THE NICEST PLACES IN AMERICA

AND THE TOP HONOR GOES TO... BUFFALO, NEW YORK

- Bill Hangley Jr

Boardwalk biking at Canalside (above). Facing page, clockwise from top left: the Towers Building at Richard Olmstead Campus; Shea's Buffalo Theatre; the Terrace at Delaware Park; Shark Girl at Canalside; vendors at the Taste of Diversity Festival.

By the time the blizzard hit Buffalo, Craig Elston was the last barber left in his shop. Inside were warmth, safety and a well-stocked candy machine. Outside was a swirling mess of some of the worst that winter can dish out.

"It was like nothing I've ever seen," Elston says. "Eighty-mile-an-hour winds. If you went outside, it would just knock you over."

It was Dec. 23, 2022. The day had dawned mild, but by midday, temperatures had plunged, winds were blasting and snow was piling up fast. News reports grew urgent: Get off the roads. Find shelter fast.

Soon neighbors were knocking, desperate for warmth and safety. Over the course of the next five brutally cold days, Elston would help dozens stay warm, fed and alive-at least 40 people, maybe more, he figures.

It wasn't fun or easy. "One dude flooded the toilet three times," Elston says. But it had to be done, he adds: "Those 40 people could have died out there."

Craig Elston is 38. He grew up in Buffalo, where he runs the C & C Cutz barbershop on Fillmore Avenue. It's the kind of neighborhood where "you can get a gun like it was a loaf of bread," says Elston's friend Dwayne Ferguson.

But it's also full of hardworking people of all kinds, including new immigrants and families that have lived there for generations. Challenges are nothing new for Buffalo residents like these, says Ferguson. "Every day is a blizzard," he says. "It just depends on how you deal with it."