People out here are sick & tired of Albany.

the poll of 2,492 residents statewide and 362 in Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties found the westerners in a far surlier mood than their already fed-up neighbors:

• While 27 percent of voters statewide rated state government as “poor,” that jumped to 45 percent in Western New York.

• When asked about quality of life, 27 percent statewide said it was worse over the past five years, but 42 percent thought so locally.

• Sixty-nine percent of Western New Yorkers say the economy has worsened over the past five years, compared to 40 percent of statewide residents who feel that way.

• A whopping 58 percent of Western New Yorkers rated the state poor on keeping taxes from hurting growth, compared to 36 percent across New York.

But people don’t seem to mind paying the taxes we pay, so long as the money is being spent in as prudent a way as possible. That was what two people on the public payroll said, anyway.

One person says:

“I don’t think I could get out,” she said. “I want to move away from here . . . New York State, I want to say, stinks. That’s putting it mildly.”

Swift says she sees a ray of hope in the possibility of Eliot L. Spitzer becoming governor. As attorney general, he helped her family get money back from a propane price gouger.

“We got our money back,” she said. “I’m going to elect him. I think he’s good.”

*Gasp* that Spitzer - making the state unfriendly for propane gougers.

Our own Geek gets in a plug for his candidate of choice - Suozzi - and adds:

But most importantly, Smith said, he believes Western New York suffers from apathy and that events like Old Home Week are needed to get people here to make them less willing to accept the status quo.

“We need to start to demand better,” he said. “The only thing we demand in Buffalo is average. It’s sad. We need to demand more from our government and our leaders.”

Justin Azzarella, executive director of Forever Elmwood, doesn’t see how anyone would be surprised to hear that Western New Yorkers are unhappier than residents of other parts of the state.

The Power Authority relicensing agreement and toll barriers on the Thruway have left many here jaded, he said.

“They’re not satisfied with the product,” Azzarella said of what state government has provided for this region in return for all of the tax revenue Western New York generates.

But he believes change is coming.

“There’s this new energy of people in the area who say: We don’t want this,” he said. “And we are beginning to have elected officials who are saying the same thing.”

All I really want in Albany is a functioning democracy. Allow debate, take power away from the three-men-in-a-room, set controls, limits, and stricter regulations on lobbyists to ensure that, e.g., Joe Bruno’s son can’t lobby the Senate. Get that going, and the rest of the pieces will fall into place.

Incidentally, Chris Byrd makes an excellent point, discussing Geek’s distaste for Spitzer:

This on one hand is a fair assessment of where Spitzer is in the eyes of many and a fair assessment of how people in these parts need to start thinking.

On the other hand, it reminds me of complaints we saw about Byron Brown last year before being elected, but a lot of the same folks who critcized Byron last year are slowly turning into believers.

Last year, I thought Byron Brown was teh suck, but have come around to thinking he’s a pretty damn good Mayor. Point taken.

Yes, but will Spitzer show up?

Donald Rumsfeld says we’re all Neville Chamberlain.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld compared critics of the Bush administration to those who sought to appease the Nazis before World War II, warning Tuesday that the United States is confronting “a new type of fascism.”

Donald Rumsfeld is an asshole. Because if anything, his bungling of Iraq has enabled extremists to annex the Sudetenland that is the Sunni Triangle (using his metaphor - with which I disagree).

I haven’t heard any serious people in the States suggest that we appease al Qaeda or its surrogates anywhere. On the contrary, most Bush Administration opponents argue that the Pentagon and White House aren’t doing nearly enough to combat terrorism at home or in Iraq.

So, if we’re Chamberlain, does that make Rumsfeld McNamara?

I picked a good few days to take off, because this weather is absolutely glorious. Up here in Toronto, the high yesterday hit the low 70s, and anytime you passed by a north-south corridor, you’d get a blast of cool air off the lake. I’ll have some pictures up when I get home. Given that this week is the wingfest and the weather is supposed to be sucky thanks to the remnants of Ernesto, it makes these few days of cool air and blue skies all the sweeter.

One note, however - it doesn’t really feel like a vacation when you’re still in the same NBC-CBS-ABC market. Resting our feet yesterday evening, I watched all the local channels and concluded that I had missed a very slow news day, indeed.

Many have suggested that I institute a mockability rating for Bauerle. Problem is, I seldom listen to him. The baseline for what I have heard, however, is a 9.

