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.

On the freshly redesigned WNYMedia frontpage, we’ve added a bunch of cool functionality and one of those features is an official weather report from “WNYMedia Weather Central”.   Our weather prognostication center is in an undisclosed location, but the weather guy is an actual weatherman and he knows what he’s talkin’ about.  You’ll be able to pull our weather forecasts on YouTube and the frontpage.

With the holiday season nearing it’s closure and a new year upon us, I thought it was time to cobble together a random musings post which details where my mind is at right now as both a blogger and Citizen of Buffalo. It’s one part recap of 2007 and one part resolutions for 2008…

• I thought 2007 would be the year in which Buffalo made some tremendous strides both politically and economically. Unfortunately, it was a lot like 2006, 2005, and 2004; Iterative progress which doesn’t amount to much of a “revolution”. Positive developments can be found if you look hard enough. However, when I look back on 2007, I don’t see much progress made on addressing the massive problems of poverty, urban blight, racism, vacant properties, and failing public education system that engulf vast swaths of our urban environment. I also see little progress being made on the statewide level to address our overbearing business costs, over regulation, excessive personal tax rates, corruption, abuse of taxpayer monies, unaccountable authorities, and unresponsive elected officials. It doesn’t inspire much hope for 2008. Hey, way to kick things off with a tidal wave of optimism, eh?
• I can’t decide which politician has been a bigger disappointment to the people of Buffalo, Byron Brown or Eliot Spitzer. Frankly, I voted for neither, so I can’t say I’m surprised they have been massive disappointments. It seems as if Mayor Brown is looking to create as little ruckus as possible while he waits for Rep. Louise Slaughter to retire. Congress is calling, don’t want to rock the boat too much and piss off any potential constituencies! Spitzer seems to lack the ability to lead or build consensus. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who was an observer of his behavior as Attorney General. State Senator Joe Bruno has effectively neutered Spitzer and without a massive Mea Culpa, I don’t see a way for Spitzer to rebuild political capital to fight back or accomplish any of his ambitious agenda.
• The proxy war for the Democratic Party in the City of Buffalo continues unabated between Sam Hoyt and Byron Brown. Shifting allegiances in party politics, control of the Common Council, control of district committeemen, control of patronage power, control of party messaging and candidates…all of it up for grabs as Hoyt and the Party square off against Byron and Grassroots. What does any of this matter in the grand scheme of things? Absolutely nothing and is a total distraction from the business of the people. See my first point about why 2007 was like any other year…
• Tell Bashar Issa to give me a call when he gets something significant done over at the Statler. Until then, I’d like it if he’d stop with the grand proclamations about his massive design plans to reinvigorate the entirety of Buffalo proper. He is a walking silver bullet plan to the denizens of “New Buffalo” and it is growing execeedingly tedious. To belabor his efforts and support him vociferously every time he farts in our general direction makes us look small and insignificant.
• Piggybacking on that, I’d like to define the difference between “efforts” and “results” for people in this town as it seems as if we are so disconnected from someone actually getting something done that we often confuse the two…
  • Results - Something tangible that comes from the conscious application of effort. Something to be celebrated.
  • Efforts - The work done to achieve a particular end. Not worth celebrating.

