After much ribbing about the non-existent and/or empty “views” section of his website, Republican candidate for Congress in the 26th district has finally gotten around to having some.

I am running for Congress to bring real change to Washington, D.C., restore accountability, get people to stop the partisan bickering and start solving the problems families are facing. This is what Western New Yorkers are demanding, and it is what they deserve.

By working together we can make these things happen, and we can get Washington working again for Western New York.

If we do that then we can help create jobs at home, lower taxes for hard working families, develop a real energy policy, and ensure access to affordable healthcare for all Western New Yorkers.

Washington working for Western New York. That’s a great idea. Um, what’s his predecessor been doing along those lines for the past 10 years? It’s all platitudes cribbed from some primer on how to run as a Republican but sounding like a Democrat. Republicans don’t give a shit about “affordable healthcare”. They’re far more concerned with taxation of the wealthiest 1%, not “hard working families”.

The most important thing for our families is having jobs not just for us, but for our children. Right now Western New York is facing the challenge of entering a 21st century economy and not having enough jobs for our children. Fortunately, Western New York is well equipped to face these challenges. We have a world-class workforce, excellent educational institutions and a work ethic second to none. What needs to happen is the government, in Washington and Albany, needs to get out of the way and let businesses do what they do best – create jobs. When I am elected, I will fight everyday for policies that increase the incentives for businesses to take risks, be entrepreneurial and ultimately create jobs.

How is Washington in the way, and would he do to get it out of said way? Taxes and spending, evidently - no surprise, coming from a Republican candidate. The problem is that the Republican party has put the Democrats to shame in terms of the growth of government and government spending at the federal level since George W. Bush came to office. Why are we to believe that Lee would not help perpetuate that state of affairs? Bush has grown government, kept taxes low to help the budget deficit balloon, engaged in nation-building adventures in the middle east and then shortchanged them when it got difficult.

Definitely Washington is broken. Definitely Albany is broken. What can Lee as a congressman do to fix Albany? Again - platitudes that sound phenomenal but have no meat to them.

Lee also says we need a “comprehensive energy policy”:

- Lessen our dependence on foreign oil by increasing American made energy through exploration;
- Promote new, clean, reliable sources of energy;
- Encourage conservation, and;
- Increase investment in research funding for alternative energy.

Respectively, how, what, how, and what? The call from McCain and Bush has been for drilling everywhere. Respectfully, that’s like putting a Band-Aid on an amputation site. Nice sentiment, but it would take literally years - if not a decade - before any such drilling would have any effect on the market. Furthermore, conservation is now in full effect, given the cost of fuel. Price is up, demand is way down. So, if all this is run by the market, why does lower demand equal ever-higher prices?

Again - demand for gasoline has been dropping, yet the price continues to rise. The idea that this is just market forces at work doesn’t fly. In 2008, it is high time that we develop and reach a consensus on a fuel for personal conveyances to replace petroleum. We’re using technology that’s over 100 years old.

Lee also believes that health care is an issue. The buzzword is “market-based”. Anything the Republicans recommend will be characterized as “market-based”, while they will criticize the Democrats’ plans as being “socialized medicine”. Meanwhile, all of the plans being suggested are market-based. No one is proposing socialized medicine.

While Mr. Lee complains that WNY is not getting its fair share of federal dollars, he also argues:

I will fight for a more transparent and fair system that will ensure real earmark reform. Any dollar being spent by the federal government should be done so in the light of day not behind closed doors. I want to change the way Washington does business by ensuring that we have an open system that holds our leaders accountable. Just like a CEO would want, Western New Yorkers deserve to know exactly how their money is being spent - that can only happen with a more transparent and accountable Washington.

How? What sort of transparency is he proposing? And which is it? More fair share, or fewer earmarks?

In other news, Chris Lee held a fundraiser last night. It was a swanky affair at the Marriott on Millersport. All of the Republican glitterati were in attendance, and Tom Reynolds introduced Lee to the crowd. Illuzzi was there enjoying the free food, making subtle threats, and writes:

I had the pleasure of attending what was truly an “All-Star” fundraising event last night kicking off NY 26 Congressional Candidate Chris Lee’s fundraising efforts.

Congressman Tom Reynolds declared the event to have set a new record for a first time candidate’s congressional fundraising event. Over 300 people in attendance!!! Early estimates are over $175,000 raised at the event.

