A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
“ENOUGH ALREADY’ reads the headline on the front page of the Friday, November 21st edition of The Buffalo News.
The skyline of Buffalo, New York, looming above Lake Erie – the source of what can sometimes be pretty wild lake-effect storms
The headlined hovered over a half-page photo of a neighbourhood of people trying to cut paths for themselves and their cars through piles of snow mounded almost twice as high as their shoulder lines.
Buffalo has almost too unfortunately been known to the rest of the continent as a city of brutal winters, rusting industrial sites from the last century and an NFL football team that continually frustrates its most devoted fans.
That caricature of this all-American “city of good neighbours” is abundantly unfair for anyone who has taken the time to explore it for the classic architecture of its buildings, its scenic parks and boulevards, the richness of its museums and art venues, its verdant rows of trees and one of North America’s biggest and best garden walks featured each last weekend of July.
Yet here we are, with Buffalo making international news for a monster storm that has dumped more snow on the city and its surrounding communities in a few days during this third week of November 2014 than normally falls in Western New York all winter – and winter doesn’t officially begin this year for another four weeks!
That doesn’t seem to be stopping the people of Buffalo from showing the same brave spirit to rally together and beat their way back from snow storms, even with the news that the Sunday, November 23rd Bills game would have to be played in Detroit instead of the home stadium.
We should all wish our Buffalo area neighbours well as they work through an unprecedented storm that has been declared by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as an emergency that, among other things, has claimed more than a dozen lives.
And let’s also hope that the media outlets in Canada and the United States and other areas of the world who have converged on Buffalo to cover this monster storm will return some time to do stories on all of the great heritage and cultural features this city has to offer.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on the content of this post below.)
Niagara At Large 
Buffalo does get a bad reputation & often unfairly. It has deteriorated & its population decreased due to the exodus of jobs but many areas are being rejuvenated & many areas are architecturally stunning. I suggest anyone who cares to do so, look back to photos of the Pan American exposition in Buffalo at the turn of the last century & see what a splendid place it was & hopefully can be again. It was, I believe, the first city to use electric lights. I used to bicycle in Delaware Park & Forest Lawn cemetery. Elmwood is another cool area. Lots of nice, unique shops.
All the best Buffalo. Hope you don’t get flooded out from the snow melt.
LikeLike
The real tragedy is the loss of life. A 46 year old man lost his life within the South Towns. He called for a tow truck and the police would not allow the tow truck to pass the road block. He died because he was unable to get any help.
Many people also died of heart attacks The total as of this time is now 9 people.
This is as bad as it gets. The man who wrote the book ” White Death” about the blizzard of ’77 says this is a very bad snow event.
Lake Superior is also starting to freeze over this early in the season. Not a very good omen in my opinion.
LikeLike