The Landmark Society and Preservation Coalition will be hosting an upcoming community dialogue based on Richard Florida’s book, “Rise of the Creative Class”? The conversation seeks to apply the research and boservations from this book (about the intersection of thriving communities and the active presence of
creative people) to our own community. Perhaps the conversation will lead to an eventual community strategy to attract and retain creative class employees as a catalyst for economic growth.

There will be three conversations scheduled between noon and 1:00 at the Buffalo Architecture Center, Market Arcade, 617 Main Street, Buffalo.

August 1
Panel discussion on “The Rise of the Creative Class,” by Richard Florida

Panelists: Jade Chen, Production Manager, Buffalo Spree; Harvey Garrett, Community activist; Matt Steinberg, Creative Services Manager, Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau

August 15
Panelists to be announced

August 29
Panelists to be announced

The newest issue of the Buffalo Beast is on the rack, and there are two articles that you ought to check out.

UPDATE: Evil Ed posted the links to the two articles via comments, so the whole post is being moved up.

In the first story, it seems the Beast has been banned from WHLD because of a stunt they pulled during the “Peace without Borders” event a couple of months ago. Some Beast staffers got a hold of Channel 2 guy Ron Plants and asked him some goofy questions. Pretty harmless, very funny, but I guess Plants wasn’t at all amused.

According to Uthman, the Beast’s pranksters told Plants they were from WHLD, and this pissed the station off something fierce.

One recent week, Uthman was set to be a guest on a WHLD community access show, but before his appearance he received an email from its producer informing him that the Beast was banned from WHLD. Uthman makes the point that WHLD overreacted to a joke that wasn’t even at its own expense, and that part of the reason lefties don’t make electoral headway nowadays is that they can’t take a joke.

There’s a dangerous tendency for politically committed people to lose their sense of humor. This is a crappy way to live your life, but taking yourself too seriously has negative political repercussions as well. Nobody likes a killjoy, and people are likely to associate whatever ideology you’re pimping with your own pomposity. In fact, this largely explains the left wing’s current image problem. Bragging about how little gas your car burns or how infrequently you watch television does not endear you to anyone. Instead of focusing on the big picture, lefties are constantly engaged in a game of self-righteous backbiting, always castigating those one perceived moral increment behind them.

But if liberal politics are ever going to gain the upper hand anywhere, they have to work for the majority of people, who rarely read anything longer than a record review in People magazine and are never going to stop laughing at gay jokes, no matter how sternly you stare at them. If all those people hear from liberals is humorless scoldings, they’re not likely to join the gang, let alone be entertained.

Compare WHLD’s fit with the Beast’s behind-the-scenes look at its super-squirting and banana-hucking at the BANANA rally a couple of weeks ago. I guess Fallon didn’t like our idea, and cajoled Uthman into participating into the guerrilla/banana drive-by.

My account gets a mention:

At one point, a black van drove by honking like crazy, which got us all pretty psyched. The sliding side doors suddenly opened up revealing a “Buffalo Beast” banner, which was then lifted by two guys in full Sandinista gear shooting our crowd with super-squirters, and hucking bananas at the crowd. Good God, that was funny.

Uthman goes on to give us kudos for taking ourselves not at all seriously and our ability to laugh even when we’re the butt of the joke:

In addition to Buffalopundit, The amusingly named “Brisket for Chucklehead” said that “Everybody agreed that that was pretty goddamned funny.” Other bloggers echoed the assessment. Not a single poor sport among them.

It probably helped that July 17th was a classic hot, humid Buffalo summer day, and being blasted with cool water was undoubtedly a pleasant sensation for the sweltering carpal tunnel syndrome candidates. But it was more than that. Unlike the orthodox lefties at WHLD, these mushy middlers had a sense of humor. They weren’t afraid to laugh, even when the joke was on them. I may not agree with them about everything, but I’d surely rather have a beer with them than the soreheads at WHLD.

