Business First reports that the WNY construction boom continues unabated.

Contracts for future construction in Erie and Niagara counties totaled $82.5 million in August, up from $61.5 million in the same month last year.

The biggest gain was seen on the nonresidential side of the industry, where contract volume increased 82 percent.

Just a bit of good news that was drowned out by the typical static this week.

Carry on.

Yeah, that’s right. Pizza goodness from Chicago has arrived frozen and packed snugly in a box of deliciousness at Casa Di Geek. Pundit will have no idea what hit him after I smack him upside the tastebuds with the one true American Pizza.

This is the first time I’ve ever looked forward to a Monday.

The latest Marist Poll shows that the majority of New Yorkers are unaware of State Comptroller Alan Hevesi’s current ethical imbroglio and those who have heard about it really couldn’t care less.

Does that tell you something about the state of voter apathy in New York, or what?

Here’s the results:

If the November election for comptroller of New York were held today, whom would you support if the candidates are:

Chris Callaghan 27%
Alan Hevesi 57%

Pretty much the same results of the initial poll in July, not good times for the Callaghan campaign…

Have you heard or read anything about a complaint filed by the Republican candidate for New York State comptroller Christopher Callaghan that his Democratic opponent and current state comptroller Alan Hevesi misused public funds by using a member of his staff as a driver for his wife?

Aware of Controversy 39%
Not Aware of Controversy 60%
Unsure 1%

It always amazes me to find that people haven’t heard of a story that has been broadcast on every radio station,TV station, headlined in statewide papers, blogged, and generally kicked about by every amateur political pundit in the state. They either live under a rock or in Batavia…

Of those who are aware of the controversy, Does it bother you a great deal, a good amount, not very much, or not at all, that Alan Hevesi as New York State comptroller is involved in something like this?

A Great Deal/Good Amount 36%
Not Very Much/Not At All 50%
Unsure 14%

This is the part that kills me. 50% of those who know about the issue couldn’t care less that the fiscal watchdog and condescender on high of the State of New York has been misusing state tax dollars to drive his wife about town. What the hell does a politician have to do to rile up the gen pop in this state? Kick a puppy?

Hevesi was caught with his hand in the tax dollar cookie jar and simply wiped it away by writing a check to repay his own determination of funds used. An independent investigation by the Attorney General should be conducted…oh wait, he only goes after ethical violations in the private sector.

Woe is common sense…

It appears that BfloBlog and I share a birthday. They’re turning one and I’m turning thirty-two.

In order to mark this special occasion, we’ll be celebrating with several adult beverages, wings, and other local delicacies at Pearl Street Grill followed by a few stops at our favorite establishments on Hertel Avenue (Sterling Place, Gecko’s, Sidebar, etc.)

If you’re interested in joining in the revelry, meet up with us at Pearl Street around 9:30 and “we’ll see where the night leads us”.

To make main page loading more efficient…videos posted after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

From my beer loving friend, eac, comes this little gem of good news from the middle east.

High up in the hills of the West Bank in mid-September, thousands of visitors arrived for a two-day village fair filled with music, folk dancing and local goods, from honey and oils to embroidery and olive-wood carvings. But the star attraction this year was a more surprising local offering: a German-style beer brewed here that bears the name of this small Palestinian village.

Located about 20 miles northeast of Jerusalem, Taybeh is a Christian enclave dotted with churches rather than mosques, but entirely surrounded by Muslim villages. The village festival is billed as an “Oktoberfest,” after the annual beer-lovers bash in Munich — although it takes place in September so as to avoid clashing with the Muslim festival of Ramadan.

“I don’t want to say exactly that the Muslims enjoy the beer more than the Christians — but they do,” said Sayib Nasser, a member of the Fatah Party and deputy governor of the local council in nearby Ramallah. Nasser, who is a Muslim, took part in the festival’s opening ceremony. “The festival has our support and our blessing,” he said. “We are proud of it.”

Beer, oiling the machinery of peace for thousands of years…

If you don’t read the Buffalo Beast, seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? Those guys know how to bring the f’n funny.

Check out their take on a board game for Buffalo.

