S5, E37: The City of Good Neighbors: A Buffalo Travel Story of Arrival and Belonging

Buffalo, New York has called itself the City of Good Neighbors since 1940, and in 2023 Reader’s Digest even voted it the nicest city in America. But is it true? In this episode of Unpacked by Afar, host Aislyn Greene turns a Buffalo travel story into a bigger question: what does it actually take to turn a stranger into a neighbor?

We begin 150 years ago, on the East Side patch that grew into the second-largest Polish community in the world and the birthplace of Dyngus Day, one of the most joyful traditions in American travel culture. Then we follow that same ground to today, where newcomers from Burma, Congo, Iraq, and Afghanistan are remaking the city block by block. This is cultural travel at its richest: the refugee resettlement workers who set up a family’s home before they arrive, the volunteers who knock on the door, and one man’s first snow-covered year going from guest to Buffalonian.

If you love travel stories about the people who make a place, this Buffalo travel episode is a love letter to the city’s neighborhoods and the neighbors rebuilding them. It’s also a reminder that the most meaningful, responsible travel often means slowing down to notice who actually lives somewhere.

Transcript

Aislyn: If you happen to find yourself in Buffalo on the Monday after Easter, there is a 99 percent chance you’ll see a sea of people decked out in red and white, doing very strange things to each other with pussy willow branches and squirt guns all in the name of spring renewal and love.

Reporter: Now Buffalo’s east side becomes a sea of red and white, with thousands of people turning out to watch.

Speaker: It is your Dyngus Day t-shirt. First and foremost, you need to know how to dance a polka.

Aislyn: You’ll need to know how to dance the polka because it’s…

Dyngus Day

Dyngus Day.

Dyngus day.

Dyngus day.

Aislyn: It’s a Polish celebration, hence the red and white Poland’s national colors. And we’re going to hear more about it shortly. But not everyone who celebrates Dyngus Day is Polish, and that says a lot about who Buffalo is. I’m Aislyn Greene and this is Unpacked. Last week we ate our way through Buffalo. Today we head for the streets because since 1940, Buffalo’s official slogan has remained unchanged. It’s the city of good neighbors. It’s so neighborly, in fact, that in 2023, Buffalo was voted Nicest City by Reader’s Digest. And I wanted to know why. We’ll find out together after the break.

To understand Buffalo’s neighborliness, you have to understand how it became a city in the first place. And it all started with waves of European immigrants. In the 1820s, Irish immigrants settled and helped build the Erie Canal, which would establish Buffalo as one of the great crossroads of America. Then German settlers arrived, bringing their skills in manufacturing, construction, and more. And in the 1870s, a huge wave of Pols arrived. So we’re going to zoom back 150 years to a patch of the east side of Buffalo with our guide, a man who has spent a good chunk of his adult life keeping a particular kind of history alive.

Eddie: My name is Eddie Dobosiewicz. I am the president of Dyngus Day USA. Dyngus day Buffalo and I am a big Buffalo proponent, a promoter if you will.

Aislyn: Eddie, who you should know, toured the US for years as a stand up comic, tells me that when the Polish were arriving back in the 1870s, they weren’t staying in Buffalo. They were just passing through. Until one guy had a brilliant idea.

Eddie: There was a guy who was a civil servant. His name was Joseph Bork, and he noticed that all these Pols were coming up through Buffalo, but they weren’t staying in Buffalo. And so he had a bunch of land on the east side of Buffalo. And he had this idea that if he could create a church, that a community would sprout up around that church, and he would be able to offer these new immigrants some place to live.

Aislyn: So Bork built his church and.

Eddie: It worked beyond his wildest imagination. And it became probably in about 30 years from that point, maybe, maybe even less, maybe in 20 years. It became the second largest Polish colony in the world outside of Warsaw.

Aislyn: They came so fast and in such numbers that they built an entire city within the city.

Eddie: They had a language barrier. So they kind of created their own community, but it outgrew itself real fast. They started that community around the church, Saint Stanislaus Church, which still stands today. It’s a it’s a beautiful house of worship, but they created a business district and housing for all these people. And literally like, you know, tens of thousands of people were streaming in here every couple of months. So they set up a business district, which started with an open air market, then turned into a permanent structure and other businesses around it. It really rivaled the business district of downtown Buffalo for well over half a century.

Aislyn: And of course, they brought their traditions with them, including a strange and joyful little custom for the Monday after Easter called Dyngus Day. For almost a century, it stayed relatively low key, kept alive by various Polish social clubs like the Chopin Singing Society. But during that same century, the once vibrant East Side neighborhood started to wane, reaching a new low in the mid-1980s.

