As the 58th Mayor of Buffalo, I am excited about the dynamic change we’re seeing throughout our great city, a remarkable urban transformation that is attracting attention across the country.

With a rich history, a tradition of innovation and a culturally and ethnically diverse citizenry, Buffalo possesses tremendous resources that have helped our city to achieve fiscal stability, economic investment, and create an environment that is attractive for families and investors.

Since 2006, we worked hard to set a solid foundation and remained steadfast in our determination to move progressively toward a better future. Today, investment is building in Buffalo. Buffalo is growing stronger, smarter, and receiving more positive attention about the many assets that make our city unique.

Like many of our peer cities in the Northeast, Buffalo has weathered challenging economic times, but there are strong signs that our city’s darkest economic days are behind us. As a result of cutting taxes dramatically, and creating property tax certainty by freezing property rates for three years, Buffalo has one of the lowest effective tax rates in the region, its lowest tax rate in more than 20 years.

Last year, Buffalo saw a surge of economic development activity, at the rapidly growing Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, throughout our extensive university and college system, along Main Street where two-way traffic is being restored, and at Buffalo’s revitalized waterfront. This year, a billion-dollar investment is on the way to the Buffalo area, thanks to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s confidence in the leadership of Western New York. An additional $41 million in state funding has also been designated to an array of major projects that are currently underway in Buffalo.

From our many cultural institutions and our wonderfully diverse neighborhoods, thriving commercial districts and peerless urban architecture and artistic communities that continue to inspire and excite, Buffalo is a city with a renewed feeling of hope and optimism.

So please enjoy visiting our website and once you see what we already know, come visit us and see firsthand what an exciting place our city is – Welcome to Buffalo!

Oath of Office as the 58th Mayor of Buffalo

Mayor Byron Brown took the Oath of Office as the 58th Mayor of Buffalo, New York on December 31, 2005.

Elected Mayor with over 60 percent of the vote in the November 2005 General Election, Mayor Brown came into office emphasizing greater accountability and efficiency in City Hall, improving the quality of life for all city residents and a commitment to strengthening and expanding the city’s economic development activities.

Since taking office, Mayor Brown has followed those three guiding principles by launching a Zero Tolerance Law Enforcement initiative targeting quality of life crimes, along with other criminal activity in the city; implemented the management accountability tracking CitiStat Buffalo program, which monitors city departments’ service delivery activities on a weekly basis; and reconfigured the city’s economic development activities by creating the Department of Economic Development, Permit and Inspection Services, a change that has provided greater coordination and cooperation in all development activities taking place in the City of Buffalo. Click to continue to Mayor Brown's biography.