If others listen to him religiously, send me an email and I’ll record your thoughts here.

Yesterday, on the way to T.O., I listened to him go on and on about the transgendered teacher in Batavia, and I’d give that whole show & discussion a 9. Just because the press is excluded from a public meeting and attendees had to sign a confidentiality agreement doesn’t make Batavia Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany or Maoist China.

You see, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao didn’t have public meetings where people could speak their minds. They instead held rallies to hail the great leader.

Read what the Hatemongerer’s Quarterly has to say about Buffalo. Bastards.

Timothy McVeigh is from Pendleton in Niagara County, so that joke’s flat. Niagara is spelled wrong. But it definitely lives up to its hatemongering name.

From the people who brought you Buffalo Rising…

…Until Monday.

Geek thanks two people who truly deserve it.

Marc Odien from WNYMedia.net - the sine quo non of the progressive Buffalo blogosphere; and

Mayor Byron Brown - a man who has really impressed me in recent weeks, and someone who is really trying to make a difference.

Incidentally, WNYMedia.net is looking for a conservative blogger to join the ranks, so if you’re interested, clicky clicky.

At 10:00 on Sunday, September 3rd, the perfesser will be joined by the members of the “Know-nothing party”; namely BuffaloGeek (fresh from a wildly successful BOHW), Random Thoughts 101 (fresh from his bachelor party), and yours truly (fresh from two-three days in the GTA).

Not sure yet who else is in the lineup, but I’ll do a proper promo later. Consider this a heads up.

I bailed on yesterday’s debate to speak with a friend of mine I hadn’t spoken with in a long time. Priorities.

But from the bit I saw, Faso and Suozzi are both very smart, capable candidates, but the references to Buffalo, WNY, and upstate sounded like pandering.

It’s been made crystal-clear to us that this is a downstate race among downstate players. Yesterday, I watched two Italian guys from Long Island basically agree with each other. The only person they were criticizing was the guy who wasn’t there; the guy from Manhattan.

When they answered the casino question, which touched upon very controversial Niagara Falls and Buffalo issues, it sounded very coached to me. Almost phony. Faso reiterated time and time again that he knew Buffalo’s problems because he sat on its control board. Suozzi’s wife’s family hails from Niagara Falls (he said the casino sits in the middle of “downtown Niagara”.

They swiped at Spitzer so much, it became evident that - despite their bleating about his absence - the last thing they needed was him there to defend himself. The penultimate thing they needed was him there to take away any of their TV time.

Suozzi’s Long Island accent is faint, but detectable, and Faso had none. I wonder how that played with upstaters who are weary and wary of more downstate control.

The irony is that they both say very good things - attractive things. A one-hour debate certainly doesn’t lend itself to in-depth examination of what they say, or how they’d do what they promise.

The empty auditorium was something that pissed me off. I had no idea the public was welcome to attend the debate, and had I known I may have gone. Boo to WKBW for not making that clear.

As a Democrat, I prefer Suozzi to Faso. The problem is that Suozzi’s effort is really, really poorly timed. Spitzer is way ahead in the polls for one key reason - he started running in early 2005. He wrapped up all the key endorsements while Suozzi was still running for re-election as Nassau CE. He came in too late with too little money and not a lot of name recognition, as compared with the ubiquitous Attorney General.

Tomorrow night the candidates will hold a statewide town hall meeting.

“Statewide” meaning every major TV market except Buffalo will participate. You should be pissed off about that.

I’ll be out of the area, so I’ll most likely miss it.

Yesterday’s WKBW debate was my first chance to see these guys on TV at any length. I thought they did well, overall. But in the end, it’s all academic.

I’m watching Suozzi and Faso debate on Channel 7 right now.

David Arkin from the Niagara Gazette simply doesn’t belong there. They panned across the audience, and it’s pretty empty.

Both are pro-casino, but don’t like how it’s been done in New York. Suozzi says the casinos need to be integrated into the fabric of the rest of the city. Faso doesn’t want out-of-state tribes to be able to open casinos here.

Everyone took a swipe at Spitzer for not being there.

Faso swipes Spitzer for paying more attention to Wall Street than to Medicaid fraudsters. He’s pro health-savings accounts.

