Every city has neighborhoods, but Buffalo's blue collar past helped create especially tight-knit neighborhoods. Each had its pubs and its parish, each has its stories and unique character. Some of this sense of community faded during the tough times, but events like Garden Walk and Gallery Walk have helped renew it, providing an under-the-radar fuel for the current resurgence.

There was a time when there were just two galleries on Allen Street. Imagine! Mike Mulley ran the College Street Gallery (now in the Market Arcade), and Brad Wales operated Gallery 164, believed to be one of the first of many Buffalo galleries to be named for the number over the door. Wales and Mulley tried to start a Gallery Walk way back when, but the success of the current First Friday Allentown Gallery Walk, started a decade ago by the Allentown Association and the Greater Allentown Gallery Association, only means that they were ahead of their time.

Most Buffalo neighborhoods merit a beautiful book. Some, like Oakland Place, already have one. Now it's Allentown's turn.

Allentown: A Photographic Journey in the Heart of Buffalo, NY captures the funky, bohemian spirit of Allentown, its historic grandeur, its tree-lined avenues. Quite appropriately, this homage to a unique Buffalo neighborhood will be released at a fabulous Party in one of Allentown's original galleries during the November First Friday Allentown Gallery Walk. It's at 164 Allen - yes, the old Gallery 164. You'll know you're there when you see the iconic fishbones art over the door.

I was amazed to discover that John Shepard painted this sign years ago, when he owned Fish From Nowhere on the West end of Allen. The store is now called The Antique Man, and John still presides over a riot of well-loved, pre-owned possessions. Brad Wales put the fishbones art above the door of 164 Allen a long time ago. John says it was inspired by the Biblical loaves and fishes story, a metaphor for making something out of very little, as John's shop continues to do to this day. As Allentown has done for more than 175 years. As Buffalo continues to do.

So it seemed appropriate to use this iconic art on the cover of the book. Actually, that's not true. We discovered the significance of the art after the book was off the press and Brad Wales demanded that we find out who created the art that graces its pages. So what started out as evocative images by Bill Faught has come to be fraught with meaning. Each of the Contributors of this crowd-sourced, collaborative publication has brought a unique perspective of the neighborhhod to it. Elizabeth Licata even wrote a poem! Mark Goldman knows his streetscapes. 

I want to publish more paeons to Buffalo neighborhoods. A second edition of Buffalo's Delaware Avenue Mansions and Families is due off the press in January, this time with a much-needed index. Elmwood Village is next. Now that the entire district is firmly on the National Historic Register, it's time to document the architecture, tell the stories, evoke the essence. The Michigan Street Corridor stands chock full of fabulous stories, just waiting to be told. Richmond Avenue demands to be documented, its stately homes privvy to so much history. Black Rock has a book in the making. I want to publish it. I want to tell these stories.

This is how I want to give back to Buffalo. By capturing its neighborhoods in print, its people in print, its stories in print, and making them available everywhere.