Buffalo is located in western New York State. It is the state’s second-largest city, after New York City, and is the county seat of Erie County. The Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan area has a diverse population of 1.1 million. Buffalo’s thriving arts, cultural, and nightlife scenes is considered the hub of the greater bi-national region in New York and Ontario.  As an “All America City,” a gateway to one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World, and a center of commercial development and cultural activity, you will find your new location and exciting place to live.

Buffalo lies at the eastern end of Lake Erie near the head of the Niagara River, which connects to Lake Ontario. European-Americans first settled there in the late-18th century. Growth was slow until the city became the western terminus of the Erie Canal some forty years later. By the turn of the 19th century, Buffalo was one of the country’s leading cities, and by far its largest inland port. Unfortunately the huge grain elevators and industrial plants that the canal spawned began to disappear in the mid-20th century as the Saint Lawrence Seaway enabled water traffic to bypass the city.

But with the ability to distant itself from its industrial past, Buffalo is redefining as a cultural, educational, and medical center. The city was named by Reader’s Digest as the third cleanest city in America in 2005. In 2001, USA Today named Buffalo the winner of its “City with a Heart” contest, proclaiming it the nation’s “friendliest city.”

And it’s true: Buffalo chicken wings actually were created here, thanks to a stray shipment of wings that made its way to the Anchor Bar in the mid-1960s. Buffalo is also home to the Beef on Weck sandwich and it is the Friday fish fry capital of the world.

Buffalo and the surrounding area was long involved in steel and automobile production. While major steel production no longer exists, several smaller steel mills remain in operation. In addition, Ford maintains operation of its Buffalo Stamping Plant south of the city, and Chevrolet has two plants, a production plant in Tonawanda near the city line, and a tool and die plant in the city. The windshield wiper was invented in Buffalo, and the Trico Company still operates some facilities there. For many years, Buffalo was the nation’s second largest rail center, with Chicago being the first.

Buffalo’s ethnic diversity includes people of Greek, Irish, Italian, African American, Polish, Scottish, Latino and German decent, to name a few. That, combined with a basic blue-collar mentality, creates a solid foundation for the community to build and re-build. And re-build the city has, by pumping millions into its downtown showpiece Theater District, by expanding the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, by creating waterfront housing and establishing a Metro Rail line from HSBC Arena to the South Campus of the State University at Buffalo. It has diversified its economy, moving from strictly “rust belt” industries to services and tourism, then to high tech and fiber optics.

In the 21st century, Buffalo has increasingly become a center for bioinformatics and human genome research, including work by researchers at the University at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.