Medicaid is a huge part of the $113 billion state budget, and it’s way too bloated, and there’s loads of fraud. The state needs to wring fraud and abuse out of the system and take the savings to invest it in schools, etc.

Q: How would you attract teachers, and how would you deal with the unions?

Suozzi says earmark money to improve universal pre-k, and wants to be able to give teachers incentives to go to the worst schools. Not enough kids are graduating, and we’re not doing enough to fix that problem. We need principals and teachers to have more autonomy viz. discipline.

Faso agrees with most of Suozzi’s remarks, but would add that we need young, new teachers to replace the ones about to retire. We need a streamlined certification process for qualified teachers in certain subjects like math and science. Echoes the call for incentive pay. But money isn’t the issue, we spend $32 billion per year on K-12 education - in Buffalo, it’s $17k per kid - but we spend more than anyone else, but our results are in the middle. Pro-charter schools - need choice & accountability.

Suozzi says the state shortchanges localities, and that needs to be reformed to help lower our property taxes.

Q: Pork is wasteful, no?

Faso says he won’t support member item funding that isn’t itemized. State spending went up 13% this year, including loads of new backdoor borrowing $4 billion per year just for debt service, and it’s going up. We need to put spending on a diet. (Haven’t we had a Republican governor for the last 11 years? - ed.)

Faso likes to say “deign”. Spitzer doesn’t “deign” to come here and debate us.

Suozzi says the whole system is a sham. People are leaving. Taxes are high. “No new jobs are being created in upstate New York”. Yet, people keep getting re-elected to Albany - more have been indicted in the last few years than have been ousted through election. $200 million in member item pork comes out of Albany - we need to stop the union-special interest money in Albany. Spitzer has proposed $30 billion in new spending, and hasn’t explained how he’ll pay for it - he either has to raise taxes, or he won’t do it. There is no accountability, so we have these problems.

Faso says Spitzer will raise taxes.

These guys are echoing each other.

Q: Businesses are cutting back on benefits, pensions & health care, but government keeps paying more on these.

Suozzi says that’s what he did in Nassau. Cut waste, fraud & abuse. Got concessions from the unions that battled him. He compares himself to Spider-Man, who fought for the good guys. Peter Parker for Governor. Laws are passed in Albany and the costs keep going up and up because they’re beholden to the big political donors.

Faso wants to reduce the cost of government. Faso mentions that he was on the Buffalo Control Board. The core problem is that the cost of government in Buffalo is outstripping the private sector’s ability to pay for it. City employees get elective cosmetic surgery, and the taxpayers pay for it. 666 liposuctions, 214 nosejobs, and other unmentionable elective procedures have been performed on the city’s dime. We can’t save $30 million because the BTF won’t go to a single health care plan.

Suozzi says we need accountability in the system. Suozzi calls on people to go out and vote.

Q: College kids are leaving WNY upon graduation. David Arkin from GNN needs to stop reading his fricking questions.

Faso says we need to cut taxes, including income taxes. We need worker’s comp reform. New York is uncompetitive.

A friend called, so I’m not paying attention anymore. Sorry, folks.

Way back when, I criticized the plan the NFTA ultimately chose for the outer harbor, joking that the only thing it was missing was an elevator to the moon. In January 2005, I said it wasn’t doable.

Today’s News indicates it probably won’t get done - thank goodness.

Here’s something on which to chew.

Imagine if the city had taken the Waterfront Village area and mapped out a street grid. Imagine if utilities had put everything in needed to support a new neighborhood. Imagine if the city had instituted a mixed-use zoning plan that would have guaranteed a good mix of commercial, office, and residential.

Now imagine that the code had specified that the buildings not exceed a certain height, and be built to certain architectural standards that would ensure that it would be on a proper, manageable scale and aesthetically pleasing. Something like, say, brick brownstones, no more than 5 stories high, with parking located either under a set of parks, or behind the buildings.

You’d have a nice, mixed-use neighborhood that didn’t resemble Sheridan Drive in Amherst.

So, what the city ought to do as far as the outer harbor is concerned is learn from its mistakes. First, clean up the pollution. Then map out a grid. Zone it and code it. Offer parking, but hide it. No one wants to see it. Make the water accessible. Retail is a key factor. Extend Metro Rail to this new community so that doctors and lawyers and other downtown workers can get to their offices without a car.

Government should lay the groundwork. Private industry should develop the land according to the code.

