According to Tickets.com, the cheapest tix availible for tonight’s PRESEASON game are $72.
I know there are some antsy Buffalonians who are dying to see their team again. Even if it means dishing out 72 bones for a game that doesn’t even count.

Westcoastperspective, as always, gets the inside scoops on whats fresh in the development world in Buffalo.As reported in BuffaloRising , Carl Paladino’s “Ellicott Development” want to build 15 new townhomes in the suburban-style private neighborhood AKA “Waterfront Village” with a second condo coming later to complement “Admiral’s Walk”.

A lot of people are offended by this proposed project but it’s really a give and take here. This type of housing project brings in people that the City struggles to bring in-wealthy, older adults, possibly families who want a private, secluded, and upscale residence. Obviously Orchard Park or Clarence are the top choices for something like that but with the existence and design of Waterfront Village, Buffalo gets to compete with that. And that’s good.

Obviously it sucks that a city has its most valuable asset occupied by private residences that are inconvenient to access by foot and even by car, but there is plenty of space to develop public spaces by the Main Street area of the Waterfront. Until the plethora of surface lots over there are built up we can’t really complain about these people taking potential public spaces away from us.

At the end of the day, this project adds tax revenues for the City, adds more people to the Downtown area (people with money too…money is good), and takes up a large parcel of vacant Waterfront property. We’ll all make out alright with that.

UB on UB 2020 plan
Buffalo Biz Journal on UB 2020 plan
UB President, John B. Simpson spoke at the Albright Knox Art Gallery earlier about “UB 2020″, the school’s master growth plan that has been in the works since Simpson took the helm a couple years back.
From what I know, most of it is all talk. Simpson hasn’t done too much since getting to UB. Admissions has slowly creeped up and the athletic program is more stable and organized. The downtown campus has nothing to do with him, hundreds of undergrads are living in hotels since the school contiunes to increase admissions without building new housing, and some faculty complain that Simpson wants UB to be influenced by his Cal cronies and no one else.

I will say this though. UB is attempting to atone for their sins they committed against the City of Buffalo by reinvesting in South Campus and building a Downtown Campus…something President Greiner didn’t seem to care much for.

Simpson says he wants the Light Rail to expand to North Campus, he wants to expand the Downtown Campus, and make South Campus stronger. He wants to take UB to the next level in size and academic stature. Although the ideals are cliche and his plans far from concrete I believe that the school and Simpson really are ready to go to the next level and committ to the city and the region.

Holy shmoly my friends…Main Street downtown has landed a clothing store!

“Get Dressed” (Men’s clothing store) will open up October 10th on the 1st floor of the Belasario. The Elmwood location is where Byron Brown and many other local politicos get their suits.

Can you feel it? Downtown, baby! It’s comin back!

Two things of note in this morning’s readings…

A great article in the Buffalo News about the successes of the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise.
I do have a problem with one part though…

“The challenge now, both Kucharski and Higgins said, is to ensure the region maintains a supply of “shovel-ready” properties that are already prepared and approved for development and that can be turned around quickly to meet a client’s needs. There are 10 such sites locally, but only one is in Buffalo.
‘All upstate cities have to provide shovel-ready sites if they want to compete for projects,” Higgins said. “The cities that do that will score very big. The cities that don’t offer speed and predictability will lose out to the suburbs every time.’ ”

Wait, excuse me. Since when does the city of Buffalo not have any shovel-ready sites? Masiello’s entire policy towards development was based soley on having shovel-ready sites. Architectural gems have been torn down for parking lots. How do we only have one shovel-ready site in the city?

In other news…BuffaloRising reports that a building in the slowly emerging Cobblestone district is up for demolitionin order to create more parking. As you will see in the photo provided in the article…I believe the Bills could put a new stadium there with the surface lots already provided. Downtown south of One HSBC Center is one big parking lot already it seems.

Oh, Buffalo.

I am drained. As always, the Bills have an orgasmic opening drive only to cave in. Go figure that the 1st game in which our offense puts up amazing numbers (McGahee 140+ rushing yards, Parrish and Evans over 100yds recieving, Losman over 300yds passing) we somehow manage to not pull off a W.

I’m sure Losman is gonna take a lot of heat for that last drive (and those were some prettty terrible throws) but overall he used his recievers well, showed some poise (rushing TD especially), and escaped some sacks that many QB’s can’t. He’ll learn from this loss.

On-side kick was anice though.

We’ll win next week.

Here’s the whole shoot
I’m not even close to being Maxigumee at all nor do I attempt to but I enjoy the occasional venture into the artistic side of my brain. So yesterday me and a couple of my friends from Jersey and Albany respectivley, joined me for a venture to the glorious Buffalo River area. Obviously this wasn’t gonna give them a flattering 1st impression of our downtown but whatevs.
Anywho, went by the chemical plant my dad used to get payed to dump their waste into the river despite purchasing a 1 million dollar filtration system, and saw a bunch of buildings that hadn’t been used in prolly 20 years but randomly you’ll find a bustling bar or car repair shop along the way.

It was a fun shoot and I’ll prolly try it again in a different part of the city.

Basically I like regions to have two core centers for development
1. The downtown of a city
2. The airport area of a city

So although I’d rather see all the new Galleria stuff be downtown, It’s something I’ve already accepted.
And I’m actually pretty excited about the new project discussed last night on Channel 2.
Two hotels, two restaurants, and a water park to replace an abandoned old Radisson.
It’s important that when people land in Buffalo they see some good stuff immediatley. They’re already seing an absolutley beautiful Airport, and now hopefully when they step outisde they’ll see a place that resembles a healthy region.

Man, so much good stuff happening in the world of Buffalo area development in ‘06.

Got to read the Toronto’s media coverage on not only last night’s victory, but of course, the new uniforms.
It’s not just the Buffalonians who are offended I guess.
Canoe.ca
Toronto Sun
A Globe and Mail writer’s blog

First time in recent memory that I wasn’t in agony over a Bills game (yes, even the wins work up the blood pressure). Losman is on pace for 1,000 yards passing this year but who cares? We look solid like whoa in the 1st two games this year(on the road, v. division opponents at that!).

Home opener next week!