BUFFALO, N.Y. -- It's a city on the rebound, but as leaders work to draw people to Buffalo, there are still some challenges, including negative stereotypes.

Earlier this year, a real estate blog out of California called Buffalo the most dangerous place in New York state. It's a title that non-violence advocates are skeptical about.

"Buffalo is a nice place to live, grow up. You see development going on. The inner city is now starting to pick up with development," said Murray Holman, the Executive Director of Buffalo's Stop the Violence Coalition.

Part of that development is thanks to making the Queen City a safer place to live.

"While we know crime can spike at any time, we're hoping to continue along those trends and if we do continue along those trends, we will have the lowest statistical level of major crime in the city of Buffalo, I think, in the history of recording major crimes," said Mayor Byron Brown, D-Buffalo.

The blog based its analysis on the number of violent crimes and total crime per person for 2013. Each group of crime has a different weight, which determines an area's overall ranking.

"That's an old list with old numbers. If we look at crime stats for this year, Buffalo is probably one of the safest places in New York state and one of the safest places in the country," said Brown.

The lists states that in 2013, Buffalo had more than 3,000 violent crimes, 47 of which were murders. On a per-person basis, that still does not put Buffalo in the top spot for either of those numbers.

"I don't know where they're getting their statistics from, but I think we have a lesser rate than what they have us listed as. Very skeptical. We have seen a decline in murder rates in the city of Buffalo because the people we talk to are talking to their brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles about violence," said Holman.

Even though non-violence advocates disagree with the list, they say there's still more that can be done in the city of Buffalo to make it a safer place to live.

"We do intervention. We talk to kids at schools. We have GED programs out here. What we're trying to do here is give a kid a way out. Go to school with Say Yes program and see how we can make things work for the city of Buffalo."

"Because of the work we do with our organizations and other organizations, I think we have a beat on it better than other places do," said Holman.

Other cities in the top 5 include, Rochester, Syracuse, Niagara Falls and Schenectady.