Today was a crazy day, and I’m looking forward to a crazy weekend. Therefore, with apologies to Dan Meyer, a couple of random thoughts:

1. It’s cold outside.

2. Listening to Sirius channel 32, I realized that I am very much sad that I’ll never see the Dead live again.

3. It’s my birthday Sunday, and I might have a birthday present for all of you that day if everything works out ok.

4. Sunday on Hardwick: Kevin Gaughan from 10 - 11, and Sam Hoyt from 11 - 12.

5. Santaland returns to the Chestnut Ridge Park next weekend and the week after that. Email me if you’re available to volunteer, and I’ll pass it on to the people organizing it this year.

6. Maria Whyte’s column in today’s News was an interesting take on the whole control board borrowing issue. If you haven’t read it, please do.

7. I don’t really care that certain of Collins’ campaign team are on the county payroll now, so long as they intend to remain on the payroll and do the people’s work come January 1st.

8. I don’t know about you, but the idea that the NYS Power Authority was busy using ratepayers’ money to make charitable contributions pisses me off. WNY pays higher-than-average electricity rates despite having Niagara effing Falls and its hydroelectric goodness in our own backyard, and NYPA should probably be abolished along with the other leech Authorities.

9. I’ve been shopping at the Circle-J. Have you? It’s fun!

10. Fed Up went to the Cliff Claven John Ratzenberger “Keep it Made in the USA” event last night at Babeland.

11. Geek turned me on to Yo Gabba Gabba, and now Mia loves it. It’s Dee-Lite meets Teletubbies:

12. Evel Knievel, RIP.

13. My hopes aren’t very high, but I really, really hope this works.

Thank you for shopping Erie County stores. You’ve not only helped us avert a projected budget deficit, but so much so that if the XSPAND tax lien sale doesn’t go through, we’ll still probably be in the black.

Love, BP.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct decided to remove Restaino from the bench as punishment for a 2005 incident when the judge jailed his entire courtroom because no one would fess up to a ringing cellphone.

Read the whole decision.

I’ve been before Restaino only one time, on a civil matter, but I found him to be quite cordial, and he conducted his courtroom in a reasonable and respectful matter. It’s a shame that he snapped so badly that it cost him this job, and that this one incident relegates him to the “strange but true” category of news. Restaino intends to appeal.

First, Anthony Capozzi ended his stint in a state penitentiary when it was discovered that Altemio Sanchez had committed the crime for which Capozzi was convicted.

Now, Lynn DeJac ends her stint in a state penitentiary after Erie County Judge D’Amico ordered a new trial for her based on newly discovered evidence;

This court must conclude that if the newly discovered forensic evidence was available at the time of trial, there exists a reasonable probability that the verdict in the defendant’s trial would have been more favorable to the defendant

Judge D’Amico should know. After all, he presided over DeJac’s 1994 trial.

Although the District Attorney opposed the granting of a new trial, to his credit he did not oppose DeJac being released on her own recognizance yesterday afternoon. The jury didn’t convict DeJac of intentional murder, but instead had found her guilty of “depraved indifference” murder. The case law has changed in the last 13 years, and it is now the DA’s intention to re-try DeJac on the charge of 2nd Degree Manslaughter. If convicted, she gets credit for her 13 years served and will never see the inside of a jail cell again due to this particular charge.

If acquitted, it will be a bittersweet victory for DeJac, no doubt. No one can bring back her daughter, who was likely killed by a man who is immune from prosecution for it. At least she will be able for the first time to visit her daughter’s grave. No one can give her back those 13 lost years, either. She returns home penniless, returned to a world much-changed since 1994.

If you want to see what it looks like when someone learns that a 13 year-long nightmare has come to an end, check out the video at Channel 2’s website. It’s really quite moving. I wish Ms. DeJac the best of luck in the future, and I hope she can pick up the pieces of her life and move on.

You’ll like their food, regardless of their style.

BMW Isetta?

Meet the 2011 BMW Isetta:

You might recall our suburban correspondent Lancaster Stan.  Stan is now joined by urban hipster correspondent Trey from Elmwood in a new podcast series we call “Point / Counterpoint with Trey from Elmwood and Lancaster Stan.” 

Today, Stan and Trey take on the downsizing of Route 5.

http://wnymedia.net/podcasts/downsizert5.mp3

The endless bullshittical sniping between suburbanites and city people is so tiresome and so yesterday. At least, it should be.

