BUFFALO, N.Y. — Byron Brown is originally from Queens, came to Buffalo for college, and served as the Masten District Common Councilmember before being elected to the State Senate.
As a State Senator, Brown announced his first campaign for Mayor from the Tri-Main Building in early 2005.
"Today, I formally declare my candidacy for mayor of the City of Buffalo," said Byron Brown in February 2005.
With Mayor Tony Masiello not running for re-election, Brown won in a landslide gaining more than 63-percent of the vote. He became Buffalo's first Black mayor.
In his first year in office, Brown dealt with the devastating October surprise storm, which caused massive power outages and destroyed thousands of trees.
"There are people, of course, who don't have heat in their homes, who don't have electricity in their homes," said Mayor Byron Brown in October of 2006.
His first term also included the opening of Canalside in 2008 which revitalized Buffalo's Inner Harbor.
Brown was re-elected in 2009 after defeating Mickey Kearns in the primary and running unopposed in the general election. And, not far into his second term, the city was dealt a blow with the mass shooting at City Grill in August of 2010. Four people were killed.
"We are making sure that any special event, our entertainment district, has extra police coverage," said Mayor Byron Brown in 2010.
In 2013, Mayor Brown ran for a third term and easily won. In the first year of his third term, the city was hit by the Snowvember Storm. And along with more progress at Canalside, 2015 saw an expansion of cars returning to Main Street with the 600 block opening back up to traffic in the theater district. Since then, more blocks have reopened to traffic.
"This project has been planed in such a way that there will be minimal interruptions to Canalside," said Mayor Byron Brown.
In 2017, Brown won a fourth term in office tying the record set by Mayor Jimmy Griffin. That term saw the 2019 FBI raid at City Hall.
"Search warrants were executed in an office of the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency," said Mayor Byron Brown.
Years later, federal prosecutors would drop their investigation into potential fraud and potential misuse of federal money at City Hall.
In 2021, Mayor Brown ran for an unprecedented fifth term. He faced a fierce challenge in the Democratic primary from India Walton, who won. Brown then ended up waging a write-in campaign to win his fifth term that November.
In what is now his final term in office, came the 5/14 mass shooting at Tops in 2022 where a racist gunman killed ten people and shot three people who survived.
"There's got to be sensible gun reform. There should be a ban on assault weapons," said Mayor Byron Brown.
Then in December of that year, came the Christmas Blizzard. Dozens of people died and thousands were without power for days. It led to many after-reports about how things could have been handled differently.
"The loss of life that we saw wasn't based on equipment. We think it was based on communication," said Mayor Byron Brown.
Last year, rumors swirled that Mayor Brown was looking for a new job, and this summer we learned he was indeed a finalist for the OTB leadership role after serving as Buffalo's mayor for more than 18 years.