Written by Pauldub

Here is the annual Artvoice poll.
One of the questions that was tough for me was “Worst Local Politician”. Who do you go for on this one. Guys who think paying taxes is optional? People who sweat like Nixon?

I went with Volker on attitude, and the pickup truck stunt/interview at the closed toll booths.

How about you? Who do you think has worn out their welcome with various shenanigans and self serving stunts?

Doesn’t matter what level. Local, county, state or federal. I want to know who you think should be run out of town on a rail.

I know that we have been hinting about our plans for the future here at WNYM and we’ve been pretty sketchy on the details…let me give you a little taste of what’s in store.

Over the next three months, we plan some significant changes to the user experience on our family of sites. We intend to centralize your favorite blogs and introduce a user-friendly multimedia news, information, and entertainment portal. It will be a phased rollout of new features so as not to overwhelm our readers. In case you’re wondering, we won’t require you to register on the site to contribute to the conversation. Communities need to be open to everyone if they wish to grow. We have a community that is 30,000 strong, no need to mess with it.

We’re going to ask our readers and amateur pundits to arm themselves with keyboards, cameras and microphones to help us lead a community journalism revolution that will begin in Buffalo and spread to every corner of America.

So, yeah, we’ve been busy…

I’m pleased to introduce our new corporate logo as designed by the good people at Schneider Digital.

“Don’t Hate The Media, BecomeThe Media”

Mike Miller at Shades of Gray poses the following question:

The Buffalo blogosphere is one small, but significant, part of the overall movement that has been an influencing factor in some of the positive things that are now happening in the city.

Now, there are some real signs of progress and some tangible reasons to feel hope. They are being well documented in the blogosphere as they occur. Even our local news media is beginning to reflect a more positive outlook on our future. It is not that anyone believes that revitalization will happen overnight or by the completion of one development project, but we do believe that it is happening collectively and carefully.

So, my question to you is: do you believe that Buffalo will regain the prominence and prosperity it once enjoyed? If so, when? If not, why not?

In my opinion, the blogosphere has done more for the revitalization of Buffalo than any politician or policy. The spirit of optimism and progress that is documented our pages has infiltrated the mainstream media and it is now starting to work its way through the local hoi poloi (Bauerle & Beach listeners excepted). After all, reporters from all the major media outlets read our sites every day and we have even been known to knock back a few beers or play a few games of poker with them in our efforts to bring them over to “Our/New Buffalo”.

Progress is happening before our very eyes. It might seem glacial at times, but it did take nearly 50 years for us to reach the bottom. Our ascent will be slow, but we will reach the mountaintop.

So, are you a believer as well?

Written by pauldub

This is the only time of year I really do not like. Most of the snow is now grey, like most of the cars covered in salt. Those frozen, crystalline gems you watched waft slowly down as you looked out the window drinking hot chocolate, have now become just more crap you have to shovel in the morning so you can get to work. It’s damp, cold, and I’m miserable.

But in just 3 weeks, it happens.

Spring.

Doesn’t matter if it’s 31 and freezing rain, it’s still Spring. You know that any morning now, you’ll wake up to warm weather and sunshine, the sounds of birds singing. You’ll smell the warm earth waking up, see buds on trees, and neighbors you haven’t seen since late November. Kids will burst out into the streets with ball, bat, bicycle, and skateboard. Young couples will be pushing strollers down the sidewalk, showing off the new family members that made their arrival over the winter.

For all this, I can put up with this crummy weather for 3 more weeks standing on my head.

Oh yeah, I forgot. Pike season opens in May, and bass is now all year. That’s pretty good too..

Yesterday, WNYM’s Christopher Byrd was able to get Robby Takac of The Goo Goo Dolls on the phone to discuss what’s new with the band and learn more about their plans to build a new recording studio in Buffalo’s Allentown neighborhood.

The studio will serve as a permanent location for the Goo’s to record their albums as well as the local bands that Robby signs to his Good Charamel label.

They intend to build a world class facility in the old Trackmaster Studios that can be marketed as a low cost alternative for major labels in an effort to bolster our local economy. Top notch production at Buffalo prices…solid plan.

The Goo’s have always shown love for their hometown and their 4th of July concert on the steps of City Hall in 2004 still marks the birth of Buffalo’s renaissance in my mind.

Click to listen

Click here to download the mp3 version.

Written by pauldub

To me, this looks like good news. Seeing that local organizations (Matt Urban Center, Darul-Uloom Mosque) are involved assures me that there is local input, and that it is not being managed by an organization that does not know the East Side.

This is the only part that makes me nervous:

Over the next couple of years, they expect to tear down as many as 39 vacant properties and build or rehabilitate up to 45 homes.

After reading Michelles take on the foreclosure rate of new builds, I wonder how this will work out. In addition, I hope that there is careful review of each property slated for demo.