That averages out to over $580 per person.

Lee is an unemployed child of wealth who inherited part of the sell-out of his father’s business. He’s pledged to spend $1 million of his own money on the race. Will he, like Chris Collins, forego his federal salary if elected? I recall Jack Davis making that pledge 2 years ago. Why should taxpayers cut a six-figure check with benefits and pension for a millionaire heir?

Friedman in the Times yesterday:

My fellow Americans: We are a country in debt and in decline — not terminal, not irreversible, but in decline. Our political system seems incapable of producing long-range answers to big problems or big opportunities. We are the ones who need a better-functioning democracy — more than the Iraqis and Afghans. We are the ones in need of nation-building. It is our political system that is not working.

I continue to be appalled at the gap between what is clearly going to be the next great global industry — renewable energy and clean power — and the inability of Congress and the administration to put in place the bold policies we need to ensure that America leads that industry.

“America and its political leaders, after two decades of failing to come together to solve big problems, seem to have lost faith in their ability to do so,” Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib noted last week. “A political system that expects failure doesn’t try very hard to produce anything else.”

We used to try harder and do better. After Sputnik, we came together as a nation and responded with a technology, infrastructure and education surge, notes Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. After the 1973 oil crisis, we came together and made dramatic improvements in energy efficiency. After Social Security became imperiled in the early 1980s, we came together and fixed it for that moment. “But today,” added Hormats, “the political system seems incapable of producing a critical mass to support any kind of serious long-term reform.”

If the old saying — that “as General Motors goes, so goes America” — is true, then folks, we’re in a lot of trouble. General Motors’s stock-market value now stands at just $6.47 billion, compared with Toyota’s $162.6 billion. On top of it, G.M. shares sank to a 34-year low last week.

That’s us. We’re at a 34-year low. And digging out of this hole is what the next election has to be about and is going to be about — even if it is interrupted by a terrorist attack or an outbreak of war or peace in Iraq. We need nation-building at home, and we cannot wait another year to get started. Vote for the candidate who you think will do that best. Nothing else matters.

There are so many reasons and causes for this inevitable chicken roost homecoming that I can’t even begin to hurl epithets at them. But I’m willing to overlook them for now just to have some people in congress take some bold steps that will help us in the future. Fewer international misadventures and more time and money being spent on transitioning our economy would be a swell idea.

Is Buffalo still a blue collar town in America’s Rust Belt?

The stereotype of Buffalo is that it is a town filled with blue collar lunch bucket factory workers with a love of chicken wings and Canadian Beer. Well, the wings and beer thing is true, but Buffalo is home to a growing and thriving community of new economy.

Purpose: To showcase 20 of the region’s most progressive new economy companies to demonstrate that we are rapidly building a burgeoning entrepreneurial sector in Western New York.

This will be a networking event at which larger companies can show the way to success, mid-level companies can reach out to new customers, find talent, locate real estate, and smaller companies that are just starting out can find some investors or just share their plans.

The event will be interactive with questions from the online community via text and Twitter, live attendees, and the whole event will be streamed online via BuffaloHomecoming.com, wnymedia.net, and ustream.tv.

It’s about building a community of entrepreneurs and young professionals who are looking to generate local wealth which can be used to put people to work, and build the foundation of our community. Instead of looking to traditional power structures and politicians, these are driven companies which seek to build upon Buffalo’s legacy of entrepreneurialism. Let’s look forward, work together and build the city in our own vision.

When we’re done, we’ll upload each presentation to dozens of viral video sites to spread the word about Buffalo’s business future.

Presenters: WNY’s 20 most innovative technology, design, social network, creative and media companies. Click here for more details on our presenters.

Audience: Local, regional, and national venture capitalists and angel investors, members of Buffalo Niagara Enterprise and the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, InfoTech Niagara, local entrepreneurs, general public, online participation. Attendance is 100% free and registration is NOT required. We just ask you to join us in person or virtually!