Eddie: All the residents either died or moved away, and it wasn’t really a Polonia neighborhood anymore. Eventually, Chopin’s left those clubhouses. And so from when when they left the east side of Buffalo, which I believe was in the early ‘90s, up until 2006, 2005, really, uh, there was not a whole lot going on on that east side of Buffalo, an area that I now have. We now refer to it as the historic Polonia District.

Aislyn: Eddie grew up in that neighborhood but moved away to California after school. When he returned, he was shocked by how much the neighborhood had deteriorated, so he decided to do something about it.

Eddie: What we had to do is we had to change the perception first and foremost. The perception at that time was that this neighborhood was dangerous, that it had turned into a ghetto that, you know, you don’t go don’t even drive through the neighborhood because you’re going to get shot. It’s, you know, stay away. And that wasn’t really true. It looked bad. Poverty and blight were everywhere. And like I said, there were demolished structures. There were decaying structures, boarded up storefronts. It looked horrible trash everywhere.

Aislyn: Eddie started working with a handful of people to reverse that negative perception, but everything was taking too long, tied up in either bureaucratic red tape or just an unwillingness to change.

Eddie: So we started talking about a parade.

Aislyn: Eddie will admit that he was skeptical, but he had glass half full people on his side. There was a polka booster named Jackie Schmidt who organized Pulaski parades, and he had the president of the New York Central Railroad Terminal, a huge railroad station that at the time was abandoned. But he said he could open up the building and they could end the parade inside this massive terminal.

Eddie: And I thought that was brilliant because at that point, we had no idea how many people would show up. It could have been a dozen. I had no idea. And honestly, I had reservations about whether anyone was going to show up.

Aislyn: But it was a rollicking success. Thousands of people showed up for that first Dyngus day parade in 2007, and since then, it’s grown so massive and pulls people from so many places around the world that it’s the largest Dyngus day celebration outside of Poland.

Eddie: It’s a great vibe Aislyn,, and the this is how we describe it, a police officer, I think it was a third year into the event. Maybe it was the first year that we had the big tent. He comes up to me and says, Eddie, you guys, you got something special here. It’s kind of like Saint Patrick’s Day, except the only difference is instead of fighting, you guys hug and kiss.

Aislyn: And here’s the twist that I think matters most. The neighborhood that Eddie fought to save isn’t really Polish anymore, and he could not be happier about who’s there now.

Eddie: Like I said, the Polish colony has dispersed, so it’s not a Polish colony anymore. In fact, this area now is primarily, uh, Pakistani. There’s still some African American stuff, but even that segment of the population has moved on to other areas. It used to be a pack of Stanley’s, but now it’s Pakistani.

Aislyn: Folks, please remember that Eddie is a stand up comic. But let’s go back to his dream of revitalizing the neighborhood. It’s finally coming true.

Eddie: There are signs of life, made. Major signs of life. Since we began this project, there has been a wave, a pretty big wave of, uh, Middle Eastern immigration coming in. And they have businesses all over the place, whether it’s a hardware store or a little market all over the place. So it has stabilized to some degree, and I’m extremely optimistic about the future. I think over the next 10 to 20 years, you’re going to see this entire area just blossom. It’s almost like a blank slate right now, just waiting for someone to come in with the right paint and the right paint brushes and just make it a masterpiece.

Aislyn: We’re going to get to that new wave in a second. But before we do, I had to ask Eddie, does the nickname hold up? Like, is Buffalo really the city of good Neighbors? As an answer, he told me a story about a friend named Tom who got stuck in one of Buffalo’s infamous blizzards 2 days before Christmas.

Eddie: He left his tavern early and was going home and his car stalled. But he figured, well, I’m not that far away from my home. I’m going to walk home. And he started walking, but it was so bad and the snow was high and he couldn’t make it. He almost couldn’t make it. And he fell down in the snow. And somebody saw and took him into their home, warmed him up, you know, gave him some tea, coffee, whatever, and made sure he was okay and kept him there until the conditions were safe enough for him to go home. That kind of stuff happens all the time.

Aislyn: That stuff also happens all the time for the newcomers who aren’t from Poland anymore. They’re from Burma and the Congo and Iraq and Afghanistan, and there’s an organization in Buffalo whose entire job is to support the city’s newest neighbors and the person whose job is to help them land, fittingly, wasn’t born here either.

Andy: I’m Andy Cammarata, and I am the senior director of advancement at Journey’s End Refugee Services. I’m originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Aislyn: And what brought you to Buffalo?

Andy: Yes. I met a boy in college in the ‘80s and we’re still together. And he was from Buffalo, so I’ve actually lived in Buffalo longer than I’ve ever lived anywhere else.

Aislyn: For people who have perhaps not heard of Journey’s End. Can you tell me what is it and what does it do?

