One down, one to go.

Phase One: Announce megaproject skyscraper, comprehensive downtown master plan, underground parking at Niagara Square, Central Terminal renovation, and blockbuster Statler renovation.

Phase Two: ?

Phase Three: Profit.

The New York Post publishes an op-ed piece by the Manhattan Institute’s EJ McMahon. New York’s decline is Nelson Rockefeller’s fault. Discuss.

Remember al Qaeda?

Just as it had on the day before 9/11, Al Qaeda now has a band of terror camps from which to plan and train for attacks against Western targets, including the United States. Officials say the new camps are smaller than the ones the group used prior to 2001. However, despite dozens of American missile strikes in Pakistan since 2002, one retired CIA officer estimated that the makeshift training compounds now have as many as 2,000 Arab and Pakistani militants, up from several hundred three years ago.

Bush is nothing but epic fail from day one to day 2,922.

But while Bush vowed early on that Bin Laden would be captured “dead or alive,” the moment in late 2001 when Bin Laden and his followers escaped at Tora Bora was almost certainly the last time the Qaeda leader was in American sights, current and former intelligence officials say. Leading terrorism experts have warned that it is only a matter of time before a major terrorist attack planned in the mountains of Pakistan is carried out on American soil.

Remember that next time you take your shoes off at the airport. To quote Robert DeNiro’s Al Capone in the Untouchables, Bush and is nothing “but a lot of talk and a badge.”

From a map in Aer Lingus’ in-flight magazine:

Instead of the hydroelectric from Niagara, according to this map we’re very close to the James Bay Project.

Republicans really can’t figure out whether Obama is an elitist country clubber or a Jihadist-in-waiting who American, just barely. But this, I think, is the winningest strategy out of all of them and I urge Republicans to adopt this:

Norquist dropped by The Times’ Washington bureau today and, as part of his negative critique of Obama’s liberal stances on economic issues and other matters, he termed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee “John Kerry with a tan.”

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)

It’s fun to watch the right try to figure out how best to define and pigeonhole Obama. They were so amped for Clinton, that they’ve been caught unawares.

They can’t decide whether Obama is the foreign outsider who rejects American values, or whether he’s the too-cool elitist at the country club.

They can’t decide if he’s too inner-city activist or too Park Avenue radical chic.

Thankfully, Karl Rove weighs in:

Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.

Note, of course, that with that very statement Rove outs himself as being that guy at the country club holding a martini and cigarette making snide comments. “Beautiful date” is unconfirmed.

Country club?

HT Albany Project

Score one more point for the preservation community. The unique nature and “sense of place” of the Erie Canal Harbor Terminal has been re-created almost perfectly.

Floating human shit and other trash and garbage have become problematic in the channel. Given that the Canal district used to be filled with whorehouses and other seediness during its 19th century heyday, it is only fitting that the district revert to its pre-sanitary sewer days.

Cronk saw manure piled over two stories high in back of the bams. As one approached, the pile would give the appearance of shaking, quivering. Closer examine (sic) this, if your nose could stand it and you could cut through the clouds of flies, would reveal millions of crawling impure maggots feeding on the excrement.

Hamburgh canal caught most of the garbage from the city. This collected in the almost stagnant waters of the Hamburgh Canal. One hundred and 50 feet below Louisiana at a small slip that reached to the harbor a large propeller from an old tug swiveled continually sucking in the filth-polluted water and kicking it into the harbor. This stirred up huge chunks of concentrated filth, created huge gas decay, babbles, .7 feet in diameter, which would shoot to the surface, explode and fill the air with such a nauseating smell thatpeople would be sick for a week.

The manure piles, the filth of the canal lured swarms of scavenger flies, while the stagnant waters attracted mosquitoes whose stingers inhabitants thou ht must have been fille-I -ith (indecipherable) files. Aboard the canal boat the stable housed two horses. The crew protected themselves with netting. It was the horses in addition to the two which were housed in the barns on the waterfront.”

