Month: June 2016

CNN’s Chris Cuomo interviewed cross-examined Congressman Chris Collins over Donald Trump’s outrageous and unconscionable attacks on a judge overseeing one of the Trump University fraud cases. This was expertly done and truly leaves Mr. Collins looking not just foolish, but juvenile – he is truly reduced to the mean-spirited schoolyard bully he is, and it is glorious to see. 

Maybe Nick Langworthy should worry less about “Rust Belt DeBlasios” and worry more about the depths of depravity to which those in his own party – Donald Trump, Chris Collins, Carl Paladino, Rus Thompson, Angela Wozniak – have descended. 

Via Media Matters: 

CHRIS CUOMO (HOST): Two days ago your man was being called a racist by GOP leaders. You know — I respect your decision to try to spin us away from it, but it’s very much, not just in the news cycle, but it’s a reality there.  That’s why we saw Donald Trump do something, whether on his own accord or pushed by staffers, to give a speech on a teleprompter, which we know he hates. Right? He insults people for using the teleprompter, but there he was, saying ever word he was told to say as he was told to say it. The question becomes, how do you move past this? Do you think Trump should apologize?

REP. CHRIS COLLINS (R-NY): Donald Trump has moved past it. As he said, he’s done talking about. We’re going to be doing a contrast to Mrs. Clinton as we move forward —

CUOMO: Should he apologize? Because the fact that Clinton has trouble, which nobody is arguing, right? Her unfavorables are every bit as high as his, doesn’t take this away. Right? When you accuse me of something, I can’t say “yeah, but what about that other news anchor, he stinks even worse.” That’s not a good defense for myself. It shouldn’t be a good defense for Trump. Do you think he should apologize? Would you have in the same situation? 

COLLINS: I would not tell Donald Trump what to do. He’s run the most brilliant campaign that’s ever been run in the history of politics. Again, I’ve moved on it, others supporting him have moved beyond it, so at this point no, I’m not going to tell Donald Trump to apologize. I wasn’t in this situation, so I don’t really have a thought in that regard, but I would say as we’re now — we’ve coalesced around Mr. Trump, and we’re taken the fight and contrasting his message of securing the borders, getting the jobs back from Mexico and China.

[…]

CUOMO: The problems are obvious. The country has challenges. The question is, who’s the right person to deal with those challenges? Temperament goes to that. What people are using this situation as is, Donald Trump not only said things about a judge’s heritage that were out of line, but he said things about the case that weren’t true to advance his own cause, things that even his own lawyer disagrees with. Don’t you think that’s something he should deal with?

COLLINS: Well, America is looking for a change agent. They’re looking for a fighter, somebody who’s spent their life winning, creating jobs. So, no, I think the temperament and the personality of Donald Trump is exactly what America wants. We don’t want status quo, we don’t want somebody wordsmithing every word, doing a focus group as they decide what language to use. They want somebody who speaks directly to America, that says we’ve lost our way, it’s time to make America great again. It’s time to put America first and stop the nonsense of China and Mexico stealing our jobs. 

CUOMO: But Congressman, if you want to put America first, you’ve got to put its institutions first and you’ve got to put its values first. Going after someone for their heritage when they’re a judge that nobody has ever assailed before on that basis? Not an American value. Going against your case and saying things happened in it that were bad for you when that’s not true and you’re president of the United States? That’s not an American core value you want put forward. Why don’t you think he has someone like you, right? A respected surrogate come forward and say, “you know what, he shouldn’t have said those things about the case, he’s upset that he has a case against him. That’s normal. He’s a fighter. He went too far, he brought in the man’s heritage, he shouldn’t have. He respects judges, he apologizes.”

COLLINS: Well, Mr. Trump said his comments were misconstrued —

CUOMO: How were they misconstrued though? That’s what I don’t get. He said the judge was unfair. The judge was not unfair, if you look at the rulings. 

COLLINS: Chris, I would disagree. You and I don’t know the details of the case. 

