The disbursements for Jack Davis’ campaign are almost as fascinating as his receipts. Let’s home in on two notable inclusions.

Coastal Consulting South
820 South Green Circle
Venice, Florida 34285

That outfit received $1,250 per month, a total of $5,000.

Coastal Consulting at 820 South Green Circle? Yeah, it’s owned by one:

ORSINI, ANTHONY LOUIS
820 S. GREEN CIRCLE
VENICE, FL 34285

And there’s another political consultant whom the Davis campaign has on its payroll.

Blanca Semidey
2 Loring Place
Rochester, New York 14624

Blanca Semidey is using her maiden name. She is otherwise known as Blanca Colon, the wife of Monroe County Independence Party chairman Rafael Colon. She, too, was paid $1,250 per month, a total of $5,000, as a “campaign consultant”.

Why has Jack Davis’ campaign spent $10,000 to Independence Party operatives in Monroe and Erie Counties?

Why are the disbursements listed in such a way as to not be obvious payoffs to the IP?

What promises were made or guarantees given in exchange for the $10,000 in payments to Colon and Orsini?

Why pay these people off if the IP line will be held by Anthony Fumerelle?

Blow the whistle on fraud, waste, and other abuses of the system. The county has a budget within which it has to operate, and if people you know are futzing with the system in order to unjustly enrich themselves or otherwise cheat the county, everyone suffers. Not just the taxpayer - but you, because your job might be the one cut to make up the difference.

whistleblower@erie.gov is the email address to use.

858-7722 is the phone number to call.

Or click this link to go to the web form.

All tips will be kept confidential.

Real estate “heat” map for Erie County:

Buffalo:

Given Buffalo home prices, why do we have public housing projects again?

Why is it that two of County Executive Chris Collins’ top administrators have jumped ship within the first 7 months after coming to office?

First, it was Budget Director Beth Kornbrekke, who resigned after only five months on the job. Now, it’s Deputy County Executive Mark Davis, who’s resigning after 7 months on the job and had joined Collins in his pledge to accept $1 per month in salary for as long as the county control board remained hard. He’ll be replaced by Six Sigma implementation czar, Alfred Hammonds, Jr. No word on who or whether Hammonds’ position will be filled.

Collins pledged to run the county like a business, and the hard work of his administration has arguably only just begun. So, why have these key people begun bailing? Davis’ name had been floated as a candidate for NY-26, yet he couldn’t be bothered to stick around to see through the county’s negotiations with its public sector unions? That’s too bad.

At least in the city, we know that it’s Steve Casey who generally chases them away.

You are the Mayor of Buffalo or the County Executive of Erie County.

Name 5 things that you would implement right now that would have a significant positive impact on the city or region.

(Photo credit: Eye8Pudding via Flickr)

The small aircraft hanger that passes for a casino in Buffalo’s cobblestone district has shat out its first single-digit percentage payout from slot revenue that goes to the host community.

Buffalo’s the host community, right?

Or is it the great County of Erie?

Or both?

The payout is $700,000 whole, entire dollars. That buys less than 7,000 barrels of light crude. Or something.

In any event, as the Buffalo News indicates, this is going to be a battle:

The money will be staying in Albany for the foreseeable future because the city and county cannot agree on a formula to split it up.

City Hall and County Hall have staked conflicting claims on the revenues, a pot of money from slot machines that’s expected to swell to as much as $7 million annually when the permanent Buffalo casino opens in 2010.

“There’s no question in my mind that the city should get 100 percent of those revenues,” said Mayor Byron W. Brown, who makes a case for the state-mandated “host community” share to flow entirely to Buffalo.

“The casino is located in Buffalo. The city provides all the police support services and infrastructure,” Brown said. “The intent of the 2002 gaming compact between the Seneca Nation and New York State was to aid weak communities, like Buffalo, with those casino revenues.”

But County Executive Chris Collins is equally adamant about spliting the payments right down the middle.

“I’m still thinking a 50/50 split between the city and county is the right formula,” Collins said.

While the casino is situated in Buffalo, it’s a regional asset, the county executive said.

