Downtown Buffalo Business Leaders Disagree On How To Solve Crime

From time to time, the people who are in line to make decisions on what happens in the entertainment district of Buffalo come together to discuss what should happen in and around the Chippewa Strip. For the most part, those leaders agree, but on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, those leaders got together in a public meeting with the Buffalo Common Council to give thier opinion on what changes city government leaders should make, if any.

The spate of violence that's happened in Buffalo and other cities since the 4th of July has caused many communities to reevaluate their approach to gatherings that draw a lot of people. In Rochester, they have banned gatherings of ten or more people and empowered the local police to arrest those who violate the law. In Buffalo, members of the city council are looking to ban people under the age of 21 from the downtown entertainment district.

READ MORE: Rochester Bans Groups Of Ten Or More, Is Buffalo Next?

Some people are for it, and others are against it, and those disagreements came to a head during the public meeting as people who work and live near downtown all expressed their opinions about what should happen for those who are over 18 but under 21 and are looking to party downtown.

While the 18+ narrative have taken most of the heat, 21+ has been quiet… We can target 18+ and make the fake narrative that 18+ is the problem, but in fact the real problem is accountability on the street.
-Tim Walton, Speaker at Public Hearing

The disagreements on what should be done have spread beyond just members of the general public, as even the owners of various businesses, along with the leaders of various business associations, disagreed on what should be done.

What do you think should happen? Should people under the age of 21 be banned from Buffalo's downtown entertainment district, or should they continue to be allowed as they have been for years?