My favorite comment came from Newell Nussbaumer at Buffalo Rising Online: “Someone next to me asked if they were for the hotel or against it and someone else answered, ‘I think they just like throwing things.’” Well, yes we do. But there was a message behind the madness.

A sense of humor is a terrible thing to waste.

Uthman’s piece goes on to explain the “message behind the madness”, but I think the Beast missed part of our rally’s point. It wasn’t primarily to blast the hotel protesters; instead, the reason why we yupsters chose this particular corner and that particular project is that the developer hadn’t just come in with a monster plan and imposed it on anyone. Savarino had taken public comment and criticism and actually amended its plans to allay those concerns.

We were rewarding, supporting, and promoting good civic behavior.

There’s much hand-wringing going on in some corners about the whole “New Buffalo” thing. In a nutshell, I think it has to do with merit versus machine. In other words, we value hard work, experience, and ideas; we do not value patronage, knee-jerk reaction, and doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.

When courts have to adjudicate issues on a case-by-case basis, they usually set up a test or set of criteria into which they’ll plug the facts of each particular case. A three or four-prong set of questions usually does the trick. For instance, for a building development:

1. Is the proposal going to enhance the neighborhood?
2. Is the proposal’s design in keeping with the architecture in the area, and done in an urbanist, pedestrian-friendly manner?
3. Have traffic, noise, and parking issues been properly addressed?
4. Has the proposal been vetted by the neighborhood, and the design been adjusted to allay any material concerns?

That’s quick and dirty, but it’s an example. Feel free to amend it. Looking at what I just wrote from a legal standpoint, I already want a definition of “enhance the neighborhood”. Whoo, boy there’d be hella litigation over that. Perhaps the first question could instead be, “does the project do material harm to the neighborhood”.

Those of us who demonstrated in front of the hotel aren’t going to just willy-nilly demo in support of any development. We’ll look at projects on a case-by-case basis, and support those that deserve it and oppose those that don’t. There’s no hard and fast rule.

Had the Beast guys come by Mister Goodbar’s afterwards, we would have bought them a pint. Each.

Although Uthman misunderstood part of the rationale for the BANANA demo, I’m proud to be part of the BANANA article, and not in the Plants one.

No joking around - that should be the new name for MKG’s column, given the amount of times she imparts to us how “scared” she is, or how “scary” something is. Witness:

Last week was the Feast of St. Ann, so a bunch of us volunteered to climb up the tower of the church, which looms over Broadway on the East Side, and ring the bells. It’s scary. You’re told to bring ear plugs and prepare to get dirty.

Mother effer. Why is that line there? Was it needed to bring the word count up?

The rest of it is a sad tale of an East Side neighborhood changed, a parish diminished in size, plucky die-hards who are determined to maintain a glorious past in a troubled present.

But seldom do Donn Esmonde or Rod Watson make their columns about them and their experiences. They will make a political or social point, and sometimes use the experiences of others to illustrate that point. By contrast, Goldman is often part of, if not the protagonist in, her pieces.

As we sweated amid the cacophony, I glanced down at the East Side streets, dotted with vacant lots, like missing teeth. A distant pedestrian looked up.

And sometimes the writing is nasty, too.

This bad boy’s an 8.89.

I was unable to attend the SmartCode conference on Saturday, but wrapups can be had at Buffalo Rising and the WNY Progress Report.

The City’s current code dates to 1951, and has proven woefully inadequate for today’s needs. The City Court building, which glowers over Niagara Square, was raised as an example of zoning gone awry; the building’s use is appropriate for the area, but its design is at best an eyesore, and at worst a disaster.

Right on the cover of the SmartCode (8.0) is the point of it all:

Cities have to move to a new system. They should look at the streets they like and the public spaces they like and then write the rules to get more of what they like and less of what they don’t. Conventional zoning doesn’t do that. It just gives a use and a density and then you hope for the best. - Peter Katz

Preservation and development in Buffalo are often at odds, and the rules aren’t set, but are instead made up as we go along, usually through costly and sometimes embarassing litigation. This is a way out of that rut.

