matter2003

I mean when guys know they have someone that will stand up for them and they don't have to be scared it has to be a good thing, right?

It's still got the Goth, hippie, non-conformist vibe going and is a cool place to visit and hang out where you will meet all types that all hang out together and all get along for the most part. Just had the Allentown Arts Festival two weekends ago there...packed as usual.

The cost to build new is ridiculous...I know someone that just built a new house and it was nothing spectacular, being about 1800 square feet and 4 BR, 2.5 bath and it cost almost 500K just for the house(luckily they already owned the land it was built on). Don't get me wrong...it's a nice house but for 500K it's still crazy... If you had to also buy the land you are looking at well over 500K and close to 550-600K probably, and that is for WNY...can't imagine what it would be elsewhere.

I'm a senior software engineer...change is a way of life for me and is constant and never ending. Work ethic is not open to change tho. It's why I will never have to worry about losing my job and they will cry when I retire. I accomplish more in an hour than most of the younger generation accomplish in a day. How do I know? I work with many of them. What they consider someone with a strong work ethic in their generation, I would consider lazy in mine.

Lacking in culture? Are you insane? Buffalo has more culture than many of the bigger cities in this country where they tried to "create" it instead of actually having it happen organically like it did here since the time the city was founded. Did you know people literally come from all over the world to see Buffalo's architecture? In architectural circles it is considered a "must see" location. We are also the festival capital of the US and have some of the largest festivals in the country. People come from all over the US to the Taste of Buffalo that draws north of 600K people and is the largest 2 day food festival in the country with only the week long Taste of Chicago drawing more people overall, the Allentown Arts festival is one of the oldest in the country, our Dyngus Day celebration is the largest in the entire world. The Erie County Fair is the 2nd largest county fair in the US, with only the Los Angeles County fair in California being bigger. You want to talk about culture? This was the richest city per capita in the entire US in 1900. There are plenty of "cultural" items left over from that time period here that didn't need to be artificially created like they have in many other places. Unlike many places where they demolished their old historic buildings to build new modern cookie cutter buildings that all look the same, Buffalo has largely restored and saved it's historic sites. There are more and more old places undergoing renovations every year now. Culture isn't how modern and "cool" you can make a place, it's the history and the preservation of that history that creates it's culture and Buffalo does that as well as any other place in this country.

"Blackcat is bad luck... bad guys wear black... must have been a White guy who started all that..."

Just wait til Gen Z takes over the workforce and those numbers will plummet. Working hard to them means having to get off their phones for 15 minutes an hour and actually do what they are being paid to do.

Depends on where you live...the areas south of Oklahoma are part of tornado alley and typically see tornadoes regularly. Wichita Falls was leveled by one in 1979. Basically if you live in those areas you are playing Russian Roulette and while there might be a thousand chambers in the gun and only one bullet, one day their luck is going to run out. Especially considering most of those places have no basements and newer homes have no storm cellars either so there is nowhere to go when one comes through. Not sure who thought it was a smart idea to stop building storm shelters in those areas so people now have nowhere to go if they are caught in one. And the weak ass F1 and F2 at best tornados that WNY might see are nothing compared to the F4 and F5 1.5-2+ mile wide monsters that they get out there.

Yeah NYS requires special ed teachers, IEP Reports, inclusion classrooms and a wide variety of other things designed to help lower level kids that are virtually unheard of in some of these other states.

I was there last year and a Black Bear literally crossed in front of us as we drove up one of the mountain roads! Was very disappointed with the parking situation tho...literally nowhere to park to get out and walk anywhere of interest, the very very limited parking was taken up by people who must have gotten there at like 7am or earlier. Had to drive up and over and then back down to an area with nothing around it before we found some parking where we could get out and walk around. They claimed they are putting in more parking but that didn't help us when we were there. IMO, great place to drive thru, as long as you don't actually want to get out and do anything...then it sucks ass.

Not sure where you got your numbers from but those aren't what they start out at...it's far far lower. The number on the left is the average starting salary for teachers by state. The middle column is the bottom 10th percentile and the right column is the 90th percentile. So basically when you are making 48K in South Dakota. it would be after working there like 20 years. That's pretty much where you are finishing at. In New York state, that number is almost 100K. So like I said...they start out as fast food workers and not even very good paid ones at that.

Green Lake, by a mile...one of only a handful of natural lakes that are crystal clear and you can see to the bottom...they rent out glass bottom canoes that you can go around the lake in...pretty amazing. It is one of only 36 natural Meromictic Lakes in the entire world where the waters from the top and bottom do not mix, leaving it crystal clear at all times. It is also pretty deep, formed after glaciers left the area during the Ice Age and is 195 feet deep, almost as deep as the deepest part of Lake Erie(210 feet). It is in Fayetteville, NY which is a little bit East of Syracuse in Onandaga County. https://parks.ny.gov/parks/greenlakes/details.aspx https://planetforward.org/story/meromictic-lake-new-york/#:~:text=Green Lake is home to,meromictic lakes in the world.