A few choice cuts:

Don Postles fathers your orange baby - Move back 3

Billy Fuccillo gives you a bag of blow - Move ahead 3

Your girlfriend loves Ani DiFranco - Move back 8

Of course, I’m also pleased with their dig in the rules section at my BOHW peeps and our love for media attention.

Buffalo Hodgepodge asks a pretty good question today.

Success in most endeavors - business, government, personal, or otherwise - comes from a clear definition of what that very success would look like. A typical process includes setting a major, aspirational goal whose achievement can be defined and is measurable, establishing a time frame, and illustrating the key metrics and milestones that can gauge and measure progress.

I’d like to apply this framework for a nearly-equally daunting challenge — the project often referred to as the “revitalization” or “renaissance” for Buffalo.

What is success for Buffalo? What are the objectives? What is the time frame? What are the milestones? What is the unit of analysis - the city of Buffalo, the county of Erie, or Western New York more broadly?

It’s a good question and it has literally hundreds of answers. Newell’s answer will undoubtedly be different from mine or Pundit’s. While we’re all working towards a similar amorphous “goal” of a better Buffalo, how will we know when we have achieved it?

Do we measure it by the number of people who live here? The number of new jobs created? The numbers of homes that are renovated? Buildings that are adaptively reused? The number of small businesses that start up to serve our city?

I’d posit that those measureables can each by subjectively interpreted and would like to redirect the question to a more base level.

What’s the right size for Buffalo?

We often bemoan the loss of population while simultaneously being proud of our small town feel, low housing costs, and light traffic. Adding people to the local populace (especially in the urban core) would eat away at those advantages that we so love and market.

Are we better off as a smaller city of 300K people? Do we necessarily want to get bigger? Do we need to return to our population peak of 580K in 1950? Do we simply want to raise the per capita income of those who live here without bringing in additional people? Do we want it to stay the same?

It’s a question I ask of a lot of people as I travel about the City and rarely do I find someone who can give me a straight answer. I don’t think we’re sure of what we want and that holds us back.

What do you think the answer is?

Pundit asks his readers to compare and contrast my take on the BNE’s annual report with the that of new Buffalo blogger Buffaloi (BTW, welcome to the Buffalo Prefecture of Blogistan!).

Since it’s 2AM and I’m waiting to speak with a customer in Hong Kong about his server issues, let’s take him up on the offer…

I’d like to preface my comments on the opinion of Buffaloi by posting something from his/her intro page:

And here are some things I could do without in life:
The Gang of Three (Wilmers, Lipsey, Rudnik)

I think based on that, we can discern that Buffaloi isn’t going to be much in favor of anything that happens at 665 Main Street.

Buffaloi claims that the entire Buffalo News article was a spinjob on disappointing numbers and the real story lies beneath.

Whenever a group wants to meet with the editorial board before a report is actually released, you know its mostly bad news. But the News pretty much gave the BNE a story that was exactly they wanted to see.

They didn’t note private company contributions have gone down steadily due to disappointing results. Or that the standards of measurement are pretty much cooked up by the BNE itself (and its similar organizations nation-wide who are motivated to juice up the numbers). Or that the BNE a few years ago slashed its initial goals and decided to count locally expanding companies, not just new companies brought to the area.

BNE President Tom Kucharski has made some strategic changes to the way his organization does business. Initially, the scope of BNE was focused solely on recruitment of external companies when a clear measure of success would also be the retention of companies that considered leaving the area. Keeping Hydro-Air and New Era Cap Company in Western New York is just as important as bringing Geico to town. It’s a valid indicator of successful marketing and cooperative efforts. BNE has also refined it’s focus on what type of companies are valid business development targets. Scattershot efforts to recruit every type of business to Buffalo isn’t an effective way to conduct business. What is effective is a study of what companies would be attracted to Buffalo, market to them, and get it done. In the business world, we call this “strategic focus”.

As a sales engineer for a major computer vendor, I could spend my time going to every single shop in Western New York plying my wares or I could focus my efforts on a few targeted companies at which I’m more likely to have success. It’s a fairly simple case of properly focused effort that will most likely generate results.

