East Side Grit
Though rough in appearance, and not often visited by those outside of the neighborhoods it serves, Bailey Avenue may be the most concentrated street of locally owned businesses and services in the city, serving its dense, working class, mostly minority, neighborhoods throughout its length. Bailey Avenue (US 62) is the longest street within the city limits of Buffalo, passing through multiple neighborhoods along the East Side of the city.
These images show just a small part of Bailey, and were taken along a 1 mile stretch in the Kensington neighborhood of northeast Buffalo, from the edge of the UB South Campus down to the Kensington Expressway (NY 33). Kensington has a neighborhood population density is around 14,000 people per square mile, is predominately African American, and has many new residents from foreign counties.
Although this section of Bailey shows the scars of its past (remnants of white flight and the relocation of thousands of UB students to the suburban campus), the street has still maintained many of its businesses and institutions through the decades (such as United Men's Wear and Bailey Seafood), as well as an ever evolving and growing number of new ones catering to its current residents.
Not shown in these images, but the commercial strip continues further south with stores and markets, until it mixes and blends with more industrial areas as well as older white working class neighborhoods like Lovejoy and Kaisertown before ending in South Buffalo. Bailey will also soon be starting a total street rebuild of its entire 7+ mile length, to include new sidewalks, bike lanes, and the first BRT in the city.
Just north of the Kensington neighborhood is the Buffalo VA hospital, which sits across the street from the UB campus. This building sits at the highest elevation in the city, and is very prominent from miles away.
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The water tower, also near the highest elevation, is roughly the north end of Kensington neighborhood.
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Places along Bailey (early morning and some shops not open yet)
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