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. If you’re on the I-90 Eastbound by the airport, the I-290 interchange is counterintuitive. Reconfigure the exit so that the left lanes continue straight onto the 290, and the right lanes turn east towards Albany;and 2. Ramps onto and off of our expressways are banked backwards, increasing the risk of truck rollovers. Bank them correctly.)

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A New Beginning?

By: Alan Bedenko
Date: March 30, 2007

The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation announced today that a tripartite “predevelopment agreement” had been reached between it, Benderson Development, and the popular retailer Bass Pro.

ECHDC Chairman Anthony Gioia called the agreement “exciting” and a “new beginning” for Buffalo waterfront development.

Larry Quinn, who spearheaded the recent effort to attract Bass Pro to Buffalo’s waterfront alluded to the 3-year old non-binding deal to site the store in the mothballed Memorial Auditorium. Quinn said that, when the ECHDC came on board, it took another look at that deal and would see what was really possible. Instead of a single deal for a single store in a single structure, the ECHDC looked at repositioning downtown Buffalo to the inner harbor waterfront.

Click here to read more.

The Looming Housing Crisis?

By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: March 19, 2007

Lately, the big news out of Wall Street has been the continuing problems related to the sub-prime housing market. Sub-prime borrowers are those with poor credit histories or those with limited income. In the past most of these borrowers would never qualify for a mortgage loan. But in the last decade lenders such as Household International (now owned by Buffalo’s own HSBC Bank USA), Countrywide Loans and New Century Mortgage made billions of dollars by offering loans to sub-prime borrowers.

To read the rest of the column click HERE.

Too Little, Too Late

By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: January 17, 2007

Next Tuesday, President Bush will present his State of the Union address to the nation. In past addresses he was guaranteed a complicit crowd that would stand and clap on cue, but not this year. This will be his first address before a democratically controlled Congress, and perhaps because of this fact, the president may present a more sobering description of reality in Iraq to the people of the United States than during any previous State of the Union.

To read the rest of the column click HERE.


It All Starts In Our Heads

By: Ashok Subramanian
Date: December 30, 2006

Pundit posted recently on the concept of “Shrinking Cities,” which discusses how other, older American cities have successfully begun to cope with dynamic changes in their urban core.

It’s a good piece and provides some evidence for a thought related to Buffalo I’ve been trying to wrap my head around for a while.

Specifically, my interpretation of the Shrinking Cities article is that the cities that have more successfully shrunk, like Youngstown, Ohio and Richmond, Virgina, have come to terms with the fact that the world has changed. In doing so, they have recognized that their cities must be remodeled to accept current reality and a likely future, rather than trying to recapture a bygone era.

To read the rest of the column click HERE.


Budget Rhetoric
By: Alan Bedenko
Date: November 28, 2006

Jim Ostrowski posted his comments from last night’s forum. It’s always interesting to me to read the area’s Libertarian-in-chief’s take on budget proceedings.

If you haven’t already noticed, I’m a big opponent of cheesy rhetoric to make a valid political point. When people don’t like something related to health care, they bring up “socialized medicine”. When people think someone is being heavy-handed in some way, there is invariably a comparison to fascism or Hitler or Nazis or something else that is wholly out of proportion to the actual thing being complained-of. When Ostrowski doesn’t like public funding for libraries or cultural attractions like theater or museums,

he calls them special interests with their hands out and their hands in the taxpayers’ pockets.

Click here to read more.

What's Next for Democrats? Govern.
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: November 14, 2006

Last Tuesday was a banner night to be a democrat. Everyone knows the Democratic Party recaptured the House of Representatives by a healthy margin and the Senate by a seat (assuming Joe Lieberman caucuses with the democrats), but on January 1, 2007 there will also be six new democratic governors in states that were held by republicans (New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Maryland, Arkansas and Colorado). Democrats also picked up many seats in statehouses across the country and now have one party rule in 15 states.

