Brian Higgins has done more for Buffalo’s waterfront in the past 10 years than just about everyone. So when Higgins has something to say about it, people ought to listen.

Governor Pataki doesn’t think so, however.

Higgins wrote a letter to Pataki and others, suggesting the creation of an independent waterfront development corporation. It’s a good idea that might actually get something done. It beats having Joel Giambra suggest a casino for the outer harbor, which he was against before he was for it.

All work at the Erie Canal terminus has just about stopped, and it’s a 6-year old project. Higgins is frustrated - and rightfully so.

It’s time to wrest control of the people’s waterfront from the dysfunctional, slow NFTA, as well as from our do-nothing Governor.

Coming to DVD September 20th.

Oh, yeah.

Erie County Legislator Elise Cusack (who is pregnant and was accosted last week by a crazed Joel Giambra in a dark and dank parking lot), is not running for re-election.

She’d rather be with her kids than deal with madmen.

This guy says he’s Deep Throat. W. Mark Felt was number 2 at the FBI at the time. Woodward & Bernstein aren’t saying.

I actually grew up speaking a different language at home, and learned English mostly off of the TV. But I don’t speak that language in my home now, so I get pretty rusty when I’m away from my parents for extended periods of time, and my dad - ever the perfectionist - does not hesitate to correct me.

You know that scene in Life of Brian where the Centurion gives Brian a Latin lesson whilst Brian is trying to write “Romans Go Home” in graffiti? Kind of like that.

So this story from Cate at Jak Skamtar about her recent difficulty ordering ice cream in Swedish made me smile.

When abroad, I always try to negotiate minor transactions in the native language. I know enough German and French to get by, and I can do stuff in Italy like excuse myself, order food, and (if really brave) ask for directions.

But it’s all good so long as I get out what I need to say, and there is a predictable response, of which I can understand about 60%.

When I get a question back, or an unpredictable response, I stand there like a deer caught in the headlights and plead either for God’s sweet mercy, or to instantly re-gain some of the brain cells I squandered in college so that I can understand how to respond in a semi-intelligible way.

Usually, I just revert to: “parlez-vous Anglais / sprechen sie English / parlate Inglese”.

Apparently, you can walk alone.

More about what this nonsense is about: here.

And a huge HT to Figmo for actually getting a picture of this guy, and for the email.

The prolific and always-relevant Figmo at Buffalo Rising expands on my post about parking lots.

Certainly parking in downtown Buffalo will need consolidation and modernization. And that will be in parking ramps. And those parking ramps don’t necessarily have to be fugly. (Did you see they ripped down the horrific ramp between Franklin & Pearl across from the Hyatt? Good riddance.)

He points to one stunning parking garage in Virginia as an example.

Parking can be both utilitarian and aesthetically proper. Parking does not have to equal blight. Figmo’s right. Now we have to change the minds of people in Buffalo who matter.

All of this type of thing could be handled with good zoning regulations and strict enforcement. Instead, we have what seems to be no zoning regulation and lax enforcement of those that do exist.

French voters rejected the EU Constitution, which must be ratified by all member states to become law.

The reasons are varied, and differ from what you might think. But there will be a reassessment of what the EU is and should be, and it probably spells the end of the whole idea of a United States of Europe, and will instead continue on as a very tight customs union with benefits.

Have a good one. No posting today.

Did anyone go to the Free Buffalo shindig yesterday? I meant to check it out, but forgot all about it.

EDIT: Via Craig, KT went. She had a good time and Jim O struck her as an affable and earnest guy.

I bash him and his group quite a bit, but mostly because I think he has his priorities all wrong and he’s a touch arrogant, and a touch impractical and a touch unpragmatic. Once he realizes that you can’t Free Buffalo before you “Free Albany”, then he’ll be on the right track. As it stands now, he’s spinning his wheels.

I have a crazy June coming up, and posting might be lighter than usual. This is the only weekend I really have to enjoy until probably July 4th, so I’ll make the most of it.

But I was thinking about a brief conversation I had the other night with Kevin from The Talk Arena. We talked about swearing. You see, I swear like a sailor - especially when I have a couple of beers in me. I also tend to sneak back into a NY accent when I’m relaxed. So the “f” bomb becomes a frequent adjective - almost like a verbal exclamation point. I barely even consider shit to be a curse word anymore, it’s so ubiquitous.

Sometimes I get curse-y on this blog, but only when I’m pissed off. Like when the County Executive accosts pregnant women in dark, confined parking garages and stuff. But honestly, I wonder if I curse too much. In my professional life, we all curse at the office amongst each other, but not to outside people. Unless we know them well enough. I’ve heard judges and confidential clerks call cases “shit” and that people’s arguments were “bullshit” before, so I suppose we all do it to some extent.

