Once the 8th largest city in the United States, Buffalo, NY is now ranked 70th (with 261,000 residents). After several failed attempts at urban renewal, the city leadership is trying a new approach - namely, to recast Buffalo as a college town.
The University at Buffalo is spearheading a $5 billion expansion plan, called UB 2020. Business leaders and local politicians are strongly in support of the project which they see as their best hope for a new economic base.
The proposal is to move the university's medical school from the outskirts to downtown. Part of the funding for the plan will come from tuition hikes, according to Thomas Kaplan of The New York Times. Kaplan also notes that the proposed tuition increases have generated opposition on the grounds that lower-income students will not be able to afford to attend the University at Buffalo after its expansion.
"There is no denying that the hope - that Buffalo could someday be a New York version of Berkeley, Calif. - is a tantalizing one," writes Kaplan.
FULL STORY: In Buffalo, Visions, Perhaps Illusions, of a University-Fueled Revitalization
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