When: June 27th, 2008 9AM-2PM

Where: Statler Golden Ballroom, Statler Hotel, Buffalo, NY

THE EVENT IS FREE AND REGISTRATION IS NOT REQUIRED

The City of Vallejo, California files for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy protection. The deets:

The Vallejo City Council unanimously agreed May 6 to begin bankruptcy filings after months of negotiations with city public employee union negotiators. Several meetings between city and union negotiators after the May 6 vote didn’t break the stalemate. City finance officials attribute Vallejo’s looming $16 million deficit for the coming year to a plummeting housing market and the cost of ballooning public safety employee contracts. Officials expect the city’s general fund to run out of money June 30 and hope Chapter 9 bankruptcy will protect the city from its creditors while it works out a long-term plan to pull out of debt and continue to pay its employees. City officials rejected a union proposal its representatives say offered a two-year plan to avoid bankruptcy and even build city reserves through assumed new revenue sources and union concessions.

Sometimes, it’s heartening just to get confirmation that we’re not the only place with problems.

Posted by Christopher Smith 

I just spent an hour discussing the sub-prime mortgage crisis with a group of people and it is becoming increasingly clear to me that 99.9% of people have no clue what this crisis is all about.  Since it is a major campaign issue and of significant consequence to our national economy, it’s an issue about which we should all have a base level of understanding.

A few months ago, someone wrote this instructional primer on the mortgage crisis and uploaded it to Google Docs for the world to see.  It’s irreverent, graphic, and does a pretty damn good job of breaking a very complicated issue down to consumable bits of information.

Click Here to give it a read

Gas prices could go up to $7.00 or $8.00 per gallon, and it won’t be enough to get people out of their cars. They might select different cars, but individual transportation will not die completely.

If you want people who are happy with their cars to consider using public transportation, it would be good to make that transportation clean, modern, efficient, and reliable. Big Billy Fuccillo buses need not apply.

So, consider this rubber-tired newfangled tram-bus, now rolling in France:

This is a bus-train, basically a train on rubber tires instead of rail tracks. The vehicle is designed to function exactly like an urban streetcar with a low floor that is level with boarding stations. The vehicle is guided by a centre track in the street and is meant for urban city streets, as shown above.

That’s all well and good for the city and throughout the suburbs. But what about speedier commuter rail? Quick trips between downtown and East Aurora, Hamburg, Orchard Park, Clarence, Lancaster, etc. Something like this would do just nicely:

Photo courtesy Kecko via Flickr.

Intercity and intracity rail expansion would be great for the Buffalo area. If only we had the money and political will to build it.

With the price of fuel creeping upward on an almost Zimbabwe-like daily basis, people are slowly starting to alter their routines. Driving less, taking the bus, unloading the SUV, etc.

I’m ok for now, but I am eagerly awaiting the release of the new 50-state legal clean diesel engines. Battery maintenance, safety, lack of stop-and-go traffic, and unsatisfying mileage figures make hybrids a poor fit for me. A diesel, on the other hand, provides mileage that bests overall that of a Toyota Prius, looks and behaves like a regular car, and enables me to fill the tank once every two weeks rather than once every week.

I’m currently very interested in replacing my 2.0T gas engine VW Passat with the 2009 Jetta SportWagen TDI, which is coming out in August or September. The estimated highway EPA mileage on that car is rumored to be 60 MPG highway. That means I could double my miles-per-tank from about 400 to about 800. That’s a huge difference, and one that makes economic sense even with diesel being more expensive than gas. I’ll take mine in red with the massive panoramic sunroof and a 6-speed manual transmission, please.

The problem is that Volkswagen’s reliability can be hit-or-miss. Some I’ve owned have had few problems, others have been downright lemons.

Enter Honda/Acura. The New York Times just got through test driving a Euro-spec Honda Accord (sold in the US as an Acura TSX) which sports a 4-cylinder 2.2 liter diesel which makes 140 HP, but an incredible 250 lb-ft of torque. So, it’s not slow. Better still, in real-world testing, that Honda engine returned 34 MPG in the city and 53 MPG on the highway. Oh, and it’s Honda reliable.

Those miles included a bumper-to-bumper crawl through Manhattan, the worst possible conditions for fuel efficiency.

But for people who enjoy driving, the diesel delivers over the hybrid in a big way:

The Accord covered the zero-to-60 run in just under 9 seconds in my testing, which doesn’t sound spectacular on paper. But its passing power from 30, 50 or even 70 miles an hour was terrific, as the Honda easily shot past slower cars.

