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If you grew up in Western New York, you almost definitely have family or friends who left the area and now live in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Or Tampa, Florida.
Or Phoenix, Arizona.
Or ….. (fill in your choice of big city with warmer weather). Heck, a lot of you reading this may be one of those who moved away. You may be reading it from said non-Buffalo place. (Probably Charlotte. Isn’t half their population former Western New Yorkers?!)
No doubt one-way tickets out of Buffalo have certainly outnumbered those coming into this city for the better part of the last half-century.
The reasons are plentiful. Some may be because of family. Some go off to college then fall in love or find a job in their new town and stay there. But in many cases, it’s economic and/or job-related. And, really, as much as we love this place, we have to admit those reasons have had the truth and validity to justify them over the years, as painful as that is to admit sometimes. I left, too. I was gone for sixteen years until the dream, passion, and opportunity to do this finally brought me back.
I also had some friends recruiting me every few years. Reminding me how great the area is and why I needed to come back home to be a part of it again. But, of course, they never had to “sell me” on Buffalo. I’ve always been in love with it and known I wanted to find my way back here since the day I left.
Buddy Nix doesn’t have the same luxury. He has to sell this place, harder than most GMs have to sell their city. He admitted as much in his January 9th end-of-season press conference.......
Or Tampa, Florida.
Or Phoenix, Arizona.
Or ….. (fill in your choice of big city with warmer weather). Heck, a lot of you reading this may be one of those who moved away. You may be reading it from said non-Buffalo place. (Probably Charlotte. Isn’t half their population former Western New Yorkers?!)
No doubt one-way tickets out of Buffalo have certainly outnumbered those coming into this city for the better part of the last half-century.
The reasons are plentiful. Some may be because of family. Some go off to college then fall in love or find a job in their new town and stay there. But in many cases, it’s economic and/or job-related. And, really, as much as we love this place, we have to admit those reasons have had the truth and validity to justify them over the years, as painful as that is to admit sometimes. I left, too. I was gone for sixteen years until the dream, passion, and opportunity to do this finally brought me back.
I also had some friends recruiting me every few years. Reminding me how great the area is and why I needed to come back home to be a part of it again. But, of course, they never had to “sell me” on Buffalo. I’ve always been in love with it and known I wanted to find my way back here since the day I left.
Buddy Nix doesn’t have the same luxury. He has to sell this place, harder than most GMs have to sell their city. He admitted as much in his January 9th end-of-season press conference.......
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