Extreme Makeover – The Aftermath

Mayor Brown would be smart to distance himself from taking any credit for the success that Extreme Makeover brought to Buffalo’s Massachusetts Avenue neighborhood.  Instead, he should cite this as an example of what can be accomplished when everyone works together for the betterment of a neighborhood.  He’d be way ahead if he uses his political clout to help sponsor and organize Extreme Makeover, Part II – XYZ Neighborhood.  I think any area around Jefferson and Best would do just nicely.

Someone asked about the tax liability that Delores Powell will have on her new home.  Rest assured that the producers of Extreme Makeover don’t leave that open-ended.  Essentially, they got the city to agree never to raise the assessed value of Delores’ property so long as she owns it.  What Extreme Makeover did was lease the house for two weeks from Delores, so that they could renovate it under leaseholder improvement provisions.  There is even a federal provision nicknamed the Extreme Makover Loophole that Congress passes every year, just so these guys on ABC can do what they do.

I’m not sure how New York State sees this but I wouldn’t be surprised it sends Ms. Powell some kind of tax bill for imputed income.  It is New York State, after all.

It’s a wonder that this Extreme Makeover segment even happened.  When the producer first went to City Hall with the schedule, some of the first words out of the Municipal Housing Authority were “It’s not gonna happen by those dates” to which the producer said “We’ve done 168 homes throughout the country so far; do you really want to be known as the first city that couldn’t accommodate the schedule?”  The permits were put into place shortly thereafter. 

This is yet another example of the territorial nature of our local government.  I’m happy that clearer heads prevailed and if Mayor Brown had something to do with this, then good for him.  Rather than embrace Extreme Makeover and its potential for great intentions and even greater PR, some clown in City Hall decides to throw his weight around.  The issue of little duchys permeates across Western New York govenment and grows by example, starting with our political leadership.  How do we ever change something so ingrained as this?

Buffalo needs more Extreme Makeovers.  What a great way to bring out the best and show the rest of the world why we so rightly deserve the title “City of Good Neighbors”.

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Behold the tree-statue of DeWitt Clinton marking the opening of the Erie Canal.  What’s wrong is the car in the background.  The parking lot is just past the single row of trees, about 20 feet from the sidewalk and adjoining Erie Street.

No matter what direction from which you photograph this and all the other tree-statues (the “Carvings“)  temporarily lining Erie Street as it extends to the end of the Erie Basin Marina, you cannot get away from the asphalt.  You can find plenty of parking and a very nice road that hugs the shoreline, but virtually no grass.  Barely a place to spread out a picnic blanket, set up a tent, hold a party.

No place to avoid engine exhaust.

My last post was about the lack of access to our waterfront.  This post is an example of how development of that access has sacrificed the very reason we go to the water:  To get away from the sights and sounds of urbanization.  In this regard we planned poorly but executed the plan well, leaving us with a jetty that from above looks dull and gray, and from the ground looks wanting for anything green.  I recall while living in Silicon Valley how parking lots were divided by fingers of grass and foliage to break up and hide the proliferation of cars.  Is that design, which sacrifices one in ten parking spots, not feasible out here?

The planned redevelopment of the Waterfront Village – with a newly approved hotel plan – really needs to incorporate natural elements into the design.  So do the existing properties in the Village, the road leading to the marina and the oversized parking lots on it.  My suggestion:  Take out the road beyond the last set of boat docks, and force everyone to walk the final 400 yards to the end of the marina on a grassy and sandy surface.  Barefoot even.

Small Business Week in Buffalo

This past week was Small Business Week in Western New York.

• Monday:  UB’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) annual meeting
• Tuesday:  Small Business Innovative Research grant writing seminar specifically targeted to small businesses and start-ups
• Tuesday Night:  Buffalo Niagara Partnership Endurance All-Stars event.
• Wednesday:  CEL Class of 2009 graduation ceremony
• Thursday:  UB Business Partners Day

Before you say “Small business, so what?  Who gives a crap?” know that small businesses account for half of all employment in the U.S., and since the mid-90s have created 60-80% of net new jobs.  A very recent NPR report cited that small businesses accounted for 100% of all new hiring in 2009 so far.  Small business is Western New York’s future, for God knows that until New York State’s government is overthrown changes we are not going to be attracting any large companies to this area despite the best efforts of the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise and our local politicians.