Fighting over crumbs. What a crap deal this was, and all the politicians who were associated with its negotiation should be ashamed. Ceding territory to a foreign entity in the middle of Buffalo? Taking an entire swath of land off the property tax roll in order to get a tiny percentage of slot revenue (and slot revenue only - not tables). They should have held a referendum and let the people decide whether they wanted this. Or better yet, they could have proposed lifting the idiotic, hypocritical ban on Class III Casino Gaming through New York’s constitutional process. We have casino gaming at racetracks, and we have the lottery, and we have Keno, and we have all sorts of manifestations of gambling that to ban proper casino gambling has become just silly.

The thing is - all of this was predictable and I predicted it. Niagara Falls and Niagara County underwent the same nonsense when the first casino cash made its way down the pipeline, and ne’er-do-well Mayor Anello threatened to lead a picket over it.

I think that the intent was for the city to be the “host community” and to reap the entire benefit of the casino. The county is overreaching here and should take a step back.

The County Control Board set up by now-disgraced former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi was supposed to bring Erie County needed “adult supervision”.

The problem is that the state put a bunch of petulant kids in charge of it. As former county Comptroller James Hartman argues,

The ill-chosen members of the Erie County control board do not understand their purpose. Every action they have taken in the past two years was intended to expand and perpetuate their role. They have done nothing tangible to help the county. In fact, their actions hurt the county. Let me explain:

First, they have continuously rejected proposed four-year financial plans. The legislation says that plans should be approved on the basis of “reasonable and appropriate” assumptions. Instead, the board believes it can require guaranteed results. By their strange logic, every government should have a control board because the future is uncertain.

More disturbing, having rejected the county-proposed plans, the board has ignored its statutory responsibility to develop an alternate plan. Consequently, the county has operated for two years with no approved financial plan. This ambiguity makes it harder for the county to get its credit rating upgraded.

Second, these board members have used bully tactics in trying to take over the county’s borrowing. The only reason for the control board to borrow would be if Erie County could not borrow for itself. Saving a few million dollars over 30 years is no reason for the county to give up its credit market access.

It either needs to be dismantled, or else the people populating the control board need to be replaced by Governor Paterson. The Control Board has done nothing to help the county’s fiscal house, and instead costs us $1 million per year that could be used to either pay back the taxpayers or for something that’s actually, objectively useful.

1. Chris Collins submitted a wild-ass guess as to what the county’s revenues and expenditures will be over the next four years.

2. The appointed, unchecked county control board has its own wild-ass guesses as to the next four years’ county finances.

3. The control board rejected Collins’ four-year plan. No soup for you.

4. The law creating the control board suggests that the control board ought to now bring up a counterproposal representing its own wild-ass guess.

5. The control board will do no such thing, remaining perfectly happy to pick hypothetical nits and come up with unique ways to say “no”.

6. We need Governor David Paterson to grow a pair on this issue and reconstitute the board with people who are less political and more professional. Ever hear much controversy coming from the Buffalo control board? No, because the political agenda is not there.

From the Politics on the Hudson blog, looks like my old stomping grounds are getting radical.

Spurred on by anger over high taxes and proposed raises for County Legislators, the move to abolish Westchester County government may not be rolling yet, but it’s at least at the starting line. Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and Yonkers City Councilwoman Joan Gronowski hold their first joint meeting of the Committee to Abolish County Government, Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Will Library on Central Avenue near Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers. The meeting is open to the public.

Among the first actions the committee plans will be a petition drive calling on New York State to commission an independent study to look into Connecticut’s experiences and how that state, which abolished county government several decades ago, manages.

Ask Massachusetts, too. They did it in 1997. Here’s how you do it. It’s quite simple.

1. Counties continue to exist as geographical entities.
2. County sheriffs continue to exist and be elected from the county constituency. They and their deputies become state employees.
3. County clerks continue to be elected from the county constituency. They and their staff and registries become state employees and entities.
4. The middleman is eliminated, your sales tax is 5%, your property tax is lower, and yet essential services are maintained. Remember - it’s Massachusetts, not Mississippi.