I can’t imagine anything more enjoyable than enjoying an ice cream cone by the water and …. eew, someone ate corn!

I was waiting for someone to catch it. Sign the petition, anyway.

The McCain campaign today let loose former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as its attack dog on the issue of terrorism and Obama’s alleged softness on it. Not only with Jimmy Carter’s name be bandied about, but expect the dead of 9/11 to be used as a hammer against Obama at every turn.

But aside from the accident of Giuliani being the mayor of the city hardest hit by 9/11, what foreign policy/counterterrorism credentials does Giuliani boast?

Senator Joe Biden says it beautifully:

“It’s no surprise that it takes a man with zero national security and foreign policy experience to defend the policies of John McCain and President Bush. The facts are that the policies President Bush has pursued and Senator McCain would continue have not made us safer. We’re bogged down in Iraq with no end in sight and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan — the people who actually attacked us on 9/11 — have regrouped and are plotting new attacks. In fact, terrorist attacks around the world have increased since 9-11.

“When it comes to Guantanamo detainees, Senator McCain has been all over the map. A year ago, he recognized that Guantanamo was a stain on this country and joined me in advocating that it be closed down and recommending that the detainees be sent to Fort Leavenworth — where there has never been a question that they would have Habeas Corpus rights. Now, Sen. McCain insists that Americans must choose between our values and our security. That’s exactly wrong. Our values reinforce our security. Our failure to live up to them has been Al Qaeda’s biggest recruiting tool.”

Falls tourists say they need more amenities, according to this Buffalo News Article. There are plenty of amenities to be had a short walk away - across the bridge. But what if you don’t have a Canadian visa? You’re stuck waiting on the American side, which has no signage, poor transportation, poor information and signage, but some of the finest surface parking in the known universe. Oh, and a Seneca Casino.

Niagara Falls, NY needs better tourism infrastructure? In other news, the sky is blue.

Chris Lee has re-done his campaign website, and there remains no page for “views” or “platform”, so all the Republican snots who keep criticizing the democrats’ supposed lack of a platform might want to address that issue with their candidate.

If you go to the main page of Lee’s website, you’ll find that he will bring “real leadership, leading to real change”. The Republican candidate for NY-26 is the change agent? That’s novel. You’ll also find other platform planks, such as:

“Values, reform, and change that bring solutions”, juxtaposed with an image of an older woman with her daughter. This image.

“Putting the people of Western New York First”, juxtaposed with an image of a woman with construction workers. This image.

“Real solutions for our families and businesses”, juxtaposed with an image of a young family at play. This image.

“Making our future brighter for our children and grandchildren”, juxtaposed with an image of grandpa and granddaughter. This image.

Actually, although the “views” tab has been taken down, the page is still there. Going to it reveals that the tab’s gone because his “views” are still “coming soon.“. Not his platform. His “views”.

But he does have a “message”, which starts with this paragraph:

My name is Chris Lee, and I am here because Western New Yorkers are demanding real reform, real change, real leadership and real solutions. Right now Washington, D.C. and Albany are shortchanging us, and that needs to stop! For too long, we have heard about creating jobs, lowering taxes and eliminating needless regulation. Unfortunately, the results have not matched the rhetoric.

The incumbent has been there since 1999, and has endorsed Lee. If Washington has been shortchanging us, it’s no thanks to incumbent Republican congressman Thomas M. Reynolds - a man who was once very clout-laden in a body that until recently held a Republican majority during the pendency of a Republican presidential administration. I’d suggest that real change for the 26th would be to let a member of the other party have a go.

Sometimes, you read stuff that’s sad and infuriating in equal degrees. This article by Steve Watson details the arrival and imminent departure of Poppy Wright to Buffalo. Ultimately, it’s a tale of hope and despair - of success and failure - of revitalization and blight. Here, the City of Buffalo could have done something basic to help this business grow and thrive. It didn’t. How typical and sad. The perpetuation of fail and mediocrity continue apace, and this do-nothing administration will most likely cruise to re-election despite its ever-more-evident awfulness.

