Worth Every Single Penny
By: Christa Vidaver
Date: January 13, 2006
I am tired of the disparagement of Buffalo by those who do not live here, by those that have left and by some, and it is only some, of those that still do live here. I am tired of the cynicism that pervades the bloggosphere, the supermarket, the media and the city streets about our city. As someone who has lived for years in a different city, I can tell you that Buffalo has got it above and beyond what Boston has or ever had.
When I tell people in Buffalo that I just recently moved back from Boston, I usually get two reactions. The first is always with a touch of envy "Boston, wow, what a great city, that must have been wonderful living there!" The other reaction is always said with an incredulous tone, "Why in the world are you back in Buffalo?!", almost as if I failed in the real world somehow and therefore had to move back home.
The funny thing is the opposite was true, when my husband and I were in Boston, financially we were kicking some ass. We both had wonderful jobs, he at MIT and me at Harvard. We belonged to a good church, lived close to the subway and in a very hip area. At least I was doing great on the surface, and after 7 years in this "wonderful" city the surface was all I was.
I don't know how it is for most people but living in a big city was just not for me. It was a place where you are just one of millions, where when you walk down the street you get panhandled at least 10 times in one block, where the smells are of garbage, urine, or gasoline, where people don't talk to each other or ever look each other in the eye, where the driving is so horrendous my husband always drove, a place where it felt like humanity didn't exist. It was not even close to being my thing. I am sure there are plenty of people who love Boston, and other cities like them. However, I think they have never lived in Buffalo.
While I was in living there, I would come home to Buffalo on an average of once a month. Those weekends are more vivid in my memory then any moment in the 7 years I lived in Boston. Those weekends are made up of little moments; driving down Niagara Falls Blvd., crying, just because I was so glad to be driving down NFB, going to Wegmans, (how I love Wegmans!) and having someone actually say hello and good morning to me and offering to throw out the napkin I had in my hand (did he just offer to do something nice for another human being?), driving down the street and having another driver let me pass BEFORE turning left into the mall (HOLY SHIT!), another person waiting for me to walk by in a parking lot before pulling into a parking spot and when he got out of the car saying hello. These may not seem like big, momentous moments to most, but to me, living in a place like Boston, they were replenishing my spirit and making me yearn more and more to move back to this city of good neighbors.
I now have been living back in Buffalo for almost two years. Not a day has gone by that I am not thankful for living back here. We are paying more for utilities, our salaries have gone down, our taxes are higher, and I am working part-time instead of full but for all that Buffalo and Western New York has to offer me and my daughter, it is worth every single penny.
© Christa M. Vidaver, 2006.
The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the WNY Coalition for Progress.
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