Garrett’s stance is beside the point
7/30/2005

Your newspaper has carried numerous articles regarding Harvey Garrett. I must say that it is symptomatic of Buffalo’s great malaise that a wealthy “housing advocate” can neglect the exterior of his house for a decade and still be portrayed in local media as a victim and a hero. I personally could not care less whether Garrett is now “standing tall” or sitting low provided he has a paint brush in hand and is complying with the same laws to which the rest of us (friends of judges or no) have been subject all along.

Paul Curtin
Buffalo

This is what we call “missing the forest for the trees.” But there are two Curtins in the City’s inspections services department.

Housing inspection case has been overplayed
7/30/2005

When we were kids, it was commonplace to “pile on” one of your friends once they were down. It was easy to jump on the “big kid” once everybody else was on top of him. This very same scenario comes to mind with the Harvey Garrett-Ray McGurn inspection dispute.

The articles that appeared in the News anointed Garrett as a “hero” for his home restoration and his work as a “liaison” to City Housing Court. Indeed, Garrett’s restoration is being undertaken at a time when other homeowners have simply fled their obligation to do the same. And he has also served a vital role for Judge Henry Nowak as liaison between homeowners and the court.

However, Garrett is also a citizen of the city of Buffalo, subject to the same rules and regulations as the other Buffalonians. Garrett has also over stepped his bounds while “volunteering” in Nowak’s court. Although the notion of a liaison is eye-opening when it comes to City Hall’s way of doing things, Garrett has no authority to supercede the authority of building inspectors, nor does he have the right to bypass them in proceedings before the court.

Was Ray McGurn’s perceived “retribution” right? Probably not. But when you head up a division that has been barraged by cuts in manpower, clerical help, and resources, you too would probably like the opportunity to lash out at those who make light of your misfortune.

Dennis D. Kozuch
Cheektowaga

The point wasn’t whether Garrett had or didn’t have violatons, fellas.

The egregious part was that his case jumped to the head of a queue of 500 other, older cases. I’d bet dollars to donuts that anyone who defends Ray McGurn’s little fiefdom has an axe to grind.

I have known the Buffalo News has very little concern for the value & sanctity of life via its position on abortion, including partial birth. The juxtaposition in Saturday’s News of the father & son who lost their lives in a drowning incident & the mercy killing of dogs is just plain immortal. The dog photo & story was much larger than the loss of those two human lives, number one. Both should have never been put on the front as if both stories deserved equal coverage, number two; but in this case the dogs got better. I showed the front page to a neighbor & to my surprise the woman said, “this is Buffalo, what do you expect, the victims are Black.”

You know who wrote that. The second you saw the word “immortal” in place of the word “immoral”, you knew who wrote that. Didn’tcha? I don’t even need to link to it, do I? Plus, the clumsy indictment of the News having a racial animus is a dead giveaway, innit?

Also: that particular site has a really, really in-depth attack on Kevin Helfer & Carl Palladino. They suggest that a crime’s been committed.

That is quite figuratively the pot calling the kettle black.

Case 6984/2005 : HOLT, MARION G. vs. ERIE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS; Jasen & Jasen are the attorneys for the plaintiff. A Notice to Show Cause was filed 7/28 and is to be heard by Judge Sedita 8/5/05.

Case 6869/2005 : COONEY, SEAN v. ERIE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS; Burd & McCarthy are the attorneys for the plaintiff. A Notice to Show Cause was filed 7/26 and is to be heard by Judge Makowski 8/5/05.

Case 6868/2005 : COONEY, SEAN v. ERIE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS; Burd & McCarthy are the attorneys for the plaintiff. A “miscellaneous:” motion was filed 7/26 and is to be heard by Judge Lane 8/3/05.

Case 7023/2005 : DI PALMA, ANN LOUISE v. ERIE COUNTY BOARD; Davis, Augello & Matteliano is attorney for the plaintiff. It is assigned to Judge Burns. They have a hearing with Burns 8/2.

Case 7040/2005 : DI PALMA, ANN LOUISE v. ERIE COUNTY BOARD; Craig Hannah is attorney for the plaintiff. It is assigned to Judge Curran. He has a hearing with Curran 8/2.

7039/2005 : ADAMCZYK, LAURENCE F. v. ERIE COUNTY BOARD ; Craig Hannah is attorney for the plaintiff. It is assigned to Judge Siwek for hearing on 8/4.

I’m still pro-Bass Pro.

I think the Pittsburgh store wouldn’t necessarily adversely impact Buffalo’s store. Pittsburgh doesn’t have a lake, an Erie Canal terminus historical project, the ability to test-drive boats, an Erie Canal Heritage Museum, etc. Buffalo would.