I wonder how the East side bloggers feel about this one?

Written by Pauldub

I read your article about the deaccession at the Albright Knox. As a result, I was galvanized into action, and I became a member of the Gallery. I want my voice to be heard concerning this issue.

But it won’t be saying the same thing as yours…

Perhaps Artemis and the Stag will no longer grace the AKAG. Perhaps the new owners will grant you a chance to view it again. That’s the point, at least to me. Art is for the appreciation of all. The pieces leaving Buffalo will be appreciated by others. We will be given a chance to view and appreciate new works that will be purchased. A good situation for all concerned. That’s how I see it.

And I feel that this voice, that has been here for the last 50 some odd years should carry a little more weight than one that hasn’t been here in just as long.

(Apologies for the lack of link to TF’s article. I gave up after the third try.)

Update: Here is the link to Mr. Freudenheim’s article.
Thanks and a tip O’ the hat to Amy at Revitalize Buffalo.

Written by Pauldub

This is the first time I take sides in the Rumore/Willliams situation. I guess that assault is not that terribly bad as long as you are a senior with good grades.

Students make mistakes. Adults make mistakes. I am a forgiving superintendent when parents get involved and work with us.

I do not consider actions that get you charged with Gang Assault “mistakes”. Four of these students were previously caught with knives at school and another was caught with a gun. They assaulted a teacher who was trying to break it up. That seals it for me.

I do not care what conditions these kids agreed to in order to return to Performing Arts. They had their chance, they broke the law. They don’t belong. I’m with Mr. Rumore on this one.

Good News:

Forbes Magazine ranks Buffalo-Niagara as the region with the best Cost of Living while we also rose five spots from last year on the list of best places in America to find a job. We finished ahead of notable cities such as Louisville, Pittsburgh, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Memphis, Chicago, and Boston. Included in our regional sample was the moribound City of Niagara Falls, which almost certainly lowered our overall ranking, but probably helped our COL rating.

Bad News:

The New York Times described the City of Buffalo as follows:

“Almost any economic activity is usually welcomed in this city that has become an emblem of faded industrial glory.”

“A city from which jobs and residents continue to flee”

“The city has an image problem.”

Really? We have an image problem? Perhaps it’s due to half ass reporting from 500 miles away without due diligence and simply recycles tedious pablum about our “exceptionally harsh” winters, closed steel plants, and backwoods ideology.

How about a story about our growing byte belt, expanding bio-medical corridor, or the hundreds of small creative class businesses that are exploding in many corners of the city? I guess that wouldn’t make downstaters feel any better about spending $3K per month in rent on a tiny flat in Billyburg…

Come on Staba! Smack some sense into those downstate keyboard jockeys!

At WNYM, we host blogs for politicians, community activists, and interested observers of the local political class. Did you know we also host blogs for successful local businessmen?

Buffalo Bloviator is the owner of followthatcar.com, a website dedicated to the sale of his patented GPS tracking device.

We own the patent rights to the ONLY under-vehicle GPS technology in the industry.

Investigators use our equipment in situations where no other equipment at any price can be used.

The GPS-Webâ„¢ is the only GPS tracking system that does not require a clear skyward view to operate effectively. ALL competing systems require either the older skyward pointed, or the conspicuous, erratic edge-mounted pavement-bounce GPS antennas. Only our Patent Pending GPS-Stealthâ„¢ Technology works while hidden up in the recesses of the under-belly of the vehicle. This means easy covert installations which are otherwise impossible.

While the intent for the device is for use in police and intellignce work, it has spawned an entire side following; men and women who suspect their spouse is cheating.

“I placed your Covert GPS Vehicle Tracking System on a mini van and tracked my client’s wife right to Motel 6 where she met her UPS man. The client had been trying to catch his wife for several years. With your device I was able to catch her the first time out. I highly recommend this equipment.”

Ken Sutton, PI, North Carolina

and

I have received my order and have been using it ever since the first day. I installed it under the back seat and it works great!!! I absolutely LOVE this item!!! I am SO happy I ran across your website and decided to purchase the GPS tracking system. It saves me tons of worrying, and following my fiancé around and making sure he is where he is supposed to be. I sure don’t want to catch him doing something he is not supposed to be doing, but I know now that I will if he ever does!!!!

I have been looking for something like this for a long time!!!

Thanks,

Diane M.

I’m happy that the Bloviator has launched a successful business as he’s a great guy and he’s investing some of his profits into rebuilding fantastic Buffalo properties, but I have to say, the product is a bit creepy.

Back in 1784, Benjamin Franklin satirically proposed the idea of what has come to be known as Daylight Savings Time; the process of jiggering our clocks and perception of time in order to add more daylight to the evenings. The original intent? To save on the amount of wax needed to produce candles used for home illumination and to allow farmers more hours to harvest crops.

