Buffalo Geek

As we prepare for Buffalo Homecoming 2008 (nee Buffalo Old Home Week), I thought it would be interesting to perform a completely unscientific and anecdotal research project. Each year, I endeavor with my cohorts to celebrate Buffalo. In years past, I think we spent too much time accentuating what Buffalo was and what we hope it can be in the future. This year, it’s a celebration about what Buffalo is today.

Our event lineup will be a bit different and there will be a lot of details coming out in the next few weeks regarding organizational changes, sponsorships, registration, and a host of other issues.

Today, I want to ask you a question that someone posed to me when they discovered my involvement with Buffalo Homecoming, “Why did you leave Buffalo and why did you come back?”

I’ll get to my answers in a bit, but there are some other questions as part of this “research project” as well.

• 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 are thinking of leaving, what has to change for you to consider staying?

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

On to my Buffalo Story…
I left Buffalo in 1996 after college to make my own future. I joined the US Air Force and wandered the nation and the world. I wanted to live beyond the horizon of my youth and explore new experiences. I never really considered coming home, it was just a place to reference as where I was born.

After a decade of working and living around the country, we settled in Chicago and prepared to make it our permanent place of residence. After two years in Chicago, I was presented with an opportunity to transfer home. Why? Because my company couldn’t find anyone to do what I do locally and they knew I about the only guy in the company who would consider a move to Buffalo. We weighed our options, figured it was a unique opportunity and thought we would leave after a year or two if things didn’t work out.

In the ensuing three years, my love affair with Buffalo has been a cruel mistress. Filled with hope and excitement about pending change, getting involved with organizations that were making a difference in the community, discovering that the pace of progress would be incredibly slow, and finding myself troubled by the lack of career options in a shrinking city. It’s been a roller coaster ride and I often wonder if I made the right decision to move home. On the flip side, we bought our first home, grew closer to our families, had a child, and met dozens of people who I know will be friends for life. We’ve also grown despondent about the economic future of our hometown and often wonder if we’re “settling” by staying here. It’s conflicting and I think the schizophrenic nature of this blog over these three years has detailed that journey…

So, I stay in Buffalo because I am hopeful. It is a hope that is grounded in reality with a healthy dose of pessimism about those who would promise to deliver solutions to our troubled region. I am disdainful of those who believe we can simply wish our problems away or that the renaissance is upon us. After all, we’re a couple hundred miles drive from a renaissance and our car is burning oil and the engine is making a loud knocking sound…

I stay in Buffalo because I want my children to understand the context of their family and learn about their roots. I believe that children need proximity to their extended family and be grounded in an understanding that where you are from is a significant part of the person you become. I want to show them where I grew up and learn about life as I knew it. To see the humble beginnings of the Clan Geek and to learn many of the lessons that living in a town like this can teach.

I stay in Buffalo because I have a good job. If that job ever goes away, all of that which I described in the previous paragraphs will have to be pushed aside. See, there just isn’t a big market for senior level information system architects in this town and when openings do develop, well, the salaries are below market value and not sustainable for me. So, I’d have to scurry back to Chicago or Boston to make a living or start my own company in Buffalo which would require too much personal risk when one is supporting a young family.

So, I am a tenuous believer in Buffalo and stay while completely ignoring my potential for career growth. Am I crazy? Probably. But for some reason, this city is a part of who I am and it’s where I belong right now. I took the risk to move home and the rewards have so far outweighed the costs.

I’d love to hear your personal Buffalo story…

That’s right, Mrs. Geek and I were not satisfied with only one child, we’re upping the ante and going for two. Being environmentally friendly parents, this should complete our collection of children as we try to stay carbon neutral on contributing people to the planet…

Baby Geek 2:  Electric Boogaloo premieres August 23rd.

Baby Geek is a little unsure as to what this means for his role as King of the Castle and primary sipper of Dad’s beer.

BuffaloGeek and WNYMedia, re-populating Buffalo, one baby at a time.

It has occurred to me that I am just generally too busy with life, work, family, non-profits and whatnot to really keep this site fresh with content everyday. After all, the secret to high traffic numbers is at least one post a day.

However, I am not the kind of writer who can put out 500-1000 words on a topic in less than a day. I also don’t have enough traffic to just pop up a link and say “discuss amongst yourselves”. I try to post long form, discussion-oriented musings on an issue and I can’t seem to do it justice with my current schedule. I know that I am not the only WNYMedia blogger in this position.

