I fled Buffalo 30 years ago next month: a job in another state called.
The U.S. Metropolitan Area Economic Freedom Index helps explain why.
Of the 52 metropolitan areas with populations over a million, Buffalo ranks 50th.
And things aren’t good in upstate: close neighbor Rochester (half an hour of country from outer suburb to outer suburb) is ranked 51st. Pity actually … Rochester had a lot going for it 30 years ago before its big hometown corporations tanked.
Now, this is published by Reason, so you can imagine the priorities embedded in their data (and recall the argument made here many times that all rankings like this are questionable).
Anyway, Buffalo is not at the very bottom for government spending. But, In 9 survey years going back to 1972, it was never higher than 49th in tax burden, and never higher than 50th in labor market freedom.
WalletHub (disclaimer: they occasionally quote me, but don’t pay me for squat) has an alternative ranking. Out of 150 cities, Buffalo ranks 114th.
WTF: Just noticed that it is no longer the Buffalo-Niagara Falls MSA, but rather the Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls MSA. Cheektowaga? Yes, it’s a big suburb, but one of several. My guess is that it gets included because the airport is in it. Anyway, Cheektowaga was always in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls MSA, so it is a change of name rather than region.
Via Newmark’s Door.
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