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Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) Forms

Civil Rights and Transparency Clinic, University at Buffalo School of Law — Jan 26, 2023

This is the set of forms that accompanies the Self Help Guide: How to Submit a Freedom of Information Law Request Without a Lawyer.

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Self Help Guide: How to Submit a Freedom of Information Law Request (FOIL) Without a Lawyer

Civil Rights and Transparency Clinic, University at Buffalo School of Law — Jan 26, 2023

The ‘Self-Help Guide: How to Submit a Freedom of Information Law Request in New York without a Lawyer’ (the “Guide”) is for anyone who has requested information under the New York State Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). This Guide also assists users who have been improperly ignored, denied, or charged an unreasonable fee for their request for information. The Guide also provides the information you need when determining whether to pursue a pro se lawsuit and illustrates …

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How To Better Welcome Refugees and Secondary Migrants

Laila Rahbari — Sep 7, 2022

This report examines assets, challenges, and potential recommendations for supports for refugees and migrants in Buffalo. 

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Language Access for Erie County is Essential and Overdue

Buffalo and Erie County Language Access Working Group — Sep 24, 2020

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Buffalo's History of Segregation: a Conversation with Sam Magavern and Lindsey Taylor

Sam Magavern, Lindsey Taylor — Jul 1, 2020

Special Guest Sam Magavern of Partnership for the Public Good, Attorney & Author will be talking about Systematic Disparities in Housing.  

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Western New York Census Toolkit

Anna Blatto — Jan 14, 2020

This toolkit provides information and actionable steps for getting involved with education, outreach, and support for Census 2020. It also offers specific information about local challenges and solutions .

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Photobank: Data, Demographics, History - Seniors Gather at West Side Community Services - Pt I

Buffalo Commons Photobank — Jan 14, 2020

Guidelines for using photos from the Buffalo Commons Photobank The Buffalo Commons Photobank is an issue-based Photobank for use by our partners and the general public. The purpose of making these photos publically available is to enhance the work of the social sector in Buffalo-Niagara. We believe that our partners’ work will be more effective when it features high-quality and artistic images for any number of occasions: an event, a fundraiser, a report, etc.

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Photobank: Data, Demographics, History - Seniors Gather at West Side Community Services - Pt II

Buffalo Commons Photobank — Jan 14, 2020

Guidelines for using photos from the Buffalo Commons Photobank The Buffalo Commons Photobank is an issue-based Photobank for use by our partners and the general public. The purpose of making these photos publically available is to enhance the work of the social sector in Buffalo-Niagara. We believe that our partners’ work will be more effective when it features high-quality and artistic images for any number of occasions: an event, a fundraiser, a report, etc.

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Erasing Red Lines: Part 1 - Geographies of Discrimination

Russell Weaver — Aug 28, 2019

Since at least the 1930s, the City of Buffalo, New York has been spatially and socially divided. While certain mixed use and residential communities across the map have shown remarkable resilience—and thrived—during the City’s history of deindustrialization and population loss, many communities of color on Buffalo’s East and West Sides have experienced persistent and increasing levels of distress. This series of brief reports examines those patterns and engages with …

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Census 2020: Making Western New York Count

Anna Blatto — Jun 10, 2019

This policy brief offers an overview of the 2020 Census: what it is and why it matters for Western New York.

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Employment Data for Buffalo-Niagara

Partnership for the Public Good — Jul 11, 2018

Unemployment in Buffalo and the surrounding region shot upward in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, but declined in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. In 2017, unemployment rose in the city and region while falling in the state and nation. 

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Racial Disparities in Buffalo-Niagara

Partnership for the Public Good — Jun 1, 2018

Like many cities in the Great Lakes region, Buffalo-Niagara suffers from severe racial inequality and segregation. 

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Urban Expressway Removal in Buffalo: The Historical Context

Daniel Cadzow — Mar 30, 2018

This policy brief was drafted by Daniel Cadzow, Policy Fellow at PPG and an advocate for environmental justice and equitable traffic infrastructure.  

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Urban Design Project

Department of Labor Dec 31, 2017

The UB Regional Institute and Urban Design Project have officially merged under the UB Regional Institute name. Our long established history in the region and track record of success in public policy and urban planning/design, our professional staff, affiliated faculty and graduate students, our position as the research enterprise of the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, and our strong connection to the University at large, are our greatest assets. This is what sets us …

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What If...Pathways to Progress Vol. 2: Women and Girls in WNY

WNY Women's Foundation — Nov 22, 2017

The original 2010 Pathways to Progress Report provided a foundation for moving forward, the start of an ongoing region-wide dialogue on supporting women and girls and a call to action to us all. Pathways to Progress Vol. 2 expands this dialogue with updated data that explores the barriers and opportunities that WNY women face throughout their lifespans. 

