More higher wage earners and other people of means are leaving the state than moving here. The Sun Belt is cashing in, also pockets of the Northeast and Midwest.
There’s a lot of depressing statistics about Western New York and its economy. Our job growth is stagnant and our population is shrinking.
I came across a most distressing statistic in the current issue of Business First, based on IRS data. We, as a region, are growing poorer, in part because of population loss, although that’s not necessarily the only factor.
The adjusted gross income of people who moved out of metropolitan Buffalo in 2022 and 2023 was $311 million greater than that of those who moved in. It reflects a loss of some 3,500 people.
Wealth is fleeing New York across the state. More money left than moved into Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, New York City, even Long Island, according to the data.
As Business First put it:
Billions of dollars in earning power has been on the move, and suburban Sun Belt counties in high-growth metro areas are once again the big winners…
The South became a “domestic migration powerhouse” in the aftermath of the pandemic. Counties in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas topped census migration rankings, with larger cities often attracting 30,000 or more new residents annually.
At the other end of the spectrum are some of the nation’s largest metro areas — New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and San Francisco — which rank at the bottom for net migration between 2022 and 2023. All had net migration declines of at least 39,000 individuals over the 12-month period.
Those declines don’t just represent lost population. They also represent lost wealth and earnings.
Not that pockets of the North and Midwest aren’t gaining. Our neighbors in Vermont and New Hampshire are in the black. Ditto for pockets of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine. But not here in New York – upstate or downstate.
Here’s a link to the story, although it’s behind a paywall and out of reach for those of you who do not subscribe to Business First. This link, however, includes a very telling map and is worth checking out.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletters
New Yorkers pay the fourth-highest electric bills in the nation, 70 percent above average. Data centers are energy hogs responsible for part of the increase in some states. The data center proposed for Genesee County may very well drive up costs in Western New York, as we’ve previously reported.
Mayor Sean Ryan wants more activities in downtown in the evenings and on weekends. “We’ve lost a lot of the vibe downtown, and we would like to see that restored,” he told the board of Buffalo Place, the organization he thinks is best suited to get the job done. Ryan’s thinking aligns with Brian Higgins, the CEO of Shea’s Buffalo and other key players in the Theatre District.
The Guardian has a good overview on the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act.
It is unlikely that the country will return to the most extreme forms of discrimination that proliferated in those dark days. But as Kagan put it in her dissent, the Voting Rights Act is now all but dead, leaving Black and other minority voters exposed.
They are once again at the whim of Republican leaders free to revive age-old practices in map drawing, such as the colorfully named “cracking” and “packing”. Such measures are likely to diminish the electoral representation of minority Americans, and with it their political voice.
Here are two other takes on the decision from The New York Times and Mother Jones.
Still no accountability for Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good four months ago in Minneapolis and called her a “fucking bitch” for good measure. He was placed on administrative leave for all of three days and has been transferred to a new city to continue his work. Meanwhile, an FBI investigation moves along in slow motion.
Your Trump outrages of the week. (So many to choose from):
The administration is working to undermine the integrity of election results in the upcoming mid-terms.
At least 75 career officials who once held roles at federal agencies related to election integrity and safety are gone. Two dozen appointees — including many who either actively worked to reverse the 2020 vote or are associates of such people — have been hired to replace them. And once-fringe actors now have access to vast powers.
As the midterms approach, current and former government officials and election security experts expressed concerns that Trump appointees who’ve espoused debunked conspiracy theories about balloting are now in positions to control the narrative around the vote’s soundness.
Trump is firing immigration court judges who he believes rule too often in favor of migrants and is replacing them with unqualified flunkies.
Former judges who were fired say they fear Trump is forcing out judges who rule against the government and replacing them with loyalists and others being pressured to help carry out a single goal: Deport immigrants.
New polling from the Pew Research Center shows only one-third of voters give Trump a positive job rating. Issues on which he is losing ground with the public include immigration, the economy, honesty and Iran.
Trump, through his Federal Communications Commission, is wrong for going after ABC because of Jimmy Kimmel’s “widow in waiting” joke. But Kimmel showed poor judgment in making the joke, putting ABC in a difficult position.
My Doonesbury offering for this week deals with the Epstein files. A good one.
The Sabres’ feel-good season continued during their last home game when the microphone cut out on Cami Clune as she sang the Canadian national anthem. No worry, the sell-out crowd sang it for her, word for word, in a move that generated national press here and in Canada, even Europe, and spurred talk of the Sabres being “Canada’s team” for the playoffs. Molson, brewed in Canada, reciprocated by picking up the tab for beers at over a dozen local bars during Friday’s game against the Boston Bruins.
posted 27 minutes ago – May 4, 2026