Personally, I have a hunch that the Pittsburgh story - which isn’t even that new, actually - is merely Bass Pro holding NYS’ feet to the fire to get the final contract finished, already. Negotiating tactic.

From WNYMedia.net’s front page:

Another Perfect example of why judges should not have to run for office.

Byron Brown’s Peeps have filed 4 different lawsuits regarding knocking off Byron’s competition in the upcoming mayor’s race.

As usual , If you follow the money, Judge Curran, who will oversee these lawsuits has contributed and been contributed to by none other than Byron Brown and other Brown Interests (grassroots inc.)

The lawsuits are to be in front of Judge Curran on August 2nd and 3rd.

Ann Louise DiPalma has filed three lawsuits against the Board of Elections

Larry Adamczyk filed the fourth complaint

Looking through financial filings of both Judge Curran and and our soon to be mayor, (we can stop that you know!!) some interesting connections begin to form…

Monies given to Byron Brown and interests from Judge Curran:

10/12/04 BUFFALO NY C/O ALONZO THOMPSON, 811 HUMBOLDT PKWY.14208 $3,500.00 GRASSROOTS, INC.

08/24/04 NY $50.00 COMMITTEE TO ELECT BYRON W.BROWN

And, more specifically: Part 100 of the Rules of the Chief Administrator of the Courts Governing Judicial Conduct

22 NYCRR Part 100

Section 100.1 A judge shall uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary.

Section 100.2 A judge shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all of the judge’s activities.

Section 100.3 A judge shall perform the duties of judicial office impartially and diligently.

Section 100.4 A judge shall so conduct the judge’s extra-judicial activities as to minimize the risk of conflict with judicial obligations.

Section 100.5 A judge or candidate for elective judicial office shall refrain from inappropriate political activity.

Hint: suspenders.

Ya gotta be in it to win it. (turn down your sound).

I was in 9th grade.

HT NYCO

Bass Pro proposes to build a large, campus-like store in the Pittsburgh area. Holding up the Buffalo Aud Bass Pro deal are issues concerning ground rent and PILOTs; you’ll recall that the WNY Coalition for Progress’ position paper recommended either or both for the Buffalo Deal.

Bass Pro says the Pittsburgh announcement doesn’t affect the Buffalo store adversely, and a marketing professor from Canisius agrees. Every store is different and is a destination, and Bass Pro has never closed a store. Bass Pro says it’s still pledging at least $57 million for the planned Aud store, so that’s good. Remember: the Buffalo store will have a unique emphasis on Great Lakes fishing - something Pittsburgh can’t do.

I hope that the new Waterfront Commission can help make some progress on the Buffalo store deal, which seems like it’s being held up by typical Albany laziness. If they don’t finalize this thing soon, it’s gone. And that’s not a good thing.

Goodbye

Hello

It’s the public affairs interview show that makes news!

11 am Sunday on 930 AM WBEN:

This Sunday (7/31): Len Roberto from Primary Challenge.

Next Sunday (8/7), EC Dem. Chair Len Lenihan draws the short straw.

In keeping with the theme, the Perfesser is looking for more Lens, like Len Dykstra (1986 World Champion NY Mets
centerfielder) for the following Sundays.

In commenting on my earlier post about the “Energy” bill that Bush will sign into law today in order to hand out lots of my money and your money to the poor, destitute energy companies, he asks why I threw in the comment about Bush & co. being incompetent, given that oil has doubled in price to $60/barrel since we invaded Iraq.

The subtext is:

Rumsfeld wanted to engage in an experiment to test his theory that he could invade and conquer Iraq with a greater reliance on technology than on troop strength & numbers.

The problem is, you can’t occupy a country with laser beams and expect it to remain remotely stable. That’s incompetent.

When the administration sold us this war, they said Iraq had so much oil it could pay for its own occupation, and then some. That hasn’t happened - not by a very long shot. (The AEI neocon cretin who suggested this was promoted to head of the World Bank).

So the insurgency has stymied oil production and exportation due to the fact that our occupying force hasn’t the ability to maintain a semblance of law & order in the country. In the meantime, OPEC has been playing games with oil supply, driving the price way up. Despite what Bush said in 2000, he either has no political will, or not enough political clout, to convince OPEC to do very much about it. We have to go begging to Bush’s Saudi buddies with whom he holds hands like Oliver Twist asking for more gruel.

Even though the war was allegedly not about oil, part of the sales pitch was that Iraqi oil sales with sanctions lifted would help us and them.