And as more hybrid owners are discovering, their cars deliver little or no mileage gain on the highway. That’s because battery packs and electric motors add several hundred pounds, and the system also contributes negligible energy at freeway speeds.

Also unlike hybrids, which require drivers to go easy on the gas pedal, watch the speed limit and coast when possible to improve the mileage, the diesel Honda delivered brilliant economy with no special effort. Even spirited driving didn’t dent the mileage much. The Accord delivered 50 m.p.g. even during a 75-m.p.h. cruise and 40 m.p.g. when I flogged it like a Nascar yahoo.

All that with less CO2 emissions than a car, and with negligible NOx emissions through state of the art particulate filters, ammonia systems, and ultra low sulfur diesel.

Once these diesels come out, carmakers can pretty much stop the excuses and whining about increased CAFE standards.

This is an article that Jon Powers released today on the issue of gas prices and the continuing replenishment of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Senate voted today 97-1 to halt replenishment of the reserve, thus freeing 70,000 barrels of oil into the open market on a daily basis. It’s a drop in the bucket, but a very expensive bucket. - BP

As Memorial Day approaches, many working families across Western New York are preparing their summer plans and struggling to find ways to afford our skyrocketing gasoline prices. The price for a gallon of gasoline is now over $3.85 and approaching $4 in Western New York, which means that car owners who have a 15 gallon gas tank are now paying almost $60 to fill up at the pump. Read the rest of this entry »

People are having a hard time unloading their gas guzzlers. That writing’s been on the wall literally for years. I owned a Honda Pilot for a while and reached my breaking point when gas reached $1.85/gallon. That was in 2004.

Currently, I drive a VW Passat Wagon 2.0T FSI which has a high-efficiency direct-inject turbocharged 4-cylinder engine that gets a combined 27 MPG. It has a 19 gallon tank, so I get about 440 miles’ worth of range on a single tank, and I can easily fill it only once per week. I last paid $3.71 per gallon, topping the tank off at around $60.

But I have distinct memories of the late 70s, the last time we had a scare like this, and almost every single car ad on TV touted the car’s EPA mileage figures. We are slowly coming back to that.

Ideally, I’d like to have a direct-inject turbocharged common rail diesel engine getting a combined 50 MPG so I could pull 800 miles’ worth of range, but affordable, Tier II Bin 5 compliant diesel passenger car engines (50-state legal) appear to be a year away from showrooms.

Richard Florida could come here and sprinkle fairy dust on Buffalo for an entire week.

We could have the Congress for New Urbanism come and give speeches every day about every elevated highway, every building not built out to the sidewalk, and every other thing that dares accommodate automobiles and delivery trucks in any way.

We could have CitiStats up the ying yang. So far, all I see is an almost-daily opportunity for the Mayor and his top brass to get some air time on public access.

We could work tirelessly - night and day - to attract sixtysomethings to look at our architecture, to try programs to attract “talent”, “innovation”, “connectivity”, and “distinction”.

But in the end, none of that is worth a tinker’s damn without an economy that renders this region attractive in some way. Yes, it’s time that the entirety of upstate New York become one big, massive Empire Zone. We’ll never compete with the Southwest or South in terms of cost of living, but imagine if we paired our standard of living here in WNY with the opportunity for growth and prosperity that isn’t stifled by byzantine regulations, favoritism, and runaway spending and taxation.

I’m not a proponent of upstate secession (New York City subsidizes us. Not vice-versa), but maybe a degree of autonomy wouldn’t be so bad. We could be like Wales is to the UK.

That would sure as hell attract all the talented, innovative, distinct people that we apparently need.

Bush lauds Ben Bernanke’s stewardship of the economy, essentially saying he’s doing a heckuva job. As the Fark submitter says, “uh oh”.

Bush rejected several proposals being offered in Congress, including the purchase of boarded-up homes by cities and states, changes in the bankruptcy code to allow mortgages to be discharged in bankruptcy, and extending federal loan guarantees to more homes once lenders have accepted their losses.

Markets need time to correct, he said. “Delaying that correction would only prolong the correction.“

The man is a genius.

I have to go to Albion for work this morning, so I’ll be busy listening to Ms. Tom Tom telling me to turn. right. in. three. hundred. yards.

