Buffalo's West Side

I chose the West Side of Buffalo, particularly because my father's side of the family all lived on the West Side at one point during the early to mid 20th century. The West Side has always been well known for its strong Italian heritage and population. While Italians still remain on the West Side, running a handful of restaurants, the Hispanic population has mostly made it their own enclave.

Even though the West Side is predominantly Puerto Rican, many African American, Middle Eastern, Central American, Somali, and Burmese immigrants currently live there. Unlike many other parts of Buffalo, the West Side still has many factors going in its favor like Buffalo State College and Kleinhans Music Hall. However, the neighborhood itself, is older than it looks because the money isn't there to fund for repairs. Street after street was lined with houses that were in disrepair and buildings and lots that were vacant. even though the Puerto Ricans have made the West Side mostly their own, the Italian infastructure is still there seeing as how each house and building was built in the early 20th century, which marked the Italians biggest influx of citizens.

The houses are moderate, wood built homes, that are mostly three- stories and could house one or two families. Also, I noticed that the houses were spaced close together, which I never fully understood, but my best guess was a strong sense of community and not a whole lot of space to work with.

Buffalo was a major industrial city, with the West Side playing a pivotal role in the shipping and import of goods into the city, which is what many of the Italians did to make a living. Italians also brought their own culture with them in the way of food, of which there are still quite a few Italian restaurants left in the area, specifically Left Bank, which is located on Rhode Island St. and Mineo and Sapio Italian Sausage. However, when the city suffered suburbanization in the post- WWII era and deinsudtrialization the Italians moved to the suburbs and left what they had built behind. Still prime for immigrants some 60 years after the first wave, Puerto Ricans have made it their home in Buffalo.

Many corner stores have their products painted on the sides of the stores, which was commonplace among the two or three corner stores that I saw on my journey. The Hispanic transformation is evident as there is now a Puerto Rican Day Parade that takes places on Niagara St., which is also known as Avenida San Juan, just like the actual one in Puerto Rico.The Niagara Cafe serves Chicken with rice and beans, which is a staple of Puerto Rican food and is a quite popular restaurant among its residents.




Even though the West Side still has a lot of work to so to make the neighborhood a place where children can roam free and large sections are not an eyesore,  parts of the West Side are being kept up and are being preserved and restored. There is hope for the West Side of Buffalo, that is does not remain in urban blight and does not carry the characteristics of the post-WWII "Noir City".