With a jump from $1.55 to $2.30/gallon, I’d say their sales pitch was so off the mark that it was false advertising. (Maybe Spitzer should investigate).

Maybe - just maybe, Rumsfeld should have listened to the generals and put more boots on the ground. Maybe, just maybe, the US could have taken Blix at face value: he told us in late 2002 that there was no evidence of WMD or WMD programs in Iraq, yet that was the justification for war. The administration and its mouthpieces called Blix an Iraqi lapdog who couldn’t be trusted. Well, 150,000 US troops occupying Iraq didn’t find any WMDs either. The US and its AEI neocon overlords owe Blix an apology.

Maybe - just maybe, US diplomats and the administration could have persuaded other countries to join the Iraqi campaign using tactics other than public insults.

I drank the Kool-Aid in 2002-2003 and advocated for the war due to Iraq’s continued refusal to abide by SC resolutions based on WMDs. But it was all bullshit, and this administration hasn’t done anything meaningful to whip the CIA into shape since then. In fact, Bush’s and Cheney’s chief advisors are accused of leaking the name of a covert CIA agent in an act of political revenge.

You know, it’s one thing to trust the President was telling the truth when he claims not have had sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. It’s another thing altogether to trust that the President was telling the truth when he claimed that our intelligence service and MI6 all agreed that Saddam definitely, absolutely has WMDs despite the fact that weapons inspectors hadn’t found any.

Hadn’t found any despite the fact that Blix was going to the precise locations that the US claimed had those weapons.

It’s like high school and we’re run by a really mean and really fucking stupid clique. The movie Heathers comes to mind.

All things considered, I’ll take a President who relies more on realpolitik than ideology - even if he does get a hummer in a room off the Oval Office and doesn’t admit it to a press gaggle.

Kaysar!

(Photo from www.aldav.com/bb3.html)

Not bad for a freshman congressman.

* Southtowns Connector (Buffalo Waterfront access investments): $9.36 million

* Peace Bridge: $8 million

* Millennium Parkway, Dunkirk: $8.4 million

* Main Street, Buffalo: $4 million

* Jamestown Intermodal Facility: $1.6 million

· Seneca Street Improvements: $480,000

· Cheektowaga Union Road and Walden Avenue: $800,000

· Main Street, Town of Eden: $320,000

· Downtown Jamestown Connector Trail: $1.6 million

· Dunkirk Bicycle Path and Pedestrian Trail: $400,000

· Hamburg Route 62: $800,000

· West Seneca Union Road: $800,000

· NFTA Replacement Buses: $800,000

· Grant Street, Hertel Avenue, Amherst Street, South Park Avenue, Hopkins Street (street improvements): $800,000 ($160,000 apiece)

· Lackawanna street improvements (street improvements and road signage): $400,000

· Ridge Road, City of Lackawanna (construction and improvements): $400,000

· Town of Hamburg Route 5 (construction and improvements): $400,000

* Fargo Avenue (D’Youville Project): $1.6 million

* Outer Harbor bike path and pedestrian trail: $640,000

* Main Street, Town of Aurora (construction and improvements): $400,000

* City of Buffalo McKinley Parkway (construction and improvements): $400,000

* Village of Blasdell - South Park and Lake Avenues (construction and improvements): $400,000

If you can’t win on ideas, win on technicalities.

Sources say that Byron Brown has challenged all of his opponents petitions for the upcoming mayoral race, effectively getting all 4 candidates down below the needed 2000 signature mark. If sucessful, he would be the only democrat on the ballot for the mayoral election.

Nothing is official yet as the Board of Elections could dismiss some of the challenges. Also, lawsuits are and will be filed in the upcoming days. Today was the psuedo deadline.

But since the BOE is backlogged in the petition process, the deadline is three days after the petitons have been certifed by the Board.

We didnt get a chance to call the clerks office to see who filed any lawsuits, but it is believed that Brown’s camp has already filed a lawsuit against Darnell Jackson with more to come in the days ahead.

The first-ever “Buffalo Infringement Festival” Wednesday, July 27 - Sunday, Aug 7
an explosion of independent art of all kinds featuring theater, performance art, dance, poetry, hip-hop, photography, film, cabaret, puppetry, and much more:

over 125 performances
of over 40 different productions
in 14 different venues
in just 11 days
in and around the Allentown area

For more information, check out www.infringebuffalo.org

In case you haven’t heard already, Buffalo is about to join the international circuit that includes Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, and New York City as we host our first-ever “infringement festival, designed to promote
experimental, non-commercial, independent, and politically charged artwork of all kinds.