This Buffalo Rising post proposed a novel idea towards the city of Buffalo absorbing the inner-ring suburbs as “boroughs”, kind of like New York City. It would probably require a constitutional amendment to accomplish, but it’s that kind of thinking that I like to read about. Unfortunately, some of the comments devolve into sheer nonsense.

The most fascinating comment so far is one psychoanalyzing the myriad evil and semi-evil reasons why people would deign to live in a suburb.

A Buffalo Rising commenter calling himself “wizardofza” suggested that the reasons why people might opt to move to a suburb for the school district are racists or xenophobes.

I’d also love to see merged school districts as well, but face it, the majority of metro residents Buffalo are either racist or xenophobic. Their view of the city and its school district is that of a nasty cesspool that needs to be quarantined off from their happyland.

Sadly, racial/class-based fear is the #1 obstacle to regional consolidation.Most of the suburban municipalities are at least 96% white and the people there intend on keeping it that way.Segregation here is still a harsh reality. If we’re going to achieve baby steps toward regional consolidation, it’s best to leave out the powder-keg issues for now.

And then, perhaps coming to the realization that his comment was a gross exaggeration, amended it thusly:

The majority of residents in Buffalo area are either:

1. Racist- This is a very small percentage but still existing among older folks and some families in very working class pockets of the city and white ethnic inner-suburban areas.

2. Xenophobic - This would be the majority. They don’t hate (or see as inherently inferior) anyone based on their race or social upbringing, but want to live as far away from the perceived problem as they can. Xenophobes want a predictable living environment with neighbors just like them and their families.

Racism obviously exists, and unfortunately always will. The “xenophobe” criteria is somewhat sillier, since no one can ever guarantee in any way, shape, or form, a “predictable” living environment with neighbors “just like them.” There is more to diversity than just the color of one’s skin.

3. Those who are respectful of the city’s cultural heritage and feel pity for the city and its problems but don’t want their own families/children to have any part in it.

4. Those of us who put up with the annoyances of city life because, in the end, the perks and amenities of living in the city to us outweigh the negatives.

I suspect your friend who couldn’t take it anymore and bailed the city was teetering between #4 and #3. I doubt he moved out because of the stupid parking ticket blitz. In the end for that person the annoyances outweighed the amenities of city living.

It’s sad these days that city living has been relegated to a lifestyle choice. Though, when gas prices go up even further this will start to change.

Like gas prices going up to $3.40 have obliterated SUVs and pickups from our roadways?

I’m curious as to how many city people who are so quick to heap scorn, derision, and hatred on people who have the unmitigated gall to not share their choice of living within city limits actually have kids in school? And how many of those kids go to private or parochial schools? Seriously, these arguments and blanket accusations against people keep this region down just as viciously as high taxes, bad politics, and elevated highways.

You go to Chicago or New York or Boston, and do you think people have these endless, pointless bitchfests between city and suburban people? It’s so counterproductive and in a lot of cases hypocritical.

I wonder how many of the holier-than-thou set who heap scorn, derision, and hatred on suburban people live within a few blocks of the tony Elmwood Strip or boho magnet Allentown? And how many live in suburban-in-all-but-boundary North Buffalo? Seriously, if you’re in any of those neighborhoods, you have very little business indeed criticizing suburbanites for their alleged demands of homogeneity. (Note: the Amherst town supervisor is every bit a minority as the mayor of Buffalo).

I was once in my 20s and early 30s, living within the limits of a city and enjoying that lifestyle to the fullest. But when you have a kid, your primary focus in life is that kid / those kids. Those kids are not arbitrary statistics to their parents - they are the future and your flesh and blood, and you want the best for those kids. And if someone decides that those kids ought to be in a different school district, and you have the ability to make that move, you do it because you have little room for error.

Or if you choose to stay and have the wherewithal to send those kids to Elmwood-Franklin or a charter school or Nichols or St Joe’s, you do that. And if you choose to send them to Buffalo Public Schools, you do that too.

It’s nobody’s business but the parents’. Period.

Because those kids have one and only one shot at getting a good education, and you do whatever you can to ensure that they get it. Nowhere is perfect - not Clarence Schools, not Orchard Park Schools, not private schools, and not Buffalo public schools. But you take your best shot at what you think is best.

If people love living in the city, more power to them. If people choose to live in the suburbs, more power to them. The point is that they have made a very difficult choice indeed - choosing to stay in an economically backward and depressed area in the first place. The entire region is in shabolic condition economically, and we ought to be trying to do what we can to work together to move it forward, not taking potshots at each other to prove who’s got a more accurate moral compass based on their selection of home location.