Some big corporations were represented at most of these events, too:  Moog, National Fuel, Greatbatch, M&T and others are sponsors of many of these programs, in part as a giveback to the community in which they operate.   I am grateful to the big guys who probably get little in return, other than some friendly PR.

UB Business Partners day was an unequivocal success.  Attendance was probably twice last year’s, and it will continue to grow.   UB and the CEL both recognize that entrepreneurialism is the seed by which business will blossom in Western New York.

I Need Help

My closest friends will all tell me that admitting it is the first step.

But this is a different kind of help that I need.  I’m going to bicycle the 100 km Tour de Cure on June 6th; it’s to raise money for the American Diabetes Association, and I’m looking for inspiration to complete the ride. I am not diabetic, but I know lots of people who are.  Chances are you or someone close to you is suffering from and fighting this condition.

Your donations will help inspire me to keep going and ignore the butt pain I’m going to feel by the 50 km mark.

This is not an attempt to get you to empty your wallet; indeed, a few dollars from a lot of people will go a long way.  Donations can be made directly to the Tour de Cure through this link.

Thanks in advance.

The Innovation Center

I got a chance to tour the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Innovation Center – part of the former Trico complex – to see how progress is being made on turning the building into business and lab space for the fledgling Life Sciences industry in Western New York.

It looks, um, nice.  Inside it will be clean, bright and modern.  I only wish they would have gone for the “Thomas Edison” open laboratory look, but with various tenants doing super-secret bio-science stuff, walls are needed.  It is unclear what the exterior will eventually look like.  The only things apparent were the replacement windows and a bowed-out atrium.

The Innovation Center is a 100,000 square foot, 4-story add-on adjacent to the monstrous half-million square foot, 6-story Trico building that was essentially abandoned by the late Stephen McGarvey when he took ill, but not before he had the roof taken off.  Years of rainwater distributed Trico toxins throughout the building and the cost to clean up the mess means that the Innovation Center may be the only portion of the complex that is ever renovated.  So we’ll have a small, nice-looking building full of state-of-the-art laboratories servicing brilliant medical minds next door to a dilapidated poisoned edifice that is in such bad shape they’ve had to cordon off the sidewalk around it for fear of falling bricks.

Urban renewal comes slowly, in very small increments, to Buffalo.

Gross Incompetence Can Be Tolerated for Only So Long

There’s a fight going on in the Holland Central School district.  It’s the same fight being waged in many schools in Erie County: Too many teachers.

The teachers’ union (with the support of some parents) is resisting attempts by the Holland school board – with the support of other parents – to increase student-teacher ratios, especially in those grades with declining enrollment.  How much decline is there?  Well, the K-12 population of the school is currently 1,258 (last year’s graduating class:  99).  Next year’s kindergarten enrollment is currently estimated to be…less than 50.  Yet there are 6 kindergarten teachers.  Do the math and it is clear that in at least one grade there are probably too many teachers.

In Holland, this is a big issue.  It’s not even a blip on the Buffalo Public Schools radar.  In a bloated administrative system with an entrenched, uncooperative teachers union, a sense of victimization, isolation and systemic underachievement at all levels, the prospects for even incremental improvement to Buffalo’s public education seem remote.  Certainly, the examples set by union/administration feuding do not lend themselves to motivating students; and really, in the long run motivation is what it’s all about:  Motivated students will learn under any circumstances.

Holland is one of the most rural towns in Erie County and will spend $13,000 per student and graduate nearly all of them.  Buffalo on the other hand, spends upwards of $24,000 per student and will graduate less than half.  Holland’s board and the teachers will eventually reach some compromise.  Phil Rumore and James Williams will not.

What a tragedy for this area.  Most small businesses cannot offer jobs to those with such limited skills and worse, with little or no motivation.  The same local businesses starve for prospects because there are not enough skilled workers to go around.  And big businesses looking to possibly expand into the region?  Well, an educational system ranked at the bottom of the state drives one more nail into that coffin.

Our community’s future is being pissed away by a collectively incompetent group of professionals (and I use that word sarcastically) who appear intent on cutting the throats of the community around them.  It has taken us 50 years to get here, and we are guaranteeing at least 20 more years of another uneducated lost generation.

I get tired of watching so much money being thrown down a sewer; and greatly saddened that my analogy seems so appropriate.

Not Riding the Bus

A couple weeks ago my wife and I were returning from an evening party at the Buffalo Convention Center to our car, parked in the Convention Parking Ramp one block away.  During that very brief walk we watched four NFTA buses go by.  There were two passengers, total.

Running a regional bus service like this does not appear to be very cost effective.  But with all the available surface parking in Buffalo, maybe there’s no other way.

I wonder if the decentralization of the bus system – doing away with the hub-and-spoke model that forces every bus to the central bus terminal, and replacing it with smaller, more localized shuttles – would make more sense.  It’s hard to believe that 50-person buses only filled to 2% capacity could ever be profitable.

Carl Paladino, Speaker and Writer

Love him or hate him, Carl Paladino is one colorful character.  He was the guest of honor and Executive of the Year at the Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives (BNSME) gala on Monday night.  Carl pulled no punches.

Paladino is calling for revolution.  I don’t think I have the backbone to follow him, or maybe it’s just that I don’t think it will do any good – Buffalo and Albany are just too corrupt to be influenced by whiny voters.  It would take balls – lots of them – to foment any real change.  Or maybe I’m just to busy trying to survive, and can’t find the time to take on New York State government.

Quick story:  The Albany Legislative complex is built like a fortress.  It is massive, surrounded by high walls and not pedestrian friendly.  100,000 protesters could show up (they’d have to walk – not enough nearby parking), break into the main entrance…and they would barely be noticed in the cavernous underground mall.  Dispersed throughout the complex they would not raise the people density enough to be taken seriously.  I’m sure the Capitol was built this way, for that reason.

Anyway, Palidino lit into every politician, by name, that has eaten from the public trough for all these years.  He blasted, just blasted, the Buffalo News and Margaret Sullivan’s leadership of it.  He vilified James Williams, Phil Rumore, the Buffalo Board of Education and the 800 million dollar school system they are supposed to be running.  He spat venom at labor unions, Buffalo city government and especially Albany.

How angry was he?

Prior to his speech – and in order to set the tone of what was to come – a letter that he wrote to Margaret Sullivan of the Buffalo News back in January was distributed to the dinner guests.  It starts like this:

Here’s my two cents on the News.  It’s a monopolistic predator imposing its liberal views and superficial journalism on a community seeking to pull itself out of fifty years of decline as a result of impotent public and private sector leadership.  As the only show in town during most of that time, it became lame and lazy serving up assenine [sic] slop without any guilt for failing to mobilize the community with objective, call to arms journalism.  You’ve been in a box so long that you have no idea how to get out of it.  Your subscriptions are falling and you are frustrated.  You have no follow through and you wonder why you can’t hit the ball.

There’s lots more (after the jump)

Snow in the South

I’m always impressed with the inability of our Southern friends to handle even a dusting of snow; I can understand why – when they can’t even navigate their own driveways -  that they might eschew anything north of the Mason-Dixon line.  This weekend’s major storm is guaranteed to bring much of the East coast to a standstill, even though in most places you’re talking about, maybe, one to four inches tops anywhere south of Philadelphia.

We all know up here that once Lake Erie freezes over there is (usually) little additional accumulation the rest of the winter, and March 1, 2009 is no exception: My lawn is exposed and the few area snow drifts are dirty from lack of fresh snow cover.  It’s sort of nice for once to be in sunshine here while watching 25-mile backups in Tennessee.

I hope they survive to mock Buffalo another day.

Downtown Buffalo, 2 PM

I didn’t have my camera with me but if I did I would have photographic evidence that the city’s new plan for plowing city streets during inclement weather does not include city streets.

It was clear that none of the east-west side streets downtown had been plowed at all and that the north-south thoroughfares maybe got plowed once.  It was a mess.

And today’s snow has been persistent, but not heavy.

