IMAGES OF THE WEEK

I couldn't pick one, so I'll just link the site: the 15 Best Skylines in the World.

This is all subjective, of course, but I've always loved the sight of a beautiful city skyline -- especially at night when the air is clear.

Buffalo's skyline isn't nearly as spectacular, of course, but I love it just the same -- not just because it's home, but because the buildings are lower and older. It's a skyline that doesn't look like much from a distance, which makes the Buffalo skyline a good metaphor for Buffalo itself. You have to get up closer and look at the details to really see what's so special about the place.

(Here's a good photo of the Buffalo skyline at night. This is a long-standing peeve of mine: even given that our buildings are old and made of materials that don't gleam like the newer steel-and-glass buildings that dominate the skylines of more vibrant cities, our night-time skyline is too dark. In fact, the entire city is too dark at night. I'm always struck by this when we arrive home after a day in Toronto; we don't even have streetlights along the "Mainline Thruway", the section of I-90 that runs right through the Buffalo-Niagara region. If I could make one physical change to Buffalo, it would be to add more light.)