Buffalo plays a key role in UB student's urban planning journey
BY KELLY SHELDON
Published April 2, 2025
Eldon Montague (MUP '26)
Finishing up high school in New York’s North Country, Eldon Montague (MUP ’26) had dreams of becoming an environmental lawyer. A strong believer in a public education, he enrolled in the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse. Sitting in my office in Hayes Hall on a chilly Friday morning, he told me about how, a couple years later, he found that his dreams had evolved.
“I got my first taste of the urban planning profession, and I realized that’s what I want to do, but I was already halfway through my program at ESF,” he explained. “So, I figured I would just try to manipulate that program and take as many courses on urban planning as I could.” Ultimately, Montague graduated with a degree in environmental policy planning and law with minors in landscape architecture and sustainable construction, giving him policy planning and design experience that really helped prepare him for a Master of Urban Planning (MUP) program.
The only question was which MUP program would be the best fit. Montague knew that he wanted to stay in the SUNY system, so the choice came down to the University at Buffalo or the University at Albany. As a future urban planner, it’s only fitting that the city of Buffalo itself played a big part in that decision. “I think Buffalo is a great city,” he explained. “It’s a good place to come for an urban planning degree because Buffalo has so much potential, such a rich history of grassroots planning, urban planning movements, and advocacy movements. And I wanted to get involved in these initiatives.”
As a born-and-bred Buffalonian, I nodded knowingly, recalling a lifetime of conversations about Buffalo’s potential, but I felt encouraged by Montague’s genuine interest and earnest commitment to the city. “Some people have this negative perception of Buffalo,” he acknowledged, “and I just want to help change that perception and make Buffalo the great city that it can be.”
Even with an undergraduate curriculum bolstered by relevant subjects, Montague worried that he would be a step behind the rest of the group at the start of the semester. But what he found instead was a welcome diversity of classmates representing a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and previous areas of study. “Once I started, I realized that everybody here has extremely different backgrounds, from art history to engineering to environmental studies, and that’s been really interesting,” he recounted. “And being able to collaborate with all these different people and see how our different backgrounds come together to create one cohesive cohort…I’ve been able to gain a lot of interesting perspectives that I wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere.”
"It's a good place to come for an urban planning degree because Buffalo has so much potential, such a rich history of grassroots planning, urban planning movements, and advocacy movements. And I wanted to get involved in these initiatives."
With a demanding schedule full of lectures, reading, writing, and research, Montague’s time in the MUP program has also provided him with a practical lesson on time management. In addition, he’s found that his classmates are a good resource when times get tough. “As the program has gone on, I feel like our cohort has become really close,” he explained. “I find a lot of value in that. We’re able to lean on each other and share our challenges and our successes.”
Montague has also chosen to allocate some of his time to the pursuit of a graduate certificate in affordable housing and, in line with that area of study, is serving as a graduate research assistant at the UB Center for Urban Studies. There, he’s working under Dr. Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. on the East Side Transformation Project, a bold effort to bring transformative change to Buffalo’s East Side through resident-centered engagement, education, empowerment, and investment.
Final project - URP 517 Graphic Communication with Dr. Kelly Gregg by MUP student Eldon Montague
That work is undoubtedly helping to build valuable skills in the field as well as providing learned experience on an issue that Montague is particularly passionate about. “One of the societal issues that I’d like to tackle is redistributing power so communities can play an active role in building themselves up. As an urban planner, going forward, I want to make sure that the role that I’m taking is more of a facilitator, not taking direct lead, but more acting as a guide for communities to express what issues they’re facing and then support them to make decisions that will mitigate these societal issues from the ground up.”
And that community-minded spirit is something that Montague will certainly take with him after graduation where he plans to pursue nonprofit work. “I don’t think working for a private firm will fit my values as a planner,” he reflected. “I think there’s a lot of challenges that come with working in the nonprofit realm, but that’s something that I’m ready to face and that’s where I’ll be able to make the most impact and feel the most fulfilled in my work. I’m really interested in housing cooperatives and community land trusts and projects that aim to not only provide people with housing but give them the power that comes with owning a house.”
Buffalo, admittedly, has a lot of work to do to reach its potential, but we’re lucky to have Montague on our side.