At what point will we no longer accept failure as the only option from our local governments?

The Dismantling of St. Gerard Church

I have not heard much flak about last Saturday’s Buffalo News article regarding the possibility of moving St. Gerard church to Norcross, Georgia, brick by brick (then again, I was out of town all weekend).  Tim Tielman, of course, is against the removal of this historic building.  To Tim, every building built during Buffalo’s glory days is historic.  His solution to the vacant Catholic churches, many in desperate need of repair:  “Work a bit harder [about how to reuse them]“.

I’ve done a 180 in my opinion of Tielman and his Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, whom I originally respected as someone looking out for Buffalo’s heritage.  Now I just think he’s an obstructionist.  And reactionary, someone living entirely in the past.  And full of screeds but no real solutions.  An attention addict.

The Catholic Church, I would hope, is about the people and not the places.  Telling the Church to think harder about how to save empty buildings in a locale that has lost half its population is tantamount to telling them to spend money and resources where they least benefit the community they have dedicated their lives to serve.  Dereliction results to half the buildings in an area that needs half its building space.  We only have so many Ani DiFrancos and an incredible number of vacant churches – and other historic but decrepit buildings – and hardly any money anywhere to save even a fraction.  Tielman needs to get real.

The Catholic diocese may have a unique (and rare!) opportunity to see one of its buildings take on a new life, and I for one would love to see a piece of historic Buffalo in the Atlanta area.  The London Bridge is still the London Bridge, even if it spans an artificial water channel in Arizona.

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to travel throughout the country and find Buffalo heritage everywhere?

Why is Gasoline so Expensive in Buffalo?

At the Buffalo Gas Prices website you’ll find this graph (or one very similar to it):

It is difficult to understand why, one year ago, Western New York gas prices were roughly 5 cents per gallon above the national average, yet today they are 47 cents above the national average.

If you’re from Buffalo, doesn’t this just stick in your craw?  I dug around trying to understand the price differentials and came up with a number of unsubstantiated answers, all speculative:

• Supply and demand factors
• Lack of local refineries
• Distance from pipelines and refineries
• State formulation requirements
• State taxes
• County taxes
• Local greed

I thought that reformulation was an issue, as New York is one of those states that 1) must use reformulated gas to reduce pollution in its major urban center; 2) forbids use of MTBE, leaving only ethanol as the oxygenator of choice and potentially raising the cost of gas.  But that doesn’t explain why Western New York has the most expensive gasoline in New York State.  New York City prices (as of 10/20) averaged only $2.94 per gallon.  The Upstate average is $3.20 per gallon.  And here we are at $3.31 per gallon.  None of the factors above lead to a rationalization of the huge price differential that we’re paying at our end of the state.

Of course, there is one plausible explanation as to why the oil companies charge us more than in other areas:  Because they can.

And no amount of writing to my State Assemblyman will change that.

Why Kevin Gaughan is Misguided

Yesterday it was announced that FEMA got its new phone system hacked, to the tune of $12,000 dollars in long-distance calls worldwide, including Asia and the Middle East.  FEMA put out the warning about America’s vulnerability to this very threat in 2003.  It’s the same FEMA that handled the preparations for and the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, the same FEMA that then housed thousands of displaced hurricane victims in formaldehyde-laced trailers.  The same FEMA that is not accountable to the American voter.

Today it was announced that the Department of Homeland Security has halted an immigration program aimed at reuniting African refugees with their families because of widespread fraud:  Only 20% of the refugees claiming to be families were related by blood.  Now, DHS doesn’t appear to take into account that most of these refugees come from areas that have been decimated by civil war, disease and starvation, and that perhaps, just perhaps, many of these so-called families comprise men and women who have taken homeless and orphaned children in as their own.  DHS can do this at will – just as they can dictate the terms of the Canadian/U.S. border crossings – because DHS is not accountable to the American voter.

The New York State Thruway Authority has been denounced by many – for years – as a lackluster, bloated haven for patronage jobs and overpaid managers.  Yet they can and do raise the Thruway tolls at will; in fact, all 640 of New York’s authorities can and do use taxpayer money as they please because they are not accountable to the New York State voter.