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2010
By: Alan Bedenko
Date: November 10, 2006

That’s when Spitzer’s up for re-election.

I read this very thoughtful post over at NYCO’s blog and I, too, thought throughout 2005 that this year’s election would be a watershed moment for upstate and western New York. I set up a whole separate category for those posts as soon as I switched to Wordpress in April 2005, and had already endorsed Spitzer when I was still on my blogger site.

Click here to read more.

What Advice Does the President Actually Follow?
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: October 1, 2006

When rumors started flowing out of Washington on the negative conclusions drawn by our national security agencies in a recent National Intelligence Estimate on the War in Iraq (NIE), the president and his advisors jumped into action denouncing the reports. They had no choice but to respond, for it was reported that the NIE concluded that the War in Iraq had actually made America less safe. If that was the case, then the administration's most recent justification for the War in Iraq - that we were fighting there to make our nation safe from terrorism - was false. This of course follows the other flawed premises used for going to war: that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, or that Iraq was involved in the planning or carrying out of 9/11.

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Support Net Neutrality
By: Christopher Smith
Date: September 14, 2006

Today, the Internet is a neutral medium. Data sent from wnymedia.net has the same priority across the wires as data sent from google.com. This manner of operation (aka common carriage) has been in practice for hundreds of years in the communications business. It has also made it possible for anyone with an internet connection and a dream to start their own company, communicate ideas, or find an innovative way to deliver software and services. Think of an Internet without Amazon, EBay, Netscape, Mozilla, or Google...all businesses that were based on the inherent advantages of common carriage and net neutrality.

Click here to read more.

Top 10 Lists We Do Not Want to Ever Be On Again
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: September 1, 2006

Last week's Buffalo Old Home Week showed that there is much to celebrate about Buffalo and Erie County. However, this week the U.S. Census Bureau released some telling statistics about the economic make-up of our fair city that is very troubling.

Click here to read more.

New Buffalo: "It's Deep How You Can Be So Shallow..."

By: Marc J. Odien
Date: August 27, 2006

Buffalo, NY - I read this article on Buffalo Rising today and it was in such sharp contrast to the reality that hit me in the face Friday night that I couldn't take it anymore. It's titled: A day in the life of Buffalo?

Whose day in the life? "New Buffalo's"?

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Do Political Blogs Matter?
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: July 8, 2006

Last month hundreds of progressives descended on Las Vegas for the first annual YearlyKos Convention, what could only be described as an in person and Internet meeting of many of the new online media representing the progressive/liberal/democratic viewpoint. Organized by Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, it brought together politicans, party leaders, activists and bloggers from around the country to celebrate and flex the muscles of the new found power of the "netroots."

Click here to read more.

Dissent & Patriotism
By: Alan Bedenko
Date: July 4, 2006

Craig of Northcoatsonline starts up a discussion of patriotism. In order to prove what patriotism isn’t, he plucks the low-hanging fruit; quoting Cindy Sheehan:


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Encouraging the Renaissance
By: Christopher Smith
Date: June 2, 2006

On Tuesday, the Buffalo News profiled Rocco Termini and his rehabilitation of classic downtown buildings. The article focuses on the stated need for New York State to provide historic tax credits for those who wish to return classic buildings like the Webb, Vernor, and the Graystone to life as mixed use residential/retail complexes. Click here to read more.

Civic Participation
By: Alan Bedenko
Date: June 1, 2006

Yesterday, the Erie County Revision Commission held its first public hearing at ECC North. 4 people spoke.

From Tonawanda to Akron; 4 people.

Today, after coverage by channels 2, 4, 7, plus an article and editorial from the Buffalo News, at the second hearing at ECC South, 5 people spoke.

From Hamburg to Springville; 5 people.

Click here to read more.

Spring Cleaning
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: April 24, 2006

With his poll numbers at record lows, his former war generals questioning his administration's decisions, and his party abandoning him at every chance, last week President Bush faced a key decision on how to save his administration. Many expected heads to roll in the ultimate of spring cleanings, and some Republicans even suggested that a change in policy was necessary.