Mel Gibson. Movie Star. Anti-Semite.

There were questions raised during the ruckus surrounding “Passion of the Christ”. The Anti-Defamation League never came out and said it though Gibson was an anti-Semite, but it didn’t like the way Jews were portrayed in Gibson’s film.

Maybe the apple fell closer to the tree than we were led to believe (Gibson’s father is an anti-Semitic Holocaust denier, and proud of it.)

One account of Gibson’s arrest for DWI:

Once inside the car, a source directly connected with the case says Gibson began banging himself against the seat. The report says Gibson told the deputy, “You mother f****r. I’m going to f*** you.” The report also says “Gibson almost continually [sic] threatened me saying he ‘owns Malibu’ and will spend all of his money to ‘get even’ with me.”

The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: “F*****g Jews… The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” Gibson then asked the deputy, “Are you a Jew?”

The deputy became alarmed as Gibson’s tirade escalated, and called ahead for a sergeant to meet them when they arrived at the station. When they arrived, a sergeant began videotaping Gibson, who noticed the camera and then said, “What the f*** do you think you’re doing?”

A law enforcement source says Gibson then noticed another female sergeant and yelled, “What do you think you’re looking at, sugar tits?”

We’re told Gibson took two blood alcohol tests, which were videotaped, and continued saying how “f****d” he was and how he was going to “f***” Deputy Mee.

Deputy Mee wrote up a report, which is viewable here in .pdf.

Then:

Sources say the sergeant on duty felt it was too “inflammatory.” A lieutenant and captain then got involved and calls were made to Sheriff’s headquarters. Sources say Mee was told Gibson’s comments would incite a lot of “Jewish hatred,” that the situation in Israel was “way too inflammatory.” It was mentioned several times that Gibson, who wrote, directed, and produced 2004’s “The Passion of the Christ,” had incited “anti-Jewish sentiment” and “For a drunk driving arrest, is this really worth all that?”

We’re told Deputy Mee was then ordered to write another report, leaving out the incendiary comments and conduct. Sources say Deputy Mee was told the sanitized report would eventually end up in the media and that he could write a supplemental report that contained the redacted information — a report that would be locked in the watch commander’s safe.

Gibson apologized for both the drunk driving, and his anti-Semitic outburst:

I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said. Also, I take this opportunity to apologize to the deputies involved for my belligerent behavior. They have always been there for me in my community and indeed probably saved me from myself. I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior and for that I am truly sorry

Piece of dreck.

With thanks to the emailer who pointed me in the right direction, read:

Brad Mehldau and Renee Fleming, “Love Sublime” (Nonesuch). I’m torn here. I adore Renee Fleming’s singing, I admire Brad Mehldau’s jazz piano playing, and, since I was a teenager, I had great faith in the Nonesuch label. But I’m not sure who would enjoy this dark, dull venture. The texts Mehldau has set to music, some by Rainer Maria Rilke, can be moving, and I think I like what he’s trying to do. And the accompaniments, which reflect a variety of jazz and classical song influences, can sound interesting. Unfortunately the heavy, abstract melodies aren’t very creative or inviting. Sometimes, jumping erratically around, they become actively annoying. There’s a lot to admire academically, I’m sure, in this earnest, well-meaning effort. But I can’t figure out who would want to listen to it. Review: 2 stars (Mary Kunz Goldman)

“I’m not sure who would enjoy this dark, dull venture.” “…I can’t figure out who would want to listen to it.” Why? Because it’s academically good, can sound interesting, but because MKG didn’t like it, she can’t imagine anyone liking it.

Now obviously, a great part of reviewing is subjective. However, none of the other short-take record reviews in yesterday’s News were as personalized as MKG’s. She’s intimidated by the scary, dark music, therefore everyone should be.

In other news, Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians have a new record out and Jeff Miers gives it 3 1/2 stars out of 4. I used to love that group back in the early 90s.

