From Vicki Lukhaup:

Five years ago, living in the Rochester, NY, area, we had no plans at all to move to Buffalo. My husband was conducting an intensive job search, and he had interviews from Bakersfield, California, to Richmond, Virginia. We had a map on the wall over our computer desk with pins stuck in all the possible places we might end up moving to so that he could continue his employment, thus supporting us in the style that we’d become so sweetly accustomed to. By December of 2002, none of those interviews had developed into job offers and we continued to bide our time in Bloomfield, NY. We sent out one more resume, in a very offhand manner, and after a surprise second interview in February of 2003, he agreed to become VP of IT at N3C. And there we were, 100 miles from Sanborn, New York, deciding that commuting that far every day was ridiculous. The house went on the market, and we moved to Buffalo.

As a former Rochesterian, Buffalo was not at the top of my list of places to live. And then we lived here for a while, and I realized a few things about the area. First, the variety of ethnic restaurants has delighted us for three and a half years. Second, the genuine friendliness of Buffalonians has warmed our life here. We love being able to root for the Bills without being out-of-towners. We are absolutely thrilled with the wonderfully low cost of housing in Buffalo. When I tell my family in California and Illinois what we bought our house in North Tonawanda for, they gasp in stunned amazement. The total cost of our house is almost a down payment in their neighborhoods. And then there is the commute. My husband drives ten miles to get to work, and it is really true that just about anyplace else that we want to go is only twenty minutes or less from our house.

What a delightful town this is. I believe that people here need to brag a lot more about what they have. Buffalo has great food, great sports teams, a great cost of living, and wonderful people to share these things with. We really didn’t deliberately choose to live in Buffalo, but I am glad that Buffalo chose us.