There are just under 381,000 households in Erie County, therefore there are just under 381,000 different reasons why people choose to live where they do.

Maybe a little less inane finger-pointing and name-calling from both city and suburb at each other would do the region a whole lot of good.

(Photo from willvill.com)

Common Council member Brian Davis has proposed that the Buffalo Bills move to the current location of the Perry projects. The red area represents the scaled footprint of Gillette Stadium over that area. Discuss.

Click to enlarge

[Update: I mistakenly put the footprint on top of the projects behind Sheehan Hospital, not over Perry homes. Thanks WCP for the heads-up. I also switched from the Ralph to the newer Gillette Stadium footprint.]

You’d think that they’d have learned their lessons by now.

The Buffalo News writes and blogs about the declining fortunes of the big three domestic automakers - note the word “domestic”.

While European automakers are habitually laden with quality issues that range from niggling to infuriating, they put out well-designed, well-engineered cars that, for the most part, give drivers some fun. Volvo, BMW, Mercedes, and Volkswagen are the big European automakers selling in the US, and they’re doing just fine. BMW owns Mini. Mercedes is introducing the Smart to the US market (the local dealership’s add-on structure is about 50% done). Volvo is known for safety, and it just introduced the C30 and the new V70 to showrooms. BMW? Driving perfection. Mercedes? Luxury. Volkswagen? Fun. Mini? Fun & frugal. Smart? Frugal & small. Volvo? Safety, safety, safety.

The Japanese carmakers have hits and misses, but the new Honda Accord is head and shoulders above the last one in terms of interior and exterior design, and it’s supplementing its hybrid offerings with an ultra-clean and super-frugal diesel engine in the 2009 Accord, with mileage that will match or best most hybrids. The Civic is like something out of Futurama. Nissan has hits with the Murano and Altima, but the Maxima is a bit on the fringe, the Quest is a sea of plastic, and the excellent Pathfinder is now joined by its smaller sibling, the Rogue. Toyota is now in the top three, and while everyone else laughed at Toyota for selling its first-generation Prius at a loss, Toyota’s now laughing all the way to the bank, offering its Hybrid Synergy Drive engine on not only the strange, slow Prius, but also on the Camry and Highlander.

Korea? Hyundai came to market the same year as the Yugo. Nuff said. What was once a budget joke is now competing quite handily, thank you, with the Japanese carmakers, producing good-looking, economical vehicles with 100,000 mile powertrain warranties. Kia is a part of the Hyundai conglomerate, and acts as a cheaper younger sibling.

So, we turn to the US.

Before Iraq, before Katrina, the domestics were making boatloads of money on SUVs and pickup trucks - the vehicles they make the biggest profits on. People snapped them up for the roominess and perceived safety. But it’s a different world now, and just as has happened for just about every decade since the 70s, Detroit got caught napping. In the past, domestic cars also had the sort of identity that imports have. I already listed the Euro-marques’. Toyota and Honda are known for quality cars that don’t break and are so reliable and sure-footed that they’re often quite boring to drive. Nissan has a sportier reputation. US automakers are only now beginning to eschew excessive badge engineering and giving cars their identities back.

It’s not union deals and outsourcing that’s killing Detroit. Not by a longshot. It’s vehicles that people don’t want to buy. By my own personal, subjective scorecard in terms of playing catch-up, GM and Ford get a B. Chrysler gets a D.

GM quickly refocused on cars, started development of a hybrid program, and finally turned Saturn around from an 80s flashback to a domestic Opel dealer. The upcoming Astra is going to be groundbreaking for GM - it will compete quite well with any other economical hatchback on the market - especially the VW GOlf/GTI, which is the Astra’s main competitor in Europe’s biggest class of vehicle. The new Malibu is a huge improvement over the last version. Pontiac is developing a Grand Prix replacement called the G8, which is being done in conjunction with a rear-engine muscle car line done by Australia’s Holden. We tend to forget that GM has excellent foreign resources in Holden and Opel, and they’re taking advantage of them. Cadillac’s new CTS can easily compete with the best that Lexus and Infiniti have to offer. The functionality and design of the interiors of Saturn’s Outlook and Buick’s Enclave are world-class. GM is getting it, and it’s on the right track. Hint: more engine choices, including turbos and diesels, and more transmission options would be swell.