Massachusetts is smaller than New York in every way, so it might all be easier in practice, but perhaps it’s time to more seriously look into this.

Photo from MV Jantzen @ Flickr

The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation has asked its daddy, the Empire State Development Corporation, for some changes to stuff that’s already been done to the Canal Side site. From a letter penned by ECHDC chair Jordan Levy:

Removing the interpretative facade and relocating its glass map along the bottom half of the structure to another location on the site. The top panels should stored and used later in a proposed Erie Canal museum, Levy said.

The lime green “Commercial Slip” lettering across an existing bridge be removed and the bridge re-painted to hide the sign’s presence.

Small signs offering historical information, perspective and back stories should be installed along the brick ruins from what remains of the Steamboat Hotel that sits alongside the commercial slip. A second series of signs designating which stones along the commercial slip are original should also be installed.

Relocating see-through, glass historical signs along the railroad bridge walkway down to the commercial slip.

Adding a second locator sign along the west side of the commercial slip.

Building a temporary fence with a historic feel that separates the public portion of the harbor project from those sections still under construction.

The “interpretive facade” is dumb as bricks, cost $200,000, and it’s incredible to me that this was permitted to move forward in the first place.

The lime green lettering? I say spread it around! Tourists should always know at all times what they’re looking at, and it should be in lime green lettering 5 feet high.

The scoreboard thing?

Hell, it was the only opportunity for the state to recoup some money. It should just be leased to Lamar and feature the smiling faces of Mssrs. Cellino and Barnes. (If you think I’m kidding, I’m kind of not. I think the state should make an effort to monetize everything it does through advertising because its mission should be to minimize the taxpayers’ cost. Why is EZ-Pass not sponsored? Why aren’t there ads or coupons on the back of the parking slips you get from the pay & display meters? Why aren’t certain displays at the canal project “brought to you by Rich Products” or similar?)

Seriously, after so much hand-wringing over the location of a store, is it too much to ask that items that cost public money to create be vetted before the fact?

HT All Things Buffalo for the pix.

Following a theme, Erie County has too many entities conducting real estate assessments. The county Comptroller released a report on the topic last week, stating:

…in Erie County’s 30 local assessing units, there are 39 chief assessing officials and 130 budgeted positions working in assessing roles at a cost to local taxpayers of $6.5 million annually (not including fringe benefits). Using various data, the Comptroller’s report determined that a potential County expense for countywide assessment utilizing an outside vendor could be as little as $3.1 million, with significant annual, recurring and one-time savings and state aid inducements available to local governments and to Erie County. Depending on the number of employees retained in a countywide assessment unit, potential annual savings to local taxpayers could be as high as $3.9 million, not including State aid and incentives.

The savings to taxpayers of $3.9 million in this region is massive. Implement this forthwith.

The Buffalo News’ Matt Spina has a comprehensive overview of Chris Collins’ first 100 days. I have been critical of some of Collins’ missteps - many of which were just silliness - but have also praised him when I thought necessary.

(Editor’s note: I have no vested interest in Collins’ success or failure, apart from the fact that I am a taxpayer in Erie County and want expenses reduced, economic growth, and to be treated like an adult. Anyone who suggests that I have it in for Collins for any reason - party affiliation, etc. - is a damned fool. I’ll criticize whatever I want, whenever I want, and if there’s a motive behind it, I’ll disclose it. If there isn’t one, there isn’t one. Bitches.)

Collins has pissed off the useless, overly political, feckless Buffalo Niagara Partnership? Fantastic.

Collins gets along well with Republicans and Democrats and merits praise from the likes of Brian Higgins and Kathy Hochul? I couldn’t be happier.

Collins is leading by example - taking away his own county car and cell phone while expecting the same of some others? Applause.

Collins wants county workers to be polite to its taxpayer customers? Fantastic.

Collins eats lunch in the Rath Building’s cafeteria, making him accessible to the white-collar rank and file? That’s the kind of little thing that builds trust and dialogue between colleagues.