Andy: Sure. Journey’s End Refugee Services is a refugee resettlement agency. First and foremost. We were founded over 40 years ago. And so we provide welcome to people who are resettling through the US federal refugee resettlement program.

Aislyn: Remember Joseph Bork 100 years ago, building a church so the Polish community could grow. Andy’s organization does something similar through a variety of programs, from education and employment training to language interpretation, and a program called Home Again, which is Andy’s baby.

Andy: So a Home Again program is a full apartment setup where a church group, civic group, a school group, a group of friends will come together, collect all the items needed to settle a family in their first apartment in the United States. And so volunteers who will never meet the family will come in and scrub an apartment like you cannot imagine. You know, toothbrushes on floor vents and they go the nine yards. And for people who have fled their country of origin and maybe lived in a refugee camp or somewhere for maybe decades, to arrive at a home that’s been lovingly prepared for them is absolutely life changing and gives them a sense of start. To cry a little bit, gives them a sense of hope and, you know, something to look forward to as they settle into their new community here in Buffalo.

Aislyn: Strangers scrubbing an apartment for a family they will never meet. That’s where the rubber meets the road in the city of Good Neighbors. And Andy will tell you, these families aren’t charity cases. They might be the best thing to happen to Buffalo in 50 years.

Andy: You know, we were a Rust Belt city. A lot of our youth were moving away, and we were watching our kids grow up and move to other markets for better jobs. And so the refugees have brought about such a rejuvenation of our city. So parts of the city that years ago had great housing stock that has all dried up, and we’ve seen property values soar because of the growth of the refugee community and the businesses that they’ve opened.

Aislyn: Andy says it all goes back to Buffalo’s immigrant roots.

Andy: There have been so many waves of different people, and I think people have remembered that. And they don’t forget that we all came from somewhere. 4 percent of Buffalo’s population is now believed to be Burmese. And so we see that there’s strength in our diversity, and our new neighbors have done really well for themselves. And we’re watching children go to, you know, schools of their choice and really pull the family out of what initially may have been poverty. So I mean, that’s, that’s what it’s all about, right?

Aislyn: For a while, this was working better than ever, then 1 year ago, it slammed into a wall.

Andy: Back in 2024 and 2025 journeys and resettled the most people in a 1-year time period of 618. And we had over 55 groups helping us to get the apartments ready. We were fast and furious about 2 to 4 apartments a week. We were setting up. The president paused the program in January 2025 to see if it was in the best interest of the country. And so all of our resettlement stopped, and the only population that is getting in right now are folks from South Africa. So our agency is slated to accept 55 people from South Africa, and some of them have made their way now to Buffalo, and we are working with them.

Aislyn: Andy says whole families were stopped mid-journey. But here’s what didn’t stop. Not for a second. The neighbors.

Andy: We are the city of good neighbors, there’s no doubt about it. We have more people reaching out to help than sometimes we are able to accept. We have donations of everything you can imagine and always offers of more. And these people are doing it with such joy and such excitement, and just so happy to be able to welcome people to our communities.

Aislyn: Now, I could keep telling you about the people that Andy helped. She has so many stories, but I think it would be a lot more meaningful if you heard from one of them directly. So you’re going to meet him and hear about his first ever experience with snow after the break. Do you want to do it again? Okay. Yes. Okay. Okay.

Coco: Okay, I’m gonna do it again. So my name is Bingo.

Aislyn: He goes by Coco, and he grew up in Burma. And in January 2025, he and his parents moved to Buffalo. Yep. You heard that right. Coco moved from Burma to Buffalo in January. But Coco was delighted.

Coco: The snow falling a huge amount of snow and ice. So whenever it’s snowing, we look out from the window. Oh there is. You see that snowflake? Oh this is snowflake. Oh, there. So we look out for him when we were really enjoying it.

Aislyn: Back home,Coco’s father had been a congressman here, though they were starting from zero in a language and a climate that could not have been more foreign. And yet they weren’t as alone as you might think.

Coco: We were so lucky that we have this immigrant community, and we are from Burma, and we have really a group, a huge number of local residents who are already settled in Buffalo. There are Burmese grocery stores and Burmese restaurants even. There are bummy signs on their stores and restaurants. So the first thing that I noticed, oh my God, we are already here. Everyone is here already.

Aislyn: But the real city of good neighbors moment is what happened when someone outside the Burmese community knocked on their front door.

Coco: So when we got here for a couple of months, we didn’t know the city. We didn’t even know how to take the bus. So some of the volunteers showed up to our house. You know, they really help us. Help me and my parents taking the bus really smoothly. And that was when we we felt really happy. And to be here. Oh, they care about us. You know, these are the locals. And they cared about us.

