Showing how cool I am, I have done some googling of the Buffalo Subway (the obvious choice in superior transportation) and have come accross some pretty cool stuff

So here is my mystery picture…

What is this mysterious car doing in allleged modern Buffalo?

This is a picture taken in that red building behind the HSBC that holds all the metros. But this is not a car of the metro we have grown to know and love, it is one of the cars bought for the never built Lackawanna extension of the rail. It was sold to the Brooklyn Trolley Museum since then

http://subway.buffalonet.org/
If you love Buffalo, and love to synically laugh at it’s failed projects almost as much, you must read this guy’s site on the NFTA MetroRail

…i could rant about this failure of a project and what could make it better…but its pointless so just enjoy it like you enjoy the Main Place Mall.

http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/photograph

If you like looking at old pictures of Buffalo…you need to peep this site. Pretty amazing pictures.

There are a bunch…some of the ones I really liked were too big to put in…there is one of the 900 block of Broadway from 1961…wow-it’s amazing to see how far our city really did fall in a generation.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050627/1018073.asp

I’m not quite sure what to say. If all I knew about Buffalo came from the Buffalo News, I would be under the impression that Buffalo is a thriving city that only has a couple little problems here and there, but at least the local politicians are there to save the day. It’s great that we are getting some stuff done for the waterfront, but take it easy on the praise for our boy Tony

This is the least he can do.
I must say, I am pretty impressed with Brian Higgins.

I’m not sure how much of it is the Buffalo News hyping him up, but it seems like he is really keen on getting stuff done for us. Here’s hoping he does get that skyway down ASAP

Oh man, I can feel it! Hockey in 05!

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050623/1062597.asp

Some excerpts…

‘”We’re in the mode where we believe there’s going to be a season,” Sabres managing partner Larry Quinn said. “We’re planning accordingly, trying to determine what the future systems might be, what kind of roster we’ll have. We’re not sitting back.”

The widely reported framework includes a salary cap between $35 million and $40 million in addition to the 24-percent payout the players previously proposed. Word is that teams can buy out contracts and not have them count against the cap.

Regier said the Sabres, for sure, have five players under contract, not counting those with two-way minor-league deals such as forwards Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek.

In the fold are center Chris Drury

and goalie Mika Noronen. The Sabres hold options on defensemen Rory Fitzpatrick and McKee, while defenseman Dmitri Kalinin has a player option.

The others are expected to be restricted free agents, although that could change if the qualifying age for unrestricted status is lowered or negotiators determine the lockout season won’t be taken off existing contracts. “We have some flexibility,” Regier said. “A bulk of our players, we’ll move on to sign them. We’ll be better off than some teams who’ll have other decisions to make.” ‘

Even though it is not emergency status, the time to act on a new Dowtown stadium would be this year, sooner rather than later. With the state dishing out paper to the Yankees for their new Bronx stadium,

and just rejecting the Jets’ request for their new Manhattan stadium, City Council needs to put a plan together before/in case the State gives NYC teams any more money for new stadiums. Even though on the surface, hosting two preseason games and eight regular season games, wouldn’t generate much revenue into the city, the little it would, could only help, and possibly start making up for the 30 years they’ve been missing out on to Orchard Park. A state of the art stadium on the waterfront,

even though empty for most of the year, would only help out the City. Look at how every revitalized downtown in America has a NFL or MLB stadium in the heart of downtown, as part of its beautiful new skyline (i.e. Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh).



City Council already acknowledged that this issue should be discussed in detail this year, but it seems like it is on the back burner, unfortunatley more so with Ralph Wilson. The sooner this is done, the sooner we will secure the fate of the Buffalo Bills, and the progress of downtown.

Such a classy establishment as Rick’s Tally-Ho will no longer be able to advertise on Taxi’s anymore. I must admit, their taxi ads are the only reason why I know about them.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050621/1020395.asp

“Say goodbye to strip club ads on many Buffalo cabs.

Liberty/Yellow Cab of Buffalo, the city’s largest locally-owned taxi service, and national media firm Clear Channel Taxi Media have announced that they will discontinue all adult entertainment ads on 100 cabs.

Instead, after July 1, the Liberty and Yellow cabs will carry “Taxi Top” ads for local products, services, and attractions, as well as some national ads.

“This is a great opportunity for us to help promote products, services and places that Western New Yorkers want to hear about,” said Bill Yuhnke, company president.