Therefore, all of you must love that group, or refuse at your peril.

Tom Golisano reiterates his opposition to the Buffalo casino.

A downtown casino is a terrible business decision for Buffalo’s economy. Based on the Senecas’ own projections and government filings, the Buffalo Creek Casino will take in $154 million to $188 million from gamblers, mainly living in Buffalo and surrounding suburbs, in the first year alone. That’s money that will not be spent at local businesses. In return, the City of Buffalo would receive only $5 million to $7 million annually in lieu of taxes. What a “deal.”

Furthermore, the money the Senecas take out of our local economy goes to them tax free. They pay no local real estate taxes, no sales taxes and, as a sovereign nation, the Senecas themselves pay no income taxes on monies earned from the casino. How can surrounding businesses compete on a level playing field when the casino can offer all its products and services tax free? They simply can’t.

I tend to listen to billionaires. Incidentally, in his piece, he plugs this website. So, here’s a link to it.

Here’s a link to the post about the Control Board that Perfesser Hardwick brought up this morning, if you’re interested.

Also in the News:

Adelphia will soon be kissed bye-bye, and Time Warner will replace it. In fact, their WNY page is already up.

So, you’re going to have to bail on the @adelphia.net e-mail address sometime soon, which will be a hassle. But we may get digital phone service and will definitely get a different channel lineup (the NFL channel is already axed, according to WIVB).

I wonder what else they have up their sleeves?

At 7am on Sunday, when CNN switches from the London-based CNN International feed to CNN in Atlanta, the network’s IQ plummets catastrophically.

It’s like going from watching BookTV on CSPAN to watching fricking Boobah.

This Sunday, the Professor will have what ought to be a blockbuster of a show. In-studio, he’ll host Buffalo Teachers’ Federation President Phil Rumore, and Buffalo Superintendent of Schools James Williams.

This will be must-listen radio for anyone who gives a crap about Buffalo’s schools.

During the first hour, Buffalo News political reporter extraordinaire Bob McCarthy.

WBEN 930-AM at 10:00 a.m. this Sunday the 30th.

This right here?

is lame.

Tony, why Buffalo?

Groan.

And anyone else who values first amendment rights and similar esoterica. (probably NSFW)

www.fccfu.com

WKBW invited Tom Suozzi and Eliot Spitzer to come to Buffalo to debate upstate issues.

Suozzi has agreed to do so. Spitzer hasn’t yet.

Given the fact that upstate was given short shrift at this week’s Pace University debate, I think it’s only fitting that Spitzer agree to debate Suozzi in Buffalo, with upstate being the sole focus of the hour.

From today’s News:

1. The 9 acres the Senecas bought in the Cobblestone cannot be considered sovereign Seneca territory.

2. If it’s not sovereign territory, you can’t build a Class III casino there.

3. Just because the Senecas supposedly bought the land with money from the Seneca settlement act doesn’t automatically render the land sovereign territory.

4. In the alternative, the feds prohibit casinos to be set up on Indian land purchased or acquired after 1988 - the year that the federal Indian Regulatory Gaming Act was enacted.

5. The Senecas aren’t a party to this lawsuit, which was filed by, (among others), Citizens for a Better Buffalo; Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo; the Preservation Coalition of Erie County; and Erie County Executive Joel A. Giambra against the U.S. Department of the Interior, former Interior Secretary Gale Norton and the U.S. National Indian Gaming Commission.

As the ads say, maybe it’s not a done deal, after all.

Your County Legislature closed out its session yesterday unanimously passing the excruciatingly long local law that, if signed by Giambra, will place the approved charter revision changes before the voters at referendum in November. There was some talk about splitting it into 33 separate laws or referendum questions, but it was decided that this would be unwieldly.

The Reformist Troika of Locklear, Konst, and Iannello were joined by 4th District Republican Mike Ranzenhofer to propose a local law that would give the Deputy County Manager enhanced, county-manager-esque job requirements and responsibilities.

The text of that bill is here, at Locklear’s blog.