Yeah, they are all mostly where they get paid like fast food workers. It's a joke. In NYS, most districts have waiting lists with hundreds of job applicants and no openings.

But living down in Texas with border/migrant/immigrant/Mexican cartel issues is great somehow? Not to mention weeks and weeks of unrelenting temperatures over 90+ and sometimes more than a month straight of 100+? When you have to plan outdoor activities around potentially dying due to heat, something isn't right.

I couldn't deal with the constant ups/downs and twists and turns of the roads there...cannot even imagine what it must be like driving when there is snow or ice on the ground... it's definitely a cool city to visit tho, although only in the summer for me 😂 The taxes also go to pay teachers who get paid basically like fast food employees in the Southern US which explains the standardized test scores plummeting in those states over the last few decades. In some places, they could actually work in fast food and make more than they do teaching. What person in their right mind is signing up for garbage pay, coming out of their own pocket for classroom supplies constantly and dealing with kids that have no respect for anyone due parents who have no respect for anyone and who have kids that can do no wrong? It's like that everywhere, but at least teachers up here get paid to deal with the crap.

Hurry up and go...the people like you with your attitudes are why it's taking so long for it to improve...it's having to be done kicking and screaming over people who want to live in negativity. But the momentum is clearly not in your favor at this point.

Calculate the difference in interest you'd be paying over the life of a 30 year mortgage between the 2 and then let me know how much better you'd be doing...hint, if you are lucky you'd break even because the difference is over 500K in interest over the life of that loan. And that doesn't include the opportunity cost of not being able to take that excess money and invest it and actually MAKE money on the difference over time, which even at 8% would end up being worth far more than the more expensive house alone. This is the type of financial math you need to be doing when trying to figure these things out and most people are very very poor at it.

Go factor in house insurance in places like Florida where you will soon be paying more for your homeowner's premium a month than your mortgage payment once more insurance companies leave. They already are the highest in the nation, with some places averaging an unbelievable 17K a year in homeowner's insurance. That covers all my property/school/county taxes, NYS state income tax that they brag about saving there and homeowner's insurance and leaves me with a few K left over. There is no way someone paying $2500 a month(or more) for a house that would be $1250 a month up here is "saving money". Nobody is paying $1250 a month less in property taxes. This should be basic 3rd grade math. I live in a Village and pay some of the highest taxes in the area due to the added village tax, and my tax bill(property/school/county) is under $5500 a year on a nearly 300K house. Is it high? Sure, but not higher than a mortgage payment on a 600K house with their lower property taxes. Not even close. Just like it ignores homeowner's insurance costs in places like Florida. There are very few places with less costly weather related home issues than WNY. Yes, we get snow...a LOT of snow many years. But unless your roof collapses from the weight, it rarely causes any home damage. Outside of that, we don't deal with any of the major costly issues other places deal with. Ie, flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, mudslides, earthquakes, forest fires, etc. Like Wichita Falls, TX where your house gets turned into Lincoln Logs or matchsticks every 5-10 years. Plus, most of these insurance companies don't include anything other than basic coverage and the actual issues that cause damage are riders on top of your normal premiums you would need to pay extra, and in many cases, A LOT extra, to actually be covered from these issues. Especially in areas where these events are frequently issues. Very few places in WNY would need to purchase any additional riders like most other places would.

It's based on the average income of the people living there to the housing prices. Sure, if you find somewhere where people make $200 a month and housing costs $100 a month, it is definitely cheaper but that isn't affordable. Two completely different things you are looking at. Considering 70% of the world makes less than $900 a month, every dollar in those places is worth a lot more to them and every dollar something is more expensive there multiplies that cost far more than it does here. I mean people on welfare make more than that here sitting around collecting checks from the government.

WNY continuing to pile up accolades over the past few years...momentum is really building as more and more reports continue to rank us very very favorably compared to many places. Rochester coming in #2, Buffalo #6 in world's most affordable cities. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/home-prices-affordable-cities-cheap-housing/

Meh...I prefer to listen to the opponent's broadcast most nights, TBH.

Imagine complaining about a team that has BY FAR the deepest pipeline in the NHL even tho they have promoted heavily from it within the last 3-4 years. Seriously...there are plenty of things to not like about this team, but complaining about the biggest area of strength ain't it. Some people just work OT to not like anything they do it feels like whether it makes logical sense or not.

He needs to hire Master Gorino and teach the Sabres how to "Become...become...become..."

Just pretend he is the Godfather and has the "Cor" in front of the last name... He made KA an offer he couldn't refuse...

Senior Advisor...must be nice to do basically nothing and draw a fat paycheck...where can I get those gigs?