New York State

I’m always in this conversation so I figured I might as well write it down.
No, New York state is not New York City. In fact we are a stark contrast.

Let’s put this in perspective. I Live in Buffalo, Ny. For me to go to New York City is about 8 hours drive, I have to go through 3 Mountain ranges – The Catskills, Adirondacks, and the Appalachian mountains. The equivalent to this is driving from Baltimore Maryland to Charleston, SC. Or for the matter Berlin Germany to Paris France. No, I certainly don’t do my grocery shopping in New York City. The last time I even went there was about 10 years ago, I honestly didn’t care for it.

There are 4 major cities in new york state New York, Buffalo, Rochester, and Albany. In my back yard… well 20 mins north of me is, the Beautiful Niagara falls

My home is about 3 blocks away from the Canadian border. I have Infact been to Canada more times then I ever did to New York City.

No I most certainly do not feel inferior to New York City, I’m Proud to be in Western New York! Let me tell you why.

Buffalo New York is called “The City of Good Neighbors”. We are the largest small town in the world. This is a city where everyone knows everyone, people help each other, and people will carry on conversations with complete strangers as if they’ve known each other their whole lives. I took a plane coming home once from Baltimore and was routed through New York City. The plane to New York was dead silent, not even the sound of a cricket. However the next plane to Buffalo everyone, the whole plane, was laughing, talking, playing games and even a sing along as if we’ve known each other forever. That plane ride was a perfect illustration of who we are.

In the streets people are courteous and mostly trust worthy. We have crime sure, but this is a town where you can ride a bike or take a walk in the middle of the night without worrying about your safety. Many people often do, myself included take a night bike ride.

Western New York has been found to have identical soil to Bordeaux France. Because of this the farm land that surrounds our town makes up of mostly Grapes rather corn, which is so rare in itself. The Vineyards in my area produce in my opinion the best tasting wine in America. I challenge anyone to compare it to California it’s much less acidic. We are America’s best kept secrete for wine. If ever you come to Niagra Falls I welcome you to a wine festival just in that area. In the summer there’s usually a wine festival once or twice a week, last year tickets were about $30 and good for the duration of the festival (about 3 days) and you can taste all the wine you can handle from various vineyards. Aside from that we have wine trails that stretch all the way to lake Ontario and South to Jamestown area. You can visit just about any Winery you want tastings ussually run about $5 to $10 per sitting. If you think wine has to be expensive to be good then your certainly no connoisseur.

There’s other things, many things different about us. Then let’s talk about design, let’s talk about alot of things, here’s a video if I can borrow 10 mins of your time I’ll make it worth your time.

Yes we are a blue state but we are outside of New York City are not very “progressive”, as evident in a 2012 election map. Buffalo ny mayor Byron Brown is what’s called a conservative Democrat. I am Proud to say he is the only democrat I ever voted for. It’s rare such a person would find favor among even Tea Party republicans, however Byron Brown has consistently kept New York Cities politicians out of Buffalo. My City sits in the county that Lead the fight against Andrew Cuomos S.A.F.E act. When we stepped up, every county followed and we told Andrew Cuomo
“You can pass that bill but we won’t Enforce it”

Sure enough our guns were safe and we ripped to shreds the bill in Albany. Thanks to fighters like Sheriff Tim Howard.

We fought against just about every crazy progressive bill proposed in Albany and we won.

We in New York have been fighting New York City so much so we join Texas in discussion of Succession. We have been talking about this ever since we’ll before the revolutionary war, it’s a topic that reliably gets proposed in Albany every time New York City tries infringing on us… much like Texas does to Washington DC. 😉

To be honest being a republican in New York is wonderful. Never will you see the fight and vigor I have learned in dealing with democrats in any red state. I have often found republicans in Tennessee or North Carolina to be quite apathetic in compassion to my local GOP members. When Andrew Cuomo told republicans to get out of his state the resounding answer was NO!

Today more and more the Republican Party continues to grow in New York under the tyranny New York City puts us through. When they push we push back.

Our Culture

We really are not like the east coast at all, were much more like the mid west. People here are god fearing, mild tempered, friendly and we don’t like hustle and bustle or being rushed. We work hard in everything we do, and we take time for quality. We value people and God above all else.

We are the descendants of German Immigrants and Irish, much like Ohio. We celebrate our heritage in Oktoberfest festivals, Saint Patrick’s day parades, museums and even parks. The architecture of our town even celebrates this and it is some of the most beautiful in America, reminiscent of the old world European homeland. We do not tear down old buildings in Buffalo, we consider suc to be a tragedy. We maintain and restore, it’s very rare to find a home or building much newer then 1920. Here is where churches and homes are as beautiful as anything you see in say Munich or Paris.

Every year Buffalo Ny hosts a city wide Garden Walk. An event where hundreds of people open there back yards and front lawns to anyone wanting to see their garden. You can walk home to home and take a look around in people’s yards or parks, people come from all over the nation to do it. We take pride in our flowers and our cities beauty. We want people to see every nook.

It’s not all roses and sunshine we get Snow for about 7 months out of the year. 4 feet of Lake Effect Snow inside an hour is a common theme for January. Yet at no point does the city ever shut down. In contrast New York City once had 4 inches, and they were panicking so much so even NASDAQ was closed down for a “Snow Day”. We’re use to snow, were very prepared for it. We haven’t had so much as a school closing in about 6 years for all the snow we actually get. Last year we had a freak snow storm that came upon us out of no where. About 8 feet of snow swept through western new york. It came down so fast and hard cars were stuck on the highway. The New York governor sent in the national guard to save people, and guess what. They got trapped in the snow themselves. People from local towns along the highway came in with Snowmobiles to rescue the national guard 😀 meanwhile the people trapped on the highway left their cars and enjoyed their free coffee at Tim Hortons until the plows came. The whole world was praying for us then, from which I thank you, but we can handle it. 😉

We leave no one out in snow storms or -10 degree weather, we not only save South Carolina people who joined the national guard, we send out teams every year to collect homeless people off the streets and in abandoned homes. We have local charities that runs vans that go around looking for them and bring them into churches or homeless shelters. For the elderly, neighborhoods team up to shovel their drive ways and help them in and out of the house. We don’t let anyone freeze to death and we leave no stone unturned to make sure of that. When it snows in New York, the very best in people shines brighter then our Christmas lights.

If for some reason anyone still thinks New York is like New York City. Come on up here, I’ll show you the difference. I’m in no way ashamed to not be in New York City nor do I have any concern for New York City. Just to return to my original point: