Western New York
Western New York is a section of New York including the Great Lakes Lowlands
and also the Genesee River Valley right above the Southern Tier Mountain Range.
Three cities occupy this area of Western New York and they are Buffalo, Niagra
Falls, and Rochester. The two counties that contain the largest populations in
Western New York are Erie County (Buffalo) and Monroe County (Rochester). Erie
county contains a population of about 950,000 people and Monroe County contains
a population of about 740,000 people. The two bodies of water that impact
Western New York’s climate are two of the country’s five Great Lakes. Lake Erie
which heavily influences Buffalo’s lake-affect snow and Lake Ontario which
impacts Rochester’s weather. The area of Western New York was heavily populated
with the Iroquois Native American tribes and was not heavily settled by Europeans
until the areas of future Rochester and Buffalo starting seeing settlement
shortly after the war of 1812. The opening of the Erie Canal truly helped
Rochester and Buffalo shape its cities boundaries as the population began to
boom. Rochester was heavily influenced by the flour industry which gave it the
name of the Flour-City. As the 20th century moved ahead Western New York became part of a
region known as the Rust-Belt of the United States which specialized in the
manufacturing and transportation of coal, steel, and grains as well. The city
of Rochester has a history that is heavily involved with the first woman’s
rights movements and also modern high-tech industry from George Eastman’s Kodak
company which revolutionized the camera and film industry. The surrounding land
around Rochester and Buffalo support great agricultural practices due to the
rich effective soil of the Great Lakes Lowlands. Two main river’s of the region
include the Niagra River which intersects into the world famous Niagra Falls and
the Genesee River which cuts right through downtown Rochester. Compared to the
rest of the state, Western New York has lost most of its forested areas due to
growth of Rochester and Buffalo and also to practice agriculture outside the
cities. Because of the nearby bodies of water, Western New York is a fun
destination in the summer months and attracts more people because of the
waterfronts along the Great Lakes. The cities of Rochester and Buffalo were
once much more heavily populated but from the years of 1950 to the year 2000,
Buffalo has lost about half of its population and Rochester has had a 34
percent decline in population. The cities have had five consecutive decades of
loss in population simply because jobs are not as common in this area as they once
were many years ago. Because of this many young graduates of college must
travel to other areas of the country to seek specific employment, which in
return keeps the populations of these cities steady instead of increasing.
(Chris Brett)
Works
Cited:
Western New York
New York State's Office of
Comptroller. "Population Trends in New York State's Cities." Osc.state.ny.us.
Division of Local Government Services and Economic Development. Web.
"Lands and Waters." Dec.ny.gov.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 2012. Web.
"Western New York Travel Guide." Westernny.com.
Clarion Publications, 2008. Genesee Country Magazine. Web.
Annotated Links- Environmental (Ashlyn Hyams)
Letchworth State Park
The website for Letchworth State park contains plenty of useful information on the park, its history and events that they host. Here you can find general information of the park. It covers the attractions, regulations and accommodations the park offers. This website also provides camping instructions and hours. This state park is a perfect place to take the family for a day get away or camping trip. They also provide maps and a overview of the area. The last bit of information found here is on the history of the park, its founder, and the museum that is located at the park. The museum is an educational tool the whole family can enjoy.
Niagara Frontier
The information contained on this site has information on many aspects of Niagara Falls. There is a vast history on the falls that this site covers in great detail. For those interested in alternative power options Niagara Falls offers the website provides a whole history on this topic. Alternative energy has been harness for the falls since the mid 1900’s. Niagara Falls has many attractions for tourist to enjoy that vary dramatically in price. Tourist can enjoy tours of the falls or the restaurants for the area. The falls have historically been an attraction to daredevils, even The Great Houdini attempted to captivate audiences here.
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal was one of New York’s biggest accomplishments of the 1800’s. It effectively connected western New York to the city and help establish New York as a trading force. You can find a large archive of historical images of the Erie Canal and its construction. There are also a variety of modern and historical maps of New York State that give an insight into the canal and historical cartography. For those people who want to get better acquainted with the canal this website offers a pictorial tour. Lastly for anyone who is interested in more information overall about the Erie Canal there is a list of books and movie to check out.
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation
This website offers information on parks across New York State. Darien Lakes State Park is located in Genesee County. Here you can find a overview of the park. This park, like most parks, has fees for staying on their land depending on your means of shelter and amount of time staying. This park has ample amounts of amenities and activities that may interest all type of people. The website even offers information on obtaining permits and what they can be used for within the park system.
Friends of Montezuma
Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge is a wetland preserve that includes more than 50,000 acres across western New York in Seneca, Cayuga, and Wayne counties. The website provides a live video feed from 7am to 8 pm daily of an osprey nest. The website also describes a view platform they have to observe the osprey. The website here provides a map and topographical description of one of the islands, Howlands Island, located within the refuge. The last important component of this website is the FAQ. This provides answers to many questions dealing with the nature of the preserve.
Annotated Links: Economic(Chris Brett)
1.) The Greater Rochester Regional Economic Development website offers data and business information in the Rochester area. The website caters to many questions regarding what the economic activity is in the Monroe county region. The website offers a tool to compare savings on businesses if they switched their location to the Rochester area, listing many major American cities as a calculator to compare savings from switching from one city to Rochester. The site list's the employment agencies ranging from private sector to public sector for assistance, training, and also employment placement. The industry expertise section of the webpage breaks down the top businesses and also categorizes companies and their information for easy acces to more information about certain companies and organizations. The website overall promotes businesses to relocate to the Rochester area and gives future prospectors information about businesses that already reside in the greater Rochester area.
2.) The Monroe County website offers information ranging in all categories about Rochester and surrounding suburbs. There are three tabs located on the websites main page that are very useful in searching for economic data, Government, Employment, and the Department sections. The website also provides many links that offer information and data related to Western New York, specifically Monroe County. The Resident's tab offers information to current and future residents of Monroe County who want to learn more about organizations and hobbies around the area. Overall the website does a great job examining in detail the economic and social activity in Monroe County.
3.) The Democrat & Chronicle website is the online version of the popular newspaper catering to the Greater Rochester area. The website produces normal news but also has many tabs on the above screen that navigate the web browser to different sections specifically addressing certain searches. The website offers information not just about Rochester, but also narrows in to give data and information of the surrounding towns. For economic information, the business link gives accurate and up to date news about current events stirring around the Rochester area. The RocDoc's link gives databases and maps to give visual data easy to acces about the Rochester area. This map display's the Rochester area's housing markets. This is just one example of the data and maps the website has to offer to the general public. Overall, this source provides great information and detail when examining the Rochester area of western new york.
4.) The Buffalo News website offers information focusing in the Erie County section of western New York. The website offers a wide range of data and news that brush many different categories. When observing economic data, the main links to access business tab which obviously updates the viewer with news and information relating to the economic activity in the Buffalo area.
5.) The City of Batavia website provides a great source of data, news, and information in the Batavia area, located in between Rochester and Buffalo. The website offers viewers to an array of links and tabs that navigate to different focus points around the Batavia area. Because the website is affiliated with the actual city, no false news or data is thrown up on the website to give false information and/or stories. The information is accurate and the website overall is a great spurce to bettwer understand the area between the two larger cities in western New York.
Social Annotated Links- (Ashlyn Hyams)
Suny Buffalo is one of Buffalo's largest colleges and social centers for the community. Their school website provides a plethora of information on many social events, their campus, and their academics. Here you can find information on their admission process, the requirements one needs to fulfill for acceptance and their undergraduate and graduate programs. Their website also provides information on the city of Buffalo and what it has to offer its students, it also contains a tour video. For people who are seriously interested in what Buffalo has to offer they give an overview on what there is to do around the city.
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is a contemporary and modern art gallery located in Buffalo, New York. The overview of the gallery can be found here. The gallery, which was founded in 1862, contains many collections from a variety of artists. The website has a whole section dedicated to the past, present, and future exhibitions that will be housed in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. The Gallery also hosts events almost daily that are open to the public. For those who are interested in the arts they even have class and workshops that are available.
Buffalo City Hall is an important architectural center for the city of Buffalo. The history of the new city hall and the old city hall are a part of Buffalo’s history and the architects who were responsible for it. This website provides information for the residents of the area who want to get more involved with the community. For tourists who are just visiting the area city hall put together a section on things to do and place to visit. Here you can find a overview the whole city and what it has to offer.
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is an important social gathering place to look at in order to get the full feel for the social atmosphere of Buffalo. One can find tickets for many different musical events the orchestra puts on during their open season. Here you can find more information on what the Orchestra is about and the members of the community who run and participate in it. The orchestra also offers educational course for people who are interested. If education is not what you are interested in you can also donate to keep the programs going.