Collins sometimes pores over details of an issue to separate the wheat from the chaff? I have to say it’s heartening to have a guy run the county who can be bothered to examine, question, and do it all while still managing to drive himself from place to place.

Collins has pissed off the disingenuous and redundant county control board? Glad to hear it. Those guys, too, are excessively political (mostly former hacks) who have very little to show for themselves. Saying “no” isn’t a plan.

Collins expects excellence, and is generous with praise when he sees it? That must explain why so many of his own employees seem to like him just fine.

There are people whose very survival is unfortunately reliant on county services. Collins found the volume of that need “staggering”. It is. The best way to lift those people up is to lift the whole region up and spur the growth of the economy and the growth of jobs. With Albany increasing spending by 4.5% in a recession, there’s little chance of that happening in the foreseeable future.

So, although I disagree with several of Collins’ moves, (variable minimums for all and sundry, “space management” director at over $100k, creation of many jobs, hiring of “best and brightest” means “people I know” rather than “national search”, etc.) he’s clearly moving in a unique direction for government in this region.

The negotiation of union contracts for county workers will be the watershed for Collins’ administration. One might argue that his overwhelming victory over the union-friendly Jim Keane represents a popular mandate for very, very tough negotiation of those contracts.

Part of the problem in this area has to do with a 1950s mindset on … well, just about everything imaginable, and a reluctance to look beyond the borders of the 8th Judicial District for solutions to problems.

I’d like to see us not only be smart about our present, but work towards a smarter future. More integration with the economy of Southern Ontario, comprehensive regional planning of infrastructure, marketing of the region in a more effective way, implementation of a performance-based county budget, as mandated by the county Charter. Baby steps are better than no steps at all.

Posted by BuffaloGeek

• Well, it’s probably the worst kept secret in Western New York, but Joe Mesi will announce his intention to run for the State Senate in NY-61 tomorrow at a press conference. He’ll be running in the primary against declared candidates Michelle Failanello, and Dan “No way to work FAIL into his name” Ward. On the Republican side of the house, it appears Erie County Legislator Mike Failenhofer will be the default candidate. Could this be the most uninspiring group of candidates, ever? Sadly, it probably isn’t. The only things that I know about Joe Mesi are that he’s a boxer and he has a history of brain bleeds…I guess that qualifies him for Albany.

• Previously, I posted a story about a local political rumor site here and commented on the ethics and behavior of its owner.  Well, I got to thinking that as an invited guest blogger here at Chez Pundit, I probably shouldn’t trash the joint.  So, I moved the content which was previously posted here to the frontpage at WNYMedia.net so as not to expose Alan to a bunch of nonsensical emails and grief for something I wrote.  For the record, Alan did not ask me to remove it, nor was I asked to remove it by anyone else.  I just thought it was impolite to stir up a hornets nest of controversy on someone else’s blog.

• It seems I get at least one email every day telling me that Sam Hoyt will soon be resigning his Assembly seat. The rumors have picked up steam as of late and I wonder if there is a local politician whose demise has been so frequently predicted as Sam’s.

This was going to be a longer roundup, but local politics is depressing. I’m gonna go drown my sorrows in an order of wings.

Posted by BuffaloGeek 

Yesterday, WNYMedia.net cameras captured the first State of The County Address given by Erie County Executive Chris Collins.

The money quote:  “We must stop defining success as less failure than the year before.”

Next week I have a particularly busy schedule, and this week I’m preparing for it, so posting will be light from me. Buffalo Geek will fill in over the next three weeks with content that snarky and fresh as a daisy, and if you’d like to contribute throw me a line, and I’ll see what I can do.

Seriously, I’m too busy even to ask people directly.

Anyhow, in the meantime, consider this for today:

1. Andrew Galarneau names Vizzi’s in Kenmore as the home of the best burger in WNY. The talk of the town right now is the deep-fried Parkside Burger, described thusly:

If nothing else, the Parkside Burger, at Parkside Burgers and Fries, had already provided grounds for legal action. You know what happens when you take a whole cheeseburger — patty, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, bun — dip it in batter and deep-fry that sucker?