In the meantime, I need a word or phrase to use as shorthand for what I generally call the cretinous or idiotic, distracting suburb/city argument. Your suggestion goes in comments.

Also, doing some abbreviated surfing this morning, I found this letter to the editor via Chris Byrd:

As an audience member of “To Kill a Mockingbird” at Studio Arena on Feb. 24, I can’t help but weigh in on the state of Buffalo’s arts community. One of the most heartfelt and powerful productions of the last several years, it is also widely believed to be the last.

The state of a city is surely bleak when it can’t sustain its own arts scene. Studio Arena’s turbulent financial history only underscores the dominant attitude in Buffalo today. Maybe people are too engrossed with watching the latest “American Idol” on television, or perhaps Clarence and Amherst are too far removed from the city’s cultural base; people just don’t seem to care about Buffalo’s arts scene.

The creative and performance arts in Buffalo continue to struggle, along with our failing economy. How can we expect to attract willing residents, and keep the ones we already have, without a thriving arts scene? I would hate for Studio Arena to be martyrized, but it should be seen as a wake-up call. We must support local arts in Buffalo. They contribute to the city’s shared identity, and allow for us who choose to stay here to maintain a sense of pride and purpose.

I’ll respond in the style of the letter writer:

As an at-home audience member of “American Idol” on television, I can’t help but weigh in on the state of Buffalo’s arts community. Studio Arena is going out of business? That’s sad, I guess, but I don’t really go to the theater very often, if at all. So, to me it’s an abstract concern.

The state of a city is surely bleak when it can’t sustain its own arts scene. Studio Arena’s demise is due to a number of factors, including financial mismanagement, bad marketing, an unwillingness to take artistic risks, as well as the macro concerns of a shrinking, aging population and the fact that the economy is in the shitter. That means that even well-off people are cutting back on non-essential items. While the letter-writer ascribes Studio Arena’s problems to TV-watching neanderthals and suburban snobs, he ignores economic realities. If I want to go to the theater, I have to shell out money for gas, tickets, probably a meal, and a babysitter. That’s somewhere in the $300 - $400+ range when all is said and done. I don’t have that kind of scratch for that purpose except on rare, special occasions. Four people to one recent Sabres game cost well in excess of $500 when all was said and done - and we parked for free on the street. First time in the 7 years I’ve lived here we’ve done that particular family outing.

Jeff Simon’s article in the News on Saturday detailing how and why Studio Arena failed when other theaters are getting by or doing well. It has to do with a lack of creativity and artistic risk-taking at that theater, figuring safe = money. Simon claims that Studio Arena “lost its soul”. Sometimes things fail because they are no longer relevant or compelling. Studio Arena, unable to sustain itself in a market that became indifferent to it, went begging for handouts, and failed to find any. Instead of ascribing Studio Arena’s failure on American Idol or suburban indifference, let’s blame “plays no one was all that interested in”. To Kill A Mockingbird? Read it. Saw the movie. All done.

We must support local arts in Buffalo. They contribute to the city’s shared identity, and allow for us who choose to stay here to maintain a sense of pride and purpose. Luckily, we still have other theaters and artistic venues that represent that local arts scene, and things may have gotten marginally easier for them. After all, nobody liveblogs “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

Between the Studio Arena shuttering and going into bankruptcy, American Axle workers striking, DeJac’s lawsuit, there seems to be a dearth of good news here in the Buffalo area. Studio Arena is hit with a shrinking, aging population that doesn’t have the disposable income to go to shows all the time. It’s also competing for philanthropic dollars along with every other non-profit in town. American Axle? Lucky to still be in business and manufacturing in the US. This strike won’t do much to perpetuate either.

So, look north. The Niagara Falls Reporter’s David Staba talks with new mayor Paul Dyster. That’s a city that has a smart, hard-working Mayor who isn’t beholden to special interests and isn’t filling posts with patronage appointments. He figures that whole “merit” thing counts for something. Politically, Niagara Falls is head and shoulders above Buffalo when it comes to a real possibility for change in the near and far term.

I received an email today from the Independent’s Open House blog, asking me to write about whom I’m supporting for President in today’s primary and why. Here’s what I wrote:

The first time I visited the UK was in 2005, in the midst of a parliamentary election. I envied the fact that the entire race would be resolved in a matter of weeks, rather than months - or years. As our current months-long election season dragged on, I was unsure of whom I would be supporting. The slate of Democratic candidates was quite varied, and for a long time Iraq seemed like it would be the primary issue on people’s minds. I was originally leaning towards New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, whose foreign policy resume is most extensive.

