<p>[Hoping</a> to lure college grads, Falls offers to repay some loan debt - Niagara Falls - The Buffalo News](<a href=“http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/niagara-falls/article897475.ece]Hoping”>http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/niagara-falls/article897475.ece)</p>
<p>Would your recent college grad or grad student find this an attractive offer?</p>
<p>What an interesting idea to draw young talent.</p>
<p>If I could afford to do something like that, that would be a really interesting opportunity. Financial incentives aside, now that I’ve graduated I only have a handful of friends that are local who are my age and college educated… most of my social life now is work centric and my coworkers are all much older and many did not attend college. It would be an interesting opportunity to move into a community that is focused on drawing in educated young folks. It doesn’t really seem like you get that kind of an opportunity anymore once you move away from campus. </p>
<p>I do wonder if the loan reimbursement will be enough incentive. I feel like the people who could afford to do this wouldn’t really need the reimbursement, it’d just be an added bonus. If the area isn’t attractive enough to young people to attract them anyway, I am not sure if this program would be enough to tip the scales.</p>
<p>Funny that I live ten minutes from the Falls, yet didn’t catch this article until seeing this thread! Adding a local voice here, the area really could use the potential revitalization. This will probably be highlighted a bit in the next few days with the Wallenda walk across the falls on Friday. The downtown area has huge potential for growth, but will most likely remain tourist-centric for the next few years, which makes locals strongly avoid the area. For young people, the nightlife is much better across the border, where the drinking age is 19 and as such has many popular nightclubs and bars, as well as a much bigger casino than on the American side.</p>
<p>It’s a very interesting concept, and should be cool to see how well it actually works. I might be missing something, as I don’t really understand why relocating would be financially difficult. Besides living with parents, the housing wouldn’t be more expensive than other options, especially since the area has a very low housing demand.</p>
<p>Are there job opportunities there? My sons lived in the Buffalo area for a year or so. THey were both gainfully employed and were able to live on their own, but saw no possibilities for other types of employment and did not want to stay at what they felt were stop gap jobs. The trade off in coming back to this area was that all sorts of things are a-popping in terms of job possiblities, Both are working in the fields they want now, though not making enough money, and the cost of living is much higher here, but they say that there was zero opportunity up north for them to get this sort of job. Yes, it would be great to get the student loans paid, and I will add, have a low cost of living so young people can afford their own places, but the trade off is not being able to find the job you want because it either does not exist or does so in such minute quantity that the chances of getting anything are very, very low.</p>
<p>^ That’s really the key. Paying for loans is nice but if there are no jobs…</p>
<p>My kids told me, and I took it with a grain of salt since they so hated being up state, that the area was closing down. It seems to me that the town is looking for more people to spend money there. Rent, buy use the stores and facilities there, paying as they go. It’s not as though there are so many great opportunities there. it’s a shame, because I would not mind living up there. Not one bit. But we would need a good paying job. DH says there is nothing for him up there.</p>
<p>The incentives for living in Niagara Falls beyond the loan repayment proposal include a relatively low cost of living and proximity to Canada. Are there jobs? Yes, although depending upon your field there are no doubt much better places in the country to live. Tourist venues, including casinos on both sides of the border are often looking for workers. Government work is no longer a growth industry in NYS but there are job openings across a wide range of fields. It might be worth it for the right person to take advantage of this opportunity for a few years, pay down the loan and then parlay improved economic circumstance and experience into a better job and better life elsewhere. On the other hand, maybe that person will grow to love the Niagara Frontier.</p>
<p>I grew up in Niagara Falls, went to high school there and got out as soon as I could. The city has been deteriorating for as long as I can remember, and the initial trigger was the large indoor mall built on the outskirts of the city limits. The stores downtown started to close, and once that happened it became a wasteland of boarded up storefronts punctuated by a few bars targeted to Niagara students. I was just there 3 weeks ago, and the only businesses still there that I remember from my youth are a pharmacy and Burger King. It’s sad. The area closer to the Falls referenced in the article is pretty much in similar shape except for the casino and immediate environs. The residential areas circling that area were once thriving, filled with families with pride in their homes and supportive of local business. However, and rightfully pointed out in the piece, even if the move to repopulate the area with young urban “pioneers” is successful, the benefits of the loan repayment program will be eaten up by commuting costs to places like Buffalo and its immediate suburbs where the jobs are. The Niagara region needs to revitalize its employment infrastructure. For as long as I can remember the primary industry has been tourism (and outlet shopping), and the jobs, other than at the management level, are all low paying, high turnover positions. I’d love to see it turn into a high tech corridor. It’s location close to the border would create symbiosis with Canadian companies, and there are large swathes of land available where the old factories stood in the North end. People will populate an area if there are jobs. It’s hard to put the cart before the horse.</p>
<p>That’s the problem with moving up there. If the jobs were there, people would automatically move up there. The kids I know who are sweltering under the loan burdens are living at home to subsidize whatever they can earn or are earning a lot more than a move to Niagara Falls would entail.</p>
<p>If they could get retirees to move up there, that might make sense. But they tend to be snowbirds. Maybe a break on taxes and some support services would go a long way in getting those who can’t afford to live down state when their high paying job days are over, would consider moving up there and taking advantage of the much lower cost of living and cheaper housing. Heck, this has me thinking about it, personally, and I am not kidding.</p>
<p>cpt - PM me if you want details re: living in the region! My parents and their friends still live there, and believe me, if you’re not accustomed to the lifestyle in an area that is more Midwest than east coast, it could be a rude awakening. And I’m talking rust belt Midwest, not Chicago, Ann Arbor, Minneapolis-St. Paul.</p>