Okay, now to Kevin Gaughan.  He has been trying, and failing, to convince Western New York town and village governments to reduce their overall size.  The local boards vigorously responded that they are the last places that people like Gaughan should be looking to decrease the cost of government.

Gaughan is hammering the one set of governmental boards that are (generally) held accountable for their actions.  The average town councilman lives in town, goes to church there, does much of his/her business there.  He/she is visible to their constituency.

This is not true at all of government at the county, state or federal level, and absolutely not true of the New York Authorities, FEMA, DHS or most other Federal agencies.

If we are to reduce government bloat we have to do so at the highest of levels, not the lowest.  That’s where the waste is occurring; that’s where the money spigot needs to be tightened.  Because we have control over town and village governments, they are incentivized to be frugal with our taxes; or else they will be out of office.

If Kevin Gaughan put as much energy into fixing Albany or agencies at the Federal level we’d be a lot further ahead.  But what he’s doing is penny-wise and pound-foolish.

Did Bucky Gleason Really Write That?

I don’t read sports commentary very often but occasionally I glance at Bucky Gleason’s musings on the Sports page of the Buffalo News.  One of today’s paragraphs read

It was good to hear Sabres owner Tom Golisano’s plans to shell out $5 million to candidates he supports for the state Legislature.  Like he said, he can afford the donation and wants to help out.  But wouldn’t the dough be better spent on something that actually affects Western New Yorkers, such as the Sabres’ blue line?

No Bucky, the dough wouldn’t be better spent on the Sabres’ blue line.

I can’t believe he was serious when he wrote that.  It’s about as Cro-Magnon a comment as one could possibly come up with.

Speaking of Preservation, Part 2

Pompeii

Want to see a real preservation nightmare?  Read this article about the state of emergency declared at the Pompeii site in Italy.

“Archaeologists and art historians have long complained about the poor upkeep of Pompeii, dogged by lack of investment, mismanagement, litter and looting. Bogus tour guides, illegal parking attendants and stray dogs also plague visitors.”

Jeez.  This sounds like the Buffalo Waterfront.  Except for the looting, since there’s been nothing to loot (until very recently) for years.

“Every year at least 150 square meters of fresco and plaster work are lost for lack of maintenance,” Antonio Irlando, a regional councilor responsible for artistic heritage, told the newspaper.

“The same goes for stones: at least 3,000 pieces every year end up disintegrating,” he said.

This is really more than just a problem of neglect; it is also an economic issue, and is obviously not unique to Western New York.  When one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy hasn’t been adequately maintained for 30 years, one begins to realize how other priorities take precedence.

So it is with Buffalo and its below average economy in a state that has other priorities.  The preservationists, city and county need to square their preservation needs with their ability to preserve, then tackle the ones that bubble up to the top of the list.  Preservation triage may be the way to more quickly consolidate the forces needed to salvage and repair at least some of our historic structures.

Speaking of Preservation…

While the saving of the Jersey Street livery stable (or, what is left of it) has been getting all the news lately, the Hull House on Genesee Street in Lancaster has been getting its own little bit of coverage. The house, the oldest stone house in Western New York, is literally in the middle of nowhere – if you consider Lancaster to be nowhere – but really only a few minutes east of the airport.  It is nestled in the middle of suburbia, with not much else historic around it but a few homes, Tops’ main food warehouse and the Thruway to the north.  It’s an example of pretty random preservation in a community that seems more hell-bent on suburban expansion than anything else.  I think the next closest historical site may be the 1812 cemetery on Aero Drive just north of the airport.

While the preservationists can’t and shouldn’t win all their battles, with Sam Savarino’s help they have staved off the demise of the livery stable for the time being.  Something that always seems lacking, however, is a regular status report on which buildings/sites are under active preservation, which are being proactively advanced for preservation, which are on the need to be preserved list (and why) and which are being left to their own demise.

Where is the inventory? Why is it so hard to obtain a list of all preservation sites in Western New York?  One would think that this site would have it front and center; it does not.  I did find this site that lists landmarks, but that’s not the same as an assessment of what we have versus the preservation candidates out there.

