Buffalo

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Buffalo
Nickname : City of Good Neighbors, The Queen City, Nickel City, Queen City of the Lakes, City of Light
Buffalo City Hall
Buffalo City Hall (City Hall)
Seal of Buffalo
seal
Flag of Buffalo
flag
Location in New York
Buffalo (New York)
Buffalo
Buffalo
Basic data
Foundation : 1832
State : United States
State : new York
County : Erie County
Coordinates : 42 ° 54 ′  N , 78 ° 52 ′  W Coordinates: 42 ° 54 ′  N , 78 ° 52 ′  W
Time zone : Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Inhabitants :
Metropolitan Area :
256,902 (as of 2016)
1,132,804 (as of 2016)
Population density : 2,456 inhabitants per km 2
Area : 136.0 km 2  (approx. 53 mi 2 ) of
which 104.6 km 2  (approx. 40 mi 2 ) is land
Height : 186 m
Postcodes : 14201-14280
Area code : +1 716
FIPS : 36-11000
GNIS ID : 978764
Website : www.ci.buffalo.ny.us
Mayor : Byron Brown ( Democrat )

Buffalo is with 261,325 inhabitants (according to the last census in 2010, estimate 2016: around 257,000) the second largest city in the US state New York . Over 1.1 million people live in the Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan area . Buffalo is the administrative seat of Erie County and is located on the northeast tip of Lake Erie not far from Niagara Falls . Today Buffalo is a modern industrial and port city.

The name Buffalo comes from "Buffalo Creek", which first appeared on a map from 1759 to 1760; the origin of this name cannot be proven.

In German-speaking countries, Buffalo is probably best known for the poem John Maynard by Theodor Fontane . A bronze plaque commemorating this poem was unveiled in 1997 in Buffalo.

Buffalo's City Hall, built in the Art Deco style, is one of the tallest public buildings in the United States at 115 meters. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places , as are about seventy other objects in the city. Darwin D. Martin House , planned by Frank Lloyd Wright, is a National Historic Landmark .

Geography and climate

Buffalo in bloom

Buffalo is located at the eastern end of Lake Erie , across from the Canadian city ​​of Fort Erie , at the beginning of the Niagara River , which drains the lake and flows north to Lake Ontario .

According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has an area of ​​136.0 km 2 , of which 105.2 km 2 is land and 30.8 km 2 (= 22.66%) is water.

Buffalo has the sunniest, driest summers of any major city in the northeastern United States, but rainfall is sufficient to keep vegetation green and fresh. The summers are characterized by long hours of sunshine (up to 65% of the possible time it is sunny), moderate humidity and moderate temperatures. The location of the city on the lake, which can lead to enormous amounts of snow in winter, has the effect in summer that a cooling south-westerly breeze makes the air bearable on hot days. Precipitation is moderate and mostly occurs at night. The area of ​​Lake Erie has a stabilizing effect, so that thunderstorms are more inhibited in July . In August the rains are a bit more frequent and it is warmer and more humid because the warm lake water reduces the temperature-regulating effect of the lake.

The region is subject to a fairly humid continental climate , which, however, has a maritime component due to the Great Lakes . The transition times between summer and winter are fairly short in Buffalo and western New York.

Blizzard from 1977

Winters in the west of the state are generally cold and snowy, but at the same time changeable and include thaws and rainfall. Winter lasts a long time, from mid-November to early April. The ground is often snow-covered between the end of December and the beginning of March , and periods without snow are not uncommon. More than half of the annual snowfall comes from the Lake Effect and is localized. This precipitation occurs when cold air crosses the relatively warm lake surface and saturation creates clouds and precipitation . Due to the prevailing wind direction, the areas south of the city receive more lake-effect snow than the northern urban areas. This snowfall occurs from mid-October, has its peak in December and stops suddenly when the lake freezes over between mid and late January. The most famous and most severe snowstorm in Buffalo history was the Blizzard of '77 . Strictly speaking, this was not a lake-effect event, since the lake was frozen over at the time, but the result of the effect of strong winds on the accumulated amounts of snow on land and on the flat ice surface of the lake.

Buffalo, New York
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.
 
