Maxigumee

The New York Times wrote an article about Buffalo’s architecture last fall that said “one of the most cynical clichés in architecture is that poverty is good for preservation.” For Buffalo, at least, this statement couldn’t be more true and, really, it is one of the silver linings to Buffalo’s never-ending economic depression. My father took me on a little guided tour of some of Buffalo’s less frequented neighborhoods yesterday and I literally almost peed my pants with excitement as I was drawn into what felt like a time warp back to the 1950s. In most cities, the old hardware stores and supermarkets with hand-painted signs for soda pop would be bulldozed to make way for shiny glass condos and Whole Foods markets, but not in Buffalo! Here, these relics of the days of yore remain intact. A museum of sorts, except this one charges no admission fee and the downside is that the people populating this quaint scene are the real deal: people suffering from the city’s lack of adequate resources.

When I go around photographing these incredible neighborhoods, a few thoughts cross my mind. First, I think, Wow! These people are so lucky to live here! And with a pang of sadness and a little bit of guilt, I remind myself that it is because of bad things that the city remains this way. My photography excursions become almost like little missions as I frantically try to document the Buffalo that has been slowly changing in recent years. I know that as soon as the mom and pops that own the mom-and-pops shops pass away with old age, so too will the Buffalo that has remained relatively unchanged since the early twentieth century. There is already evidence of this happening. In recent years, Buffalo seems to have been on an upswing. New businesses and buildings are sprouting up all over the place and, while this is most definitely not a bad thing, it is definitely important to stop and consider our beloved and oftentimes forgotten history. Before we knock down the small cottages in the Old First Ward and replace them with the now ubiquitous glass apartment building, we need to consider the things that make our city unique. Somebody needs to take a sweeping hand and landmark the entire region before Buffalo becomes another faceless city without and identity.