Buffalo’s upcoming “infringement festival” has mushroomed into a massive event featuring over 40 different productions that involve over 100 adventurous artists. With performances of street theater, slam poetry,
political cabaret, and just about everything else you can think of, thebuffalo infringement festival is sizing up to be an incredible smorgasbord of artistic events.

And the best part is, you won’t have to blow a lot of money to see it all. In keeping with the non-commercial philosophy of the festival, admission to all productions is dirt cheap.

The festivities begin with a Kick-Off Party on Wednesday, July 27 at Nietzsche’s (248 Allen Street) featuring live music by Ryan Smith, Lea Prentiss, Devon Carman, The Stripteasers, and many others, plus teasers from
shows in the festival. The party starts at 8pm and keeps rolling till the cows come home. It’ll cost you $3.00 dollars to get in before 9pm and $4.00 dollars after that. So come early and party with the infringers!

The next day the festival itself begins; for complete listings of all the shows, locations, and show times, check out the festival’s website at www.infringebuffalo.org .

HT Ron Ehmke

In Bush’s America, a $14.5 billion handout to an industry that’s seeing record profits and the highest oil prices in history is a good idea. Including $1.5 billion specifically earmarked for a consortium based in Delay’s district. How conveeeeenient.

“Right now Adam Smith is spinning in his grave so fast that he would qualify for a subsidy in this bill as an energy source,” said Democrat Edward Markey of Massachusetts. “This bill is a political and moral and technological failure.”

The final version of the bill dropped some environmentally friendly measures, such as the Senate’s requirement that the federal government find ways to cut U.S. oil demand and improve fuel mileage for gas guzzlers.

Well, that’s just dandy, then.

We invaded an OPEC member, and have occupied it since mid-2003. In that time, oil has gone from about $30/barrel to $60/barrel. Rank incompetence.

Just because the Middle School Principal is allegedly gay and allegedly likes to hang out in rest rooms to allegedly engage in consensual sex with other adult gay males, doesn’t mean the guy is a pedophile.

So, if you express concern, as you have a right to do, limit those concerns to his bad judgment allegedly engaging in sexual activity in public restrooms. ‘Kay?

Love, BP

Tuesday, August 23rd, 7 PM, at the Hamlin House.

The debate will be co-hosted by Revitalize Buffalo, Buffalo 2032 (formerly Buffalo Boosters), New Millennium Group and Buffalo Jaycees.

Tickets for the event (to guarantee seating) will be available in a few weeks. (Check RB’s blog for updates)

The candidates:

Byron Brown
Steve Calvaneso
Judy Einach
Kevin Gaughan
Kevin Helfer
Darnell Jackson

This time, he’s chasing away payola payers and payees.

What will we tell the children if record companies are no longer permitted to pay lots of money to radio program directors to play shitty songs by such no-talents as Jennifer Lopez?

Remember his prior job-killing:

here
here
here

This weekend is the Allentown garden walk, and a local Buffalo blogger happens to be an Allentown Gardener. (Hence the url “www.allentowngardener.com“)

Check out some musings and funny anecdotes on how such a gardener deals with opening her garden up to just anyone.

Let’s keep it that way, folks.

Byron Brown is a career politician. It’s what he does. He has served 3 terms in the NYS Senate - one chamber of the most dysfunctional legislature in the country. Until recently, he was quite fine with that.

Then earlier this year, Republican Senate president and father of an influential lobbyist, Joe Bruno, decided to pass some superficial reform in the Senate. It wouldn’t have any palpable effect on the way the Senate operates, but was really little more than lip service to the “fix Albany” crowd who wanted the reforms set forth in the Brennan Center Report.

“Sen. Byron Brown, D-Buffalo, was the only Democrat to vote ‘yes’ on the Republicans’ reform package.

‘I didn’t want anyone to think I’m not for reform,’ said Brown, who is all-but-certain to run in the Buffalo mayor’s race this year and can’t afford to be labeled as anti-reform.”

Weak and superficial. Sounds like the very role a NYS Senate Democrat gets to play.

But more seriously, it shows a lack of leadership. Instead of standing up for his purported belief that the Senate needs real, lasting, and substantive (as well as procedural) reform, Brown just went along with the crowd for political expediency’s sake. He could have made a lot of noise in the press, explaining that he was for more sweeping reform than what was being proposed - that he wanted the Senate to go much further in doing the people’s business. But he didn’t.

He figured that the people of Buffalo would be too stupid to comprehend that sort of “nuanced” position.