You get a burger that comes with a side of self-loathing. It was crunchy from the batter, but juicy in a bad way, from fryer oil that soaked into the bun. We ate half, then slipped out the door.

2. I have largely stayed out of the Jayvonna Kinkannon/Michelle Stiles story, but it’s morphed into more than just a ham-handed overreaction to a student’s question. Now, it’s a story of imperial arrogance, nepotism, favoritism, theft, cheating, and other nouns that pop into one’s mind when one thinks of people given just enough power to be assholes.

3. In pledging to run Erie County like a business, Chris Collins has carried on the business-and-governmental tradition of fudging the numbers. When he says shutting down county cellphones will save “nearly $150,000″, he really means just-over-$142,000. Hey, Nancy Naples said there was no deficit just a month or two before the county declared a multimillion dollar deficit.

Channel 4 had the story of a woman who works for the county, but whose pay and cellphone are reimbursed by the federal government. She used the cellphone to keep in direct contact with about 100 new mothers as a lactation consultant. Cellphone gone, and this woman can’t fulfill her duty and obligation to her clients.

Also, Collins is targeting something called “beeper pay”, where county workers who agree to be on 24-hour call (and back in the 80s they did so via beepers) get an extra $35 in their paycheck per week. He wants to abolish that because he’s taking away their beepers. What gets lost in translation here is that it’s not the carrying of the beeper that triggers the extra money, it’s the on-call status. The union will grieve, and Collins will lose this particular, specious argument. Then, he’ll have to pay back-”beeper pay” and pay for the cost of the grievance arbitration. Savings? Diminished.

I’m all for saving money and abolishing crap we don’t need, but can’t someone make sure we’re not throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Can Collins be a bit more clear on the savings? Does everything have to be a butting of heads with the union? That strategy might not turn out quite as well as Collins hopes.

4. The Sabres as political candidate.

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 Tonawanda News has significantly more detail about Thursday’s battle over a variable minimum for Chris Collins’ County Attorney choice. First, we hear from someone familiar to me:

“This will send a bad message from this Legislature that, if you’re a woman, we’re hanging out a sign that says you need not apply. You won’t get a variable minimum,” Ranzenhofer said.

So someone in the tone-deaf Republican caucus decided that the gender discrimination angle was an awesome idea. Luckily, there are actual women in the leg:

Several female legislators rose to speak against the idea that gender was the reason they wouldn’t approve the salary. Legislator Barbara Miller-Williams, D-Buffalo, said gender couldn’t be an issue because Collins’ choice, Cheryl Green, has not yet been confirmed. Legislator Betty Jean Grant, D-Buffalo, said the comment was an offensive attempt to pit the Legislature’s women against one another.

“I’ve heard the race card played many times, but I’ve never heard the gender card being played, especially by a man,” Grant said.

Legislator Robert Reynolds, Jr., D-Hamburg, said that he believes the county could find someone, male or female, to take the job for the actual starting salary of $96,000.

Ms. Grant and Mr. Reynolds both make excellent points, I think.

Republicans, however, want to be sure that their patronage slots make as much as possible off the public teat.

Legislator Edward Rath III, R-Williamsville, argued that the raised salary, which was already approved in the 2008 budget, would allow Collins to draw out the best candidate. Rath made the argument that $124,000 was the rate already being paid to the previous county attorney, but Legislator Michele Iannello, D-Kenmore, pointed out that people entering a new position with the county don’t make the same amount as those who have earned raises over time.

Correct. And why not take Rath’s argument to its extreme; if you want the absolute best candidate, why not bump up the salary to $300,000? $500,000? I mean, country club dues don’t pay themselves.

What struck Iannello as odd was the way the salary raise was presented to legislators in committee, she said. “While we were in committee, we questioned the fact that if they had someone in mind, where was the resume,” Iannello said. “They told us at that time that they wanted to approve the variable minimum so they could offer the position. It’s disingenuous of them to come before us and ask for $124,000 knowing they had someone in mind and not allowing us to review their credentials in committee.”