Ford has refocused on quality, and the Fusion just earned a “recommended” from Consumer Reports. No small feat. Needing work is the Taurus / Taurus X, which are nice and big but sort of clunky and anachronistic. Ford makes wonderful small cars and small MPV / minivans in Europe, but has completely lost the plot with its latest, disgusting Focus retread. Hint to Ford: bring the Focus Mk. II to the US, and start importing the C-Max to compete with the Mazda5. You won’t be sorry. And let’s de-rentalify the interiors on the Edge and Fusion, while we’re at it. Hint: if I’m looking to drop $30k on a Ford Taurus, how about popping a 6-speed shiftable automatic transmission in there?

This brings us to Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep. With the exception of the new minivans, which are being snapped up, and the Chrysler 300, which is probably due for a re-design soon, it’s no small wonder why Daimler dropped the Chrysler from its name given the chance. If you love hard plastic in a shade of gray that makes you think of Soviet apartment blocks, you’ll love the Jeep Compass / Dodge Caliber. If you want to drive a car that screams “rental”, you’ll love the new Chrysler Sebring / Dodge Avenger. Chrysler needs to start getting its act together, but fast. It could start by ignoring the fact that it’s the only carmaker without a hybrid program and maybe start rolling out 50-state legal turbo diesel engines.

In a globalized economy, Detroit has to learn how to innovate and compete. That means designing cars that are not only well-built, but well-designed. No one wants to buy a rental. Yes, it’s important that a car look cool from the outside. The Caliber is not at all offensive at the curb. The Ford Edge is quite nice indeed. But when you get inside the car - the place where you actually spend your time whilst driving - you want something that’s ergonomic and attractive. Plastic with a soft-touch. Electroluminescent gauges that give you a wow factor. Stereo systems that are SAT-ready and feature RDS displays. Offer some manual transmissions. Maybe a dual-clutch gearbox like VW’s DSG. Innovate. Excite people.

The blame rests with the types who green-lighted the Pontiac Aztek and the latest Ford Focus abomination. The blame rests with the people who kept pushing 10 MPG pickups and SUVs as gas prices started soaring. (I unloaded my Honda Pilot SUV when gas hit $1.85. I couldn’t imagine filling that tank now). The opportunity is there. US automakers need to figure themselves out, but quick.

The government has a program that pays you an incentive of up to $10,000 to enlist in the armed forces in order to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. If you leave the service early, you may forfeit a pro-rated portion of that sum. Sounds fair, right?

But when your departure from the service is due to a service-related injury, should you be billed for that pro-rated incentive money?

The federal government is doing just that, and no one is explaining why, and no one is taking the blame. Senator Chuck Schumer, though, (this is part of what we call “checks and balances”) wants some answers.

Service members seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan after they received a $10,000 bonus for enlisting are being dunned by the Pentagon to repay portions of the incentive money, says a U.S. senator who calls the practice an example of military policy gone wrong.

“A bill in the mail is not the kind of present our soldiers deserve in this holiday season,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. said. “Our veterans are not being treated with the dignity, respect and thanks that they deserve. It’s just a disgrace.”

At a news conference Sunday, he said the policy remained in effect despite a report last July by a presidential commission that wounded veterans were being unfairly penalized by a requirement that enlistees must fulfill their entire term of service or lose a pro-rated portion of their bonus.

“This policy and early discharge as a result of service-related injury is now preventing thousands of combat-wounded warriors from getting the bonsues they have earned,”

This does indeed add insult to injury, don’t you think?

Via Richard Florida, I find this entry at Toronto’s “Move Smartly”, which laments the “Disneyfication” of the Distillery District. You’ll recall that the Distillery District was one of the myriad places brought up by, e.g., Donn Esmonde, as examples of what Buffalo’s Canal Side should be.

I pointed out then that the Distillery District was a poor example because (1) it’s far to the east of the downtown core, (2) it’s a restoration of actual old buildings; and (3) there is massive-scale modern development happening all around it.

The Jacobs urbanists at Move Smartly added this brilliant paragraph to their post about the Distillery:

Now, it’s not the ‘condos going up on artifacts’ thing that bothers me. I am not one to oppose building on history in some misguided attempt to keep things ’sacred’, which in the sociocultural realm of North America, all too often means keeping things dead and preserved in underutilized museums. No, I believe that finding new reasons to visit old things makes a whole lot of sense. So revitalizing this beautifully historic area is a no-brainer.

In Toronto they build. In Buffalo, first they complain, then they protest, then they sue.