The decision marks a visible change for the two-sided, pyramid-shaped, lighted signs on the tops of cabs. For the past three years, the Liberty and Yellow taxis have been carrying advertisements for a group of six strip clubs in Western New York and southern Ontario. Yuhnke said the ads were toned down and “were in good taste,” considering the topic.

But he ultimately decided that wasn’t enough. Comparing them to cigarette ads, he said he “wanted to set a standard for Buffalo,” and didn’t want visitors to leave “with the idea that’s all we had.”

He said that over the three years of the contract, he has probably responded to about six or seven calls a year complaining about the ads, but didn’t base his decision on them.”

It’s really a shame to see the police go after one of the few successful businesses in the private sector.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050620/5065897.asp

Central District officers reported breaking up a crack cocaine enterprise that was being run out of a 1995 Cadillac over the weekend.

Officers Joseph Paolucci and John Garcia said they watched a Cadillac, parked at Elmwood Avenue near North Street, for half an hour on Saturday before making two arrests. Officer Mark Locicero said he recovered one-eighth of an ounce of crack cocaine from under the floorboard of the car, which was then impounded.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/20/business/20cnd-rigas.html

“John J. Rigas, who built the Adelphia Communications Corporation into the country’s sixth-largest cable company, was sentenced to 15 years of prison today for looting hundreds of millions of dollars from the company’s coffers and concealing its true debt load from investors.

“Even to this moment, you say you did nothing wrong,” Judge Leonard B. Sand told Mr. Rigas in Federal District Court in Manhattan. “That’s what is unacceptable.”

Addressing Mr. Rigas’s lawyers, he said: “If your effort is at this point to convince me that there was not blatant fraud, you’re going to have a very hard sell.”

The prison term in all likelihood amounts to a life sentence for Mr. Rigas, who is 80 and is suffering from bladder cancer and a heart ailment. Should he become terminally ill in the next two years, the sentence may be revised, Judge Sand said.

Timothy J. Rigas, Mr. Rigas’s 49-year-old son and Adelphia’s former chief financial officer, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for also stealing from the company and deceiving investors.”

…Who cares about what he did to the company? What he did to the city of Buffalo is worth life in prison. Because of his corruptness, we have a Outdoor Sporting Store as the crown jewel of downtown development instead of an Adelphia Corporate Building

employing people at wages that would support keeping families in the city. Not to mention we might still have Mike Peca

instead of Tim Connolly.

With the Sabres return imminent and Rigas in jail, I’m ready to move on.

Does anyone else have this game? Its a pretty wierd game. Kind of like monopoly, except harder to understand. Something about shopping lists, and a map that makes Buffalo look like it was filled with the old supermarket chain “Bells” and Playboy clubs.

No matter how confusing/lame the game is, i’m sure anyone who played it was “Talkin Proud” after they finished.

(I like how the cover is actual proof that there has been SOME sort of development downtown since 1950)

…well the unavoidable has happened in this race for mayor. It’s not like what was said was completely untrue. There are a good amount of blacks in the city who feel like they have been deprived ignored by the city government (not all of which isn’t true). It’s too easy to attack a republican in Buffalo. The Helfer campaign could be in more trouble than they were just for existing as repbulicans. It is June though, so for their sake, here’s hoping this issue dies quickly, although something tells me it will pop up again.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050611/1062988.asp

“Race has become an issue in the Buffalo mayoral campaign after the city Republican chairman offered especially frank views on ethnic voting patterns earlier this week.

State Sen. Byron W. Brown, the Democratic front runner, and Erie County Democratic Chairman Leonard R. Lenihan on Friday called for the resignation of Buffalo GOP Chairman Dennis V. Ryan after he suggested that “racial undercurrents” will be present in the campaign.

Brown, who is black, said he was “shocked” by Ryan’s suggestion that some voters would be motivated by race and that some African-Americans might not turn out to vote for Brown against white Republican Kevin J. Helfer.

“The racially divisive remarks by Kevin Helfer’s campaign are absolutely unacceptable,” Brown said. “Kevin Helfer should apologize to the people of Buffalo and remove the chairman of the city Republican committee from his campaign team.”

Erie County Democratic Chairman Leonard R. Lenihan agreed.

“They send out, in code, a message that this campaign will be reduced to a black vs. white mentality,” he said. “That is unworthy of the people of the City of Buffalo.’ “