On the radio show on Tuesday, he was asked about the recent hubbub over patronage. Last week, Steve Calvaneso pledged that he’d only hire people who were well-qualified for their positions. This week, Byron Brown laughed and made a joke about patronage not being so sinister as people make it out to be. Why, when the President picks a SCOTUS nominee, that’s patronage. Ha ha.

In other words, he didn’t even bother to dance and equivocate on the subject. He’s going to put his friends, family, political advisors, and big donors in top positions. Regardless of their qualifications. Mark my words. This is a man who has many years in public office behind him. He’s collected a lot of favors over those years. He’s collected a lot of money over those years. Just about every single Union with a local presence has endorsed him. He owes a lot of people. When he reaches City Hall, he’ll be a chief administrator, and it’ll be payback time for those people and groups. He will have no shame or apologies about it. And the whole city will suffer because of it.

Those groups will benefit, and the average people of the City will be shafted.

It’ll be payback time for groups like Goin’ South.

You see, I asked Byron about Goin’ South, just as Figmo did twice before. The first time Figmo called, Byron said that Chief Housing Inspector and Harvey Garrett persecutor Ray McGurn was merely a member of that group, and he’d still be going to that fundraiser, thank you. It wasn’t until Figmo actually spoke with Brown during the second conversation that Brown conceded that McGurn was more than just a member, and that he certainly wouldn’t tolerate retaliatory action by anyone on his payroll.

But Brown never came right out and said that McGurn wouldn’t be on his payroll. He said it wasn’t his problem - it was Masiello’s problem.

When I called the radio show, however, Brown made a pretty crucial error. You see, he probably doesn’t read blogs like mine or BRJ and doesn’t know what we know. So, when I asked him why he went to the Goin’ South fundraiser, he explained that McGurn was just 1/400 members. He lied. He knows that’s not true, because he acknowledged that to Figmo. McGurn is more than just rank & file - he co-hosted the fundraiser.

Brown also repeated the line that it was “unfair” for the other 399 to not be able to support him if he didn’t show.

Sorry, Senator, but what you meant to say that it would be unfair for you not to have the opportunity to collect 400 checks from hopeful present & future city employees. Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.

But then I asked what I thought was really the kicker question: Brown acknowledged that he had “read” about the Garrett controversy and that it didn’t seem right to him. But he merely said it was a Masiello administration problem, not his. But it is his, because he’s getting money and overt support from McGurn.

So, I asked Brown: if you didn’t think it was right, did you approach McGurn at the fundraiser and express your concerns to him about what had happened with Harvey Garrett? In other words, did the Senator send a message to the Southie hackarama that he wouldn’t tolerate any such bullshit under his administration.

Pause. Longer pause.

No, he didn’t speak with McGurn or anyone about it.

So - Brown knew that there were shenanigans going on between McGurn & Garrett, and he knew that some people were perturbed about his attending this McGurn fundraiser, and he knew that he’d be at that fundraiser anyway with Ray McGurn, and the future Mayor of the City of Buffalo didn’t have the balls or the mind to give his buddy McGurn a friendly piece of advice on how to handle volunteer housing court liaisons?

Finally, Figmo has heard unconfirmed rumblings that Brown and his camp are behind the News’ negative non-story on Kevin Gaughan’s completely legal use of his campaign money. It must be easy to be Byron Brown and watch checks fall magically from the sky into your campaign fund from all the special interests who’re gonna be knocking on your door for favors during your administration, but it doesn’t work that way for a guy like Gaughan who has little more than his innovative (and possibly city-saving) ideas to go on.

Based just on the above, it’s crystal clear that the anointed front-runner of Buffalo’s political establishment - Byron Brown - will prove to be an utter disaster for Buffalo the city and Buffalo the metropolitan area. He knows the political system in Albany, which is arguably more corrupt than that of Buffalo. The last thing we need is a guy whose only ideas involve CityStat and favoritism.

So, I endorse anybody else.

By Figmo of Kevin Gaughan. Interesting story. Even more interesting premise. Check it out.

I’ll comment more on Byron tomorrow. Could he really have planted a negative sounding non-story with the News? A sitting NYS Senator? Perish the thought, etc.

Quite literally everything I hear about Senator Brown convinces me more and more that he’s not the man for the job.

Here’s what I think the Main Place Mall ought to look like.

It’s a rendering of the “Town Center” in White Plains, NY.

Hockey 2005-2006:

The National Hockey League released its schedule on Wednesday and all 30 teams will play on opening night, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m.

The Sabres are scheduled to open the 82-game season versus the New York Islanders at HSBC Arena. A second straight home game will be played on Friday, Oct. 7 against the Boston Bruins.

And I wish all the businesses downtown that were hurt by the lockout all the best. Check here to buy tickets.