If one wishes to cast this type of planning as a failure to meet expectations, I guess it can be construed that way but, it’s actually good business.

The other comments regarding the former Chamber of Commerce, Wilmers connections, and “Golden Horseshoe” rhetoric are conjecture.

If we are discussing the merits of BNE and their mission, they should stand alone and measured solely on results. Without BNE, we would have no regional marketing representation and potential investors would be left alone to navigate the alphabet soup of bureaucratic nonsense that makes up our various economic development organizations. If you’re wishing for the salad days of the Greater Buffalo Chamber of Commerce, you’re wishing for the heady days of incompetence and intransience.

If you’re a businessperson who is looking to find a back office location or a city to relocate to, do you want to deal with business marketing specialists, site selectors, and trained economic development personnel or a patronage appointee from the City or County and several competing IDA’s?

I know which I’d rather deal with…

Hopefully, this leads to further discussion about BNE/BNP which are two organizations that are not often discussed in the blogosphere.

Earlier this year, Dustin Diamond (Screech from “Saved By The Bell”) was online begging for money to save his house. Now, he’s back in the news as his “stolen sex tape” is about to be released.

Yes, that’s right. Screech has a porn tape on the market and by all accounts, it’s nasty.

David Hans Schmidt, who has become famous in the sex tape industry by peddling videos featuring Paris Hilton, Colin Farrell and others, claims ownership to the Screech tape. It was shot in a hotel. Diamond is holding the camera and narrating, as he engages two women in various combinations and positions.

The tape begins with Diamond in a bathtub, narrating what’s to come. It ends with Diamond introducing one of the women to a “Dirty Sanchez.” Suffice it say, it is unbelievably graphic.

As you know, any quality adult movie needs a catchy title. Think “Crocodile Blondee”, “Forrest Hump”, or “Rambone”. So, I’m holding a contest to come up with the best name for the Screech porn movie. Submit your suggestion and I’ll pick a winner from the list. The winner gets an authentic “Save Screech” t-shirt and assorted useless prizes from my attic.

The news was chock full of good news for lovers of political scandal and general deviance…

Since I’ve already beaten the Holt scandal into the ground, let’s start with Alan “Adult Supervision” Hevesi.

J. Christopher Callaghan, the Republican challenging State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, called yesterday for the Albany district attorney to probe Hevesi’s admission that for more than three years he failed to pay the state for chauffeur services his wife received.

In response to the flap, Hevesi wrote a personal check for $82K. While that’s all well and good, how did Mr. Hevesi arrive at that number? The driver is on the state payroll at a rate of $61K per year with full benefits. I’d be interested to understand the formula that Hevesi used to come up with a fair repayment total of $82K. Let’s not forget that Hevesi has predicted his own reelection due to voter apathy, joked that it would be a good idea to put a bullet between the eyes of the President, and also singled out the clerk-treasurer of Little Valley for a similar car use/reimbursement/ethics scandal. (HT Daily Politics)

Hevesi can cast this any way he’d like but, he was inappropriately using government money for personal reasons and got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Spitzer’s reaction to all of this?

“What Alan did was wrong…if anybody on my watch did that, there would be some very serious consequences…Alan is someone who has done stupendous work on behalf of the state of New York.”

Here’s a tip for Eliot, it DID happen on your watch. In case you’ve forgotten, you’re the current Attorney General of New York State. Instead of endorsing Hevesi, Spitzer should be showing us how “on day one everything changes” by investigating Mr Hevesi’s unauthorized use of public funds.

Let’s move on to the train wreck that is the campaign of Jeanine Pirro for Attorney General…her campaign makes Katherine Harris’ campaign for US Senate in Florida look like a well-oiled machine.

For the uninitiated, Pirro is married to the Billy Carter of political husbands, Al Pirro. In recent years, Al has been convicted of felony tax evasion charges, alleged to be involved with various members of the mafia, had a kid out of wedlock, and recently has taken to speeding all over New York State. Solid guy, all that’s missing is a flaming case of Hep C and kiddie porn.