According to what I’ve heard, the majority voted against the proposal because of what they consider to be a fatal flaw in the bill:

Section 308 – Non-interference with the executive branch. No county legislator shall attempt to direct or influence the decisions or activities of any officer or employee of county government except through the Deputy County Executive, except as authorized by the legislature or a committee thereof.

There is no such provision in the current charter, and many legislators didn’t like the idea of not being able to discuss concerns and issues with department heads without first going through the Deputy CE.

Currently, the Deputy merely stands in the shoes of the Executive should he be unable to conduct his duties. I’d bet that with a little tweaking of the language in Locklear’s bill, it would get passed and we could have a competent, qualified deputy county executive post in this County.

As an aside, Channel 2 asked people if they’d vote for a county manager. The results: 53% yes, 39% no, 8% not sure.

The Yiddish “Chutzpah” is usually illustrated by the example of killing your parents, and then soliciting sympathy from the judge during your murder trial, because you’re an orphan.

Kind of like members of a Pataki-appointed state panel moaning and groaning about tax increases:

“I find it appalling we would consider another property tax increase on top of the devastation that has already happened,” said member John A. Johnson, who heads a state agency for Gov. George E. Pataki. “People are tired of the continued dumping of more taxes on them rather than dealing with mismanagement. . . . We need to strip the government down before we consider any other property tax increase.”

and

“I feel sorry for this community. I feel sorry for the taxpayers,” Baynes said as he closed out a two-hour meeting in which he jousted with Giambra’s budget director, James M. Hartman, often biting his upper lip in anger.

Well, gosh golly. Does Pataki feel as strongly about high and growing taxes as his Erie County proxies? Perhaps some of that hyperbole could also be directed towards this user-friendly-looking place:

(Photo by Flickr user hibou, used under creative commons permission)

County government deserves its lumps - its fair lumps. But to completely disregard the fact that a great deal of the county’s fiscal problems stem from Albany mandates and mismanagement is chutzpah.

I read it so you don’t have to.

1. Dodo Greene was a Buffalo-based jazz singer who died this week. She was bawdy, but “had faith”.

2. When Dodo Greene died, a local radio station teased the story before a commercial break, saying “a legendary Buffalo jazz singer dies.” Jazz singer Peggy Farrell called a friend who heard the story just like that,and the friend was relieved.

3. Mary (or her friend) got a flat tire. In front of St. Michael’s Church. The police were going to help her fix the tire, but some guy from the church yelled at her not to park there if you’re not going to Mass. Yes, with an inane personal anecdote infused with a mention of a Catholic Church, this story exponentially raises the mockability score.

4. Mary likes the new Fuccillo bus, as well as a Parkside Coffee ad where a satisfied customer says “damn” in the copy, and an ad for Jaguar that insinuates that the owner will go to his high school reunion because he has a reskinned Ford Mondeo Jaguar in the driveway.

5. The Rendezvous on Niagara Street is open again, and serving Creole cuisine again. Mary is reading a rather old book (series) called “The Forsyte Saga”, which a librarian downtown hadn’t heard of. Because, evidently, librarians are supposed to have heard of every book.

It could have been a 4, but instead it’s a 7.8

WNYMedia.net keeps growing:

http://www.throwingstones.wnymedia.net/
A sarcastic fella whom Elly recruited.

http://www.buffaloamy.wnymedia.net/
Amy as in Amy from Revitalize Buffalo

http://www.backtobuffalo.wnymedia.net/
Geez, that was quick - Pat the potential re-pat makes his way to WNYMedia.

Erie County’s soft control board is starting to get on my nerves a little bit. When Hevesi came to town and said we needed “adult supervision“, he was right.

But the control board has mistaken “adult supervision” for being that nasty mom you see in the mall who’s just screaming at her kids, calling them assholes and such.

The board summoned Giambra’s budget director, Jim Hartman, so that they could yell at him. According to the board, county government hasn’t been cut enough. I don’t want tax increases either, but I don’t want county government shut down unless we’re going to abolish the thing altogether along with the rest of the state - which is bloody unlikely.