In January, the race started in earnest and it quickly became evident that Richardson was running for Secretary of State or Vice President. The field narrowed to Barack Obama, and my state’s Senator, Hillary Clinton.

What struck me about Obama was his earnest call for change; not just change as typical political pablum, but real, stark change. He is the first political figure in a generation who can truly say that his appeal transcends identity politics, and promises real unity across racial, ethnic, religious, and party lines. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, New York has 29 Congressional districts.

In the 1960s, New York had 41 Congressional districts.

The loss of a congressional district is approximately equal to the loss of 600,000. That’s as if the entire population of the five boroughs had departed the state in the past 38 years.

Governor Spitzer is in town to deliver that address at Buff State today at 10am. WGRZ will be streaming it. I’ll be in a deposition, so come back and tell me how he did.

Has Spitzer overreached? His pissing match with Senate President Joe Bruno, and his almost universally disliked licenses-for-illegals plan have sent his poll numbers plummeting to a 48% job disapproval rating. Remember the guy won with a Collinsesque mandate for change.

The Buffalo News yesterday lauded the baby-steps to reform that Spitzer has accomplished, but there is more to do. Will he become a shadow of his former self over the upcoming months, and falling into the Pataki trap of going along to get along? Or will he instead redouble his efforts to lurch the state towards fundamental reform by re-examining just how confrontational he needs to be?

Piecemeal signature projects in upstate cities - Peace Bridge and Canal Side in Buffalo - are all well and good, but as we constantly harp on here, until and unless the economy of Western New York is rendered more attractive to prospective and current residents, immigrants, and businesses, it will all be for naught.

We’re still shrinking. We’ll just have a nice waterfront or a new bridge for our shrinking population.

As the News says,

That kind of change would become much more likely if each legislative chamber would first reform its internal, topdown rules that discourage the free flow of ideas. That’s hardly the point of a democracy.

Upstaters can be pleased with Spitzer’s infrastructure projects. But as useful and expensive as they stand to be, they are the easy part. It is urgent that he not let up on the state reforms needed to make upstate an economically competitive place to live and do business. Until that is done, this state will continue to bleed.

New York is the second most expensive state in which to do business, behind only Hawaii.

Hawaii has an excuse. New York is running out of them.

What can we do to cajole our state legislators to take seriously the problems that face Western New York and upstate, and enact the sorts of political changes that might help spur economic and population growth? What can we do to get Spitzer to be less of a broken-down steamroller and more like a persuasive consensus-builder?

I had an unexpected link to my site from the “Burgh Diaspora” today. The post is entitled “Rust Belt 2.0″, and seeks to set up a meeting / collaboration between bloggers in various rust belt cities. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Erie, and Youngstown bloggers have expressed an interest.

The premise is simple:

Create more H-1B visa immigration into the Rust Belt region:

This might be a good time to propose to Congress/Administration the creation of “High Skill Immigration Zones” in parts of the country that are struggling to making the transition to a knowledge-based economy (e.g., Rust Belt Cities such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Buffalo, etc.), and which are progressively depopulating and destabilizing.

Attracting educated immigrants to shrinking cities in the rust belt in order to help the transition from a post-industrial stasis to a knowledge-based economy. It’s intriguing. Sure, it’s hard to attract, say, a young college graduate to come to or stay in Buffalo when the pickings in places like Phoenix or Atlanta are more plentiful and appealing. But what about the eager immigrant for whom Buffalo conjures up no negative connotations whatsoever? Consider:

The United States is undergoing a profound economic restructuring, due to pressures of globalization and the rising knowledge economy. America’s Great Lakes region, once the core of the nation’s industrial production and wealth creation, is losing ground rapidly. At this critical moment, federal investment in U.S. competitiveness lacks a regional focus. Federal policy fails to recognize that national growth is driven by integrated regional economies with the strong underlying assets necessary for talent creation and innovation.

What do you think? Good idea? Pipe dream? Is this the kind of thing that could help Buffalo grow its economy and population in spite of Albany politics? I’m somewhat intrigued and prepared to learn more.