Interesting article in the Washington Post today about how churches in DC are surviving. DC faced extreme suburbanization like any other American city but thankfully in the last 10 years it has experienced a genuine renaissance unlike the one we hear about up here.

Unfortunately this plan doesn’t work for Buffalo. Most city churches are in low-density, low-value neighborhoods. Big NYC Real Estate firms aren’t going to come in to save the day by buying adjoining parcels of land.

But shopping is the modern day cure-all for cultural institutions. What transportation center or Museum doesn’t have a place to shop and a place to eat anymore? A church on the east side has a Subway-its saved them. A church in Williamsville has a Tim Hortons.

Private sector investment usually works in these cases, but where is society going when we have to rely on retail and developers to save religious and cultural institutions?

Some notes in my own musical world…

Favorite band (one of the many who come to Toronto and Rochester but not Buffalo) Bloc Party finished their North American tour and is now in Europe. They released a brand new track just recently titled ‘Flux’. A band prone to infuse dance sounds into their rock music, ‘Flux’ is all dance…pretty good too…very ‘Euro’ sounding. The video is nothing beyond a tribute to the Power Rangers (wtf?!)

The Spill Canvas was at Club Infinity tonight as they tour their new album “Sorry I’m Fine”. Lead singer has the most emo lyrics ever in his 1st
two albums…he doesn’t write like he wants to hang himself anymore but ‘Connect the Dots’ has some super intense lyrics. Real nice sound. Not into the genre for the most part but they’re good…remind me of my emo days. Ha.

Nada Surf is the 4th of my 5 favorite active bands to release an album this year. Well…not yet BUT you can download (for free!) their 1st single off the album due out in mid-November on their myspace. Typical Nada Surf sound…and that is a very good thing.

The National is one of the few of what I would deem as ’sophisticated rock groups’ that ACTUALLY came to Buffalo. It was in early October on an exam night. I missed it. They’re huge in DC for some reason. Very Interpol-like if you listen to those guys (who also released an album this year).

And honestly, if you haven’t listened to Radiohead’s new album get out from your cave and do so.

One last note. My ska friends over at Magic Goat have made it big time! Kind of…you can buy their debut album on iTunes. Support SUNY musicians!

If you want some great international perspectives on international affairs on the WNYmedia network look no further than Buffalo Expatriate. A very unique contribution to the local blogosphere.

If only we could take JP Losman’s talent…

and combine it with Trent Edward’s brain…

We could have one amazing quarterback and no discussion about a controversy.

Edwards is no doubt the answer but I’m glad JP is starting this week…like to see him get one more chance to really prove himself. He plays better with a chip on his shoulder anyways.

I’m still just trying to get over the fact that if Denver and Dallas had maybe 2 less seconds to play with we’d be 5-2. This team?! 5-2?! Hard to comprehend.

Came accross a pretty cool blog called The Stencil by someone who seems to be a musician from the club/hip-hop group called Caps and Jones…some interesting music by the way. Covers a lot of young/urban lifestyle type stuff as a traveling artist…and some random Buffalo stuff along the way.

Not your typical Buffalo blog. Nice change of pace

Too much to say about today’s Buffalo News piece on growing up poor in Buffalo. Please read it. I don’t know how you can’t be concerned about the future of city neighborhoods-there is no end in sight. And if you don’t feel awful for the people profiled you couldn’t possibly be human. Or a Buffalonian.

As I’ve said before…the third world is just a bus ride away.

Shopping on Sheridan near Bailey or NF Blvd near Bailey is becoming just as historic as shopping downtown or on Broadway.

Amherst has an accidental evolutionary chart in terms of shopping plazas as you drive further and further north up Niagara Falls Boulevard. Each one is less and less abandoned as you go further, leaving the past and the desnity in the dust.

One of the newer plazas, Consumer Square, was at risk of becoming much like its predecessors after losing K-Mart but is in fact being invigorated beyond what K-Mart could have ever done for the plaza.

Eastern Mountain Sports, Ultra Cosemtics, Christmas Tree Shops, OfficeMax and Old Navy are going where the K-Mart used to be, making a pretty busy plaza that already has Barnes & Noble, Target and Best Buy, even more bustling.

Why am I writing about this? It’s so important that developers take care of these shopping plazas and make sure they stay in top shape.

Sadly, in this case, most of the new stores are coming in from older shopping plazas in the older parts of the suburbs.

Drive up Sheridan or NFblvd and see that this region has already given up on the 1st ring of its’ suburbs. Keeping plazas like this bustling can help concentrate all the activity in the already developed suburbs instead of building new plazas further and further out that simply face the same fate of all the plazas before them.

Sadly, the trends just contiune and continue and no one will learn or care until…well nevermind.

Let’s just say “Suburban Planning” is going to be a considered just as serious an acadmeic issue in the future as “Urban Planning” is now.

The Dulski building is moving quickly and now they’ll occupy the first 7 floors and will share space with a 1st floor restaurant.

Visualizing this area of Downtown in 2, 3, 4 years is a pretty nice visualization I must say.

Buffalo has one of if not the worst metropolitan blogosphere apparently.

Proves my theory that most of my readers do not live in Buffalo.

And reminds me of a Buffalo News article I can’t find but it was about Alan Bedenko announcing he was running for office and his opponent said “I don’t read blogs” with the syntax suggesting he was above that sort of subculutre.

In DC, blogging is huge. The Washington Post fully embraces the large blogosphere in the DC area, sometimes profiling select bloggers in their print editon, publishing a summary of what is being said in the blogosphere in their “Express” edition, and linking to all sorts of local blogs on their website.

As they said in the BizJournal story, cities with the best blogospheres were tech savvy and young.

[Insert obvious/cliche observation of Buffalo and its people here.]

No pictures from the inside but just some observations.

*In front of the lobby entrance to the Ballroom, heard one of the construction workers say to his co-workers “You know the Rockefeller Center. This part is gonna look just like it. Water fountain shooting up from below.” What used to be there was the continuation of the floor that leads to the steps but now starts from further below and a point for people to look down.

*A lot of the construction workers are in their late teens, early 20’s. Probably a byproduct of the fact that BSC Group is big on supplying their own cheap labor in their construction projects

*The new elevators look great

*The 1st floor is destined to be a decent retail center and Issa is certainly gearing it toward it. The 1st floor will be absolutely spectacular upon completion.