The New York City Council passed a home rule measure 30-20 (yes, there are 50 legislators on New York City’s council). Now it moves on to Albany. Under the plan, pioneered in Singapore and popularized in London, motorists will be charged $8.00 to drive south of 60th Street in Manhattan. Trucks will pay $21, and this will be in effect Monday through Friday, 6am - 6pm. It is expected that congestion pricing will not only help lower traffic congestion, but also raise close to a half billion dollars per year.

Saturday. The weather was a bit chilly, but not ridiculous. It was sunny, for a change. There were loads of people on the Canadian side sightseeing, shopping, and otherwise enjoying themselves.

After crossing the border, I noticed that Frank Parlato’s flash cube was dead.

But the fact that there were no cars parked in his makeshift parking lot one block from the Niagara Falls State Park made the Rainbow Mall all that much more visible.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the second building in from the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, New York. Welcome, friends.

Recall that, pursuant to its contract with the city, Cordish is supposed to maintain this mall as a “first class” facilities. At this point, it’s not first class. It is, instead, akin to being on an empty plane that’s been stripped of its seats, carpeting, upholstery, and amenities. And smeared with feces.

Saturday we took a ride up to IKEA, and given that Mia is now out of the crib and in a regular bed, we decided to buy this lamp for her room so that she wouldn’t hurt herself on a hot bulb.

We plugged it in, and after a few minutes the switch became extremely hot, and finally the entire circuit blew. Not just blew, but upon turning it back on at the breaker box, the circuit just doesn’t work. Period.

I got online to get the customer service numbers for IKEA, and it took me to the US site. Here’s the lamp:

But the price seemed strange. I then checked the Canadian site. Here’s that:

So, not only did I get hosed x2 with respect to the price of the lamp, but now I have calls in to electricians to come fix my house.

Thanks, IKEA!

This reminds me of dealing with Santaland the first in 2005.

We were given very specific parameters in terms of what we could and couldn’t do, lest we make the laid off workers and their union very angry. I made numerous calls to AFSCME, and not one of my calls was ever returned. Frankly, that in and of itself made me want to say, “screw them”. I mean, if you have a beef about it, why do I have to hear it second or third-hand. At least have the decency to tell me over the phone or to my face that you oppose volunteers bringing Santa to Chestnut Ridge.

Mentholatum Corporation wants to donate a playground to the County’s Chestnut Ridge Park at a cost of $23,000. Setting up a playground (and doing cleanup) takes labor, and the problem is that any such labor is supposed to be peformed by union workers, and cannot (under the Taylor Law) be done by volunteers.

AFSCME’s John Orlando has threatened to sue the county if it permits volunteers to do cleanup work at Chestnut Ridge Park. On Hardline with Hardwick yesterday, Collins said, “sue me”.

This is a blockbuster PR opportunity all around.

Mentholatum wins for being a good corporate citizen.

The Collins Administration wins among a large swath of the population because it’s willing to go into combat with the union representing most county workers; a union with which Collins is going to have to negotiate a new contract shortly.

AFSCME will win among the large labor community in WNY, but I suspect that its stance - albeit legally justified - will render it a laughingstock among the community at-large, and will hand Collins a huge PR victory, and a lot of clout going into labor negotiations.

Of course, AFSCME will probably argue that Collins’ violation of the Taylor Law frees it from that same law’s prohibition against striking.

Looks like it’ll be an interesting year, indeed. I just hope Chestnut Ridge Park gets that new playground. Some of the play equipment there contains heiroglyphics, I think.

The Buffalo News’ Sharon Linstedt reports that Bashar Issa has put his Statler renovation on “hold”.

In reviewing my British - American English dictionary, I find that “on hold” translates as “over”.

An employee of Issa’s BSC Development Buffalo LLC, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that, although redevelopment is being halted, Issa “is not going to walk away” from the building.

“He made the point he is not selling the building and is not walking away,” the employee said. “He had a loan deal that didn’t pan out, and he will look at Plan B and Plan C. It’s not a dead project.”

The BSC Development staff member also said current vendor contracts will be honored and the halt in renovations will not affect tenants or the Park Lane Catering’s event schedule in the Statler’s Golden Ballroom, and Terrace and Rendezvous rooms.

I think it’s safe to say that Issa was and is in over his head. It’s one thing to build a project or two in your hometown (each of which was overbudget and late), but it’s a whole different thing to do a massive renovation of a local icon in a shrinking Great Lakes city across the ocean. Progress has been slow, Issa got himself embroiled in a nasty labor dispute, and it became increasingly clear that expectations were probably too high indeed.

In any event, I hope Issa can execute plans B - Zed, and we should bear in mind that what little progress he’s been able to accomplish in the Statler is greater than any progress the prior owner had been able to accomplish. But the notion that this young man from Manchester was going to single-handedly show Buffalo a thing or two seems to have been quite overblown indeed.