• The reason that Niagara Falls has failed to derive any tangible benefits from their Casino has little to do with the actual casino itself. It has everything to do with incompetent and corrupt elected leadership and a lack of planning to build anything around the casino. How is it Barry Snyder’s problem that NFR and Cordish have done absolutely nothing with the property they own? People might go outside the casino if there was a place for them to go or something for them to do! The casino has generated millions in tax revenue for the city and they have done nothing with it to build or promote spinoff businesses around it.
• Buildings, museums, and a “sense of place” do not create economic development. Pro-business policies, lower tax rates, and increased density do create economic development. It is not a chicken v. egg argument…the artistic culture and beautiful buildings we celebrate here and declare as our meal ticket are a vestigial tail of our early economic boom times. When we again increase density by luring people into our region with the promise of decent schools, lower taxes, and jobs…I’ll give a shit about curb cuts, mixed use retail, faux two story buildings, and the constant cycle of business openings/closings on two streets in Buffalo.
• My Buffalonian of The Year award goes to Michael Gainer of Buffalo ReUse, not sure if his inclusion in this list of rants is a good or bad thing for him. However, each time I get the opportunity to catch up with Michael, I am impressed by his enthusiasm, energy, leadership skills, and results driven organization. He leads a talented group of volunteers who are bound and determined to take the communal liability of vacant properties and turn them into a model for job training, community pride, leadership development, and sustainable reuse. He stays out of the politics and focuses on results. However you can, please support their mission with a tax deductible donation, purchase of building materials at their new showroom, or volunteering your time.
• I am optimistic about Chris Collins. I will not be holding him to an arbitrarily high standard of “non-politician” nor will I be troubled if his first year in office is spent getting his feet wet and he makes a few missteps. I voted for him as I thought he would bring a “think different” approach to the office of Erie County Executive. If he is going to be successful, he’ll have to play the game of politics on some levels to accomplish anything. He is dealing with a partisan and entrenched legislature that the citizens resoundingly support (based on vote totals) and he is going to need to work with an overbearing and uncooperative Control Board to create some semblance of progress. It’s gonna be a tough year.
• I’m going to spend more time in 2008 documenting progress in Buffalo’s suburbs and the region as a whole. I am exhausted by the endless discussions and debates with the “creative class” when it comes to issues of progress, preservation, and economic development in our urban core. However, if someone wants to talk about a regional master plan for the waterfront, economic development, consolidation of IDA’s, rapid transit, abolition of the BMHA, regional housing plans, regional governmental consolidation of services and operations, count me in.
• I’m hoping 2008 is the year in which we all stop trying so hard to agree and we start demanding tangible results from our legislators, councilmen, elected and non-elected leaders, and community activists. Everyone should be open to criticism and we should all demand better.
• I’m hoping more people call me an asshole. I’m already on several political and cultural blacklists in this town due to my opinions and actions…let’s close that loop and make me persona non grata anywhere stupid ideas are thrown about.
• Finally, something I’ve been wanting to say to the citizens of Buffalo for a long, long time…inspired by the words of Tyler Durden.  Buffalo, you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying northeastern urban city as found elsewhere. We do not have the market cornered on beautiful architecture, sense of place, good food, or anything else. We all love the shared context of having grown up here and we are proud to call our city home. It may be news to you, but the people of Chicago, Austin, Portland, Memphis, Louisville, Indianapolis, Dallas, and hundreds of other cities feel the same as you do…except for the fact that they are building, growing, and economically relevant to contemporary America. Meanwhile, we spend our time here looking to copy how other cities do things (ignorant of our own political/economic realities) and/or looking backward to a time when things were “good”. We need to shed this feeling that we are facing some sort of special situation and focus on creating wealth and looking ahead instead of behind. That is what will create a “New Buffalo”.

On Thursday Night, John Ratzenberger, host of The Travel Channel television show “Made In America” was in Buffalo at Ani DiFranco’s “Babeville” to discuss the slow death of America’s manufacturing base. WNYM was on hand to record the full event and we’d like to present it in its entirety.

Rather than boiling the issue of America’s decline as a producer of goods down to an anti-union/pro-union discussion, I’d like to point you in the direction of a comment made by BuffaloHodgepodge in this thread last week. I think it’s a good place to start the discussion…

For better or for worse, the issue actually has very little to do with either the manufacturer or the worker. It’s all about the consumer. The day consumers start lining up to spend 30-70% premiums on goods that are exactly the same except a “Made in the USA” label on it is the day consumer product and textile manufacturing returns onshore.

Or, a creative firm needs to create a luxury brand that allows it to serve a niche, profitable market at a higher price point. Appealing to patriotism has consistently failed as a marketing strategy - as shown by the Big Three automobile manufacturers since the 1980s.

What are your thoughts?

WNYMedia.net was a proud sponsor of the first ever Broadway Market Christmas Food Fair along with BSC Group, CityView Properties, and David Tiftickjian & Sons.

