elmwood
March 17th, 2005, 05:16 PM
There seems to be some demand for photos of the infamous East Side of Buffalo. Members who aren't natives of Buffalo have heard the stories; if you don't have enough melanin in your skin, you'll be dead the moment you step foot east of Main Street. Take a gun, some bodyguards, or better yet just don't go.
Yes, the East Side is, overall, pretty rough, but it's not like East St. Louis, or even Detroit. Overall, it's gritty, often ugly, sometimes with a lot of people on the street whose skin color is different than yours. You'll see a lot of closed factories, abandoned or blighted houses, and neglect. Except for the churches and some houses in Hamlin Park and Kensington, you won't see much interesting architecture; it's mostly Buffalo vernacular telescoping houses and semi-bungalows. Still, though, if you avoid the area altogether, you're missing out on an essential part of Buffalo. There's more to the city than just downtown, the Theatre District, Elmwood Village, the Delaware District, the West Side, Allentown, North Buffalo, Central Park and Parkside. For 150 years, the East Side received groups of poor immigrants -- Germans, Ashkenazi and Russian Jews, Italians, Poles, and southern African-Americans. It's expected that such an area would be worse for the wear. This post is intended as a general guide for those who are interested in visiting and documenting the East Side of Buffalo.
I'm a Buffalo native who grew up on the East Side - the Kensington neighborhood, to be exact. At the time, Kensington was considered part of North Buffalo. Its population became integrated in the early 1970s, and it was considered a stable, desirable lower middle-class to middle-class neighborhood until the late 1980s. It was the kind of place where young couples bought their first house, and when they kids reached school age either left for the 'burbs or stayed but enrolled them at St. Al's or St. Gregory's.
A variety of socioeconomic forces converged - I'll explain them in detail if you want -- and Kensington lost its middle class white and black population. Each year, Kensington residents talked about where "The Line" was - the street that separated majority black neighborhoods from majority white areas. The Line progressed about a block north every year or two. My parents left in 1992, when The Line was at Hewitt Avenue, a few blocks south of their street.
Today, Kensington is associated with the East Side, but it's a cultural association. There are still some whites that live there -- about 30% of the population -- but the Bailey Avenue business district now caters to the dominant African-American population. Sadly, there's a growing amount of Yemenese bodegas, liquor stores, rent-to-own furniture stores, storefront churches, hair salons, and other "ghetto"-type uses. (Do businesspeople think African-Americans spend all their disposable income on malt liquor, cell phones and Fubu? Sigh.)
The area east of Eggert Road and north of Kensington Avenue has some impressive houses. I wouldn't live there, though; the neighborhood's decline is slowly continuing as white flight concludes, middle-class blacks move to the Pine Ridge and Cleveland Hill neighborhoods in Cheektowaga -- if they can't afford to move further out -- and poorer residents from rougher parts of the East Side move in to replace them.
Kensington is pretty safe if you're photographing there; not Amherst safe, but you won't be mugged, harassed or have your car messed with. You can go into most businesses in the area, and people won't blink an eye. Rule of thumb - the northernmost streets are the safest. You won't have problems to the south, but you might get some looks.
Other Kensington-like neighborhoods - Delavan-Bailey (east of Bailey) and Schiller Park (east of Bailey) have the same demographic makeup and built character - Buffaio-style frame bungalows built in the 1920s, a mix of two-story commercial buildings and converted frame houses along business districts Bailey Avenue south of the Kensington Expressway looks rough - used car lots, auto parts stores, ragged convenience stores, and the like. Stay away from the Kenfield and Langfield projects; the streets adjacent to them are okay. Again, though, I wouldn't live there.
Kaisertown (the area around Clinton Street east of Bailey Avenue) and Lovejoy (the area between William Street and Broadway, east of Bailey Avenue) are enclaves that are predominantly European ethnic;Kaisertown is mostly Polish; Lovejoy is mostly Polish and Italian. Both neighborhoods are working-class, but well-maintained, relatively clean, and very safe. I've got some images of Kaisertown (http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/showgallery.php?si=kaisertown&x=0&y=0) online. Except for the magnificent churches, don't expect architectural masterpieces; instead, it's a look into Buffalo's blue-collar past. If you're trying to mentally recreate the past appearance of now-more blighted East Side neighborhoods, Kaisertown is the place to go.
Safe neighborhoods that are predominantly African-American include Masten Park and Hamlin Park. Hamlin Park is a historical district, and it was a predominantly middle-class Jewish and Italian neighborhood until the late 1950s. Residential streets don't look too much different than what you would see in more modest areas of North Buffalo - large two-flats and good-sized single-family homes -- but some blocks are a bit more worn and weatherbeaten. The Jefferson Avenue business district looks rough; it was hit hard in riots in the 1960s and never fully recovered. You won't run into any problems here.
Polonia-Central Terminal area - Broadway Avenue only contains a few remnants of its prosperous past. It was always a working-class area, but until the early 1980s Broadway was lined with shops, restaurants and bars. The Broadway Market still draws in neighborhood residents and those in outlying areas. Many of the old Polish gin mills closed in the eatly 1990s, but there are some holdouts. Residents - about 70% black, with some older and poorer Polish-Americans that still hold fast. It's not a great place to live, but if you're visiting you should be okay, even on side streets.