Yes, what about that? Unless the person has been working in county government long enough to justify step increases, a new hire should start where the rules say she starts. Full stop.

I did find it pretty funny that the “glass ceiling angle wasn’t just Collins being silly. It was a Republican talking point.

Hi there. It’s March. Is it ok to critique County Executive Chris Collins now? Is the honeymoon over? I’m just checking.

It is ok?

Oh, good.

So, Collins has selected his County Attorney, and she handles insurance matters for a Williamsville law firm. The starting salary for County Attorney is about $94,000. Collins is pushing the legislature to bump her starting salary $30,000 to $124,000, which would reflect several years’ of fictional service to the county.

I’m sure his nominee is eminently qualified to do the job, and I have no doubt that she’s well worth $124,000. In the private sector. The county legislature is loath to do it, though, for a variety of reasons. I think that there’s a notion of fairness at play there. Why is it horrible to ask the nominee to earn seniority pursuant to the rules in place?

First of all, let’s be blunt - $94,000 per year in Buffalo is a lot of money. More than enough for someone to not only get by, but get by very well indeed. So, let’s don’t pretend it’s inadequate or unfair. Secondly, why is it fair for anyone to jump the seniority line when it comes to pay raises? The rules are in place for a reason, and the salaries are set for a reason. If you’re not interested in doing that work for that salary, then don’t do it, and remove yourself from consideration. Going into government isn’t always a guarantee of a salary that is going to rival the private sector. It’s public service, you get public service money.

Thirdly, Collins, in a fit of pique, reacted to the legislatures’ sending of the salary bump to committee thusly:

“This very irresponsible action by the County Legislature imposes a glass ceiling for female candidates for county attorney,” he said. “In my opinion, the County Legislature has put out a sign saying, ‘Women need not apply.’ ”

You hear that? You hear that Michelle Iannello, Lynn Marinelli, Barbara Miller-Williams, Maria Whyte, Betty Jean Grant? You are prejudiced against women!

All of them voted to send the variable minimum salary issue to committee.

I think his comment about gender discrimination is either shameful or dumb. I can’t decide which. Next time, find someone who’ll take the $94k, chief.

Especially when you’re so vehemently opposed to a $600 payoutout to rank-and-file county workers who haven’t had a raise in many years. They may not have law degrees or handle complex matters concerning the county charter, but they treat patients, clean parks, plow roads, etc. Their work is essential to the running of the county, too. They make on average $33,000 per year with overtime, and have not had a cost-of-living adjustment since 2005.

How about by way of compromise, the county attorney gets a $600 payout, too.

Reading about Chris Collins’ decision to scrap downtown ECC campus expansion today, I reached a point in the article where I just wanted to bang my head against the wall. The sentence seemed so absurd in black-and-white. Here. You try it:

“For anyone to suggest that we have the dollars to expand greatly the City Campus, they aren’t looking at the books that I am looking at,” Collins said.

Collins convened the first of what he says he hopes will become quarterly meetings with the county’s town supervisors and its village and city mayors. He wanted the 44 elected leaders to present their pressing worries and ideas for collaboration.

Whoa - whoa - whoa. Did you catch that?

44 elected chief executives of Erie County municipalities. Plus staff. Plus loads of other stuff that boggles ones mind. Forty-four. Not including anything having to do with the county whatsoever.

Now, I know my supervisor is just dandy, and you think your supervisor is just dandy, too. Most of us think our guy is just dandy. But we have 44 guys and gals for a shrinking county of a million people. Something’s wrong with this picture.

Three things:

1. Congratulations to the Geek family for the announcement of kid number two.

2. Congratulations to the Punaro family for the announcement of kid number one.

3. Geek has a post up soliciting your Buffalo story:

If you left, why did you leave?

Are you planning to move home or have you already taken the plunge? If so, why?

Did you move away and close the book on a future in Buffalo? If so, why?

If you are here and thinking of leaving, why?

If you never lived here before, why did you move here?

In August 2005, I posted this story, which explained in detail why I moved to Western New York. Here it is again, updated for 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

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