Click here to read more.


Don't Drink the Water
By: Christopher Smith
Date: April 23, 2006

I guess this was “make ex-pats feel good about their decision day” at the Buffalo News. It’s the only explanation for a wildly shoddy and incomplete piece of reporting on the disparate costs of water between cities and towns of Central Arizona and Western New York.Click here to read more.

IMMIG-RANT
By: Alan Bedenko
Date: March 28, 2006

Immigrants come to this country for a better life; they come here to work hard and improve their lot in life. Many of them will come here illegally, paying their life savings to bandits who will shuttle them across a harsh desert border, just so they can come live here and get paid a pittance to do work that few others want to do. Click here to read more.

The SSR Belarus
By: Alan Bedenko
Date: March 4, 2006

Sometimes they never learn.

The last socialist regimes in Europe toppled in the late 80s and early 1990s. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the DDR, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria - the core of the Eastern European Warsaw Pact - overthrew their dictatorships in 1989 in an historic, dramatic upheaval. Click here to read more.

An Education Budget that is Guaranteed to Fail
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: February 8, 2006

In his State of the Union address last week, President Bush emphasized our nation's need to better educate our young in order that they may adequately compete in the global marketplace. I don't know a person in this country who would disagree with this premise, and many were looking forward to seeing how the "Education President" planned on implemeting his education initiatives. Click to read more.

A Democratic Primary is Needed in the 26th Congressional District
By: Alan Bedenko
Date: February 8, 2006

Tom Reynolds is my Congressman. He’s a swell friend of Tom DeLay’s. I’m not crazy about that.

Jack Davis is the owner of a manufacturing concern in my district. He is anti-free-trade. He would like to, essentially, raise tariffs on imports to the United States so that those imports become more expensive. He believes that this would prompt the American economy to grow more domestic manufacturing jobs. Click to read more.

Worth Every Single Penny
By: Christa Vidaver
Date: January 13, 2006

I am tired of the disparagement of Buffalo by those who do not live here, by those that have left and by some, and it is only some, of those that still do live here. I am tired of the cynicism that pervades the bloggosphere, the supermarket, the media and the city streets about our city. As someone who has lived for years in a different city, I can tell you that Buffalo has got it above and beyond what Boston has or ever had. Click to read more.

If Idaho Can Do It, Why Not New York?
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: November 30, 2005

Yesterday the State of Idaho announced that it was spending $6,000,000 to purchase 932 new voting machines to be used by the blind and handicapped so they may cast their votes independently. Funding for the purchase is coming from the federal government pursuant to the Help America Vote Act (”HAVA”). Click to read more.

Cindy Sheehan v. George W. Bush
By: Bob Farmer
Date: August 23, 2005

Much has been written about Cindy Sheehan and her protest in front of President George W. Bush's Texas Ranch. I'm writing in support of Cindy Sheehan and her wish to speak to President George W. Bush (The W. stands for "Willing...to send your family, but not his"). Ms. Sheehan's son Army Spc. Casey Sheehan was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, and now she would like to speak to Mr. Bush and request that he bring the troops home. Click to read more.



Ignorance is Bliss?
By: Ilona Middleton
Date: May 17, 2005

I have never been ashamed of this country, but I have been ashamed of some of the leaders of the country, local, state, and national, and what they’ve done under the guise of democracy, particularly in the area of human rights. In this, many of our government leaders and their followers have let us, and the world, down. Click to read more.



A Mexican Standoff
By: Rob Smith
Date: February 27, 2005

It’s not quite time to feel sorry for the Erie County Legislature, but they appear to be in a nearly impossible situation. After years of complacency, the citizens of this county have opened their eyes, saying enough is enough. Our perception is that tax rate paid by the average homeowner in this area is disproportionate to the rest of the nation. Although there is enough blame to go around for the current mess we find ourselves, the Legislature has become the proverbial “deer in headlights” at this point in time. Click to read more.