Poppy Wright moved from the West Coast to Buffalo in 2006, thinking she’d found a slice of heaven on the city’s West Side.

She’s leaving this month after suffering through the nightmare of a vacant neighboring building, City Hall bureaucracy, drug dealers, thieves and finally a fire.

“There goes our life, and pretty much all our worldly possessions,” Wright said Thursday, as a demolition crew cleared the site of the tavern she and her husband had purchased on Niagara Street. “I was just thinking, I’m tired of starting over. We just started over two years ago.”

Wright moved here from Sacramento, Calif., after she found pictures of Buffalo on Flickr, a photo-sharing Web site, and fell in love with the city’s architecture and neighborhoods.

There are pictures of the fire here. If you check out the Flickr Buffalo group, you can see an ongoing discussion about the fire here. The photo I used above shows Wright’s bar on the left - the former Danny Zack’s and now-abandoned-future “Fuhgeddaboudit” that they had worked so hard on. To the right is the vacant, blighted eyesore that brought their bar down and crushed their dreams.

The most infuriating part of this whole story is that this was completely preventable, and the City had actual knowledge of this issue.

Early last Sunday, a fire started in the abandoned building next-door. It swiftly spread to Danny Zack’s, forcing the Wrights and their children to flee their second-floor apartment with just the clothes they were wearing.

The building was demolished Tuesday, but not before looters got inside and stole a safe containing thousands of dollars, a washer and dryer and valuable electronic equipment.

The Wrights, living in a hotel room thanks to a Red Cross housing voucher, plan to move to Sean’s native Brooklyn after the school year ends.

They’ll leave behind a frustration with city bureaucracy, fond memories of Buffalo and, soon, a vacant lot at the corner of Niagara and Breckenridge streets.

“They came in to start a business and because it’s not a billion- dollar, pie-in-the-sky project on the waterfront, they got ignored,” said Robert Franke, executive director of the Grant- Ferry Association.

While we all collectively wring our hands over things like buildings on the inner harbor and parking lots and sense of place and NIMBY/BANANAism and other mediocre bullshit, there are probably hundreds if not thousands of Poppy Wrights working their butts off trying to make the city better, trying to make a buck, trying to get by, trying to improve not only their personal circumstances, but the city’s. Yet if they’re not well-connected, they are SOL when it comes to getting basic attention and services.

Action? Transparency? CitiStat? How come there’s been no “weekly” CitiStat report update since (at the latest) January 2008?

The Wrights said they’d complained to the mayor’s tip line for months about drug use and prostitution activity around the building, which they said listed toward Danny Zack’s.

“My initial concern was it was going to fall on us,” Sean Wright said.

City records show 13 complaints filed over conditions at 1219 Niagara between April 2002 and April 2008, according to the mayor’s office and the office of David A. Rivera, who represents the Niagara District on the Common Council.

The city took the previous owner to Housing Court over numerous violations starting in 2004, and took ownership of the property last November due to unpaid back taxes, said Richard M. Tobe, commissioner of economic development, permits and inspection services.

The building was on the city’s demolition list, along with about 2,000 other properties, but no demolition date had been scheduled, Tobe said.

“There’s a vast backlog of demolitions,” Tobe said.

And is there any sort of prioritizing when it comes to demolitions? Do buildings that pose an imminent threat of harm to neighboring buildings get bumped up on the list? The City owned the building. It didn’t offer it up for sale, didn’t bring it up to code, and didn’t get around to demolishing it. Just heartbreaking.

Where on the City’s website do you find the link to “starting a business in Buffalo“? Should the Wrights have spread around some political contributions to get some attention? Should they have supported the Common Council candidacy of Casey-Brown selection Peter Savage III? Would that have gotten them some attention? BERC? Partnership? BNE? I mean, God forbid there be a single entity for business owners to go to for help in dealing with bureaucracy, inaction, funding, permitting, etc.

