BuffaloPunditBuffaloPunditA mostly political blog from and about Buffalo and Western New York Articles
Milestones
2008-04-30 00:00:00 This year, my wife and I both turn 40 years of age. She goes first - today. To my beautiful wife who loves me and keeps me sane, Happiest of Happy Birthdays. Also, when I first moved here, there was a little crew of four of us ... More About: Milestones
Mayor?s Impact Team: More to It
2008-04-30 00:00:00 Is Bill Buyers from the Mayor 's Impact Team a sinner or a saint? In response to my post about him yesterday, "Viking" posted this comment: Is this the same Buyers who allegedly donates his pay to charity, and volunteers his time to the needy and homeless. The political hack ...
Paladino Pisses Everybody Off
2008-04-30 00:00:00 Carl Paladino - a private, albeit well-connected and well-known, citizen - said some mean things about Buffalo School Superintendent James Williams. In fact, they were downright stupid. If you say something stupid, does your local legislature come down on you for it? Common Council members, in a 5-4 ...
Traffic and the Lack Thereof
2008-04-29 00:00:00 Buffalo is the best city for commuters because we have a highway infrastructure designed in the 50s (and looking every day of it) for a population of 500,000+ people, which everyone assumed would just continue to grow. (If I might just interject a suggestion or two here: 1. ... More About: Traffic , Lack
Civilization Breaks Down on the Bus to Wilson
2008-04-29 00:00:00 Um, hi. Look - I was never that athletic in high school. I'm sure that comes as a jaw-dropping shock to you all. I participated in some junior varsity sports, and otherwise just did what the state required me to do in phys ed. That's about ... More About: Civilization , Breaks , Wilson
Missing the Non-Existent Bus
2008-04-29 00:00:00 Talk about finding out about something too late. Today - April 29th - is Albany "Reform Day". Citizens from across the state will be converging on Albany to promote the following agenda: Enough... of rules that concentrate Albany's power in the hands of only three men. Enough... of sham ... More About: Missing
Been There, Done That
2008-04-29 00:00:00 I accidentally stumbled on this: In the 1860s an Act of the State Legislature created the Niagara Frontier Police District, which encompassed Buffalo and Tonawanda in Erie County and Wheatfield in Niagara County. Six to eight constables comprised the early membership of the Buffalo Police Department around the late 1830s. It was ...
Caught in the Act!
2008-04-29 00:00:00 Kudos to Steve Barber and embattled Channel 7, which caught members of the Mayor's Impact Team doing yardwork at another member's North Buffalo home using city equipment and vehicles. The City Comptroller is now conducting an audit, and Artvoice's Geoff Kelly has his FOIL requests out. But ... More About: Caught
Westchester County Looking to Abolish Itself
2008-04-29 00:00:00 From the Politics on the Hudson blog, looks like my old stomping grounds are getting radical. Spurred on by anger over high taxes and proposed raises for County Legislators, the move to abolish Westchester County government may not be rolling yet, but it?s at least at the starting line. ...
Higgins? Take on the Common Tern Abattoir
2008-04-29 00:00:00 The Federal Highway Administration finds that Buffalo can't have the kind of bridge that so many other cities have because birds might become confused, and their food - little fish in the river - might also become confused. Brian Higgins (D-NY) responds: ?In 2005 a public panel recommended a ... More About: Common
FAQ
2008-04-27 00:00:00 I was interviewed about the blog recently, and decided to put up a FAQ for people. Sorry.
Rennaissance
2008-04-27 00:00:00 The conclusion of the Buffalo News' analysis of the Brown Administration's list of "projects underway" in downtown Buffalo. In short: private-sector investment is down, not up, under Brown. I posted about that list in February, and noted that one of the vaunted investments included: B-Kwik expansion-Tim Horton?s, 1991 Seneca Street, ...
Ballin?
2008-04-27 00:00:00 Donn Esmonde's column examines the subject of indecency during prime-time television. Specifically, he was watching an episode of the alleged sitcom "Two and a Half Men", and characters therein used the word "balls" when referring to their testicles. The word "balls" can also be defined as "courage". ...
Much Ado About Sod All
2008-04-26 00:00:00 Shakespeare is to inaccessible to British schoolkids, so satirist Martin Baum has come up with chav Shakespeare. It's Ali G meets the Bard. The title of his book? "To Be or Not to Be, Innit." (Chav is defined here). Here's the list of titles: ALL?S SWEET ...