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Buffalo Niagara - How Are We Really Doing

Lawrence Brooks — Jan 20, 2016

There has been a lot of good news lately in Buffalo: Harbor Center and Canalside, RiverBend and Solar City, the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus expansion, new hotels and restaurants, even an uptick in employment and population.  But most of this good news is economic, and there is much more to our region than just economic activity.  These positive developments have prompted reactions such as “rebirth” and “resurgence.”  But perspectives on Buffalo vary …

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Initiatives for a Stronger Community

Mark Poloncarz — Mar 31, 2015

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From Mandalay to Nickel City

Craig Centrie — Mar 6, 2013

After independence from British colonialism in 1948, Burma, once part of the Raj system and one of Southeast Asia’s largest countries, became engaged in one of the longest civil wars in the region’s history. A democratic republic from 1948 to 1962, Burma experiencing the turmoil of nation state building in a post colonial world was unable successfully to incorporate its ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse population into one national identity, forcing hundreds of …

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Buffalo's Assets

Perry Choice Neighborhood Planning Team Jun 1, 2012

In its Principles for a Revitalized Buffalo, the Partnership for the Public Good calls for a strategy that starts from our assets.  This Buffalo Brief provides just a small sampling of our region’s assets.

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The Connection: Schooling, Youth Development, and Community Building– The Futures Academy Case

Linda McGlynn, Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. — Jul 26, 2009

Using, as an example, a case study of Futures Academy, a K-8th grade public school in the Fruit Belt, an inner city neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, this essay will demonstrate that universities can play a leading role in remediating the problems of public schooling, youth development and inner city distress. Through the development of authentic, democratically-based partnerships among universities, schools, and communities, young people in distressed neighborhoods can become successful …

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The Futures Academy Community Garden Project

Center for Urban Studies, UB — Jul 26, 2009

Project Name: Futures Academy Community & Creative Placemaking Initiative This report proposes the creation of the Futures Academy Community Garden in a series of vacant, city-owned parcels across from Buffalo Public School 37.

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The Historical Overview of Blacks in the Fruit Belt: The Continuing Struggle to Build a Vibrant Community

Center for Urban Studies, UB, Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. — Jul 26, 2009

Project Name: The Fruit belt Redevelopment Project This report provides and overview of the history of blacks in Buffalo’s Fruit Belt and the classic tale of how urban policies have destabilized the African American community and robbed low to moderate‐income blacks of the wealth producing power of home-ownership.

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The High Cost of Being Poor

Rod Watson, Jonathan Epstein, Brian Meyer — Jun 21, 2006

A FOUR-PART SERIES REPRINTED FROM JUNE 18-21, 2006.  In November 2005, about half-a-dozen Buffalo News reporters and editors sat in a circle and began brainstorming story ideas. As part of a two-day training session conducted by the Committee of Concerned Journalists, the News staffers were looking for story ideas that would be worth an extended investment of time and resources. Jonathan Epstein, a News financial reporter who specializes in banking and insurance issues, suggested it might …

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From Theory to Practice: The Quest to Radically Reconstruct Buffalo's Inner City Neighborhoods

Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. — Jul 26, 2004

Project Name: The Inner City Transformation Project The Inner City Transformation Project (ICTP) was launched in 2001 to develop a model of community development that can be applied to the radical reconstruction of distressed neighborhoods in metropolitan Buffalo and similar size cities in the United States. The project is based on the assumption that distressed urban neighborhoods now represent the epicenter of racism and social class inequality in the United States and that the quest to …

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Black in Buffalo: A late-century progress report

Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. — Jul 26, 1996

In this essay commissioned by The Buffalo News, Henry Louis Taylor takes a look at the struggles of community building and neighborhood development within Buffalo’s East Side.

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Governance in Erie County: A Foundation for Understanding and Action

Kathryn Foster, David C. Perry, Alfred D. Price, John B. Sheffer, II, Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. — Jan 26, 1996

Project Name: The University at Buffalo Governance Project The University at Buffalo Governance Project was an interdisciplinary research effort to study governance issues in Erie County. The Governance Project was founded upon the premise that a vigorous region requires competent, informed decision making, especially in the public sector.

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