Last Tuesday, the Wrights went back to Danny Zack’s to try to retrieve some of their belongings before the ordered emergency demolition began.

Thieves, however, had stolen their washer and dryer, oven, TV, laptop computer, DVD player and a safe holding family documents and thousands of dollars for the closing.

The Wrights did manage to recover Poppy’s now-smoke-damaged wedding dress, a tea cup with sentimental value and one cat, Onyx. Another cat and a hamster are missing.

How many more dreams must be crushed?

Via Bruce Andriatch’s column today, I find this recount of Kevin Gaughan’s “The Cost” tour’s stop in the Village of Blasdell:

we arrived in Blasdell last night with heads high and spirits even higher. As we entered village hall, though, Mayor Ernie Jewett summoned me to his office and changed everything. He said that I could not use the word “consolidation” or “dissolution” in my presentation. If I did, he would end the meeting and have me removed from the hall.

Two of my students from UB Law School, Lindsay Heckler and Dan Lesniewski, were along last night. Dan was outraged by Jewett’s stricture. Lindsay seemed almost saddened at the notion that anyone, let alone a public official, would attempt to curtail another’s right to free speech.

But to cast Mayor Jewett’s order in a constitutional context elevates his small gesture beyond its worth. Jewett acted out of fear. Fear of having residents learn that perhaps there’s a better way to govern than his; fear that citizens would connect the dots between too much government and too little growth; and fear that a system that’s served him better than it has served residents might be forced to change.

The once proud Village of Blasdell today bears more resemblance to an abandoned community. In the over 30 years since the steel industry that sustained it collapsed, no government and no politician has reversed its painful decline. If you are under 18 or over 65 and live in Blasdell, according to the most recent U.S. Census, you likely live near or under the poverty line. And no matter what your age, the value your home, the number of your neighbors, and the quality of your life have all declined.

Against that painful backdrop, last night Ernie Jewett refused to discuss the need for reform. As far more powerful politicians throughout history have learned, though, while he can ban the idea of change in his chambers, he cannot banish it from the minds of citizens.

Constitutional issues of prior restraint of political speech aside, the entire community should be outraged at this sheer, patent idiocy. Gaughan’s advocacy for downsizing and consolidation is dangerous to a certain class of people which thrives on waste, redundancy, and ignorance. What Mr. Jewett did by prohibiting Gaughan from bringing up consolidation is underscore its very need. We don’t need small-minded emperors running needless political entities which serve to spend taxpayer money in unsustainable ways. What harm is there if the villages of Hamburg and Blasdell are no more? I don’t really know. But I do know that there’s great harm in prohibiting the discussion of that topic.

Andriatch spoke with Mr. Jewett:

Asked about the matter the following day, Jewett offered this response: “Mr. Gaughan was invited to speak about his previous presentations to all the boards, village and town. And he was told that it was the unanimous decision of the [Blasdell] Board of Trustees that he was welcome to talk about downsizing, and he was told he was not allowed to talk about dissolving the village.”

Why is that?

“Why is that?” Jewett said, repeating the question as if shocked that it needed to be asked. “Because the village is willing to listen to any way that we can better serve our constituents, but that’s a decision that the board feels is up to the village residents and the board.”

The mayor noted that Blasdell already has taken steps to consolidate some services, including merging its building department with the Town of Hamburg’s. And he is open to other ways to save taxpayers money.

Asked if refusing to allow a speaker to use a word or espouse an idea might have been overkill, Jewett reiterated that Gaughan was invited to speak about downsizing.

Perhaps, Mr. Jewett, the best way for you to serve your constituents would be to make them constituents of a different political corporate entity. Sounds to me as if you inadvertently made that case for Mr. Gaughan.

The conclusion of the Buffalo News’ analysis of the Brown Administration’s list of “projects underway” in downtown Buffalo.

In short: private-sector investment is down, not up, under Brown.