 
69
 
-1
-8th
 
 
59
 
0
-8th
 
 
68
 
5
-3
 
 
73
 
12
2
 
 
80
 
19th
8th
 
 
90
 
24
14th
 
 
78
 
27
17th
 
 
106
 
26th
16
 
 
89
 
22nd
12
 
 
79
 
15th
6th
 
 
97
 
8th
1
 
 
93
 
2
-5
Temperature in ° Cprecipitation in mm
Source:
Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Buffalo, New York
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C ) −1.0 −0.2 5.4 12.3 18.9 24.1 26.8 25.5 21.6 15.2 8.4 1.8 O 13.3
Min. Temperature (° C) −8.3 −8.1 −3.4 2.3 8.3 13.6 16.6 15.6 11.7 5.9 1.1 −5.1 O 4.2
Precipitation ( mm ) 68.6 58.7 68.1 72.9 79.8 90.2 78.2 105.9 88.6 78.5 97.3 93.2 Σ 980
Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 2.9 3.8 5.3 6.8 8.3 9.6 9.9 8.6 6.9 5.1 2.8 2.2 O 6th
Rainy days ( d ) 13.2 11.5 11.3 10.2 9.4 8.8 7.3 9.4 8.8 9.8 12.7 14.0 Σ 126.4
Humidity ( % ) 76 76 73 68 67 69 68 72 74 73 76 78 O 72.5
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
−1.0
−8.3
−0.2
−8.1
5.4
−3.4
12.3
2.3
18.9
8.3
24.1
13.6
26.8
16.6
25.5
15.6
21.6
11.7
15.2
5.9
8.4
1.1
1.8
−5.1
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
N
i
e
d
e
r
s
c
h
l
a
g
68.6
58.7
68.1
72.9
79.8
90.2
78.2
105.9
88.6
78.5
97.3
93.2
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Source:

history

Panorama Buffalos from 1911

The region was originally settled by the Ongiara. The Seneca later took control of the area from the Iroquois . From 1797 to 1838, the Buffalo Creek Reservation stretched across much of the city and well beyond. Joseph Ellicott , an agent for the Holland Land Company , designed a radial road network and grid system in 1804 that extended from its center like the spokes of a bicycle. During the British-American War , Buffalo was burned down by British forces on December 30, 1813. When the Erie Canal was completed on November 4, 1825 , Buffalo was strategically located at the western end of the canal system. At that time Buffalo had about 2,400 inhabitants. The canal brought a surge in population and trade with it, so that Buffalo, which then had 10,000 inhabitants, incorporated itself as a city ​​in 1832 .

The city of Buffalo has long been home to African Americans . The population register from 1828 lists 59 “names of colored” heads of families. In 1845 construction began on Macedonia Baptist Church (commonly known as Michigan Street Baptist Church ). This African American parish became an important meeting place for abolitionism . The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 12, 1974 . Abolitionists like William Wells Brown settled in Buffalo. Buffalo became an end point of the Underground Railroad , from which many slaves escaped to Fort Erie , Ontario and thus to freedom.

Passenger ships in Buffalo 1909

During the 1840s, Buffalo Port continued to grow. The transport volume of goods and people increased, 93,000 travelers annually set out from Buffalo's port further west on the Great Lakes. The transportation of wheat and commercial goods led to further growth of the port. One of the first steam-powered wheat silos was built here, which enabled cargo ships to be unloaded more quickly.

Abraham Lincoln visited Buffalo in February 1861. He was staying at the American Hotel on Main Street between Eagle Street and Court Street. During the Civil War , the population increased from 81,029 to 94,210 in 1865. Buffalo not only contributed to the civil war with a large number of soldiers on the side of the Union troops, but the factories of the city produced necessary war material, for example parts of the gun turrets of the ironclad USS Monitor were manufactured by the Niagara Steam Forge Works.

Before the beginning of the 20th century, the local mills were among the first to benefit from the electrical power generated by the Niagara River . It was then that the city earned its nickname "City of Light" because electric lighting was widely used. The first electrically operated street lamps in the United States were installed in Buffalo as early as 1881. In the early days of automotive history, Pierce-Arrow vehicles were built here.