Certainly in today’s world, we no longer need to adhere to such an anachronistic idea, right? RIGHT?

Not only do we continue to do so, we continue to arbitraily toy with it.

The bill amends the Uniform Time Act of 1966 by changing the start and end dates of daylight saving time starting in 2007. Clocks will be set ahead one hour on the second Sunday of March (March 11, 2007) instead of the current first Sunday of April (April 1, 2007). Clocks will be set back one hour on the first Sunday in November (November 4, 2007), rather than the last Sunday of October (October 28, 2007). This will make electronic clocks that had pre-programmed dates for adjusting to daylight saving time obsolete and will require updates to computer operating systems.

Of course, these arbitrary changes occur much to the chagrin of the airlines, computer vendors, and just about every modern industry on the planet.

Now for those of you unfamiliar with complex enterprise computer operating systems, making a change to the timezone files typically requires a reboot of the system on which some of the world’s most important applications sit. For instance, one of my financial customers has been faced with the task of patching and rebooting over 15,000 servers as we prepare for the change in DST. These servers contain your mortgage data, financial records, credit history, and pretty much any proof that you exist as a financial entity in this country. This also requires reboots to all the systems that maintain our national defense umbrella, tax system, air traffic control, highway system, rail systems, ans social service infrastructure.

Now, if you’re going to require companies and government entities to invest millions of man hours, spend hundreds of millions of dollars, and put the very basis of our national computing grid in a state of flux, you better have a pretty damn good reason, right?

Well, some claim that it lowers energy consumption in a time of high demand while others argue that it simply shifts peak usage from one time of day to another with a negligible impact on overall consumption. There is no concrete agreement that we are saving dime one by shifting the clocks to save candle wax and allowing our “hardworking American farmers” (Monsanto/ADM) more time to harvest crops with their oxen. In the end, it is a tremendous waste of time, especially since there are areas of the United States that do not observe DST and other nations of the world observe DST, but do so during different times and dates.

In the end, I have invested hundreds of hours of overtime in the last several weeks updating servers in this region which has cut into my blogging time. So, if you miss regular dispatches from BuffaloGeek HQ, blame President Bush. It was his big idea to change DST.

Written by pauldub

After a long day, Rene’ Descartes stops in a local bar for a drink or two. At the end of the evening, the bartender says “Hey buddy, last call. You want one for the road?” Descartes ponders the question for a moment, and replys “I think not”.
And promptly disappears into thin air.

Written by pauldub

Living midway between the two main cities of Western New York, I get to see the progress (or lack of) going on both north and south of my little town.
Looking at Buffalo I see progress. Not as much as many would like, and some of it seems to be in fits and starts. But it is progress, and I am excited. To the north of me, I see this. Almost 10 years, 142 acres, and zip to show.

Since 1997, the cataract city has been promised night clubs, live music theatres, an underground aquarium (the big hole), a chinatown type attraction, and a whole lot more. What they have received is broken promises and little else. In June 2003 the city approved a contract with Niagara Falls Redevelopment calling for for 110 million in investment. Last month NFR proposed a deal that cancels the 110m investment.

So next time you feel frustrated with progress in Buffalo, head north. Don’t take the Robert Moses in to the Falls, get off at Buffalo Avenue, and look around at all the great development happening. Or get off at the boulevard and ride down all the way through Pine avenue, which hasn’t changed since I lived down there 30 years ago. Go right into downtown and try to find the progress that Buffalo is experiencing.

It ain’t there.

Written by pauldub

It’s 5:15, the load of whites in the dryer is almost done so I will have dry socks to wear, and I am having my first cup of coffee. I’ll have a little toast, bring the spouse breakfast in bed and earn much needed brownie points.

I love getting a good start on Fridays because it just makes the weekend so much better. And with a long weekend, art class with my mother in law on Saturday, fantasy league party on Sunday, it’s going to be good. Maybe a little grilling this weekend? After all, there isn’t any major snow predicted.

What are your plans? Anyone planning on taking advantage of the HUGE President’s Day sales events at the local car dealerships?

Written by pauldub

Or in the homes of other consenting adults. At least if the politicians have their way that is.

Yes, no more eating trans fats in a restaurant. The people that have brought contol boards upon themselves with their remarkable efficiency in handling our dollars, want to spend more by hiring trans fat police. They can’t stop you from buying trans fat goodies at the local grocery and poisoning yourself at home, but you won’t be able to do it in public. Tobacco products only get a warning label on the package, but artificial fats are going to be banned.

I consider this “Bandwagon” legislation. Someone else did it, they look cool, we want to be cool too.

Try coming up with a budget that works for the taxpayer. Try becoming more efficient. I think that would be cool.