In 2004 when Marc Odien founded WNYMedia.net, he envisioned it to be a portal site on which mainstream media and blog commentary collided and offered something unique. Marc built a great community with high traffic numbers and attracted some great writers and community activists into the family. In 2005, I joined the team and we decided to make a little business out of this blogging/web media thing. At our peak we had 40 bloggers updating their sites every day with news and opinion from around the region. As time wore on, we started to focus more on individual content that was networked together through RSS and we had a few fits and starts with template designs that we though would provide some uniformity.

At the end of 2007, we weren’t producing enough content on all of our sites because we were so absorbed with managing the network, web technology, dealing with web designers, and our video business. Thus, some of our bloggers weren’t feeling the love from us and content dipped.

Our dedicated blogging staff became more involved with the community they write about and many had some life changing events like marriages, children, home purchases, election campaigns, job changes, etc. As a result, we found ourselves at the confluence of several factors which were taking away from the quality of our product.

So, as he usually does, Marc boiled it all down to a basic strategy; “Let’s collapse the writing staff into one central portal”. I’ve learned my lesson on underestimating Marc’s ideas in our two years in business…don’t sleep on that guy, people never see him coming. Anyhow, I digress. Most of us are not able to post frequently enough to carry the water by ourselves on our own blogs.

What we would like to do is collapse the writers into one site if they wish. If they wish to continue with their own site, they can. However, most of our writers have agreed in one way or another to stop posting to their individual sites and contribute to WNYMedia Central.  By the way, if you haven’t stopped by the frontpage of WNYMedia.net in the last few weeks, do so. We’ve got a lot of cool features installed with more to come. Each writer will have a page where all of their articles are stored with their collection of links and virtual tchotckes, but the articles will primarily be displayed in a traditional format like News, Lifestyles, Sports, Activism, Arts on our front page and updated two to three times per day.

For an example of what a writers page will look like on the wnymedia portal, check this out.  Not much different from what we have now, just a different wrapper.   In many ways, you can still consume the content of only one writer if you just want to bookmark his or her page or you can more easily consume the content from the wider community by reading the portal and subscribing to specific feeds like “news” or “activism”.
Before we make yet another decision in a vacuum, I thought I would ask what you think.  Would you be more or less likely to read WNYMedia if the articles were organized on one portal?  Do you see value in having a one stop shop for all of our articles?  Or do you prefer the individual pages like this?

If you primarily consume WNYM writers via RSS, all of the articles will be streamlined into one feed for your consumption.  Or, you can simply subscribe to one writer, but most writers won’t be contributing daily, they will do it when they have time.  It’s all about choice on the new portal.  Is that cool?   We’ll mix in news feeds from local print, TV, and web…yes, even BRO articles.  You’ll be able to comment on articles from all over Buffalo media on our frontpage. Does this sound like a good idea?  You tell me.

I just spent the better part of my free time today flipping through the 2008-2009 New York State budget, yeah, good times. As Spitzer states in the press release that was sent along with the budget, “Governor Eliot Spitzer today delivered his 2008-09 Executive Budget, which closes a projected $4.4 billion budget gap without raising taxes, while making key investments in education, health care, and economic development.”

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Who isn’t behind a hard line on taxes and investments in good things like health care and education? As it turns out, pretty much everyone since it doesn’t appear to actually be true. I had planned a lengthy treatise on the budget, but I stopped by Knickerbocker Blog and observed the statewide media beatdown that has been issued on this budget. See if you can detect a common theme:

Spitzer budget raises spending, state taxes, fees; Proposal totals $124.3 billion (Tom Precious/Buffalo News)

Spitzer’s budget: Higher fees, delayed tax breaks (Joe Spector/Gannett News Service)Spitz takes a taxing U-turn (Ken Lovett and Fred Dicker/New York Post)

Spitzer’s budget would wallop residents with taxes in hundreds of millions (Joe Mahoney/Daily News)

Spitzer Plans Cuts and Fees to Close Deficit of $4.4 Billion (Danny Hakim/New York Times)

Spitzer Tax Plans Worry Business Leaders (Grace Rauh/New York Sun)

Illegal drugs may be taxed (Tom Precious/Buffalo News)

Spitzer Details Cuts and Fee Increases in Budget (Karen DeWitt/New York Public Radio)

Budget proposal hinges on revenue enhancers (Cara Matthews/Gannett News Service)

Spitzer budget banks on $250 million from Belmont video lottery (Richard Richtmyer/(Associated Press)

Spitzer’s Budget Triggers Backlash; Egan Rebuffed Over Tuition Tax Deduction (Jacob Gershman/New York Sun)

Grim economy, political reality shape the plan (Rick Karlin/Albany Times Union)

