Welcome to the City of Buffalo and thank you for visiting our website.

As the 58th Mayor of Buffalo, I am excited about the progress we’ve made throughout our great city, a remarkable urban transformation that is attracting attention across the country.

With a rich history, a tradition of innovation and a culturally and ethnically diverse citizenry, Buffalo possesses tremendous resources that have helped our city to achieve fiscal stability, economic investment and job growth and a positive environment that is attracting new families and investors to Buffalo.

Since 2006, we worked hard to set a solid foundation and remained steadfast in our determination to move progressively toward a better future. Today, there is $1.7 billion in economic development activity underway citywide and investment continues to build in Buffalo.
 
Like many of our peer cities in the Northeast, Buffalo has weathered challenging economic times but emerged with an even stronger fiscal outlook and its greatest period of expansion in recent history.  Since 2006, we’ve improved Buffalo’s credit rating to its highest in history, reduced residential property taxes by 15%, commercially by nearly 28%.  Buffalo now has one of the lowest effective tax rates in the region and the lowest permit fees within a 500 mile radius.

This year, Buffalo continues to experience a surge of economic development activity.  The continuing expansion of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus will soon see the arrival of the University at Buffalo Medical School, the $200 million John R. Oishei Women and Children’s Hospital and new $46 million headquarters for Catholic Health.

Downtown development includes the return of two-way vehicular traffic to downtown Main Street, the ongoing development of the $40 million Tishman Building and the $50 million Larkin District Redevelopment. Buffalo’s revitalized waterfront continues to become more prosperous and vibrant. I am proud that my plan to transform two surface parking lots into two major private development projects is responsible for bringing a quarter billion dollar investment to the downtown waterfront.
At the same time, overall crime has dropped nearly 20% since 2006.  Buffalo’s great educational system of Colleges and Universities continues to expand, complementing a public school system, recently strengthened by a $1.4 billion investment that has provided Buffalo students with some of the best learning facilities in the nation. 
From our many cultural institutions such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the historic Colored Musicians Club, the Buffalo Science Museum and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra to thriving commercial districts and our wonderfully diverse neighborhoods, Buffalo is a city with a renewed feeling of hope and optimism.

So please enjoy visiting our website and once you see what we already know, come visit us and see firsthand what an exciting place our city is – Welcome to Buffalo!

Oath of Office as the 58th Mayor of Buffalo

Mayor Byron Brown took the Oath of Office as the 58th Mayor of Buffalo, New York on December 31, 2005.

Elected Mayor with over 60 percent of the vote in the November 2005 General Election, Mayor Brown came into office emphasizing greater accountability and efficiency in City Hall, improving the quality of life for all city residents and a commitment to strengthening and expanding the city’s economic development activities.

Since taking office, Mayor Brown has followed those three guiding principles by launching a Zero Tolerance Law Enforcement initiative targeting quality of life crimes, along with other criminal activity in the city; implemented the management accountability tracking CitiStat Buffalo program, which monitors city departments’ service delivery activities on a weekly basis; and reconfigured the city’s economic development activities by creating the Department of Economic Development, Permit and Inspection Services, a change that has provided greater coordination and cooperation in all development activities taking place in the City of Buffalo. Click to continue to Mayor Brown's biography.