BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The top of Byron Brown's resume includes two historic firsts.
He is Buffalo's first Black mayor and the first mayor to win five terms. The Queens native attended Buffalo State college before starting his political career in his adopted city.
He served as a Buffalo Common Council member from January 1996 to January 2001, then moving to the New York state Senate where he served though the end of 2005.
Since January 2006, Brown has led the city of Buffalo. As evidenced by his electoral track record, he's enjoyed strong support from city constituents and powerful political allies.
The mayor has overseen an era that was often described by one of those allies, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as Buffalo's renaissance. That included billions of dollars in economic development projects, the development of the city's waterfront and projects like the Northland Workforce Training Center on the city's east side.
Brown is not solely responsible but supporters believe relationships with state and federal leaders like Cuomo, current Gov. Kathy Hochul, former U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins and a business-friendly administration, helped facilitate them. His tenure has not been without controversy as political operatives with close ties to Brown — former Deputy Mayor Steve Casey and former Erie County Democratic Committee Chair Steve Pigeon — both have pleaded guilty to breaking federal laws.
Federal agents raided Grassroots, a political club associated with the mayor, in 2017 and the City Hall offices of Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency two years later. Brown has never been charged.
Opponents also have criticized his handling of the 2022 Christmas blizzard where more than 30 people died predominantly in the city's lowest income areas. Criticisms like those were the platforms of India Walton's campaign when the upstart Democratic socialist shocked Brown during the 2021 mayoral primary.
However, Brown, with the support of Common Council allies, developers and even local Republicans, won the general election with the type of write-in campaign that has rarely been successful in recent U.S. politics.
In his resignation announcement, Brown praised the resiliency of the city during his tenure, which has dealt with several major weather events, a global pandemic and a racist mass shooting. Brown has not set an official resignation date, noting there are things he would still like to do with his remaining time as mayor.
He did say he would be resigning in the coming weeks. Brown also served as the state Democratic Party chair from May 2016 to January 2019.