Sometimes relocating is the best solution

My wife and I just returned from visiting our daughter in Columbus, Ohio. She moved there six months ago to find a good job because after many applications and few interviews here, her options were limited. She graduated from Kenmore West and attended college for two years.
In Columbus she found many available jobs and chose to work for a Midwest electric power company with 20,000 employees. She received a good starting salary, full medical, dental and retirement benefits and an opportunity to train and advance. She and her future husband are in the process of building a modest home. An equivalent home built in our area costs $15,000 to $20,000 more for a variety of reasons. The area has good schools, plenty of parks and recreation and a government working with the citizens. Property taxes there are significantly less, a 5 percent sales tax is in effect and working people have a minimal state payroll tax.

No region is Shangri-la, but parents, don't despair if your children decide it may be better to move out of this area to secure a future for themselves and their children. Remember most of our grandparents and parents came here from other places with the hope of a better life. My wife and I miss my daughter greatly, but we are happy in the fact that she and her fiancee have a good chance to fulfill their dreams in a progressive, emergent area.

WILLIAM MUCCI
Buffalo


www.buffalo.com

5 years ago my Wife and I left with about $500 in our pocket, our 2 cars, and some stuff. We now have a brand new home, new cars, a beautiful baby, great jobs and a great life.
It's a shame we had to move out of state to get what we deserve out of life.
The really weird thing is that we've run into other people from western new york who did the same thing we did. It's like we are "Buffalo economy refugees". I see them at a bar that shows the Bills games. I've been to other places where the same thing occurs. They all leave to escape the absurd economic conditions.

You just can't support a bloated over paid goverment. It's a crock when you ask them to take a cut in pay and they say, it's only a small part of the budget. Well you know what? Don't really care how small of a part it is, you don't deserve it.

I left almost 10 years ago, my only regret is that I tried to make a go of it there after college and wasted that 10 years.
The opportunities elsewhere are so much better than in WNY. The Buffalo area is only getting worse, from what I read on line, it is apparently in a downward vortex, as the bad news is worse and more frequent every month.
When I considered leaving 10 years ago, one thing was very evident......the median age there is very high. The older generation tends to consume more in public assitance dollars and contribute far less, a bad imbalance. This is getting worse in a rapid pace as the young are a high percentage of those leaving.
More tax consumption plus less tax intake on an already financially troubled public sector is a recipe for disaster. Add to that teh high percentage of unemployed or on public assistance and the drain it creates plus the fact that sector of teh populace puts nothing into the Kitty and it gets worse faster.

What ammuses me most is some good hearted and ambitious activists in the area that try to tell others that the city is not bad, it is only perception, the city schools are as good as the suburban schools, crime in the suburbs is actually worse than the city etc. The real world goes on around them moving out of the region or to the suburbs as they live in the REAL world and understand the city of Buffalo IS a depressing dump for the most part, is getting worse, has serious problems with schools, crime, property values etc.
I also enjoy the city activists who want to encourage moving to the city, yet show open distain for those who went to the burbs or left town, time for a Dale Carnegie course for some of these people.

Instead of focusing on every decrepit building that 99% of the people could care less about they should be devoting their energy towards the thing that could save the region......addressing the FACT that the economy is pi$$ poor there. Without a strong private sector the rest collapses as we are all witnessing.

I had an entertaining email exchange with one of teh Left leaning Buffalo boosters, and at one point they got sore at me for moving away and leaving them with the mess. Sorry, but I did not see whre it is my obligation to sacrifice my familys future by staying on a sinking ship because someone else feels it is what I am SUPPOSED to do with my life.

The truth be known, those of us who left the region merely left "them" the mess they created. The "them" I refer to is those who advocated destructive policies the left holds so dear......social spending programs, endless dollars into flawed schools, obsurd prison and criminal law system, outrageous lawsuits, union protection of jobs the way they were a half century ago...etc etc.
In other words, I did not support laws and policies that casued or accelerated teh problems for the region and if I had my say, would have stood firmly on NO. Yet I am expected to stay and produce so I can be taxed to support the insane mess, otherwise I am abandonning a mess. Sorry, I did not create it, those who think cradle to grave welfare, lucrative public employyee pensions, outdated union laws etc are the ones who made the mess and no one can insist I stay to pay for it out of some insane dellusion of responsibility.

Like both of you references, my family has a future, I can save for my kids college, we can retire someday, we have decent careers and job skills we would not have had in Buffalo.

I do not hate Buffalo, it was a wonderful place when I grew up, it makes me bitter to see how quickly it was destroyed so badly and iritates me that many who agree with the types of things that contributed in it's collapse, now think that misinformation and some lame public relations are going to get folks to move back when we all know the economy there is in the ceptic tank. It amazes me how they dream and insist it is reality.