Pan-American Exposition:
Ethnology Building at Night

US President William McKinley was gunned down on September 6, 1901 while visiting the Pan-American Exposition and seriously injured. He died in town eight days later, and Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th President of the United States at the Wilcox Mansion .

The connection to Fort Erie, the so-called Peace Bridge , was opened in 1927. The lavishly equipped Buffalo Central Terminal station was completed just a few weeks before Black Thursday .

With the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1957, through which the city was cut off from trade routes, due to de-industrialization and the nationwide trend towards urban exodus , the city's economic importance began to decline. Many industrial companies had to close. Buffalo, whose population was more than half a million in the 1950s, has seen a significant population decline of over 50 percent since then.

Population development
year 1810 1840 1870 1900 1920 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Residents 1,508 18,213 117.714 352,387 506.775 575.901 580.132 532.759 462,768 357.870 328.123 292,648 261.310

Economy and Infrastructure

The metropolitan area of ​​Buffalo generated a gross domestic product of 58.1 billion US dollars in 2016, making it 55th among the metropolitan areas of the United States. The unemployment rate in the metropolitan region was 4.3 percent and was thus slightly above the national average of 3.8 percent (as of March 2018). The personal per capita income in 2016 was 46,511, which means Buffalo has an income level slightly below the average.

Buffalo has long been a location for the steel and automotive industries . Much of the steel industry has migrated, but a few smaller steel companies are still in operation. Ford has a production plant in the city and the Chevrolet automobile company has two facilities.

The Buffalo Niagara International Airport is located 15 km from the city center. The disused Concrete-Central Elevator is falling into disrepair.

education

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Buffalo has developed more and more into a bioinformatics and genetic research center . The research is being carried out with help from the University at Buffalo (UB) and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute .

In addition to the UB, Buffalo State College and Erie Community College are also part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network.

The following private colleges have their campuses in Buffalo: Bryant & Stratton College , Canisius College , D'Youville College , Medaille College, and Trocaire College .

Sports

The city is home to various sports clubs:

Town twinning

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

Personalities related to the city

Name variants

The city has a few different names:

  • De-o-tro-woe
  • De-ose-lole
  • Ne-o-thro-ra
  • New Amsterdam
  • Tick-e-ack-gou-ga
Buffalo skyline

Web links

Commons : Buffalo, New York  - Album containing pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Buffalo's Climate . National Weather Service . Retrieved July 5, 2006.
  2. ^ National Weather Service, US Dept of Commerce
  3. wetterkontor.de
  4. ^ J. Henry Priebe Jr .: Beginnings - The Village of Buffalo - 1801 to 1832 ( English ) Retrieved January 1, 2011.
  5. ^ Monroe Fordham: Michigan Street Church . In: African American history of Western New York . April 1996. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
  6. ^ African American history of Western New York ( English ) Retrieved January 1, 2011.
  7. ^ J. Henry Priebe Jr .: The City of Buffalo 1840–1850 ( English ). Retrieved January 1, 2011.
  8. ^ A b The History of Buffalo: A Chronology Buffalo. New York 1841-1865.
  9. Can Buffalo Ever Come Back? . City Journal
  10. Believe it, or not. Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925 (Bonanza Books, New York 1950), p. 178. (English)
  11. ^ US Department of Commerce, BEA, Bureau of Economic Analysis: Bureau of Economic Analysis. Retrieved July 4, 2018 (American English).
  12. ^ Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY Economy at a Glance. Retrieved July 5, 2018 .
  13. ^ US Department of Commerce, BEA, Bureau of Economic Analysis: Bureau of Economic Analysis. Retrieved July 5, 2018 (American English).
  14. ^ A b c William M. Beauchamp: Aboriginal Place Names of New York. New York State Museum Bulletin 108, Archeology 12th NY State Education Department, Albany 1907, 333 pp, 62.
  15. Ren. Vasiliev: From Abbotts to Zurich: New York State Placenames. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY 2004.
  16. ^ William M. Beauchamp: Aboriginal Place Names of New York. New York State Museum Bulletin 108, Archeology 12th NY State Education Department, Albany 1907, 333 pp. 61.