Buffalo Public Schools is preparing to permanently close two schools, and the district is framing it as unavoidable, a financial emergency, an enrollment issue, a matter of restructuring. If this pattern was not being repeated in cities across the United States it would have never piqued my interest, and anyone who has been paying attention to the way Buffalo operates, knows that school closures are rarely about “budget necessity.” They are about land, they are about real estate, and they are about political power and private interests positioning themselves for the next wave of development. The district claims a deficit of $80 Million dollars. The City claims a deficit of $70 Million. When New York State handed the Buffalo Bills $600 Million in subsidies, and Erie County handed over $250 Million in subsidies, (more money than needed to fix every school building, fund every community center, solve the transportation crisis, and stabilize the district’s finances,) it became clear that Buffalo’s priorities were not to provide resources for our citizens, but it was a political game for those in office using the city as pawn. Buffalo didn’t invest in the children they are planning to displace; they invested in the developers who will reshape the land once those children are gone. We handed $850 Million dollars to a billionaire without the consultation of any community… so why does BPS now have a committee for the closure of these schools? To give the perception to the community that they had a say in which schools will close, when all along they already know which two schools are on the chopping block. These are the transparent games and patterns they are counting on citizens being ignorant on. What’s happening now mirrors patterns we’ve seen in Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington DC where schools in “strategic” neighborhoods are shut down, the buildings are transferred or sold, and private developers reap the rewards. The communities who are almost always Black, Latino, immigrant, or low-income, are left with fewer public resources and less political leverage for their citizens. Buffalo is not an exception; it is following the script: starve public schools > declare them “unsustainable”> close them > transfer land > trigger development> displace the people. Behind closed doors, developers have been circling the city for years, especially the West Side, the Niagara Corridor, the Medical Campus expansion, the Waterfront, Broadway-Fillmore, North Buffalo, none of these are random areas. These are neighborhoods where property values are shifting, where institutional growth is accelerating, and where investors see long-term profit, and as development pressure increases, political incentives align accordingly. Now, as BPS claims it has “no choice” but to close two schools, the silence around which schools are under consideration is not accidental. This is strategic, because naming schools, triggers community backlash, legal challenges, union action, and enrollment flight. The district keeps the list secret while political leaders and developers continue to make quiet calculations about which buildings are most valuable, not educationally, but financially. Based on enrollment patterns, land value, and the political chatter happening behind the scenes, several schools stand out as likely targets. Here are MY guesses based on what I think is propelling this push. – School #90, Charles R. Drew Science Magnet, has long been in the shadow of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. BNMC has been expanding aggressively, and the Fruit Belt’s land is among the most contested in the city. Closing School 90 clears the way for medical expansion, biotech labs, housing developments, or institutional partnerships, even government institutions looking for new buildings, like the proposed Veterans Specialized Services branch they wanted to build by the Fruit Belt. It benefits Kaleida, Roswell, BNMC, and the network of private developers aligned with them, not the families who have already endured decades of displacement. – School #95, Waterfront Elementary, is another high-value target. This building sits steps from Canalside and the Outer Harbor, in the heart of one of the most profitable development zones in Western New York. Waterfront land is scarce, and elected officials have never hidden their desire to transform every inch of the district into mixed-use commercial and residential space. Closing the school frees up land that developers have been eyeing for years. Especially now as other projects in the area have been halted. On the West Side – Schools #3 #30 and School #82 sit in neighborhoods experiencing heavy gentrification pressure. As housing prices rise and new construction projects spread across the Niagara Street corridor, school buildings become prime real estate for apartments, luxury rentals, and commercial expansion. School #3 sits on THE HOTTEST CORRIDOR with heavy development. These closures have nothing to do with education, and they have everything to do with profit. If Buffalo is serious about equity and sustainability, it would invest in the schools it threatens to close, and it would stop selling off neighborhoods in the name of “revitalization.” When public land becomes a political bargaining chip, children become collateral damage and cities become the chess board of politicians and their donors. School closures are not neutral decisions, they are political acts with long-term consequences, and in Buffalo, those consequences are already unfolding. Buffalo is in the middle of a real estate transformation that most residents have not been invited into. Behind the press releases, the committee meetings, the political speeches, a larger machine operates. The gears are made up of real estate developers, powerful institutions, political donors, and elected officials who have quietly sold Buffalo marginalized neighborhoods as disposable. I keep hearing people say they are not interested in politics, sadly, politics is interested in YOU. #daniaisonherbullshitagain #buffalopolitics #BuffaloStrong #publicschools #developers https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/buffalo/absolute-financial-necessity-bps-moves-forward-with-plan-to-potentially-close-two-schools?fbclid=IwdGRjcAOdiQpjbGNrA52IiGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHiq7qSFifM4n85JhKdsu1Ce8jZK1izkKNad-xcWb7vuJeK6XVcPOH_cITV8D_aem_tzq63uF8vZK3D-K9EcJ66g