Tolls Up, State Down
2008-04-26 00:00:00 Yesterday, the board of the New York State Thruway Authority - a quasi-governmental entity with little or no oversight by politicians over the money it collects and spend - voted to raise tolls 5% next year, and 5% the year after. This follows a 10% hike earlier this year, ...
Peace Bridge OMFG
2008-04-25 00:00:00 Correct me if I'm wrong. All of this happened several years before I moved here or cared. When Peace Bridge expansion plans first began, it was going to be a second, almost identical steel span. Planning to double bridge capacity began in 1992 and was to start construction ...
Blame the Common Tern
2008-04-25 00:00:00 The scapegoat. Read about the history of that term here. Now that the federal government is using the common tern and its food as scapegoats for the changing of the Peace Bridge design, I nominate the common tern to become the scapegoat for everything that fails Buffalo. ... More About: Common , Blame
Mugabe: Godwin?s Law Need Not Apply
2008-04-25 00:00:00 Robert Mugabe is one thug who won't let a little thing like an election stand in the way of brutal repression of any opposition. The former freedom fighter who has clung to power for 28 years and sports an anachronistic, eyebrow-raising Hitler mustache, quite clearly lost re-election on March ...
Buffalo Lunch Randomizer
2008-04-25 00:00:00 The Buffalo Lunch Randomizer . Answering that age-old question for downtown workers: where should we go for lunch? The disclaimer at the bottom of the page says you have to "obey it, always". So, obey.
Hindsight is 20:20 and Expensive
2008-04-25 00:00:00 The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation has asked its daddy, the Empire State Development Corporation, for some changes to stuff that's already been done to the Canal Side site. From a letter penned by ECHDC chair Jordan Levy: Removing the interpretative facade and relocating its glass map along the ...
Everything?s Easier in Flowchart Form
2008-04-25 00:00:00 Originally from the New York Times, HT Richard Florida's Creative Class Blog. More About: Form
Smile
2008-04-23 00:00:00 You're on the GipsonCam. That's very nice, but frankly wouldn't cops walking a regular beat also be a great community-based deterrent? How soon before these are used for revenue enhancement such as pegging cars with expired registrations, etc? More About: Smile
Pennsylvania
2008-04-23 00:00:00 Changes nothing. The last primaries before Pennsylvania 's to which any attention was paid took place in Ohio and Texas on March 4th. Back then, Pennsylvania polling showed Clinton's lead to be 52 - 37 over Obama. Over 6 weeks of having Clinton throw the kitchen sink at ...
Hey, WNY Conservatives
2008-04-23 00:00:00 Yeah, both of you. Because I know you guys are champing at the bit to celebrate and perpetuate the rousing successes provided by such luminaries as George W. Bush, Tom Reynolds, and Joel Giambra, here's a new local conservative blog for you to check out. More About: Conservatives
Davis? Millionaire Amendment
2008-04-22 00:00:00 I'm always tickled by the argument that money = free speech in politics. It was the argument made by opponents of McCain-Feingold, and it's being used by curmudgeonly obnoxious Jack Davis in the Supreme Court. Under the "millionaire's amendment", if a candidate for congress self-finances by more than ... More About: Millionaire , Amendment
A Post in the Style of Bruce
2008-04-22 00:00:00 If Bruce Andriatch can do a column's worth of bullet points today, I can do this. 1. The Buffalo Board of Education is dysfunctional? Gee, who'dathunkit? Everybody whining about people needing to move into the city should focus efforts on this one area of import. They futzed ... More About: Post , Style
Gas Prices
2008-04-22 00:00:00 That's Gasbuddy.com's 5-year track comparing Buffalo's gas prices (blue) to the US average (red). When we left Buffalo last Saturday, gas prices were around $3.40. They were about the same in Florida, and stayed about the same all week; we paid a low of $3.37 and a high ... More About: Gas Prices , Prices
Mary Kunz Goldman has a Blog
2008-04-22 00:00:00 Someone emailed the URL to me while I was away, and I checked it out yesterday upon my return. When I regularly mock(ed) her Monday column in the News or Thursday "Buzz", my biggest critique was that it was as if the News was publishing what amounted to blog ... More About: Blog , Mary
Perspectives and Expectations
More articles from this author:2008-04-22 00:00:00 Upon departure from Fort Lauderdale Saturday at 3:00 p.m.: Upon arrival in the Buffalo area at 5:30 p.m.: We spent most of our time down in Southern Florida, but did relent and take the kids to Disney on Wednesday. We stayed overnight at a Radisson in Lake Buena Vista. ... More About: Expectations , Perspectives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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