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REBUILDING BUFFALO ON ACTIVE HOPE by Robert G. Shibley, FAIA, FAICP Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor School of Architecture and Planning, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
On May 14, 2022, a horrific act of racist hate sent shockwaves through our city, and we were reminded just how far we have to go—as a society, as a city, and as a profession.
Cast into the national spotlight by the events of May 14, 2022, Buffalo’s East Side is ground zero for innovative practices in just city-making led by a coalition of citizens, scholars and future architects and planners at UB. Photo courtesy of East Side Avenues/UB Regional Institute
Since our founding 50 years ago, the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning has created the conditions for hope through acts of citizen-driven planning, design and building across the city that hosts us. In grounding our teaching and research in the aspirations of our community and a shared affection for place, we rebuild our city, improve life for its citizens, and drive innovations in design and planning that scale up to cities around the world and into the professions we serve.
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The mass shooting at a grocery store in East Buffalo was the collision of an acute act of violence with an equally insidious legacy system of segregation in our cities that isolates, neglects and harms segments of the population along the lines of race. East Buffalo, where 80 percent of Buffalo’s Black population resides, has suffered decades of disinvestment. The systems of inequity are so deeply embedded that over the past three decades the city’s Black community has seen little progress (and in some cases none at all) on key indicators of quality of life—from income and educational attainment to homeownership and health outcomes. As a community of educators, scholars and practitioners in the built environment professions, we grieve the loss of life, the trauma inflicted upon our city, and the shortcomings of society in addressing the entrenched injustices of racism. May 14 calls attention—yet again—to the challenge of our time—rebuilding our cities as places where all have the opportunity for life lived well. The imperative, and opportunity, before us is to dig in, and bring our whole selves to action on behalf of justice in our city. Buffalo and its East Side is ground zero for more just ways of living, and a lever of change for all cities. Drawing upon the guidance of climate activist Joanna Macy and psychologist Chris Johnstone, it is here where we come with gratitude to
