio State (50K+ students), which give us a good arts scene (Wexner Center, plus a movement to make Cols. the “indie arts capital of the world). Economy here is pretty recession-proff (unlike the rest of Ohio), since most folks either work for the University, the state government (we’re the capital), insurance (Nationwide & others headquartered here, or retail (Limited Brands & DSW headquartered here).
I will say this: real estae in C-Bus is CHEAP. You can buy a 3bedroom house in Clintonville (closest thing here to Park Slope) for under $200K. Columbus was also voted most gay-friendly city in the Midwest, and #9 city for business by Black America Magazine. I don’t fit into either of those categories, but I think it speaks to the diversity here, and (lack of) racial tension.
Restaurants aren’t great, but they are getting better. Downtown needs work: not dangerous, just deserted after 5pm.
For more info, look up the following neighborhoods: Clintonville, German Village, Victorian Village, Grandview Heights, Bexley (technically suburbs).
Also, check columbusunderground.com , a cool website along the line of that Buffalo one…
Glad I didn’t offend Kensington gal. I’m down near Ditmas Ave on Ocean Parkway in a 2 bedroom rental (with 2 baths, natch). We had to move quickly from our old place, and this rental, which is relatively cheap, presented itself as a quick fix. It’s a long commute for me to mid-town (East Side) and, as you note, rather amenity-free. Good for you for getting a house that makes you happy! I’m still looking. 🙂
No offense taken, I haz TWO toilets. I hear you- Kensington for us was the place we could stay in the city and get the house we always wanted while trying to keep the commute time down to under 40 minutes (express bus). We figured on having so little left over after buying the house that we wouldn’t be eating out much anyway, which has come to pass. It has it’s own charms and pluses but as for the amenities, there are days I think I might as well be in Buffalo. But I do have to say it has gotten a little more lively here. I’m fortunate to live on the east side of K, closer to the Q train and the restaurants and stuff on Cortelyou so I get to glom off another neighborhood’s niceties.
Good morning Stoners.
Dyker — Columbus, really? Can you write a little more about it? I’ve never been to Ohio. I dated a guy from there once and he was a hunk of yummy Americana (that’s my complete Columbus frame of reference).
Speaking of Philly, this is a move my husband and I have seriously considered. Would anyone with experience in that city be willing to talk about neighborhoods, school districts, the job situation, etc?
HmmmmWhichNeighborhood — would love to hear more about the Saratoga/Capitol region.
Biff: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099864/ I had completely forgotten that TIM CURRY, that delicious vamp, played the scary clown in the sewer!