Esmonde writes about Governor Paterson’s recent trip to Buffalo. It’s interesting that Paterson now quips about being on the “we need cuts” side of the budget process after so many years of being on the “over my dead body” side, and concludes:

“We are going to have to truncate some of our support [for Buffalo],” Paterson said. “[The mayor] and I talked about some revenue-raisers for Buffalo . . . to decrease the necessity of the state [aid].”

It means another kneecapping to a hurting region. It means more pain for the chronically afflicted.

Although this particular horse has been dead for many years, it could use one more smack with a two-by-four:

The best revenue-raiser would be to halt the unfunded mandates, lower taxes and fees everywhere, and make the region far more economically attractive than it is now.

See? How simple is that.

*Buffalopundit and WNYMedia do not condone the beating of horses, dead or alive.

The Eastgate plaza on Transit Road in Clarence.

Featuring Super Wal*Mart, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Linens & Things, and, evidently, Jimmy’s Cocaine and Ecstasy Emporium.

Rumors are swirling that a longtime local Assemblyman will soon announce that he does not intend to seek re-election.

Reminder that tonight is the Buffalo Tweetup at the Buffalo Brewpub (Main & Transit) at 7pm.

Doesn’t it seem that Spitzer’s first prostitution eruption (there’s now a second) popped a balloon of crazy in this state? Between Paterson’s weeklong litany of admissions of affairs and drug use, Spitzer’s second hooker, Judge Tills, Reynolds exiting the race, no one wanting to replace him, etc., it’s like we’re all swirling in a hurricane of absolute insanity.

HT Avi @ Politico

Click here to learn the identity of a WNY politician who is rumored to have been a client of Emperor’s Club VIP!

He’s in. He says he polled the district, and people are clamoring for him to enter the already well-populated Democratic field running for NY-26.

Davis said a poll he conducted among residents of the 26th District swayed his decision. He polled residents on their thoughts about jobs, the economy, trade, the war in Iraq and Davis’ name recognition.

Unfortunately, they didn’t add that most of those polled thought the caller was talking about Jack Davis, the Mad Magazine illustrator.

*rimshot*

The Powers campaign reacts:

STATEMENT BY THE POWERS CAMPAIGN ON JACK DAVIS ENTERING THE RACE FOR CONGRESS IN NY-26

Jack Davis already failed twice to win this seat. Western New Yorkers are looking for something different. They’re looking for a candidate who is actually listening to people from Buffalo to Rochester. They’re looking for a candidate who wants to protect Social Security, not cut benefits. That candidate is Jon Powers.

On Saturday, while we were coloring eggs, Mia became bored with the idea sooner than anyone else, and kept repeating a particular mantra; a mantra I transfered to one of the last eggs we did:

Maybe this one is better:

The Buffalo Police Commissioner is warning that a nasty Central American gang has gained a foothold in WNY, and that its initiation rite is to rear-end cars and then assault and rob the motorist. Or worse.

It sounds very urban legend-y to me, but Gipson called an “emergency” news conference, so I figure this is for reals.

In the age of the internet, this is pretty stunning:

Gipson wouldn’t provide the name of the gang so as not to give the gang “notoriety.”

I prefer to know who these guys are. It’s a gang called MS-13.

Now you know. Thanks, Google.

Most references to MS-13 indicates that there are three primary initiation methods, and none of them involve rear-ending or harming random people. But other scares have arisen in the past with little evidence of the acts being perpetrated.

All I can say is, wow.

Looks like it’s tough recruiting Republicans to run for NY-26. Between that, Judge Tills, and Governor Spitzer it sure has been a very strange month here in New York.

First, Tom Reynolds announces he’s out.

George Maziarz? No, thanks. State Senate majority by a hair. And Grandkids.

Jim Hayes? No, thanks. Assembly.

Don Postles? Uh, Channel 4 is quite nice, thxbai.

Maybe Mike Cole or Jeff Bono would run.

Or maybe not.

WNYMedia’s main page has the skinny and the renderings here.

The LA Times gets pwn3d by an enterprising con man. Best quote:

It is not Bureau of Prisons policy to allow cross-country furloughs. Even to attend the Soul Train Music Awards.

Is it too much to ask that the City maybe put some cops on a walking beat - if not everywhere, all the time, then at least in particularly crime-prone areas once in a while? And it wouldn’t kill UB to get involved with this a bit more, either.

I wonder what Citistat has to say about all this?

You ever get that feeling that just about everything outside the doors of your house get on your last nerve?

Jack wants to know if he should go “all in” or “fold”. Please let him know here, and give me a heads-up in comments when you’ve done so.

Dick Cheney sums up the Bush Administration’s attitude towards the American people’s opposition to just about anything they do:

Reminds me why the Imperial Cruiser in the opening shots of Family Guy’s “Blue Harvest” sported a Bush Cheney ‘04 sticker.

For God’s sake. Why the need to pad the resume?