Today, we added to the litany of public embarassments Al Pirro has foisted upon his wife as it was leaked that the US Attorney is investigating her for plotting to secretly record her husband in the effort to uncover his extramarital activites. Suspicious timing of the leak and awfully convenient for Mr. Cuomo…not that I’m implying anything.

”Sometime last year, I came to believe that my husband was seeing another woman,” Pirro said. ”In the midst of matrimonial discord, I was angry and had him followed to see if what I suspected was true. Although I spoke about taping him, there was no taping by me of anyone. There was anger, and frustration, and disappointment.”

Two people familiar with the situation, who spoke to The Associated Press before Pirro’s news conference on condition of anonymity because she had not yet spoken herself, said Pirro was overheard by authorities having a telephone conversation with former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik in the middle of last year. They said that Pirro suspected her husband, Albert Pirro, might be having an affair and that she and Kerik, a private security consultant, discussed possibly placing a recorder in a room to listen in on him.

The two people said that the recording device was never used and that a Kerik investigation turned up no firm evidence of an affair.

Good to see that Bernie Kerik is still finding work…

Anyhow, there’s two ways this can play out for Pirro:

A.) People sympathize with her or pity her woeful marriage and celebrate her willingness to stay with a philandering and troubled husband (The Hillary Factor)

B.) This is the first thing people hear about her and surmise that the Attorney General of New York State should be able to keep her own house in order and decide she’s unstable.

I’m leaning towards the latter…

Anyhow, I’d like to know why this was leaked at this time. The eavesdropping plan was picked up on a wiretap back in 2005 and it’s leaked out of the US Attorney’s office just six weeks before election day? Seems pretty coincidental and typical of the NY political scene. Welcome to the jungle, Jeanine.

As you may know, I’m a big fan of Buffalo Niagara Enterprise and their efforts to market our area to investors.

I had the pleasure of working with this great organization during Buffalo Old Home Week and have spent some time with BNE President Tom Kucharski. He leads a single minded organization that is efficiently making Western New York a better place to live, work, and play. They focus on results and today, they provided their annual report that is loaded with excellent news.

The region’s privately-funded business development group, whose job is to retain businesses in Western New York or attract new ones, said it achieved 38 “wins” in its 2006 fiscal year ended June 30.

That’s a 5.5 percent increase over the previous year, when it raked in 36 victories. And the previous total for fiscal 2005 was more than twice the number of wins of Kansas City, Phoenix, Richmond or St. Louis.

Even so, the efforts last year resulted in $258.2 million in new capital investment in the region, a 12.7 percent increase from the previous year, according to the group’s annual report. And they created or retained 3,436 jobs - 1,384 kept and 2,052 added.

Fantastic news! BNE receives very little funding from the government, instead relying on the generosity of the local business community. They serve as a fulcrum for companies and businesspeople to connect with the various organizations, programs, and services available to businesses in Western New York.

They have focused their efforts on a smaller pool of industries and are more able to dedicate resources to realistic leads and their efforts are paying off.

Enterprise recorded 36 wins in its 2005 fiscal year, compared to 18 for Phoenix - a hotbed of activity where one BNE official said they “don’t recruit, they take orders” - and 17, 9, and 8 for Richmond, St. Louis and Kansas City, respectively.

Its $229.2 million in investments fell short of $386 million in Phoenix, $373 million in St. Louis and $320 million in Richmond, but beat $130 million in Kansas City. But with 4,730 jobs created or retained that year, it easily beat all four cities by more than 1,000 jobs each.

Their collaborative agreements, dedicated staff, and positioning as a single point of contact for propsective companies is exactly what this area needed. They also have a business sensibility that you won’t find with government wonks and bureaucrats at the ESDC…they know how to whisper sweet nothings into the ears of clients.

Good news for Buffalo and Western New York, keep it up Tom!

Everyone’s favorite example of locally elected incompetence, Erie County Legislator Butchy Holt, is in trouble yet again.

Erie County prosecutors are seeking $20,000 in back taxes they say is owed by County Legislator George A. Holt Jr. of Buffalo.

Evidently, Butch and his wife Mattie are having a devil of a time keeping accurate records on sales tax revenue generated at their East Side restaurant as this isn’t the first time they’ve had problems.

