Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, NY
I am lucky to live in a border region of Canada. Over the weekend I visited some old friends in Buffalo, NY. Driving to Buffalo takes about an hour from my home in Hamilton. Passports are now required for travel into the States. This prevents those without passports from making the crossing. This tends to discriminate more against Americans than it does Canadians, since the proportion of Americans without passports is higher. Going into the USA from Canada is a more unsettling experience than the reverse journey (regardless of your nationality). The heightened American border paranoia discourages casual tourism between the countries and overall this policy of treating all visitors with heightened suspicion appears contrary to American interests. But they do let me in.
Quality of architecture
Buffalo has a reputation as being an iconic rust-belt city whose fortunes have fallen on hard times. It tends to reinforce the Canadian attitude towards the States as a place where social and political problems somehow seem more intractable. However, from an architectural perspective it might surprise some that Buffalo contains many architectural jewels. The eras before and after the Gilded Age have been kind to Buffalo, at least for buildings you might find in architectural guide books. Outstanding architects such as Wright, Richardson, Sullivan, Upjohn and Olmsted left their mark in way that cannot be matched on the Ontario side of the border, even in the larger cities such as Toronto. Whatever appeal Canada might have does not appear to be caused by the quality of its architecture or urban planning.
End of Steel
Despite its wealth of architecture, Buffalo appears to suffer from the processes of post-industrialization much more severely than does Ontario. In Buffalo and nearby Lackawanna (the Buffalo equivalent of the East End of Hamilton), the mills pulled out quickly, leaving behind a wealth of industrial ruins, which are photogenic in that post-apocalyptic style I so admire. As in its sister city of Pittsburgh, the steel producers decided very quickly that there was no point in pretending that steel production had a future there. In Ontario, they apparently didn’t make such a decision and the steel factories continue to belch smoke and to provide employment. The industrial districts of Hamilton continue to appear much like Lackawanna did thirty years ago. It is not at all clear why the two nations have had this different trajectory despite being located in what seems to be similar geographical and market contexts.
Geography
Buffalo, even though it is the second largest city in New York state, is an outpost for the state on Lake Erie. It is separated from the main population centres in eastern New York state by the Appalachian mountain range. Buffalo faces the sometimes obscure northern country of Canada and depends on the Great Lakes for its water-bound transportation. A major factor in Buffalo’s history was the construction of the Erie Canal system, which connects the inland waterways of the Great Lakes to the Hudson River. When the canal first opened in 1825 it provided a direct link to the fast-growing regions of the West. This geographical advantage, which encouraged the early growth of Buffalo, has now disappeared. Canada is a country for which proximity to the USA is a fundamental factor in development. The USA has a huge internal market. This means it’s not too dependent on exposure to its northern neighbour.
Population and population decline
Ontario is the centre of population density in Canada. Hamilton is near the geographic centre of the so-called ‘Golden Horseshoe’ area of Ontario, situated at the western end of Lake Ontario. It is part of one of the few regions in Canada that approaches the population density of the eastern seaboard of the USA. Hamilton not only functions as an industrial centre [in probable decline], but also as a city which is in commutable distance to several dynamic, growing cities in the region, such as Toronto and Waterloo. Hamilton is geographically at the centre of its own national context whereas Buffalo is off to one side. Buffalo, like Pittsburgh and other rust belt cities has suffered de-population due to the processes of de-industrialization. This appears to be a major factor in the overall morale of the city. It is harder to feel good about your city if your friends and neighbours are continually ‘voting with their feet.’ Hamilton has not experienced such de-population and its morale seems correspondingly higher.
Race Relations
Hamilton has a predominantly white population and has, until fairly recently, been populated predominantly by those of European descent. This is now changing after the introduction of more equitable, colour-blind immigration policies in Canada in the 60’s and 70’s. Hamilton now sees the growth of new communities by immigrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. If immigration trends continue Hamilton will follow the lead of Toronto and increasingly have a foreign-born population whose ancestral ties are not with Europe. This demographic change is welcomed from most quarters and adds to the attractiveness of the city for both investment and daily living.
In Buffalo, there is a similar population of Europeans who were attracted during the last century to jobs in industry, as can be found in Hamilton. An important aspect of American social history is the Great Migration of blacks from the southern states to work in northern industrial cities such as Buffalo. This internal migration, which has had such a dramatic effect on racial politics in the USA, has no equivalent in Canada.
In Hamilton, as in Buffalo, there are blighted neighbourhoods where property values are low, environmental degradation is severe and overall morale and opportunities are limited. What appears to be different is that in Hamilton the racial composition of these neighbourhoods does not appear to be a factor in their blight. In Buffalo, and in other American cities such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit, the racial composition of neighbourhoods plays an important role in urban geography.
