West Side Study
Buffalo, New York is no stranger to spatial segregation along racial and economic lines. Conventional wisdom throughout the region traces this historic divide along the length of Main Street, a north south corridor. It is widely believed that Buffalo's affluent neighborhoods sit to the west, with low income neighborhoods in the east. While Main Street serves as an easy point of reference, Buffalo's demographics are not binary. Even dividing the city into quarters is revealing, as shown in the figures on this page. The story of the West Side is particularly complex. This section of the city is much more diverse than North or South Buffalo, challenging the myth that the West Side is mostly White. Additionally, though the West Side boasts the highest rate of educational attainment, its poverty rate nearly mirrors the East Side, and its unemployment rate remains about the same as North and South Buffalo. This report explores and visualizes the demographic story of the West Side through data from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey. See the last page for data definitions and sources.