I posted about that list in February, and noted that one of the vaunted investments included:

B-Kwik expansion-Tim Horton’s, 1991 Seneca Street, new construction

Also, naturally, much of the development is taxpayer-funded:

While Brown often casts the $4 billion-plus of projects in the context of “investment” and a sign of business confidence in the city, he acknowledged in the interview that much of the money comes from taxpayers.

“A lot of it is public-sector money, and generally the public- sector investment is what stimulates the private sector to follow,” he said.

That hasn’t been the experience. Huge public investments to build Metro Rail, Dunn Tire Park and HSBC Arena have not resulted in significant spinoff private development.

Economic development strategies focused on construction projects in cities like Buffalo have been strongly criticized by Edward Glaeser, a Harvard University professor of economics who recently spoke here.

Author of a controversial national magazine article called “Can Buffalo Ever Come Back?” Glaeser argues that the region should instead put its money into “people-based policies that improve the economic futures of the children growing up there.”

“I’m quite angry at 50 years of urban renewal consistently putting infrastructure ahead of people,” he said.

It’s one thing to promote good things going on in town. It’s another to play junior Enron with the numbers. Sense of place? You’re better off with a sense of humor.

If Bruce Andriatch can do a column’s worth of bullet points today, I can do this.

1. The Buffalo Board of Education is dysfunctional? Gee, who’dathunkit? Everybody whining about people needing to move into the city should focus efforts on this one area of import. They futzed with the GPA calculations to let some well-connected kids get into City Honors? No shit. It’s about time people started blowing the whistle on the corruption that rots this area at the core.

2. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began a campaign to introduce oversight and stricter control over the doling out of member item dollars from the state legislature. Pork barrel spending has been used by a spendthrift legislature to help insure re-election. Some scrutiny and oversight never killed anyone. The New York Sun says the AG needs to follow-up on this initiative without regard to his possible future political ambitions.

3. Local assessors are balking at the idea - suggested by the county Comptroller - of a single, countywide assessor’s office. If reformation of something as uncontroversial and mundane as property assessment runs headlong into obstructionist self-preservation, what chance is there of any bigger reforms happening? People need to start waking the hell up, attending town board meetings and getting active on a grassroots level to start demanding that needed, common-sense reforms be implemented. It’s time to stop sitting on our asses and waiting for Collins or Marinelli or anyone else to do it for us. We need to do it ourselves.

4. The governor is spooked by the economy and has implemented a half-assed hiring slowdown among state departments:

The reductions you propose must be achievable, recurring and serious,” Paterson said in the memo released Monday. “Your plan must reflect the creativity needed to provide the services the public expects at a lower cost.”

“Above all, you must rethink your hiring practices. Only job openings absolutely essential to your agency’s operations and protecting the health and safety of New Yorkers are to be filled,” he said. “Positions that do not fit this criterion must be left vacant.”

I treat this like it’s a great and positive move. In reality, it should have been standard f-ing operating procedure for decades, now.

5. UB Law School students want the law school moved downtown. That would be a great idea, so that students could more easily and readily actually go to court and see what goes on.

6. The federal government’s attempt to brand an art professor a bioterrorist has boarded the Failboat. That seems to be a relatively popular cruise for the Bush Administration.

7. Suddenly, I want to watch this show.

Posted by BuffaloGeek

Erie County Legislator Mike Ranzenhofer will declare his candidacy for NY SD-61 tomorrow in press conferences at UB’s Center for The Arts and in Batavia at the Genessee County Courthouse. He will be joined by Erie County Executive Chris Collins and the current State Senator from the district, Mary Lou Rath.

Ranzenhofer is the only declared Republican candidate for the seat and joins a crowded field of Democrats which includes Erie County Legislator Michelle Iannello, Amherst Town Board Members Mark Manna and Dan Ward, as well as boxer Joe Mesi.

Ranzenhofer has been in the legislature for 19 years and has served as both Minority and Majority leader. It only seems natural for him to take the next step in his stewardship of government failboats to Albany where he can not make a difference on a much grander scale.

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.”