Page C8 of Sunday’s News has a list of additional people County Executive elect Chris Collins has added to his transition team. We already know of “fresh faces” Dennis Vacco, Nancy Naples, and Mary Lou Rath. Now, we have 31 subcommittees with chairpeople such as:

Ed Rath was actually on the Charter Revision Commission, and has a good handle on government reform possibilities and initiatives. So, why is Elise Cusack, who got her Pataki appointment, doing it? What is her record of reform? Rath, on the other hand, hasn’t spent a day in government. Who is he to lead a transition subcommittee on county human services? What’s his background and knowledge in that arena?

Mills and Ranzenhofer are currently serving county legislators. I know it’s just county politics, but the legislature doesn’t exist as the administration’s board of directors. It is a separate branch of government under our system of checks and balances. I have a very serious problem with two current legislators acting as chairs of administration transition subcommittees. Unless, of course the Republicans would be fine having, say, Ted Kennedy - another long-term incumbent legislator - sitting on the next US President’s transition team.

As for the others, a quick scan and an educated guess leads me to believe that either they or family members gave substantial sums of money to the Collins campaign. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s the way these things always get done. Frankly, it’s also just a transition team - there’s nothing to indicate anyone’s getting paid for this, anyone’s getting a full-time job through this means, etc.

But having legislators and rookies head up something that’s supposed to ease the transition to a Collins administration is equal parts stupid and troubling.

As I try to disembark with a stroller, a group of gothy teens starts shoving their way into the train before anyone’s had a chance to get off. Reverting to strong NY accent, I ask 16-year old gothy girl “what, you can’t wait fuh people to get ooawf the train befoaw you get on?”

16-year old gothy girl to Pundit: “Suck my dick”.

Hope everyone’s is happy, safe, and full of turkey and fun. Or Tofurkey, as the case may be.

Cheers,

BP

Jon Splett, who started it in comments here, continues it at his site here. E.g.:

You think Buffalo has an awesome music scene and cite the Goo Goo Dolls being mildly famous in the late 90’s as evidence of it.

Fidel Castro hats seem like a good idea.

You think the glare people give you when you’re constantly pulling out your iPhone is one of jealousy.

At any given meal, at least 25% of the people dining with you don’t eat meat.

You think of being a regular at the old Pink as a life goal.

You fail to see the shocking similarities between the quality of the products being sold at the Elmwood Art Festival and Walden Avenue Super Flea.

Questions:

1. In whom do you have more confidence when it comes to international affairs - Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton? (If your answer is “neither”, then add in your comment whom you would trust of all announced candidates, but let me know what your answer is as to these two specifically, as well).

2. Do you agree with Obama that his life experience abroad helps him understand international issues better than, say, a politician whose only jaunts abroad involve tightly-controlled photo-op junkets?

Bill O’Reilly still has a show.

Yesterday, the county held a public hearing on the 2008 budget. As the Buffalo News reports, it consisted mostly of groups asking for more money from the county. Hospitality industry people showed up to demand that the entire bed tax be devoted to the Erie County Convention & Visitors’ Bureau.

I could not attend, but if I had, I would have made this comment about the 2008 county budget:

Back in 2006, the people of Erie County voted overwhelmingly in favor of a package of revisions to the county charter, one of which included performance-based budgeting. This budget was not drafted in compliance with the newly revised charter, and is not performance-based.

Even more ironic is that the implementation of performance-based budgeting has been held up by the county’s control board. It sits on millions of public dollars in efficiency grants, and repeated requests for a few hundred thousand dollars to study and plan the implementation of performance-based budgeting have been denied without explanation.

Through this new method of budgeting, we can focus on the desired outcome and figure out whether our money and other resources have been used in the most efficient way to effectuate each outcome. I call on the new administration and next legislature to rapidly implement all of the mandated changes to the county charter, and put forth a new budget in compliance with the law.

moar funny pictures

Yeah.

State Senate Democrats, facing a multibillion dollar deficit, are proposing ways to cut that deficit at least in half:

Their plan calls for saving $600 million dollars by not filling “nonessential” state jobs, taking $525 million dollars in unused funds from public authorities, and withdrawing 375 million dollars from the state’s rainy-day reserve.

Other ideas include forcing more collections from Medicaid fraud and avoiding late and more costly care for diabetes, heart disease and obesity which the say would save another 380 million dollars.

This is not sitting well in some circles:

Danny Donohue, president of the Civil Service Employees Association union, calls the plan to eliminate state jobs an example of shortsighted political grandstanding.

Public Employees Federation union President Ken Brynien says more hiring is needed, not less.

It’s a start, I guess.

Bruce Andriatch