Modest spending hike relies on new revenues (Jim Odato/Albany Times Union)

Slicing half of Apple pie (Ken Lovett/New York Post)

Firms without new jobs to lose Empire Zone aid; Governor says state will end program’s tax breaks for those that missed targets (Mike McAndrew/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Education Groups Frustrated With Governor’s Plan (Elizabeth Green/New York Sun)

Fees, school aid rise in Spitzer plan; Governor proposes funds to help CNY economy, but counties would take hits. (Delen Goldberg/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Local districts face aid shortfall in Spitzer budget (Michael Woyton/Poughkeepsie Journal)

Spitzer’s budget plan gets mixed review from local pols (Tim Ashmore/Ithaca Journal)

Spitzer wants $140M more for state’s bridges (Judy Rife/Middletown Times Herald-Record)

Some districts will lose out on state aid (Paul Brooks/Middletown Times Herald-Record)

Spitzer wants $82B [six] budget; Governor seeks to spend more while closing a $4.8B gap (Matt King/Middletown Times Herald-Record)

Local Lawmakers Critical Of Budget Proposal (Luke Anderson/Jamestown Post-Journal)

With the exception of a few media outlets; most reporters, pundits, and independent budget experts are uniformly skeptical of the budget.

My primary objections to the budget are related to Spitzer no longer pegging state spending to the inflation rate or revenue growth and instead using personal income growth as the measuring stick. What does this mean to you? It means that it is unlikely that you will ever get ahead of the taxmasters. When you make more, the state will spend more and tax you more…or “increase fees” and “close loopholes”. The budget significantly exceeds expected tax revenue and the gap is supposed to be closed through gimmicks.

All in all, a disappointment from a man who promised real and significant change on Day One. Perhaps he meant Day One of Year Three?

If you aren’t familiar with “Shelbyville“, it is the rival town to Springfield, home of “The Simpsons”.  The town is often cited as being the complete opposite of Springfield in every way…Buffalo has its very own Shelbyville, often called “Buffalo South” or “Charlotte”.

Every couple of weeks, I rummage through the Shelbyville blogs and newspaper sites to see what’s going on in the headquarters of the Buffalo Diaspora. The story of the week appears to be the scourge of construction cranes that are dotting the city skyline.

Charlotteans grumbled in the ’90s that orange traffic barrels had come to symbolize progress in one of the region’s fastest growing cities.

In 2008, that honor goes to construction cranes, which have recently taken over the uptown like an infestation of 200-foot iron weeds.

Twenty-five tower cranes are active in and around the Interstate 277 loop, on a dozen projects ranging from the NASCAR Hall of Fame to the EpiCentre.

Construction and the resulting jobs are booming in Charlotte as the economy expands and people flock to the region.

Up to 11 more cranes could be added to the uptown area by year’s end, says Dennis Kenna, whose Heede Southeast Inc. supplies many of the region’s construction cranes.

For a town that has seen a decade long economic boom, the current explosion in construction is still shocking.

“It’s a renaissance,” says Michael Smith, president of Center City Partners. “These cranes are a fascinating, leading indicator of progress.

“We have an urban core that is expanding and it has pierced through 277 into South End, Elizabeth, midtown, Wesley Heights and Wilmore,” he says.

Experts say young professionals seeking to live near jobs and entertainment, and empty nesters weary of yard work and long commutes are driving the boom.

In case people are wondering, that is what a renaissance looks like. Also, I’d like to note how Charlotte has identified the primary means with which to attract young professionals to their city, jobs.  Not much talk of museums, sense of place, or massive amounts of state funding.  They keep the taxes low, attract business, and the people follow.  Not really a revolutionary idea, but one that we might be able to learn a thing or two from up here in Springfield, err, I mean Buffalo.

There is nothing wrong with having nice looking buildings, museums, cool restaurants, and kitschy tschotske shops; they are absolutely a value added bonus for people looking for a place to live.  However, they are not a primary means to create economic development.  The jobs need to be here in order for those things to be a real differentiator.

Normally, I leave the sports talk to WNYM sports bloggers at BfloBlog, USRT, and BuffaloBaseballBlog, but I have to discuss the current state of the Sabres as we approach the All Star Break.

The Sabres have won only one of their previous thirteen games and they are spiraling down the standings with a determination to go from first to worst in one year. Their seeming indifferent approach to contract negotiations with All Star Defenseman Brian Campbell has left a bad taste in the mouths of Sabres Nation and the bandwagon seems to be emptying.

