North Buffalo, Buffalo, New York

North Buffalo, historically North Park, is a neighborhood in the city of Buffalo, New York.

Geography

North Buffalo stretches north from the Scajacquada Expressway NY 198 on the south, Kenmore, New York on the north, Bailey Avenue on the east, and Elmwood Avenue on the west.

The topography of North Buffalo is flat. Cornelius Creek once flowed through North Buffalo, along a path roughly following Hertel Avenue. Cornelius Creek is now one of the many buried creeks in Buffalo, and is incorporated into the city's storm sewer system.

The area is serviced by the NFTA buses on Delaware Ave. (No. 25), Colvin Ave. (No. 11), Hertel Ave. (No. 23), Elmwood Ave.(No. 20), Main Street (No. 8), Bailey Avenue (No. 19), and Amherst Street (No. 32).

Culture

North Buffalo is heavily populated with Italian-Americans, as evidenced by the Hertel Avenue strip which has many Italian restaurants, bakeries, and stores. Many Italians in North Buffalo migrated from the West Side in the 1970s and 1980s, when Puerto Ricans first began to settle in traditionally Italian-American neighborhoods west of Richmond Street. The Italian Village Festival, now called the Italian Heritage Festival, moved from Connecticut Street on the West Side to Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo in 1988.

From the 1950s until the late 1970s, North Buffalo was the historic center of Buffalo's Jewish community. Jews first settled in North Buffalo in the 1920s, with Jewish developers building a sizable number of single family houses and two-flats in the North Park/Hertel Avenue area. The growth of the neighborhood's Jewish population rapidly accelerated in the 1950s, when urban renewal in the Lower East Side, and racial transition exacerbated by blockbusting in the Hamlin Park neighborhood, displaced the formerly large Jewish population of those communities. Although the majority of Jews in the Buffalo area now live in suburban Amherst and Williamsville, many remain in North Buffalo; particularly secular and Orthodox Jews. The neighborhood is home to several Orthodox synagogues and schools, and institutions such as the Schvitz.

Because of its pedestrian-oriented environment; proximity to downtown Buffalo, the University at Buffalo, and suburban office parks; and high-quality 1920s-era housing stock, North Buffalo is experiencing an influx of young professional homebuyers.

Notable events

North Buffalo holds the annual Italian Heritage Festival in July along Hertel Avenue. It is considered to be among the five largest street festivals in the United States^[1].

Notable places

• Delaware Park
• North Park Theater

References

1. ^ www.buffaloitalianfestival.com. Sorrento Cheese Buffalo Italian Heritage Festival Accessed April 11, 2007.