St. John Kanty is the area along Broadway east of Polonia and the Belt Line. It's gritty, rough around the edges, very working-class, and continuing to experience white flight; the remaining Polish-American residents are leaving for Sloan and Cheektowaga. Can't say whether it's safe or not; I'd say exercise the same amount of caution as in Polonia.
What I think of as the Lower East Side is the area bounded by Fillmore Avenue to the east, Best Street to the north, Main Street to the West and Swan Street to the south. It's hit-or-miss - it contains the only parts of the city that look truly Detroit-like, with blocks containing more vacant lots than houses. There's big housing projects closer to downtown. Theere are blocks that are completely developed with new but suburban-like townhouses and single family homes. The Fruit Belt -- the area between the Kensington Espressway and Best Street -- is mixed. There's the cluster of hospitals, research institutions and medical offices, and some infill development - all okay. Streets that haven't been redeveloped look pretty bad. Trust your judgement; streets that look bad probably are.
Get a beer at the Green Ghetto Lounge on William Street if you're thirsty.
There are some white ethnic and Vietnamese enclaves hidden among the web of railroad tracks around Clintom Street, Swan Street, Fillmore Avenue and Babcock Street. This is classic, old-school blue-collar Buffalo - factories right next to houses with yards that abck onto rail lines. Those were considered desirable places to live by the working class in the early 1900s, because it was easy to walk from your house to your job. Now, we shake our heads and wonder "What were they thinking?" Relatively safe if you're visiting.
If you're going to AVOID an area, make it the area bordered by Bailey Avenue to the east, Broadway to the south, Fillmore Avenue to the West and the Kensington Expressway to the north. This is the heart of the East Side ghetto; the area where you hear about the most drug shootings, fires, crime and so on. The only businesses are gritty Yemenese c-stores and bodegas, a few carry-out restaurants, and guys with names likie "Gat T" and "Killah K" standing on every few blocks, selling you-know-what. If you're standing at the corner of Genesee and Moselle, and you're white, YOU SHOULD EXPECT TROUBLE. If you're black, and you're not wearing urban-style clothing, YOU SHOULD EXPECT TROUBLE. For some reason, whenever Canadians get lost in Buffalo, they always end up here. Go figure.
The Buffalo Science Museum is in MLK Park. The area surrounding it is rough, but don't let that stop you fromn visiting the museum.
If you do go, document the good and the bad. Don't try to put a pretty dress on a pig by photographing only churches, historic homes and parks. The neighborhood is more than the buildings; it's the fabric -- how those buildings work together -- and the people.
EDIT: lots of typos. Sorry.
Yes, the East Side is, overall, pretty rough, but it's not like East St. Louis, or even Detroit. Overall, it's gritty, often ugly, sometimes with a lot of people on the street whose skin color is different than yours. You'll see a lot of closed factories, abandoned or blighted houses, and neglect. Except for the churches and some houses in Hamlin Park and Kensington, you won't see much interesting architecture; it's mostly Buffalo vernacular telescoping houses and semi-bungalows. Still, though, if you avoid the area altogether, you're missing out on an essential part of Buffalo. There's more to the city than just downtown, the Theatre District, Elmwood Village, the Delaware District, the West Side, Allentown, North Buffalo, Central Park and Parkside. For 150 years, the East Side received groups of poor immigrants -- Germans, Ashkenazi and Russian Jews, Italians, Poles, and southern African-Americans. It's expected that such an area would be worse for the wear. This post is intended as a general guide for those who are interested in visiting and documenting the East Side of Buffalo.
I'm a Buffalo native who grew up on the East Side - the Kensington neighborhood, to be exact. At the time, Kensington was considered part of North Buffalo. Its population became integrated in the early 1970s, and it was considered a stable, desirable lower middle-class to middle-class neighborhood until the late 1980s. It was the kind of place where young couples bought their first house, and when they kids reached school age either left for the 'burbs or stayed but enrolled them at St. Al's or St. Gregory's.
A variety of socioeconomic forces converged - I'll explain them in detail if you want -- and Kensington lost its middle class white and black population. Each year, Kensington residents talked about where "The Line" was - the street that separated majority black neighborhoods from majority white areas. The Line progressed about a block north every year or two. My parents left in 1992, when The Line was at Hewitt Avenue, a few blocks south of their street.
Today, Kensington is associated with the East Side, but it's a cultural association. There are still some whites that live there -- about 30% of the population -- but the Bailey Avenue business district now caters to the dominant African-American population. Sadly, there's a growing amount of Yemenese bodegas, liquor stores, rent-to-own furniture stores, storefront churches, hair salons, and other "ghetto"-type uses. (Do businesspeople think African-Americans spend all their disposable income on malt liquor, cell phones and Fubu? Sigh.)
The area east of Eggert Road and north of Kensington Avenue has some impressive houses. I wouldn't live there, though; the neighborhood's decline is slowly continuing as white flight concludes, middle-class blacks move to the Pine Ridge and Cleveland Hill neighborhoods in Cheektowaga -- if they can't afford to move further out -- and poorer residents from rougher parts of the East Side move in to replace them.