Clark said the investigation found that the Holts owe about $20,000 in sales taxes from 2003 and 2004.

In 2005, it was revealed that the Holts had not paid sales taxes from their restaurant in more than two years. They owed more than $17,000 and agreed to a repayment schedule with the state.

In 1994, Holt and his wife owed more than $2,000 in unpaid city and county taxes and their restaurant showed up on a list of properties the city was preparing to seize for nonpayment of taxes.

Of course, Erie County DA Frank Clark is looking out for a crony, errrrr, looking into it seriously.

(Clark) indicated that the two sides are talking about a resolution to the dispute but stressed that his office is not engaged in plea negotiations.

“We haven’t reached that point yet,” Clark said, but “we have engaged in some dialogue.”

If Clark and Holt cannot agree on a resolution, it’s possible the seven-term lawmaker could face criminal charges from a grand jury.

Clark said his investigation found no evidence of income tax evasion but that Holt and his wife could be subject to civil action by the state in connection with Holt’s use of a tax-sheltered pension plan and lottery winnings.

Ever hear the quote “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”?

No evidence of tax evasion? Are you kidding me? If this was Butchy’s first time offense, I’d take him at his word that he made a simple accounting error. However, a pattern of sales tax non-payment has developed over several years and it certainly exceeds simple oversight. If butch weren’t politically connected and sitting on the Legislature, would he receive the same type of leniency from the District Attorney?

To me, Butch Holt is a symbol of everything that is wrong with local politics. From his inability to reconcile tax receipts, history as a property tax scofflaw, and CBC scam with Chuck Swanick, to his funnelling of $25K to his son’s basketball camp business…he represents the patronage, pork, waste, and incompetence that have ruled the area for several decades.

Will anyone in his district finally vote him out of office?

In 1974, you couldn’t give away property on Elmwood Avenue. It was an urban wasteland that was a symbol of the diminishing urban core.

Michael Attardo was one of the few businessmen who were willing to take a chance on this at-risk neighborhood and opened his store “Get Dressed”. He’s now been open for business for 32 years and was a leader in revitalizing the Elmwood Village as a retailer and founder of Forever Elmwood.

Now, he’s willing to take another risk by opening a second Get Dressed location at 514 Main St. in the Belasario complex.

The central business district is seeing several new residential projects open and with that comes the need for retail services.

“Healthy communities are all about good neighborhoods,” Attardo said. “Housing is heating up in downtown because it is cool and people want to be at the center of energy.”

It looks like we’re starting to figure out how to repair our downtown core; bring people in first, watch the businesses move in to serve them. This works a lot better than silver bullet projects that are built to draw people in from the suburbs and exurbs…(cough)Bass Pro(/cough).

Best of luck to Mike as we finally get a spot downtown to pick up a tie or shirt on our lunch hour. I’ll be one of the first customers.

As Pundit notes on his site, the Great Buffalo Pizza Taste-Off is officially “on like donkey kong”.

Place: Zetti’s Pizza and Pasta (Click here for directions)
Date: October 2nd
Time: 6:30PM

I will be bringing the following Chicago Pizza Delicacies (flown in from the motherland of real pizza)

One 11″ Crumbled Sausage from Gino’s East
One 11″ Spinach from Gino’s East (Spinach on Gino’s pizza is locally grown in Chicago and frozen, so no E-Coli worries, I called to check)

One 6″ Cheese from Lou Malnati’s
One 6″ Pepperoni from Lou Malnati’s

Pundit will be bringing his NY Style tomato sauce on phyllo dough concoction…

We’re still looking for volunteers to suggest/bring some Buffalo style pizza for the tasting. If you’d like to represent, let he or I know.

Taste test panel as of now:
Buffalo Amy
LC Scotty and Mrs. Scotty
Elly and Rod
Kevin and Val
North Buffalo Mike
Fed-Up
All Things Jennifer and her Kung-Fu Sensei
Buffalo Watchdog
and of course Buffalo Spree will be there to cover the event!

If I inadvertently left you off the list or you’d like to join us, leave a comment here or at Chef Boyarpundit’s site and we’ll get you on “the list”.