BP doesn’t like the idea of Stop Light cameras. Personally, this concept does not phase me either way. I personally do not believe any of the slippery slope theories. Set them up, and you’ll have people timing the yellow light at non camera locations to prove that the camera ones are set short to make more money. Or arguing the placement. One commenter lets you know that shooting the camera does not work. You have the usual privileged class cheap shot.
Best part?
On the side bar there is an ad for something to beat traffic camera tickets.
Only in America.

Most consider this the official start of the Western New York Summer. Cookouts, people opening up their pools for the year, putting the boat in the water, parties galore.
Usually for us it’s the yard work, the gardens, lots of around the house stuff, nothing different this year.
Son of Dub is probably going to stop by for the chain saw if he goes down to the property in Alma. Our little storage trailer cushioned the fall of a large tree. Going to make a little firewood I guess.
I hope to get in a little fishing, and maybe a trip to the drive in.

Monday I will be celebrating 30 years of wedded bliss with my beloved.

What are your plans?
pd

Written by Pauldub

82 and sunny today. If you can take off work, do so. If not, go outside at lunch. Enjoy the sunshine. As for me, I am going to leave early for work, and take my sweet time driving through Buckhorn park.

Buffalo summer is starting.

Written by Pauldub

Join the Buffalo Old Home Week family at Doc Sullivan’s at 474 Abbott Road in South Buffalo on Tuesday, May 22nd from 6:00-9:00 for our monthly Happy to Be Here Happy Hour!

Come share the Buffalo spirit and celebrate all the ways in which the Buffalo Renaissance has taken wings during 2007. Grab every enthusiastic Buffalo Booster that you know and head over to Doc Sullivan’s to participate in our on-going celebration of all that is great about Buffalo!

There will be no shortage of warm and enthusiastic people to meet, so even if you come alone and don’t know a soul, you’ll leave with new friends and new connections. There will be plenty to talk about: what new companies are opening in Buffalo? What’s the latest on the Waterfront? Where are the hot new jobs in the city and region? Of course, we’ll also be making some important announcements about upcoming Buffalo Old Home Week 2007 events!

Calling All Volunteers!

If you are interested in spending time to help Buffalo Old Home Week 2007 become a great success then we want to see you!

All people willing to volunteer during OHW in July are invited to come to the Happy Hour on Tuesday to speak with us about volunteer opportunities. Further information on a volunteer training session to be held in June will be released shortly.

Sign Up for BOHW Info

Let us know you love Buffalo and want to be a part of Buffalo Old Home Week by signing up for news and information at buffoldhome.com, registration information will be available soon, and you’ll be the first to know. Spread the word and invite your friends and family to be a part of Buffalo Old Home Week too!

Thank you for your support of Buffalo Old Home Week, see you on Tuesday!

Written by Pauldub

I have seen zip on this subject lately. Any new word on how the review is coming along? Any new lawsuits?

There has been nothing out there lately except that the Seneca Gaming Corp profits are down.

This project has literally disappeared from the public eye ever since the BassPro announcement.

BTW, the News calls for cooler heads to prevail which is a departure from the stance taken by one of their writers…

So can anyone get me up to speed on the mini casino being built right now?

Written by Pauldub

First, the furniture. Boy howdy, Geek is going for a different look. Categories down like 75%, no more recent comments, and I guess that twitter thing was a passing fad. And you should see it back here behind the curtain! A whole lot different here too.

Anyhow, back to Donn. Couldn’t agree with him more. I know some may say we aren’t giving away 6mil, because the city never had it. BUT - as my old Economics teacher said, there is always opportunity cost. That’s what you give up to get what you want. Like spending the day with the In Laws instead of going to a Bills game. Even though you didn’t buy the ticket, you can still say that afternoon with family cost you.

Instead of giving people who really don’t need the break this cash savings, why not collect it (you know those condos are going to sell with or without the break), and put it to good use. Say, grants for people willing to invest in the East Side?

Written by Pauldub

In a court session originally intended for possible motions in his case, Altemio Sanchez pleaded guilty to three bike path murders.