This weekend marks the start of a new tradition at The Broadway Market as the new Board of Directors looks to establish the market as a year round destination. The Christmas Fair featured independent vendors as well as tried and true market favorites like Melanie’s Sweets and Malczewski Poultry. Santa Claus was on hand to visit with the children, the Community Music School provided music and the sounds of The Snowbelters Barber Shop Quartet filled the air.

It was refreshing to see so many people at the market this weekend and the vendors were exceptionally pleased with the turnout. A great weekend for the market!

If you weren’t able to attend this weekend’s festivities, be sure to make your reservations for Sandy Starks’ “Savor The Flavor” Wigilia Edition on December 8th and 15th. She’ll be sharing the making of a traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner. Wigilia foods, including mushroom soup, pierogi, seafood and the traditional Christmas wafers (oplatek). Fr. Anzelm Chalupka, Pastor of Corpus Christi Church, will join Ms. Starks in explaining the Christmas Eve meal and will bless the Christmas wafers.

This special Savor the Flavor presentation is expected to sell out quickly. For further information or to make a reservation, call Your Buffalo Tours at 716.839.5150 or order tickets online at Brown Paper Tickets.

The immortal words of Peter Finch from the movie “Network” served as a rallying cry during today’s march across the Grand Island Bridge to protest the presence of the tolls on both ends of the island.

While the tolls cannot be removed by legal means as the Ogden and Breckenridge tolls were, the public outcry is reaching a fever pitch with near 8,000 petition signatures and the support of the Western New York State Assembly and Senate delegations.

It was a bitterly cold day, but dozens of people showed up to march with Rus Thompson of NoGItolls.com in protest of what they feel is a system of double taxation on commuters in Niagara Falls, Grand Island, and Buffalo. Carl Paladino of Ellicott Development, who was responsible for the lawsuit which abolished the tolls in Downtown Buffalo, recently sent a letter to Governor Spitzer about the Grand Island Tolls issue:

The Grand Island Bridges and the Tappan Zee Bridge tolls are the only specific bridge tolls on the New’ York State Thruway System. The roads on both sides of the Grand island Bridges are toll free.

The Thruway Authority has hundreds of other bridges in its system, all of which are maintained out of general revenue.

Someone decided that the Grand Island Bridges should have specific toll charges ostensibly because of extraordinary upkeep costs that they thought WNY residents should pay.

The Thruway Authority receives from the Federal Highway Fund a per lane mile allocation of Federal Highway monies for maintaining non-toll interstate highways and bridges. For the upkeep and maintenance of those roads it appears that the DOT act on behalf of the Thruway Authority in applying for those funds annually from the Federal Government, receives the money, and the money is then used for the upkeep of New York State DOT roads and in some cases some monies are forwarded to the Thruway Authority. It all makes sense to someone.

There are no toll roads in Albany, except for the main line thruway, nor are there any toll bridges or interstate roads crossing the Hudson in Albany. Likewise in Utica, Schenectady, Syracuse, and Rochester, DOT bridges are non-tolled. The Skyway Bridge in Buffalo is non-tolled. Why does the State punish residents of Grand island and Niagara County than above the operating cost across its entire system. Why were the tolls on the Grand Island Bridges raised 50% instead of the 20% uniformly raised across the Thruway System?

It all kind of stinks.

Very truly yours,
Ellicott Development Company

Carl P. Paladino
Chief Executive Officer

It does stink, and someone should hold the state accountable.

For those of you that don’t regularly visit the frontpage of WNYMedia.net, I’d like to point you in the direction of a cool post from Marc Odien. We were hired to complete a video piece highlighting the completion of the Phase II School Reconstruction Project and the project is quite exciting.

The video was presented at the grand opening Ceremony for the Phase II at Performing Arts High School the other night. A total of $327 Million went into renovating 14 Buffalo Public Schools and All High Stadium in Phase II. While there are issues with the surrounding neighborhoods, blighted properties, and other significant issues; this video takes a look at a significant investment into the education infrastructure in the City of Buffalo. Hopefully, work will continue to redress other issues, but this project is great news for the students and teachers.

Video is after the jump…