But the “f” bomb? I don’t know. It just rolls of the tongue. I kind of like it. While some consider it to be a sign that I can’t really express myself in a more acceptable manner, I see it as a perfect expressive word a lot of the time.

Anyway, if my cursing offends you, I apologize. I just can’t seem to break the habit, though. And I quit smoking in 1996, and I’m still getting over that, so you’ll have to bear with me.

Enjoy the long weekend.

Chris was at Bloggercon the other night, and identified himself as a future blogger.

The future is now.

http://viewfromtheroof.blogspot.com/

Whilst en route to BloggerCon 2005 last night, I battled traffic and pedestrians (that’s right - pedestrians. On Main Street. In Downtown Buffalo. On the pedestrian zone, no less.) and ended up scooting over to Washington, eschewing Franklin.

I passed a bunch of surface lots and ramps with parking for about $3.00 for last night’s Southside Johnny concert at Thursday at the Square.

One of them was at the lot across from Ya Ya’s. $3.00.

About a block or two later, I spotted a lonely guy with an orange flag - not being waved - and some orange cones.

He was unenthusiastically hawking parking for $5.00. Mind you - this was farther away from Lafayette Square than myriad other lots that were charging $3.00.

Which lot?

Why the Partnership’s, of course.

The title you see above is the biggest lie you’ll see today. Yet, it’s repeated over and over again by myriad people in, out, and around Buffalo.

Esmonde today:

It’s the next battleground for the soul of downtown. It’s a stretch of buildings whose hollow shells have greeted morning commuters for two decades.

Anybody coming off the Kensington Expressway sees it: The noble 19th century brick structures on the corner of Oak and Genesee streets, with an outdated “Support the Mohawk Ramp Convention Center” sign on the side.

Bill Genrich Jr. bought them two decades ago and did the right thing: gutted the insides, braced the walls with steel I-beams and waited for a better day. The problem is Genrich has been waiting for that day since Ronald Reagan’s first term.

A city notorious for letting dawdling developers sit on buildings until they rot finally cracked down last year.

Mayor Tony Masiello fired a warning shot to owners of vacant downtown eyesores: Fix them or sell them, or we will push you out. It was a long-overdue sign of spine, and the right thing for a recovering downtown.

Genrich said, OK, I’ll put in offices and a restaurant in about half my buildings - and knock down the other structures for parking.

We’ve waited two decades for him to do something with empty buildings in a prime spot, and his plan is to demo half of them for a parking lot. Wrong answer.

Genrich says they’re his buildings and he can do what he wants.

“I have to look at this as a businessman,” he said.

Genrich doesn’t need parking. He wants parking that’s adjacent to whatever he builds. There’s a difference between “need” and “want.” And downtown doesn’t need any more at-grade parking. Don’t believe me?

Click this link. Looks like there’s ample parking all over that area.

Memo to Genrich: it’s called valet parking. Learn it. Love it. Everyone else can walk a few blocks. It might be good for them. But please, for the love of God. No more at-grade, surface parking lots marring downtown.

Joel Giambra, our nominal County Executive, has proven himself to be little more than a little, petty, petulant, bullying, asshole, piece of shit, gangster.

Legislator Elise Cusack, who is due to deliver her third child within days, tells NewsRadio 930 WBEN Erie County Executive Joel Giambra confronted her in a parking garage Thursday morning and said: “I hope your children don’t go through what you’re putting my children through“.

The comments allegedly followed an incident between Giambra and another Republican, Dr. Barry Weinstein, in the same garage. WGRZ cites witnesses who claim Giambra called Weinstein “a weasel“, apparently in response to Weinstein’s call for Giambra to resign.

Wow. And these guys are in Giambra’s own (nominally) party.

Giambra’s resorting to cornering pregnant women in parking garages and brings kids into a political dispute. What a puckering asshole.

Notice I have to use “nominally” as an adjective for Giambra a lot today?

nom·i·nal (adj.)

2. Existing in name only.

I also heard through the grapevine that Giambra called a certain county legislator - a female - an effing c-word recently.

What a class act.

It was time for Giambra to go the moment he held up the green & red budgets. That was the tipping point for old Joel. Calling politicians c-words should be the last straw.

Does anyone else find it a bit unseemly that a newsradio station, whose news should ostensibly be objective, is sponsoring an event put on by the local tax revolt group, Free Buffalo?

I know they broadcast the addict in midday, the 80s throwback in the morning, and the bald guy with the strange laugh in the afternoon, but from 6-9 am, from 6-7 pm, and at the top & bottom of every hour, I expect them not to take sides on any issue.

But they have, and I wonder if it jibes with traditional notions of journalistic ethics.