The surprise pleas came after Sanchez and his lawyer, Andrew C. LoTempio, reviewed all the DNA evidence against the 49-year-old Cheektowaga resident and rejected a possible insanity defense.

According to the Buffalo News, Sanchez made his decision based on the DNA evidence against him, and a desire not to put his wife and the victim’s families through a trial.

LoTempio refused to discuss Sanchez’s psychiatric history in depth, but said he developed a deep-seated animosity toward women early in life, after his father left his mother, and his mother began seeing other men.

I know many who have lived through similar situations, without this kind of result. I think a possible insanity defense would have been difficult to establish.

Sanchez pleaded guilty even after Burns warned him he faces a possible 75 years to life in prison. He will be sentenced Aug. 2.

May the punishment fit the crime.

Written by Pauldub

I think Jeff Simon has a pretty good point here. I liked Howie back in the day, but this show does nothing for me. I don’t like reality shows, perhaps because I feel embarassed for the people and what they do for cash. I can’t tell the difference between “Survivor” and “Lost” I find American Idol painful to watch.

But bad movies? That’s another story.

Tonight I watched “Constantine” with that amazing actor, Keannu Reeves. Bought it for $5.99.

I get excited when I see that Harry Hamlin Classic “Clash of the Titans”" is on at 11 pm. Of course any Chuck Snorris movie is good for a grin. Arnold? I’m there for it. “Plan 9 From Outer Space” is always on so late I doze off before it comes on.

I know we all have our own favorite bad movie that hits FX, TNT, Spike, etc. What is your favorite flick that you would stay up late to watch, and never admit it to your friends?

Oh yeah, don’t forget “Johnny Mnemonic”. What was Ice T thinking?

Written by Pauldub

Kinda busy past couple of days, although not as bad as Geek (See cool Twitter box on side bar).

I promise to post something uninformed, foolish, or the long shot - not bad- this evening.

I know you’ve all been waiting…

Written by Pauldub

Yeah, we’re all a little nervous about how the lifting of the wage freeze may affect our city financially. But geez Louise, can Donn cut hizzoner some slack?

The Governer thinks it’s possible. Hell, the Chairman of the Control Board thinks it may be time. That’s three people who I feel have more of a clue than Uncle Donn does.

If allowed to run free, will the mayor — in fairness, not the same mayor whose failures prompted the control board’s coming — get us into another hole? Will he give more than we have to unions, which — if they get what they want — will back him come election time?

That’s what I like. Unbridled optimism. If my Mentor gets wired about an article in the Columbus paper, this must put him round the bend.

This is a chance to turn the corner Donn. We should not be content for “Nanny McPhee” to take care of us. We have to step out eventually. I don’t really care if you are not comfortable with it.

As a matter of fact, can anyone tell me when was the last time Donn wrote a positive piece on Buffalo’s future? These past few make it difficult to remember if he ever wrote one.

I wake up every day and choose to live in Buffalo.

Sure, I could move back to Chicago or Boston and make more money and live in a bigger city, but I choose to make my life here. I also take an immense amount of pride in that choice. As if I have been entrusted with a killer secret…

Which is exacty why I hate reading articles like this one in The Columbus Dispatch.

“You know,” Kelley said, “I remember when I was a kid, coming around a particular bend in the highway and my father, looking out over a vast expanse of waste and nothingness, he said, ‘Someday, all of this will be developed.’ I drove by the same expanse with my kids. I drive by now, the same landscape, and still nothing has happened.”

Bethlehem Steel isn’t coming back. Buffalo, a blue-collar town with a soul all its own, isn’t going anywhere. The Sabres may be going somewhere.

It makes us seem as if we’re some urban decline case study in a socieconomic class at Ohio State University.

Is this all we are? Is this how we want to be seen? Hopeless urban denizens clinging to potential sports success to redeem our choice to stay in Buffalo? Am I the only one who wants to give Bucky Gleason a swift kick to the balls for his portrayal of a city that he so “loves”? Are we our own worst enemy in these types of national stories? Why must we always play up what we lack as a community?

