The Buffalo Record

The Niagara Gazette, which is the Cataract City’s daily, has a new fresh-faced (27!) editor.

His first impressions?

I mean, don’t you like to be criticized by the likes of:

I don’t know if it’s young David’s fault. After all, I hear that the schools in Alabama suck.

The Gazette has been sucking for a long while, especially since Gannett sold it. It’s desperate for people to read it for something more than just the obits. Insulting your readership isn’t going to ingratiate you to it.

In any event, I find it interesting that the Gazette’s website has been scrubbed of Arkin’s opinions of WNY. That’s pretty intellectually dishonest. If he’s gonna write it, he might as well back it up.

HT Buffalo Watchdog

Tags: News

Why does Fox News hate Christmas and the baby Jesus?

HT to Tom in Comments

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This piece in the NY Daily News explains to the denizens of the New York megalopolis why they should care about Buffalo.

Ask the typical New York City resident what they think about the situation in Buffalo, and the response is likely to be a shrug and a “who cares.”

Wrong answer.

Buffalo, the state’s second-largest city, has been struggling with a fiscal crisis for years, piling up $100 million in debt. A control board, similar to the one imposed on New York City in the 1970s, has overseen Buffalo’s finances since 2003.

If Buffalo can’t get its finances in order, its bills could eventually become obligations the rest of the state – in other words, all of us – must pay. “If Buffalo isn’t healthy, it places a drag on the entire state, including New York City,” says Brown.

That’s putting it mildly. New York already shoulders $49 billion in debt, making us the second-most-indebted state in America after California, with the equivalent of $2,420 in debt for every man, woman and child in the state – more than twice the national average.

A fiscal collapse in Buffalo would add even more to the tab: The political embarrassment of allowing the state’s second-largest city to go bankrupt is something state leaders in Albany would never allow.

For New Yorkers, who already shoulder one of the nation’s highest tax burdens, that’s reason enough to care about Buffalo. . .

It’s also got a few choice quotes from Mayor-elect Byron Brown:

“As someone who grew up in New York City, I’m going to work more aggressively to establish a closer relation between our cities,” he says. “It’s a great place for New York City businesses as a back office location and a great tourist location for New York City residents, right in the state.”

Early projects will include redevelopment of Buffalo’s waterfront and overseeing the opening of a planned Seneca Gaming Corp. casino in the city. But the real key to success lies in convincing downstaters, who control so much of the state’s investment and tourist dollars, that Buffalo is a viable place to live, play and do business.

If Brown can pull that off, his success could provide a turnaround formula for other ailing upstate cities like Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Binghamton and Schenectady.

The kid from Queens has his work cut out for him.

Every new job is definitely good, but I sort of hope that Brown has bigger aspirations for Buffalo’s revival than having us become Bangalore-on-the-Lake.

Of course, getting New Yorkers to pay attention to anything north of Yonkers is like pulling teeth.

HT to the newly-linkable Upstate Blog

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The Upstate Blog supports permalinking and trackbacks – but no comments.

What is it with blogs that shun comments?

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Quinn J. Sedinger

15 months old, November 28, 2005 of Orchard Park, NY, beloved son of Kelly and Debra Harms Sedinger; dear brother of Haley K.; dearest grandson of Harry and Theresa Sedinger and Marvin and Linda Harms; also survived by aunts and uncles. Calling hours with the family will be held Thursday 6-8 PM at the SIECK & MAST FUNERAL HOME, 250 Orchard Park Rd., West Seneca 825-5205. Funeral services Friday, December 2, 2005 at St. Johns Lutheran Church, 4536 South Buffalo St., Orchard Park at 11 AM. (Please assemble at church). In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. John’s Lutheran Church. Interment Woodlawn Cemetery.

Tags: News

1. End electoral fusion. All it’s good for is perks and patronage for the likes of Tony Orsini.

2. End pre-primary party endorsements. It’s ridiculous. The party committees should stay out of it until the people enrolled in the party make up their minds via primaries. Just look at the disarray of the state Republicans. Don’t think that won’t ever happen to the Dems.

Hell, if Suozzi runs a good primary against Spitzer and wins, what’s Spitzer going to do? Run on the WFP line? It’d make the party, which would be backing Spitzer, look out of touch and ridiculous. Not that I think this scenario is likely, but stranger things have happened.

So, get right on that. Thanks.

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If there’s one candidate who would actually pay attention to our calls to get rid of tolls on the I-190, it would be Bill Weld.

After all, he removed several tolls on the Mass Pike extension back in the late 90s, and all the tolls west of Springfield; (if you drive between two of the exits west of Springfield, you pay no toll, and the toll charge stays the same between Springfield and the border in Lee).

I have a history of taking the tolls off the Massachusetts Turnpike. I’ve been very suspicious of bureaucracies.”

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If Thomas Bauerle can spend a 3 hour show bitching and moaning about such trivia as “happy holidays” vs. “Merry Christmas”, then certainly you can take two seconds to send him a “Happy Holidays” greeting, just to get his mullet in a twist.

Don’t worry, Tom. A store clerk saying “happy holidays” oughtn’t affect your ability to celebrate your holiday in the way you choose. If it does, then you’re being a petulant 2-year-old.

UPDATE: And as a commenter says:

Someone should inform Bauerle that Holiday is a derivation of Holy Day….DUH!

Duh indeed.

Tags: News

I don’t think that there’s much of anything that anyone can do about the Seneca Buffalo casino that will begin construction within the next week in the Cobblestone district. The Supreme Court’s decision earlier this week not to take a case challenging the constitutionality of the State’s deal with the Senecas pretty much puts the kibosh on any effort to enjoin this thing.

So it’s going to go there. Resign thyselves.

WB49 yesterday had a pretty detailed report about what’s going on down there. They say that the DL&W is off the table, and that the Senecas will break ground on the parcel they bought from Paladino on the 8th – one day ahead of schedule. The casino is supposed to be opened by this time next year.

So, within a few blocks of the Cobblestone and HSBC and the Aud and Chef’s, we’ll have a casino.

They interviewed Masiello – that beacon of progress and competence – and he said, definitely they need parking, parking, parking.

Look at this satellite picture of the area, and tell me that there’s not enough parking within blocks. Nothing ever failed in Buffalo for lack of parking. Only from people’s perceived lack of parking.

In any event, a parking ramp will eventually get built.

And here’s the kicker.

Since that land will be sovereign foreign property, there’s bugger-all anyone can do about what the Senecas do with that site. They could build a hot pink 100-story skyscraper if they wanted to, and nobody could do anything about it.

Here’s what Buffalonians can do on New York State property down there.

Take those surface lots in the Cobblestone District and build things that will not look out-of-place on a cobblestone street and start developing that area. Given that people will probably choose to walk the short distance from, say, a Sabres game to the a little after-game-gaming, we ought to give them opportunities to part with their money en route.

The casino itself isn’t going to make anything better, but let’s make the most of it. A hotel at the Webster Block (where Adelphia was supposed to go) would be a good addition to the area. That way, you’d have Bass Pro – Hotel – HSBC – Cobblestone – Casino all in the same cluster within blocks of each other.

Tags: News