The control board is champing at the bit to go hard, but there are specific conditions that would need to be met before that can happen. Do you smell lawsuit? I sure do.

Erie County Control Board member Ken Kruly: “A ‘hard’ control board would allow a hiring freeze, a wage freeze, allow the authority to determine borrowing, and set spending limits.”

Where’s the proof that the members of the control board have any more of a clue about any of this stuff than our elected officials? All of the members of the control board are extraordinarily well-connected, politically. Are unelected political people somehow any more competent, per se, than elected ones?

There’s a 4-year plan in place; a plan that, until now, the control board thought was kosher. I know the control board feels impotent, but let’s let the plan actually play out. Maybe they can hire PFM to do some more studies for $40,000 per week. Because that’s so frugal and effective.

Buffalo Pat lives in Charlotte, NC.

Buffalo Pat says these are the top ten things he misses about Buffalo:

1. Family
2. Friends
3. Buffalo Bills
4. Friendliest Citizens
5. Buffalo Sabres
6. Great Summers
7. Awesome Food (Buffalo Wings, Fish Frys, Beef on Weck, Wegmans Subs, etc.)
8. Culture
9. Great Parks
10. Snow(yes, snow)

Buffalo Pat needs a jobby-job, and has posted his resume here.

Yes, Buffalo Pat has a blog called “Get Back To Buffalo“.

Here’s to Pat finding his way back.

HT Buffalo Rising.

Spitzer’s upstate question:

TAFFE. O.K. We’ll talk, hopefully, a bit more about the business climate coming up in the debate. But, Mr. Spitzer, critics of the way the present administration has been run have suggested that the epicenter of government in New York State has moved from Albany increasingly downstate — less state business getting done in Albany where it historically has always been done. That leads me to ask you if you, as governor, would move the epicenter of government back to New York — back to Albany — if not just with the appearance of doing business in the capital upstate? And does that include living in the governor’s mansion?

SPITZER. The answer is, I think there are three yes’s that follow from your question. But well let me parse it a little bit. I have traveled the state for seven-and-a-half years as attorney general. I’ve been in every town, every village. I have seen the despair. I have seen the outflow of our kids — 180,000 population loss over the last four years. I don’t think it’s half of our population, Tom, but it is 180,000 over the last four years; 25 percent of our kids 20 to 34. And I have a program, I have ideas that will rejuvenate our economy. But most importantly, over the last seven-and-a-half years nobody has come up to me and said, Eliot, you’re from the Bronx; you don’t understand the problems in Erie County or in Watertown or wherever I happened to be. People have said to me, Thank you for taking up our cause; it is the cause of equity, decency, fairness, justice. Those are the issues people care about. And they’ve said to me, you are fighting for those purposes and those causes. That’s what I will continue to do.

Now, specifically, when it comes to property taxes, let me be very clear: the property tax proposal that I have, a $6 billion, three-year property tax cut, is focused on the middle class, focused on those, the farmers, those who need the benefit of this tax plan, those who will benefit.

Tom’s plan, unfortunately, is focused only on 10 counties. It doesn’t go to the vast number of counties, those individuals across the state who need help. The economic development program I proposed for our upstate cities — investing in our universities, residential construction, special sectors that will do better — those ideas will bring our kids back, bring jobs back, bring hope back.

That was it.

I have to say I just want one candidate to say, “I want government to work better and smarter for New Yorkers. I want businesses to look at the economic climate in this state and think it competitive with other locations. Because if you pair a fair economic climate with our incredible, educated, and industrious work-force, New York can once again be a force to be reckoned with - upstate and down.”

I don’t want to hear about program this and targeted tax cut that or Empire Zones for everyone and their goldfish. There is a way to fix this.

Upstate knows what the problem is, whom to blame, and, more or less, how to fix it.

Tri-state doesn’t know there’s a problem at all.