by Kevin Connor
Our City Action Buffalo
12/2025, paperback
SKU: 9798218721930
While the dominant narrative from politicians and local media has been that Buffalo is in a "Renaissance" age marked by remarkable progress and economic growth. But reality paints a different picture: mired in poverty and a pervasive housing crisis, its people often struggle to get their basic needs met.
Who Rules Buffalo? A Field Guide to the Local Power Structure is driven by questions of power and policymaking in Buffalo: who is really calling the shots here? Who has the power? Whose interests and priorities are really being served? And how?
This investigation details a complex web of corporations, organizations, government entities and individuals all working toward one shared goal: the consolidation of power, and with it, money and influence. It documents how Buffalo's elite, rooted in business and real estate interests and often behind the scenes, controls key aspects of the local economy, exerts political power, and wields an inordinate level of influence over the direction of the city - at the expense of its people.