Abolish County Government
By: Alan Bedenko
Date: February 16, 2005

The current Erie County budget fiasco has underscored a very evident truth. County government is redundant. We don't need it. It's wasteful and inefficient.

Right now, county taxpayers are leading a revolt against higher sales taxes. Our sales tax already ranks among the highest in the nation. People have had enough. Our property taxes are 72% higher than the national average. For what? There is not one service that county government provides that cannot be administered at the state or municipal level.

Click to read more.

A County on the Brink from a Failure of Leadership
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: February 16, 2005

After years of declining population and the usual negative news it appeared at the end of 2004 that Erie County's future might be back on the right track. Geico was coming to Amherst and bringing 2000 jobs with them. Downtown Buffalo was seeing a rebirth - from the announcement of the coming of Bass Pro Shop, to the anticipated Outer Harbor redevelopment, and the return of empty nesters living in the downtown core - a feeling that 2005 would be a grand year. Then County Executive Joel Giambra's prior tax cuts and free-wheeling spending came back to haunt him and the county such that we are faced with a fiscal crisis that could alter the community as we know it. ...Click to read more.

Just Words
By: Ilona Middleton
Date: February 7, 2005

Through the destruction of a governmental philosophy that defines a country, all the freedoms and responsibilities inherent in the system are destroyed. By so doing, a new regime with its own agenda can emerge. Often, it is the words that are used and the way they are used that helps destroy an existing system, in this case, a democracy. Words are most powerful weapons. Click to read more.

A Crisis of Leadership, Not Social Security
By: Anne Costello
Date: January 21, 2005

I must confess to being confused about the “crisis” with Social Security. During the past year Vice President Cheney indicated that actual "deficits don't count" and should not be taken into consideration when examining the state of the economy. If that is the case, then why should we worry about potential deficits in the Social Security Trust Fund when the earliest they will occur, if ever, is 2042?

If fiscal sanity does count, ... Click to read more.

Higher Minimum Wage Won't Hurt Economy
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: January 21, 2005

The following appeared in the Jan. 21, 2005 edition of Business First Buffalo

Chris Koetzle concludes in his viewpoint published in the Jan. 7, 2005 edition of Buffalo Business First that the recent increase in New York State's minimum wage to $7.15 an hour by 2007 will "cause significant harm to small businesses and local economies, particularly in Upstate New York." Without quoting any factual sources, he goes on to note that the increase "is an anti-worker, anti-business policy that only leads to fewer jobs." However, when you examine the facts surrounding the issue nothing could be further from the truth.

According to a report ... Click to read more.

Is Bush An American Patriot?
By: Ilona Middleton
Date: January 20, 2005

The oath taken by the President, the Military and the Congress states that each person taking the oath will "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." So, who's protecting and defending our Constitution and Bill of Rights, Bush? Nope. Who's the patriot, Bush? Not hardly. He and his regime have been busy shredding these precious documents to bits. Click to read more.

What Happens Next For Democrats,
An Analysis of 2004 and a Course of Action For the Future
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: January 17, 2005

The election of 2004 is over, and obituaries are being written for the Democratic Party. John Kerry’s defeat at the hands of George W. Bush, coupled with the losses sustained by Democrats in Congress, have led some commentators to call the 2004 election a mandate for conservative ideals. We are told that the nation is entering a new age of family values and a right-wing dominated agenda. To Democrats it seems that the values they believe in no longer matter; that they are becoming a fringe party in the American process. Those who say and believe so are wrong. Click to read more.

Bush's Second Term Agenda
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: December 27, 2004

Feeling energized after the November election President Bush is beginning to lay out the framework for his second term. Focusing his efforts on restructuring Social Security, the president looks to put his stamp on an American institution. But as soon as he takes the oath of office he will be a lame duck president whose term will be held hostage to the events in Iraq. Click to read more.