I'm From Buffalo

I know I have mentioned before briefly, that I live in suburb of Buffalo, NY. It is a fantastic place to live but it is always the butt of people's jokes. When you live in Buffalo and travel to other cities, you learn pretty quickly to develop a thicker skin. You automatically know that when you tell people where you live, that they will say a nasty remark about the city. A city that they more than likely have never visited. There are 3 major things that people are confused about.

Number 1:
Yes we get snow. In the winter. Not year round. There is no snow in July. As a matter of fact, July temps are normally in the 80's but people know that we have gotten a blizzard or two and had a big ice storm a few years ago, so it must mean it's crappy weather all of the time. Right? We get less snow that both Rochester and Syracuse. We only get snow for about 2 months out of the year (Mid-November to Mid-January) and then the lake freezes. After that pretty much no more snow.

Number 2:
Buffalo wings. We just call them chicken wings here. They are not breaded like I've seen them in some places. And yes, most people love them but we also have other great food. Super good pizza and fish fries and beef on weck. Let's please expand our horizons people! Now I'm hungry.

Number 3:
Our crappy sports teams. Buffalo has a love/hate relationship with our teams. Every year you get the people that claim we're going to go all the way this year, they can just feel it in their bones. We had 4, count them 4, awesome years with the Bills, heading to the Super Bowl. I remember the electric feeling the air, especially before the first one. Then "wide Right' happened. Poor Scott Norwood, I wouldn't want to be him. Now it's been 10 straight years without even a whiff of the playoffs, but the fans still show up, dream. As for the Sabres, we've had a bumpy ride. We've had "No Goal" and a myriad of other bad calls that have destroyed our dreams for that big, shiny cup. This year has been awful so far (lucky for me, MSG and Dish Network are fighting so I haven't seen any games). But I love them anyways.

OK so there was the bad. But the good... is great. There was recently an article, maybe on CNN but I can't remember, about the best places to relocate to. #2 was good old Buffalo, NY. We have great restaurants, both big chains, high end places and superb individually owned eateries that cater to one specific cuisine. Mexican, Italian, Indian, American, Latin, we have it all. There is a lot of night life. There are about 20-25 different Theatres in and around the city, the biggest and most popular is Shea's. They show the big Broadway stage shows- Lion King, Mary Poppins, Rent, Phantom etc. Then there's Chippewa and Pearl area. That's where the clubs, lounges and bars are. You can have a nice relaxing glass of wine or dance until 4 am. There is a great art scene here. There are 2 modern art museums, historical and science museums. There is even a Carousel Museum, a Bike Museum and a Kazoo Factory/Museum. So that just means there is so much to do, that you shouldn't ever talk about being bored. There is so much history pouring out of the streets. It's amazing.

Lastly there's the people. We are known as the city of good neighbors for a reason. I remember being about 7 and there was a snow storm. People couldn't get to the grocery store for food because the streets weren't plowed. My dad hopped on his snowmobile and went door to door. Collecting people shopping lists and money, heading out to Wegmans. That is what Buffalo is to me and most other Buffalonians. It's not perfect, but that place doesn't exist. We take care of each other when we need to and we are proud to call this city home.

It always amazes me when I head to other towns. They all look like Buffalo to me. But shouldn't NYC feel like it's better than us? It looks just as raggedy as every other place once you're outside of Times Square or downtown. So just remember next time you want to pick on a city for their stereotypes, that real people live there that get fed up of the joke.