In this area, in this economy, we can’t save everything.  It would be nice to know from the experts themselves what the preservation candidate list should look like, so that we all know which sites should be given most-favored preservation status.

BTEC 2008

The Buffalo Technology Enterpreneurs Conference is next Friday, June 27th at the Statler Ballroom.  If you have any interest in finding out why Buffalo will not become a deserted ghost town in another generation, show your face and talk to some of the technology companies that are springing up in the area.

Many of the startups with which I’m familiar became startups in spite of politics, state regulations and the upstate economy.  They did so because

• Western New York is a great place to build relationships
• Western New York is a great place to raise a family
• Western New York is a great place to live.

With the death of heavy industry and the aging (and departure) of the blue-collar employees that grew up with it, the Buffalo area has been evolving into a more opportunistic community and the rapidity by which Buffalo’s small business community has quietly grown and diversified in the past decade is remarkable.  One obvious result is that recessionary impact is less today (and in 2001) than it was, say, in 1988-89.  A national downturn in specific market niches has less overall impact locally because our economy is no longer largely dependent on that single niche.  Manufacturing might have been the key to our greatness in the 50s and 60s, but dependence on it led to our downfall by the 80s.  The business elements that make up our local economy today are collectively much more immune to changes in business climate and more capable of turning on a dime with the inevitable economic swings.

For years our community has stubbornly clung to the 1950′s and far too many people – from political leaders to everyday Joes on the street – still resist the changes that will make this area great.  That attitude is slowly and finally giving way to understanding that entrepreneurial success is within anyone’s grasp.

So go to the show.  You’ll learn a lot about where we’re heading and how we’ll get there.

R.I.P. Tim Russert

It’s 3:36 PM.  Tim Russert just died of an apparant heart attack about 10 minutes ago.  I’m sure it’ll be all over the news shortly.  Just thought you should know.

I will miss his interviews.

Buffalo is a Closet

A generation ago I met a couple of students from the University of Buffalo, became friends with them, went to their wedding and even lived in the same apartment complex for a year or two. They were civil engineers, I developed software. Our careers took us down very different paths and although I would hear about them from time to time the years passed and we never again made contact.

A few weeks ago my company hired their son, also a graduate of UB. That led to a business connection that now links me back to the couple, to the Department of Transportation and to possible business opportunities with a civil engineering company, coincidental connections that I would not have expected to occur in any large metropolitan area.

But this is Buffalo, and re-connections like this happen frequently because this community is not just close-knit, it’s a closet.

There is a lesson in here about trying hard not to burn bridges. You cannot predict whether or not your paths will later cross in important ways.  Around Buffalo, it is likely that they will.

The Signature Bridge Debacle Award

I am awarding the 2008 Signature Bridge Debacle Trophy to ECMC for its stunning refusal to even come to the table to discuss and plan out the Berger Commission’s mandate-now-law to merge the Kaleida and ECMC hospital systems.  ECMC has decided to take the matter to court, a tactic guaranteed to stall the merger for many years to come, and fatten the pockets of the current ECMC management team for many years to come as well.  Oh, the egos.

As Bob Gioia, chairman of the board of directors in charge of the merger, stated today:  “In my almost 30 years of public service, I have never experienced behavior like this, and I’m saddened for this community.”  ECMC, which has the same share of seats on the board as Kaleida, walked out of a recent board meeting and, to my knowledge, has not returned.

The Signature Bridge is the embodiment of long-delayed and overdue promises to improve (or at least the appearance to improve) quality of life in Western New York.  The closing of Main Street to vehicular traffic, the removal of the elevated portion of the I-190 and the Skyway, construction of Bass Pro and now the stalled hospital merger plan join it in infamy.

Excepting perhaps for the possible reopening of Main Street, the hospital merger has by far the most impact, addressing a problem that has cost taxpayer money and reduced the quality of health care for many years – too many beds, too much distribution and overlap of services, and too much overhead in the local health industry.  The cost of infrastructure just to support the roughly one-third of all beds that are routinely empty is money that either cannot be spent on health care for the occupants of those beds that are filled, or is a tax on our insurance premiums and our real estate.

ECMC is supposed to be a health care provider.  It is, instead, a JOBS provider, with health care taking the back seat.