Thanks for coming, everyone.

I had a wonderful time meeting about 20 clever, smart, and funny men and women from all parts of the area, from all or no political persuasion, who met to mingle, drink beers, eat wings and have a good time.

Newell and I were thinking this might be a good event to hold a few times a year - maybe quarterly. (I was thinking every 6 month). I’d also like to switch around the locations to spread the wealth around a bit, so to speak. Maybe one in the Falls, maybe one in the Southtowns, Northtowns, other parts of the city.

So, to all who came and made it a fun and great success, I say thank you. To those of you who couldn’t make it, I hope to meet you all at a future Buffalo BloggerCon. (Dave Torke has posted some pictures).

Attendees:
WNY Media Net
North Coast USA
All Things Jennifer
Buffalo Rising
Fix Buffalo
Talk Arena
Erin-go-Blog
Random Daily Thoughts
Revitalize Buffalo
WNY Coalition for Progress
Greenhouse on Grant
This is Ali

Edit: Forgot Ali. Sorry, bud.

The guvmint crash-tested the brand-new, all-new, spanking new Chevy Cobalt. (The Cavalier’s replacement).

It received 2/5 stars for side impact, driver’s side. Frontal impact gets 5 stars, but 2 is just embarassing. I know it’s a compact car, but there are plenty of safe compact cars. The Mini Cooper gets better crash ratings than that.

Even worse for domestic GM, a car built on the same platform as the Cobalt - the Opel/Vauxhall Astra, got 5 stars.

NHTSA tested 19 models from various makers and the Cobalt was the only car to receive two stars in any category. Two other cars tested in the compact class, the Scion tC and Saturn Ion received better scores. The Toyota Avalon, Volvo V70 and Mitsubishi Galant received top scores.

GM should be ashamed. And local people, who love GM, should think twice before getting a Cobalt.

SUV sales are plummeting due to high energy prices.

Market researchers J.D. Power and Associates say full-sized SUV sales declined by 22 percent this year through April, while sales of small “entry level” SUVs rose by almost 8 percent. Also rising are sales of compact cars, Power said.

Go ahead and get an SUV if you want; I certainly think you should be allowed to. But SUVs are:

- not fun to drive
- do not handle well
- are usually topheavy
- get sometimes 1/2 the fuel economy of a regular sedan or station wagon
- built with ginormous gas tanks so that they can get 250 miles’ worth of range on a 30 gallon tank
- rollover-prone
- not subject to car safety regulations, and are less safe in a crash
- little more than oversized hatchbacks and station wagons

I got rid of my Honda Pilot SUV when gas hit $1.85. I couldn’t imagine paying $50 to gas up twice a week, but that’s what I’d be doing if I still had that thing.

Route 219 will be extended. 3.5 miles. No big whoop there. It’ll get you past the Wal Mart Supercenter, though.

The 3.5-mile extension is budgeted at $63 million. The construction contracts are scheduled to be awarded in April 2006, with work starting that summer. Work is scheduled to be completed by fall 2008.

$18,000,000 per mile?

The Cheektowaga casino site is effectively killed by Judge Makowski’s ruling yesterday that an environmental impact study (which would take about 2 years) be completed. The Senecas have a shorter deadline than that under the compact to start construction on an Erie County casino.

Please, not on the waterfront people.

Had to go to Rochester on biziness this morning, and returned back to Buffalo with the window & sunroof wide open, blasting the Beatles “Let it Be: Naked”, which is an amazing album, btw.

Had to repeat “One After 909″ and “Two of Us” a few times. It was 77 degrees at Transit an Wehrle. Nice day. Nice day.

So tonight is the big Bloggercon, and I’m happy that a bunch of local bloggers can meet to eat wings and drink beer. Should be fun. And there is no American Idol, no Survivor, no Apprentice, no Amazing Race to watch tonight. I will, however, have to watch the new show on Fox featuring Gordon Ramsey. Looks like fun.

Busy afternoon, so I’ll see y’all tonight.

The 1st Buffalo BloggerCon
Anchor Bar
1047 Main Street
Buffalo
Thursday May 26th 7pm (i.e., TODAY)

Be there or be a shape with four equal sides.

If possible, I’d like to get a headcount so I can alert the restaurant. Thanks.

Greater Buffalo Savings Bank is local, is expanding, and is adding jobs, jobs, jobs.

And their buildings are really beautifully designed, to boot.

Eran Epstein is an intrepid entrepreneur, who obtained federal housing money to buy, renovate and rehabilitate an old factory to low-income, downtown, near-luxury housing.

He intends to bring new graduates downtown at rents of about $500/month and within walking distance of Chippewa and Main Street.

Here’s what the building will look like.

Here’s the view.

We need more of this. A lot more.