CUOMO: I do know the details. I do know the details of the case. We’ve been studying this for weeks now, what’s going on with Trump University. Every ruling that you look at, when lawyers review it — forget about me as a lawyer. When lawyers review it, they say, “this judge was following it.” And those lawyers, Trump’s own lawyer says his judge is doing his own job. The biggest ruling in the case was continuing the case, buying Mr. Trump more time to campaign and not deal with the litigation. These are all things that were in his favor, and he says the judge is biased. Is that right? 

COLLINS: In his opinion the judge is biased, and I’m not going to speak for Mr. Trump. I will say I’m very happy the judge has decided to hold this in abeyance until after the election. We need to put the distraction of this case behind us. I believe, as of his speech two days ago, we have now done that. But when you want to talk about someone being honest or not, look at Mrs. Clinton and her comments on Benghazi, look at her comments on the email, look at the Inspector General report —

CUOMO: But we had 11 hours of testimony on Benghazi to vet Clinton, right? And what congressmen dream of, you had a whole day to beat her over the head with her own words. Here you’re saying, “well, let’s not do that. Let’s move on right away, let’s not deal with what he said about this case.” Is that a fair appraisal?

COLLINS: Sure, we’re going to move on and we’re going to be talking about Mrs. Clinton.

CUOMO: Why?

COLLINS: Well, because we need to talk about the character flaws of Mrs. Clinton, who is not honest. She cannot be trusted. She’s shown bad judgment again and again and again. 

CUOMO: But why would I see your candidate as the better choice, if I’m a voter, if he won’t deal with his own situations and you just talk about the other candidate?

COLLINS: I think the issue is plain and simple. Do you think the country’s going in the right direction?

[…]

CUOMO: So Congressman, this is a tough question for you, but as you know, I know you well and I know what you stand for and what you do in New York on a regular basis. You’re saying to me that you don’t care if Donald Trump unfairly maligned a federal judge and misstated the situations in a case that includes fraud for his own benefit? You don’t care? 

COLLINS: Well, that’s your take on it. My take on it is, Donald Trump with his actions has shown he is not a racist. You look at his hiring practices —

CUOMO: I never used that word. I don’t even see being Mexican as suggestion of race. What I’m saying is, he brought the man’s heritage into it. He talked about what the judge did in this case, which is demonstrably untrue. His own lawyer disagrees with him, and you’re saying “I don’t care.”

COLLINS: I’m saying Donald Trump is the right individual to be the next president of the United States.

Buffalo’s most prominent equine pornography enthusiast and “not racist” racist, Carl Paladino, appeared on CNN Monday to defend fellow “not racist” racist, Donald Trump. 

In these people’s minds there is no class of people more disciminated against and victimized than the old, white male. After all, we’re letting brown people like Mexicans into this country (build a wall), and mostly brown, mostly terrorist Muslim people into this country (keep ’em out). It’s time to take America back from these non-white, mostly poor, definitely criminal foreigners. When will our national nightmare of discrimination against geriatric millionaire Caucasians end? It’s time to “Make America Great Again”. 

The global economy might be stuck in first gear, with weak employment and a Chinese economy poised to crash, but our domestic right-wing grievance economy is downright overheated. 

Last week, Donald Trump claimed that the courts were treating him unfairly in connection with the class action lawsuit brought against him arising out of the scam that was “Trump University”. A must-read article appeared in Ars Technica, which explains the genesis of Trump’s involvement in the get-rich-quick seminar industry. It wasn’t just some phony scam – it was an entirely fraudulent enterprise, designed simply to separate the gullible and desperate from their money. Trump evidently only earned $5 million from that deal, leading one to wonder why it is that a self-proclaimed billionaire would need to execute not-so-lucrative licensing deals for spring water, steaks, and fraudulent “university” scams. 

It calls into question whether Trump is a billionaire at all, and whether his declared income is under $500,000 per year, which would explain why he was entitled to a STAR property tax rebate for three years, which is only available to people who earn under that threshold. 

