While I was out with my wife last night, for the first time in my life I thought, we need to stop telling people how great Buffalo is.

It's tough to get some national credit as a city, especially if your reputation hasn't been that great for awhile.

For years, there has been what seemed like a massive exodus from the city of Buffalo by younger people who have flocked to other cities for better jobs or better weather.

In many aspects, nationally we have seemed like a joke.  Whenever someone talks about going to Buffalo, it's like, "why would you go there?"

As Buffalonians, we've kind of begun to make it a mission to tell everyone how great we are and why others should come here.  We get offended if someone turns their nose up at our city.

But last night while I was sitting on the patio at Riverworks watching the boats float by while enjoying a Buffalo brewed beer in some of the best weather I've ever seen, I couldn't help but think, "why are we still trying to convince other people to come live here?"

It kind of feels like we are trying to make ourselves feel better by hearing people from other cities tell us how great we are.  Why?  Why do we need their validation?  Will having more people living here in Buffalo really make it better?

This city is awesome the way it is!

I mean, I understand that the economy needs people to fill jobs and put money back into the market. I understand that.

Look at it this way...imagine that you have found an incredible restaurant that you were able to walk into and get a table right away?  They have the best food there and the best service.  The people are friendly and you always have a good time when you're there.  Then you tell a bunch of friends how great it is.  They're incredibly skeptical about it.  After all, there's never many cars in the parking lot.  But they try it out...and they LOVE IT!  Then they tell their friends and before you know it, it's crowded.  You have to wait an hour or two for your table even with a reservation.  What was your place has now been taken over.

Ok...don't get me wrong.  Truthfully, I'm not going to stop talking about how great Buffalo is.  I love this city.  It's great.  The waterfront, the restaurants, the people.  It's my city.  It will always be home to me.

I feel like there is a type of person who "gets" what Buffalo is all about and once they get here, they never want to leave.  I just think I'm done trying to convince the others why it's so great.  If they can't see it, that's cool.  I don't think it's going to matter one way or another if we tell them how great it is.  We don't have to tell people that Buffalo is great.  Some things are hard to keep a secret.  The word about Buffalo is getting out.  We are lucky to be in the period before every one knows about it right now.

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