Do I really want to live in a world where a soulless metropolis like Columbus can look down it’s nose at my city? When will be become fed up with the political status quo and get pissed off that writers in places like Columbus have the ability to criticize us in the first place?

Written by Pauldub

Remember when the Buffalo Control Board laid the wage freeze on the city? Tough times indeed. Contract terms set aside, angry workers, lawsuits galore. Now the Mayor states that the city has reached the point fiscally where the wage freeze on city wokers should be lifted.And it looks like the Chairman, Brian Lipke, agrees. I’m not saying it’s time to strike up the band yet, but it looks encouraging.

And if you got the big guy looking favorably on the idea:

In a written statement today, Spitzer said he supports Brown’s call for lifting the wage freeze and believes the control board will “in short order” determine if conditions warrant such a move.

Even though there would be no retroactive pay for money lost in the past 3 years, just getting the freeze lifted should help out. I think this puts it in the right perspective:

The president of one of the city’s largest unions praised Brown’s efforts. Michael F. Drennen, who represents about 450 white-collar employees, said his members have been working without raises for nearly four years.

“It has devastated morale, without a doubt,” said Drennen. “Lifting [the wage freeze] would be huge for morale.”

Now there is still the ongoing negotiations with the Police, but I think this will no doubt help the process move a bit better. I’m optimistic, and I’m seeing some light here.

After his censure by the New York State Assembly for inappropriate conduct with a young female intern, Assemblyman Mike Cole (R, 142) has been beating the bushes to find qualified interns with whom he has no interest in having an after-work relationship. Word on the street is, this particular intern likes to be tickled, yet Cole has no interest in physical contact.

For years, the closed Bethlehem Steel plant along Route 5 on Buffalo’s waterfront has served as a chilling reminder of our regional economic decline.

The spectre of the closed steel plant and the cooled blast furnaces looms over Buffalo like a ghost of economic boom years past. For the better part of three decades, our regional economic development professionals have struggled to find a suitable reuse for the grounds of the former plant. It’s been a struggle to deal with tax issues, logistics, property secession and brownfield remediation while working towards a new plan for the property.

Last week, Erie County Executive Joel Giambra announced a significant project to remediate brownfields, relocate rail lines, and build three business parks over 400 acres on former Bethlehem Steel property.

“This project will allow us the opportunity to re-create port development here because there’s nowhere to bring freight anymore to New York City and New Jersey. Within the next two years, we could see the rebirth of Buffalo as a major Great Lakes port,” Giambra said.

The process began in April, 2005 when Erie County, the City of Lackawanna, and Tecumseh Redevelopment Inc signed a Memorandum of Understanding which outlined a path toward site redevelopment. The cooperative effort has resulted in an award of $4.42MM from the New York State Multi-Modal Program which will fund rail relocation efforts to begin the project.

The rail relocation project’s primary objective is to remove rail tracks that run adjacent to Route 5 on the former Bethlehem Steel site. These tracks service the Port of Buffalo and other businesses located on Gateway Trade Center Property, owners of the port and approximately 130 acres. Actual construction for the rail relocation should start in the third quarter of 2007 and be completed in 2008. Once the new rail connections are in place, rail tracks will be removed along Route 5. The removal of these tracks will allow new road infrastructure to be constructed entering from Route 5 onto the first phase of the business park buildout, which will have an approximate size of 102 acres.

Since April of 2005, significant progress has been made in cleaning up the Bethlehem site. Noticeable signs of progress are everywhere, including the installation of eight wind turbines which provide 20 megawatts of clean power. It’s also worth noting that 95% of asbestos remediation has been completed and a water treatment system for contaminated soil adjacent to the Port of Buffalo and the former Bethlehem coke ovens has been installed.

David Torke at the Fix Buffalo blog posted a slideshow of shots taken by one of his readers as he flew over Buffalo. It’s remarkable and the images of Buffalo from 15,000 feet are fantastic.

Sometimes it’s nice to recast the argument about the lack of downtown parking with a photo like this:

What’s your first reaction when you see that photo?