Aislyn: So that’s the home again story Andy told us from Coco’s perspective. But still, becoming a neighbor takes more than one positive interaction or a great city bus primer for Coco’s parents, especially his dad, who had a whole life of friends back home. It was hard. And for that first year, there was a sentence Coco kept hearing.

Coco: So last year, that was the thing that I’m going to go home. I missed my home, you know. So that’s why they were been talking. And but this year I don’t hear that much. They don’t say the same thing. You know, so I think they are changing now.

Aislyn: They stopped wanting to go home because slowly this was becoming home for Coco. There’s one big thing he really misses about his hometown of New York.

Coco: Back in my hometown, you know, you go anywhere and there is always something you can eat. Tangerine, papaya everywhere. You know, everywhere you go, every plants and it’s there all you can have them for all the season.

Aislyn: But not so much in Buffalo in the dead of winter.

Coco: And I take the bags and I look around and I was looking for some edible tree or plant. Trust me, I couldn’t find anything.

Aislyn: Nothing. Right.

Coco: I don’t see any mango tree here in Buffalo until I visited to a botanical garden.

Aislyn: Yeah.

Coco: So there was about, uh, I it’s like a, like, it’s like a, you know, treasure here.

Aislyn: And then came spring. TA da!

Coco: So now I could see the green color, you know, the grasses. So I see flowers and oh, now I am seeing the city. I was so happy when I saw the Buffalo has different kind of flowers. Yeah. The way, you know, they seem similar, but no, it was pretty exciting. And it’s pretty beautiful, except, like, I can’t eat them.

Aislyn: Did you try?

Coco: I try, I try.

Aislyn: So while he couldn’t eat straight from the trees, Coco did find himself blossoming. The guest was becoming a local, and now he’s officially a local who helps new immigrants settle in.

Coco: I am community engagement manager at Journey’s End Refugee Services.

Aislyn: Yep. Coco got a job at Journey’s End, first helping immigrant kids in the schools, and recently a promotion onto the advancement team where he works for a boss. You’ve already met.

Coco: My manager, our supervisor, Andy. She’s been really helpful with bringing out the best in everyone’s in the organization. So this is kind of one of the core values of the organization too.

Aislyn: So I asked Coco the same question I’d been asking everybody. Buffalo says it’s the city of good neighbors. Is that actually true? And I’ve never gotten an answer with more conviction.

Coco: Oh, 100 percent. 1,000 percent, actually. Not just 100 percent. 1,000 percent. We moved to the neighborhood where we have, you know, get closer with our Burmese community. So it’s called Riverside. And so we couldn’t be happier, you know, and safer with the new neighbors. For example, there is a black dude, his name is Jamie, and he is like 65 years old, but he always wears like the best fashion. And whenever he sees me Coco. Hey, what’s that? How you doing, buddy? And we shake hands. No, we don’t shake hands. We are buddies now. We just, uh, Deb and I, you know, hack and then give it to. Actually. Are you doing. I’m good, buddy. I’m good. How you doing, sir? And so that’s how I know that, you know, uh. Oh, I’m safe here, you know, so I don’t need to worry about my, uh, my neighbors, my neighbors look out for me.

Aislyn: And then Coco said something that I think gets to the heart of why Buffalo has been so neighborly all these years.

Coco: When we say the good neighbors, it’s not just him. It’s it’s more about I think there are other neighbors who are really friendly and. Welcome to the new house too. They all have this kind of sense, you know. Oh, we’re we are good to our neighbors. I see they have pride in it. We have Buffalonians. We have the city of good neighbors, so we are good neighbors.

Aislyn: Buffalo decided a long time ago that being a good neighbor is just who it is. And so it just keeps being one as wave after wave of new neighbors arrive. That’s just Buffalo doing the thing it does. Next week we go looking for the heart of Buffalo’s black history along a stretch of the East Side, where the Underground Railroad, a civil rights movement and a whole new kind of American music all began.

Speaker: For close to 80 years and beyond. So many of the great entertainers, jazz musicians of their day. Whenever they would come to Buffalo, they would always, after hours of entertaining, white audiences, would find their way into our corridor because they weren’t allowed to stay at the hotels. So any number of boarding rooms or rooms over restaurants these entertainers stayed at, but before going to their rooms, they would jam into the wee hours of the morning with the local musicians. And to this day, you still have contemporary musicians who look at that club as if it’s Mecca.

Aislyn: Unpacked is a production of Afar Media. This episode was hosted by me, Aislyn Greene, and produced by Nikki Galteland. Music from Chris Collin, Epidemic Sound, and the Chopin Singing Society. This podcast is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network. Visit AirwaveMedia.com to listen and subscribe to their other fine shows like Culture Kids and The Explorers podcast. We’ll see you next week.