Kensington is pretty safe if you're photographing there; not Amherst safe, but you won't be mugged, harassed or have your car messed with. You can go into most businesses in the area, and people won't blink an eye. Rule of thumb - the northernmost streets are the safest. You won't have problems to the south, but you might get some looks.
Other Kensington-like neighborhoods - Delavan-Bailey (east of Bailey) and Schiller Park (east of Bailey) have the same demographic makeup and built character - Buffaio-style frame bungalows built in the 1920s, a mix of two-story commercial buildings and converted frame houses along business districts Bailey Avenue south of the Kensington Expressway looks rough - used car lots, auto parts stores, ragged convenience stores, and the like. Stay away from the Kenfield and Langfield projects; the streets adjacent to them are okay. Again, though, I wouldn't live there.
Kaisertown (the area around Clinton Street east of Bailey Avenue) and Lovejoy (the area between William Street and Broadway, east of Bailey Avenue) are enclaves that are predominantly European ethnic;Kaisertown is mostly Polish; Lovejoy is mostly Polish and Italian. Both neighborhoods are working-class, but well-maintained, relatively clean, and very safe. I've got some images of Kaisertown (http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/showgallery.php?si=kaisertown&x=0&y=0) online. Except for the magnificent churches, don't expect architectural masterpieces; instead, it's a look into Buffalo's blue-collar past. If you're trying to mentally recreate the past appearance of now-more blighted East Side neighborhoods, Kaisertown is the place to go.
Safe neighborhoods that are predominantly African-American include Masten Park and Hamlin Park. Hamlin Park is a historical district, and it was a predominantly middle-class Jewish and Italian neighborhood until the late 1950s. Residential streets don't look too much different than what you would see in more modest areas of North Buffalo - large two-flats and good-sized single-family homes -- but some blocks are a bit more worn and weatherbeaten. The Jefferson Avenue business district looks rough; it was hit hard in riots in the 1960s and never fully recovered. You won't run into any problems here.
Polonia-Central Terminal area - Broadway Avenue only contains a few remnants of its prosperous past. It was always a working-class area, but until the early 1980s Broadway was lined with shops, restaurants and bars. The Broadway Market still draws in neighborhood residents and those in outlying areas. Many of the old Polish gin mills closed in the eatly 1990s, but there are some holdouts. Residents - about 70% black, with some older and poorer Polish-Americans that still hold fast. It's not a great place to live, but if you're visiting you should be okay, even on side streets.
St. John Kanty is the area along Broadway east of Polonia and the Belt Line. It's gritty, rough around the edges, very working-class, and continuing to experience white flight; the remaining Polish-American residents are leaving for Sloan and Cheektowaga. Can't say whether it's safe or not; I'd say exercise the same amount of caution as in Polonia.
What I think of as the Lower East Side is the area bounded by Fillmore Avenue to the east, Best Street to the north, Main Street to the West and Swan Street to the south. It's hit-or-miss - it contains the only parts of the city that look truly Detroit-like, with blocks containing more vacant lots than houses. There's big housing projects closer to downtown. Theere are blocks that are completely developed with new but suburban-like townhouses and single family homes. The Fruit Belt -- the area between the Kensington Espressway and Best Street -- is mixed. There's the cluster of hospitals, research institutions and medical offices, and some infill development - all okay. Streets that haven't been redeveloped look pretty bad. Trust your judgement; streets that look bad probably are.
Get a beer at the Green Ghetto Lounge on William Street if you're thirsty.
There are some white ethnic and Vietnamese enclaves hidden among the web of railroad tracks around Clintom Street, Swan Street, Fillmore Avenue and Babcock Street. This is classic, old-school blue-collar Buffalo - factories right next to houses with yards that abck onto rail lines. Those were considered desirable places to live by the working class in the early 1900s, because it was easy to walk from your house to your job. Now, we shake our heads and wonder "What were they thinking?" Relatively safe if you're visiting.
If you're going to AVOID an area, make it the area bordered by Bailey Avenue to the east, Broadway to the south, Fillmore Avenue to the West and the Kensington Expressway to the north. This is the heart of the East Side ghetto; the area where you hear about the most drug shootings, fires, crime and so on. The only businesses are gritty Yemenese c-stores and bodegas, a few carry-out restaurants, and guys with names likie "Gat T" and "Killah K" standing on every few blocks, selling you-know-what. If you're standing at the corner of Genesee and Moselle, and you're white, YOU SHOULD EXPECT TROUBLE. If you're black, and you're not wearing urban-style clothing, YOU SHOULD EXPECT TROUBLE. For some reason, whenever Canadians get lost in Buffalo, they always end up here. Go figure.
The Buffalo Science Museum is in MLK Park. The area surrounding it is rough, but don't let that stop you fromn visiting the museum.
If you do go, document the good and the bad. Don't try to put a pretty dress on a pig by photographing only churches, historic homes and parks. The neighborhood is more than the buildings; it's the fabric -- how those buildings work together -- and the people.
EDIT: lots of typos. Sorry.