A few random thoughts as I channel my inner Bucky Gleason:

• I am tired of reading blog commentary and radio discussion about this team having better talent than their record indicates. This is a mediocre team of role players looking for a franchise player or two. The players the Sabres have deigned to re-sign are all second and third line players who provide the depth for a sustained charge for the Stanley Cup, not lead it. One of the few players on the roster who approaches franchise status has recently decided to end negotiations with the team.

• Brian Campbell needs to be re-signed and not just for the comic relief of his continued starring role in television commercials for the The Center For Excessive Sweating, because he is a top notch defenseman with the ability to become elite. Campbell at $6MM per for the next 5/6 years sounds like a damn good deal. That would slot him as the 10th or 11th highest paid defenseman in the league for 07/08 and the contract will only get more friendly as salaries escalate. I’d rather have Campbell locked in than sign a mid-level goalie like Miller to a 7 year deal.If the argument is “Campbell isn’t worth it”, who is?  Who are the Sabres willing to commit to as a franchise player? Are they only willing to pay value deals to midrange players like Roy, Pominville, and Gaustad?  If so, welcome to Mediocrityville, population:  Sabres
• The league is trending towards longer term contracts of higher value for younger players who are still developing. Campbell is still maturing and defensemen peak later than forwards. Locking him up now is wise, even if it costs $6MM per to do it. Within two years, that contract will be a value.

  It seems as if Golisano didn’t want to pay market rate for Briere or Drury, and then had his hand forced on Thomas Vanek.

  Vanek hasn’t come close to returning the investment so far and it appears they are going to be stingy in future dealings.

•  I hate to tell ya, but I just don’t think Ryan Miller is a franchise goaltender. As much as we all wish he was, the numbers do not back up a longterm investment in Miller as a franchise cornerstone. His inability to pitch a shutout, the up and down mechanics, and his reliance on a talented defense are not the makings of a franchise goalie along the lines of a Luongo or Brodeur. He is above average, but his Save Percentage ranks him 18th in the league this year, 16th last year, and 10th in 2005. Numbers that are regressing each year and certainly not the caliber to place him amongst the league’s elite. Can the Sabres win a Stanley Cup with Ryan Miller as the chief backstop? Perhaps, but his contract demands will certainly be based more on his perceived value than his real value. Of course, this will mean the Sabres will be priced out of the market for him when his contract expires at the end of next season.
• Dave Staba of The Niagara Falls Reporter hit the nail on the head with his assessment of the Sabres and Managing General Partner, Larry Quinn.
• After the end of the NHL lockout, the Sabres were hailed as leaders in the “New NHL” which put a premium on speed and skill players rather than toughness and hitting.  Unfortunately, in the third season after the lockout, the league is trending back towards a defensive mindset with a focus on hitting and toughness.  The Sabres seem to have been caught flatfooted in this new league paradigm.

With all of that said, where do the Sabres go from here?  Any realistic chance of a sustained playoff run is pretty much written off at this point and they are on the verge of seeing yet another top flight free agent walk out the door without compensation.  Do they begin tearing the team apart and rebuilding?  Do they make some minor tweaks to the roster and bring in a high end offensive weapon in the offseason?  Package Brian Campbell and a few complimentary pieces on the roster for prospects and draft picks?

Whatever they decide to do, they have certainly spent much of the goodwill they earned during the last two years.

In Fortune Magazine’s annual ranking of the “100 Best Companies To Work For” list, local grocery chain Wegmans again finished near the top of the list. The 2008 list places Wegmans as the third best company to work for in America. This follows their #1 ranking in 2005 and their second place ranking in 2006. Wegmans has appeared on the list every year since its initial publication in 1998 and has ranked among the top 10 for six consecutive years.

“Every one of our employees and our customers should stand up and take a bow, because together they make Wegmans a special place,” says CEO Danny Wegman. Whenever I’m in one of our stores, customers stop to tell me how much they appreciate our employees. You can imagine how great that makes our people feel and why they enjoy coming to work everyday.”

The company, headquartered in Rochester with stores throughout the Northeast, employs 37,602 workers which was a near 6% increase over last year.

Founded in 1916, Wegmans has prioritized quality employee relationships as a driver for growth and customer loyalty. Company founder Robert Wegman once said that “Great customer service begins with treating our own employees right. If our people feel valued and supported, they will give their best to our customers.” This mantra is repeated by many of their employees as demonstrated in this video from CNNMoney.

According to the survey, the most common job for salaried employees was Store Department Manager with an average salary of $49,411 and the most common job for hourly employees was customer service with an average salary of $27,414.

