You may have already seen this USA Today story on a suburban Atlanta congregation that wants to purchase a closed Buffalo church, take it apart, ship it to Georgia and rebuild it there.
Some groups say it is a great way to preserve an otherwise vacant and unused structure. (The Diocese closed the church in 2008 because of declining enrollment - an issue many of our cities have faced that we’ve written about on this blog before.) You can see the web site for the parish that wants to bring the …

Read here what one Buffalo woman misses after moving to Florida.
-KG

Take a look at this column, published in Buffalo’s weekly Artvoice.
It reviews a book, Hope and Despair in the American City by Gerald Grant (Harvard University Press 2009), which examines school desegregation through metropolitan-wide school reorganization.
The premise? This work “compares the sorry recent history of Syracuse, New York with the glad success of Raleigh, North Carolina. One town tried desegregation within the boundaries of the old city and failed, and is dying, while the other town regionalized schools, and has been growing by leaps and bounds,” writes reviewer Bruce Fisher. (Fisher is …

We at Rust Wire don’t like to toot our own horn that much.
But I just couldn’t help it after seeing this recent story in The New York Times about Buffalo’s lower west side neighborhood.
The story notes that this historically blue-collar Italian section of the city has recently become home to a number of different immigrant groups, such as people from Puerto Rico, Myamar and Somalia.
In a post about Buffalo back in March 2009, Rust Wire made this observation about the area:
“Our next stop was Niagara Street, on the city’s West …

A common refrain heard in Buffalo, and much of the Rust Belt, is that you can’t appreciate the place until you’ve left it.

A crop of young Buffalonians have put this idea into practice in the past several years by combining an appreciation for their hometown with the innovative resources and ideas they’ve gained through education and experiences in the world outside the Queen City.

Megan McNally, a senior at Barnard College in New York, used a school grant to purchase a home (pictured above) on Buffalo’s blighted West Side. Picking up renovation tips from the non-profit

Readers of Rust Wire (and citizens of the Rust Belt in general) may know that some of Buffalo’s strongest assets are its spectacular architectural treasures.
The city is wisely trying to capitalize on these structures for tourism and economic development purposes.
Take a look at this video from The Buffalo News about efforts to restore the Richardson- Olmsted complex (formerly the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane).
I’ve driven by this building before, I’m eager to see what the inside is like.
What asset or piece of unusual architecture do you think your city …

Rust Wire is pleased to share an interview with Greg Ames, the author of Buffalo Lockjaw, a fantastic novel mostly set in Buffalo.
Here’s a passage:
“Turned out that Buffalonians loved talking about Buffalo, especially during happy hour, which lasted from five o’clock to midnight. Many of them felt an immense tenderness for this town. They were proud and protective of Buffalo. They dipped their pizza crusts in puddles of blue cheese and argued about where to find the best chicken wings in the city. They celebrated happy hour most nights and …

The Infrastructurist has an interesting post on seven major, urban, old-school freeways that should be torn down to improve aesthetics, neighborhoods, or even traffic.
Topping the list: Cleveland and the West Shoreway. Rust Wire (and many other observers) have complained that Cleveland does a very poor job of utilizing one of its strongest assets - its Lake Erie waterfront. One big reason: there’s a highway there preventing people from having easy waterfront access.
As the Infrastructurist points out, removing a big highway has been done before, notably in Milwaukee.
Other cities of interest …

An episode of the Travel Channel show “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” set to air Monday will showcase the culinary delicacies of Baltimore, Detroit and Buffalo.
I’ve never seen the show, but this preview, from The Buffalo News, describes Bourdain’s style as “acerbic” and “salty” as well as “not really Chamber of Commerce material.” Despite that, this writer says, the host manages to keep the show balanced by praising the cities’ cuisine as well as some of their assets, such as Buffalo’s famous architecture.
The show will be on Monday at 10 p.m.
Thanks …

Buffalo Weekly Art Voice has an interesting piece about the obstacles Anti-Poverty workers face in caring for the poor as their ranks swell.
Author Bruce Fisher points out that experts in the area have determined that the stimulus will have no impact on the region’s long term problems, unless it is tackled through a region approach.
Anti-Poverty workers are already battling uphill, with more and more families falling under federal guidelines for low-income.
Adding to the insult, county legislator Robert Reynolds deferred to public employees rather than casting the vote that would have consolidated …