BUFFALO, N.Y. — It was like a vision out of a dream: strange and unexpected. Unreal. In 1965, Mark F. Courter Jr. flew an office chair. It was an ordinary, run-of-the-mill seat — except for the tanks of rocket fuel that engineers had rigged to the back. Before launching, Courter donned a white flying suit, helmet and… Continue reading
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Bennett’s Best: What’s It Like to Be Valedictorian of a Persistently Low-Achieving School?
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Cheyenne Ketter-Franklin is valedictorian of Bennett High, one of Buffalo’s worst-performing schools. It’s the type of institution whose problems people sum up using terms like “urban” and “inner city.” In 2010, the state slapped the school with the label PLA: “Persistently Lowest-Achieving.” Privately, many local residents will skip the euphemisms and admit… Continue reading
Ditching New York City: An Expat Comes Home to Buffalo
BUFFALO, N.Y. — In February 2012, Tommy Lombardo moved home to Buffalo. It was the dark of winter, and cold gales battered curtained houses. Radiators clicked on and off. Snow fell. Lombardo, 29, began to look for an apartment. He had been away for eight years, most of those in New York City, and like many… Continue reading
Goodbye, Stranger: The Sad, Joyful, Morbid, Thrilling World of Estate Sales
AMHERST, N.Y. — The shopper wants to know where the barometers are. “I saw in the paper there were barometers for sale,” the customer’s voice calls out, loud enough to be heard over the din. “Do you know what room they’re in?” It’s the first day of an estate sale on Sargent Drive, and the house… Continue reading
Goodbye, Stranger | A Beautiful Bird in a Dirty House
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Early on in his career as an appraiser, George Armbruster was combing through a squalid, grime-filled home when he came across a surprise: an antique print depicting a bird. The house was “so filthy dirty, so smoky” that the details of the image were very difficult to see, Armbruster said.
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