I watched Barack Obama’s speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church yesterday and I thought to myself…this is what my Mother felt when she heard John F. Kennedy speak. As do most members of her generation, she speaks with great reverence when it comes to Jack and Bobby Kennedy. Looking back through the prism of time, I came to understand why they were so important and often wondered if there would come a time when our generation would see a JFK. If we would have a chance to see a leader who summed up a moment…who put forth a calling…who made people consider the greater good rather than the content of their own ideological backyard. Yesterday, Barack Obama gave us that moment.

Until today, I had considered Obama to be a little wet behind the ears and the specifics of his economic plans to be too grandiose and overarching to be practical. Today, I see the import of this candidate as someone who can LEAD. At this crossroads of the American experience, that is what this nation needs most. Someone who can make us believe.

A man who is willing to walk into Ebenezer Baptist Church and tell a minority religious audience that they have failed in loving their “gay brothers and sisters” is a man with moral courage.

And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King’s vision of a beloved community.

We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity.

A man who believes in the power of unity and hope. At the 18 minute mark of the video, Obama throws out the notes and speaks off the cuff about hope. It’s the best part of the speech and it won’t be found in the transcripts…paraphrased:

Some are scornful about my message of hope. “He’s talking about hope again. He’s so idealistic and naive. He’s a ‘hopemonger’.” Love, education, and hope were my birthright. Hope is not blind optimism, it is not ignorance of the barriers and obstacles and hazards that stand in your way. Hope is just the opposite. Nothing worthwhile has happened in this country unless somebody, somewhere decided to hope.

So, call me a hopemonger…but this guy has won me over. This speech, this moment, has done more to expose the moral and ethical emptiness of the Clintons than 10,000 republican conspiracy theorists combined. Obama represents a moment in time and Hillary represents the establishment.

In Democratic politics, the establishment candidate usually wins. She has the organization that is provided by local and state delegations and the union support. She has the army of the party, Obama has the people. Can he win?

On Sunday night, Former President Bill Clinton was in town to stump for Hillary and collect a few checks, courtesy of the Erie County Democratic Party.  Rep. Brian Higgins was one of the hosts for the $1,000 per person event, which was expected to raise $100,000 at an event in the law office of Phillips Lytle at HSBC Tower.  WNYM was on hand at the Ellicott Square Building in Downtown Buffalo to cover the post-fundraiser festivities.

Bill alluded to upstate as the “backbone of her support” in the Senate.  Really?  I don’t know if I’d agree with that assessment, but I am predisposed to loathing her, so there’s that.

Erie County Executive Chris Collins is taking a closer look at which businesses will receive tax breaks during his tenure and the manner in which they will be awarded.

(Collins questioned) the need for sales tax incentives for an expansion by Martin’s Fantasy Island.

The Grand Island amusement park had asked the Erie County Industrial Development Agency for $87,000 in tax breaks to help it buy new equipment for two new rides slated to open this spring. The equipment is valued at more than $850,000.

The park, owned by Martin Di- Pietro, has received similar benefits to install rides in 2006 and 2007, with no challenge. But this time it ran into opposition from an administrator who has stated his intent to apply a business approach to government.

Collins, a member of the ECIDA board, said at the agency’s monthly meeting that the park would probably go ahead with the expansion anyway because it needs to remain competitive. So, there’s no need for the county to give them an incentive to go forward, he argued.

A quick check of the Martin’s Fantasy Island homepage shows they are already advertising the addition of the two new rides.

FLIGHT: A new vertical swing ride. Passengers are seated in one of 12 double swings which are elevated to a height of 140 feet while rotating around the top of the tower. This provides not only an amazing ride sensation but also a spectacular view of the surrounding area (Who wouldn’t want a closer look at the toll booths and empty light industrial parks of Grand Island! - Geek). FLIGHT - it’s not just a ride, it’s an experience.

GRAND CIRCUS MENAGERIE: Brings vibrant color and excitement to the midway. Watch your children’s eyes light up as they select their favorite mode of transportation and relive the fun while enjoying the ride under the circus big top on the Grand Circus Menagerie.

Now, I’m all for adding the semblance of entertainment at an amusement park that lacks a certain sense of, errr, amusement, but tax breaks don’t appear to be necessary to make that happen.

Tax incentives should be awarded to companies that are either being lured here or or are contemplating closure or relocation to another metro area. Even then, they should be given with caution as fiddling with the competitive balance in an industry with tax breaks often has unforeseen consequences in the market.

It’s a nice change of pace to see an elected official taking a closer look at all budget lines and challenging established procedures and customs.