If the growth of downtown housing has taught us anything, it’s that incremental growth based on market demand is going to be far more beneficial in the long run than getting a huge, expensive project done fast.

Dude, WTF WTF WTF WTF?!

Tonight on Channel 7:

Aug 28, 2006 - Tonight’s the night to find out where two of the candidates for Governor of New York stand on the issues important to Western and Upstate New York. If you feel you don’t know enough about these candidates for Governor of New York, tune in to 7News at 8 p.m. tonight, August 28.

WKBW-TV is sponsoring a candidate debate at the Center for the Arts on the University at Buffalo Amherst campus. 7News will carry the debate live along with fellow Granite Broadcasting stations WTVH in Syracuse and WBNG in Binghamton.

Suozzi and Faso will answer questions from a panel of journalists moderated by 7News anchor Keith Radford. The panel is made ups of 7News Anchor/Reporter Joanna Pasceri, Business First Managing Editor Tim O’Shie, Niagara Gazette Managing Editor David Arkin and WBNG-TV News Director and Anchor Greg Catlin.

We already have more questions from viewers than can be accomodated in a one hour debate. Questions that can’t be asked and answered on air will be forwarded to the campaigns. There are no more tickets available to attend the event but you can watch a live webcast here on WKBW.com as well as watch it live on Ch. 7.

Democrat Eliot Spitzer was also invited to the debate but declined the invitation.

It’s another 1.

Not merely because it’s about Buffalo Old Home Week - a worthy topic to be sure.

But for this passage:

Yes, Buffalo, like every city, has its problems. We have crime, struggling areas and our fabled shortage of certain jobs. (Though looking at the occasional complaints about jobs on the Buffalo Old Home Week Web site, you have to think: Most of the naysayers can’t spell. How can they find jobs if they can’t spell?)

Now THAT’S funny.

It’s exciting that people are coming back to Buffalo.

It’s even more exciting that people realize that Buffalo is coming back.

Yep.

A post at Autoblog begins:

Have you ever noticed how many Saturns are towed behind motorhomes on our nation’s highways? The reason is because most Saturns are part of a small group of vehicles that don’t require the installation of a lube pump to circulate the transmission fluid in order to be towed with all four wheels on the ground. The problem is that most people who are wealthy enough to own an upscale RV wouldn’t be caught dead in a Saturn under normal circumstances.

Those RVs that look like tour buses cost more than most WNY houses.

An RV manufacturer in Germany has a solution:

If you can afford to gas that thing up in Europe, you can afford the RV itself, and the SLK that slides into its belly.

BuffaloRoots’ Kevin imparts this tale:

As I entered the circle, the driver of the next vehicle (a white minivan) decided that stopping at a stop sign was beneath him, and after slowing down and watching me approach, drove into the circle very close to me, forcing me to hit the breaks.

I raised up my arms in the universal “What (the hell) are you doing?” gesture; the driver, a man, yelled something in a guttural voice to me and returned my attention with the universal “Fuck you” gesture, which contrasted from his license plate, which read “LET GOD.”

I guess the conclusion of that sentiment would be “…run the stop sign”.

The Senator will release this statement today:

“I believe the Internet has the power to enhance one of the most fundamental values of our democracy: freedom of speech. That’s why I support the free flow of information on the Internet and enforceable network neutrality. I will oppose the flawed and limiting provisions in Senator Stevens’ bill, S. 2686, which do not prevent providers from discriminating against Internet traffic from competitors. If the Stevens bill is not changed to protect network neutrality, I will oppose it. Network neutrality has allowed the Internet to be an engine of economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech. Eliminating it would be a serious mistake.”

Therefore, Wednesday’s rally will exist to thank Senator Schumer for his decision, and to raise awareness of this issue which affects this blog, the network on which it sits, and the tubes that bring it to you on the internets.

WNYMedia.net has teamed up with some national websites on this, and it’d be nice to have a big crowd.

Senator Schumer, Support Net Neutrality
Buffalo (S Elmwood)
130 South Elmwood Ave
Buffalo, NY 14202

See WNYMedia.net for more information.

David Staba’s piece about Buffalo Old Home week appears in today’s edition of the New York Times.

One visitor, Kathleen Thompson, said she was looking to return to Buffalo from Charlotte, N.C., after working as a mortgage banker there and in Atlanta for nearly 20 years.

