City on the Edge: Buffalo, New York, 1900 - Present

by Mark Goldman

Book Overview

BUFFALO, NEW YORK IS ENJOYING A RESURGENCE, AND HAS BECOME A RECOMMENDED TRAVEL DESTINATION. THIS BOOK TELLS THE STORY OF HOW IT GOT HERE.

In a sweeping narrative that speaks to the serious student of urban studies as well as the general reader, Mark Goldman tells the story of twentieth-century Buffalo, New York. Goldman covers all of the major developments:

- The rise and decline of the city's downtown and ethnic neighborhoods...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591024579
• ISBN13: 9781591024576
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Good nostalgia

Do not read this book for its literary excellence. Read it to learn of the murky history of the city of no illusion, Buffalo. Do not dwell for long on the facts and figures listing art endowments. Instead, concentrate on reflections about neighborhoods teeming with activity, only to be decimated in the name of urban planning, the glorious but grubby industrial legacy, and the riot on the Crystal Beach boat. These events set the table for the seemingly endless plight of this struggling city.

A city facing many challenges

Mark Goldman's "City on the Edge" is a history of the past and a look at the possible future of Buffalo, New York. As such, this is a book of real interest to me. I spent four years in Buffalo, studying for my Ph. D. at the (then) State University of New York at Buffalo. For the next twenty plus years, I taught at a university in Western New York and often visited friends in Buffalo or just went there for mini vacations. I start off by saying that I thought that Buffalo had many attractions--but obviously faced many challenges. I loved wandering around Delaware Park, driving along the Niagara River, going to the Anchor Bar for chicken wings and jazz. . . . Goldman is also a resident of Buffalo and also a real booster for the city. This book takes a look at how Buffalo has come to be where it is now. The history really starts at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. At that time, the future looked good for Buffalo. Manufacturing and shipping were mainstays of the economy; the Exposition promised a great deal of visibility. But, as with later events, the promise had counterpoint in misfortune, such as President McKinley's assassination, the economic failure of the Exposition, and so on. The book spends time on the growth and glory days of Buffalo. But the current realities are set in motion later on, in the 1960s, 1970s, and thereafter. Key problems facing Buffalo were a set of ethnic political leaders who played by "old politics," the politics of favoritism, of patronage. I don't know how true this is, but a friend of mine once worked for the city at a club for kids. As part of her purview, she was responsible for a swimming pool. The local political "boss" made sure that sons and daughters of party favorites got jobs as lifeguards, some of whom could not swim. True? I don't know, but it represents the mindset of the old style politics current in Buffalo then. Challenges faced Buffalo, such as the decline of the steel industry (the old Lackawanna steel facility was awesome to drive past! It seemed to stretch forever, but it just about dies out in the few years that I was in graduate school. . . .), the decline of the auto industry and its local subsidiaries, and the challenges created by racially segregated schools. Buffalo's leaders were not a sterling lot (to put it mildly). This book is pretty hard on a mediocre lot of mayors and other local politicians, who dithered and tried to stay in power by the politics of favoritism. Federal funds were used to try to prevent the downtown from deteriorating, but tons of money were lost as projects often did not come close to achieving their goals. The book ends by looking toward the future; there is hope in that glimpse--but the book itself provides precious little reason for that hope. There are some questions that I have about the book. The author at one point speaks positively of one mayor, but goes negative later. Sometimes he seems to change his mind about the value of some of the

People, places and events alike are surveyed.

At first glance CITY ON THE EDGE would seem to be a title New York collections alone could appreciate - but look again: it's a story of urban dysfunction which holds strong social and urban planning messages for any American city. Chapters survey the history of Buffalo, New York: from its initial promising heyday to its decline, its many social issues, and the role of the arts in community life. Of particular note - and recommended for college-level holdings strong in urban planning - are discussions of how urban politics and city planning affected the development and outcome of Buffalo. People, places and events alike are surveyed.

Staring at the abyss-- about to take a giant leap forward

Ten years ago I attended an academic conference in Buffalo. The Buffalo Zoo hosted the main dinner of the conference, and the participants ate a nice meal accompanied by the relatively intense aroma of the denizens of the zoo. It was a little off-putting. The highlight of the evening, the after dinner speech, was a presentation of a plan to revitalize the zoo with a massive investment and relocation to the troubled waterfront area of Buffalo, away from its historic, almost pastoral setting in Delaware Park. The once flourishing seal exhibit had been filled in and now housed a prairie dog exhibit. To rectify problems like this, all they needed was $500 million, preferably from the state of New York. It never happened. Such large-scale thinking - and the disasters that regularly accompanies same -- abounds in "City on the edge." Having read Diana Dillaway's (2006), more academic "Power failure," and, just recently, Goldman's 1990 prequel, "City on the lake," "City on the edge" provided a dark, rich third part of this sad trilogy. Some of "Edge" draws heavily from "Lake;" read both and you'll see a lot of overlap. And there is good reason: To understand Buffalo's perilous position today, Goldman takes us back over one hundred years to the pivotal events at the turn of the twentieth century in Buffalo - the assassination of President McKinley and the building of the Lackawanna (later Bethlehem) steel plant. From that death and those new industrial roots Buffalo prospered and led the industrial triumphs of the United States in the twentieth century, with steel and autos, war production and cereal, aircraft and chemicals. The city boomed during the war years and suffered much during the Depression. In Buffalo, the creative culture prospered, especially music and art. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is world-class. Lukas Foss helped put the Buffalo Philharmonic on the map - for a time. But all of the creativity was either too little, too late, or a distraction from the fundamental sea change engulfing the city after World War II. Buffalo struggled with, and largely succeeded, with managing integration, at least much better than other northern cities and public schools systems. The African-Americans from the South who came for good factory jobs in an industrial city have grown to half of Buffalo's current population. Later, an Hispanic community, namely Puerto Rican, took root. Today, recent immigrants from Africa find accommodations in Buffalo's low housing costs and tradition of cultural diversity and economic immigration. The hearty, hard-working citizens are not deterred by harsh winters or record snowfalls. What Buffalo failed to do, it appears, was to master paradigm change, to embrace the shift from a domestic, smoke-belching industrial economy to a global knowledge economy, at least until too late. The story of indecision as to the location of the University of Buffalo, after its "acquisition" by the SUNY system in 1962 could be the apocryphal s