The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus: A High Road Strategy to Maximize the Community\u27s Benefit

The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (“BNMC”) has become a major hub for private and public investment in Buffalo, an anchor institution that can help improve the quality of life for the whole region. Strategies to maximize the ways that the community benefits from the BNMC development include: Buying goods and services from locally-owned, independent companies, including minority-owned and worker-owned companies; Focusing economic development incentives and subsidies on the creation of new jobs, rather than the movement of jobs from one location to another or from one local competitor to another; Ensuring job quality with career advancement opportunities and living wages; Targeting employment opportunities to local residents through first source hiring policies; Building on neighborhood assets, particularly in the Fruit Belt, to help residents meet their goals in areas such as health, housing, education, and safety; Implementing an housing program that helps employees and other Fruit Belt residents buy and repair homes; Greening the campus with energy-efficient buildings, renewable energy usage, storm water management, vigorous recycling and composting, and policies to support biking, walking, and public transit. By adopting these strategies, the BNMC can become a major force in Buffalo’s revitalization