“When I was younger, I wanted to see other places and do other things,” said Ms. Thompson, who is 46. “But now that I’m getting older, I want to come home.”

Ms. Thompson learned about Old Home Week through an intensive Internet marketing campaign waged by organizers, receiving an e-mail invitation after posting her résumé online. The event was also promoted on www.buffalorising.com, a Web site Mr. Nussbaumer helped establish, and on several regional blogs, including buffalogeek.com and buffalopundit.com.

“Buffalo has very poor self-esteem,” said Marti Gorman, one of the organizers, who lived in Bogotá, Colombia, as well as in Atlanta and Boulder, Colo., before she moved back to Buffalo last November after her daughter enrolled at Canisius College here. “There’s a disrespect for Buffalo that is unwarranted, and we’re out to change that.”

In 1907, Buffalo was the country’s eighth-largest city, a booming port connecting the frontier of the West to the cities of the East. The city’s reputation suffered because of the assassination of President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition here in 1901, though, and civic leaders conjured up Old Home Week as a way to brighten the city’s image, Mr. Nussbaumer said.

If the image problems of a century later lack the singular notoriety of the murder of a president, their roots spread wider and deeper.

Changes in modes of transportation and the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 rendered Buffalo irrelevant as a Great Lakes port. The steel industry, an anchor of the area’s economy, all but vanished during the second half of the 20th century, and thousands of jobs were lost. Population has plummeted, to about half its peak of 580,000 in 1950.

Mr. Nussbaumer and others argue that negative perceptions, both locally and nationally, helped prevent the sort of recovery experienced in other Rust Belt cities. Across Lake Erie from here, Cleveland, for example, has attracted corporate headquarters, and visitors to attractions like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Buffalo’s image grew even dingier after the Blizzard of ’77, which effectively shut the city and provided Johnny Carson with weeks of “Tonight Show” punch lines. Then there were the four straight Super Bowl defeats of the Buffalo Bills in the early 1990’s.

“I was taught to dislike Buffalo and to want to get out,” Ms. Gorman said.

Another organizer of the festivities was Chris Smith, who runs buffalogeek.com. He attended Thursday’s concert in a top hat, tails and white gloves, portraying the turn-of-the-century mascot designed for the week. Mr. Smith said he had lived in bigger cities for seven years.

“What those other cities lack is the sense of community you’ve got here,” he said. “There’s a sense that everybody is in it together. It’s a more solitary life when you live in Boston or Chicago.”

Mayor Byron Brown, a native of Queens, also said the city’s small-town feel drew him in.

“I came here at 17 to attend college and just fell in love with how friendly people are and how easy it is to get around,” said Mr. Brown, who took office in January. “I’ve been here ever since and I’ve never regretted it.”

Get an overall positive piece in an out-of-town paper? Great. Get an overall positive piece in the New York Times? Priceless.

Thanks, Dave.

I have, in recent weeks, become hopelessly addicted to this particular television program.

Here’s season 2, episode 1:

BuffaloPundit et famille will be taking a pre-1st grade break for the bulk of the upcoming week, so consider this an invitation to guest post here up to and including Labor Day.

If you’re interested (Professor Hardwick?) drop me a line and I’ll hook you up.

That’s kind of what it felt like today. I’ll leave it to others to describe.

The BOHW brunch was phenomenal. All the BOHW events I witnessed or learned of through hearsay went amazingly. I’m gobsmacked by it all, and the BOHW crew deserves endless kudos.

Jen was working the Faces of Buffalo booth and took pictures of lots of familiar faces who participated.

Afterwards, we swung by the Elmwood Festival of the Arts, where I ran into even more friends. I also met a guy who works for the Food Bank who started telling us about a problem whereby WIC doesn’t cover an entire month’s worth of baby formula, and the stuff is so bloody expensive that the Food Bank has a tough time meeting the overflow need. Mayhaps Santa’s Park 2006 could devote the entirety of its take to help ensure that the most vulnerable among us have enough to eat.

One of my favorite local businesses is the Kreepy Doll Factory. They’re amazingly creative. Here, my daughter is mimicking the doll.

Just asking for a copy of a government employee union’s collective bargaining agreements can lead to a grievance.

Must be something in there they don’t want the public seeing?

Today (sorry for the late posting!) the fi