Trump complained to Jake Tapper that he was being treated unfairly by Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a former federal prosecutor who presides over one of the Trump University fraud lawsuits. Curiel was born in Indiana to Mexican parents. He is American. Trump said Curiel was biased because he’s Mexican and Trump is “building a wall”. That’s contempt of court, racist, and completely outrageous. Trump went on to claim a Muslim judge would also treat him unfairly. Grievance, grievance, grievance. Can’t a rich, white guy catch a break around here with all these brown people being affirmative actioned into places of influence and power? 

Some Republicans criticized Trump – even harshly – for his outrageous racism, but on a campaign conference call Monday afternoon, Trump demanded that everyone redouble their attacks on Judge Curiel. What’s the point of having even a barebones campaign apparatus if he won’t follow the advice of professionals? Imagine if this draft-dodger got angry at a country and decided to attack it. If the Pentagon and his Cabinet advised him against it, it wouldn’t matter: what Donald wants, Donald gets. He set up the call to ensure that his surrogates – like Paladino and Congressman Chris Collins – continue attacking a sitting American federal court judge: 

“Are there any other stupid letters that were sent to you folks?” Trump said, according to Bloomberg. “That’s one of the reasons I want to have this call, because you guys are getting sometimes stupid information from people that aren’t so smart.”

This is beyond reminiscent of the awful Paladino gubernatorial campaign, which was always on alert to explain away horrible, stupid, and insensitive things the stubborn, unadvisable candidate said. It is also a direct threat to our democracy, which is dependent on an independent and impartial judiciary. There is no indication here that Donald Trump believes in that, as he whines about losing summary judgment when he, himself, explained the material dispute of facts that would prohibit that very relief. 

So, the loud and uncouth face of Buffalo appeared on CNN to defend Trump’s attack on an American federal judge. 

Some excerpts: 

Answer the question for me as to why the press keeps doubling down on this Judge Curiel thing. The press has created this issue.

That’s the problem here. . . . The press constantly wants to identify the issues of the day are. You don’t have that right.

– WaPo

This is incredible that you want to pull this word out and use it because it always pushes back on the white guy. That’s not fair,” he continued. “And it’s not a fair description of Donald Trump. Donald Trump might have some anxiety about this particular judge because he lives in the same real world that I do where this type of thing does go on, where the ethnicity means something, OK?”

Paladino was also asked why Curiel’s ethnicity means something while the judges in the New York case do not, such as Judge Angela Mazarelli’s Italian heritage.

“Sometimes it does. Sometimes it does in this world that we’re in out here,” Paladino said.

Costello remarked, “Oh, Carl,” as he continued, “The press comes in with all this holy grail stuff. It doesn’t work that way. This is the real world, and in the real world you have considerations like that when you’re looking at why am I getting sued?”

– Politico

Grievance. Victimhood. It’s not the racist being racist that’s racist: it’s the people identifying and calling out the racism who are the real racists. 

Donald Trump and his lapdog, Carl Paladino, are a clear and present threat to American democracy and an independent judiciary. They are racist, anti-immigrant authoritarians who believe that bellicose fascism will make America a great country. The entitlement culture of the rich, white egomaniac is worse than any “welfare queen” they might otherwise denigrate. 

This isn’t a typical Presidential campaign. This is a battle for America’s very soul. 

We live in a country where companies can legally purchase the personal information of people holding expired medical debt – debt that can no longer be collected in court due to the statute of limitations. Yet, it is somehow legal for these debt-buying companies to approach these debtors for repayment, despite the expiration of that debt and the fact that it cannot be collected in court. This is legal. The law allows this.

We also happen to be the only country where medical debt such as this even exists as a thing. No other modern, industrialized, 1st world country allows its citizens’ lives to be ruined over debt incurred as a result of illness. Every other country has this figured out better than we do. Why don’t we? Lots of reasons, none of them good, lots of them ugly. 

The depravity of all of this shocks the conscience. 

The Execrable Donn Esmonde, the Buffalo News’ retired, detestable anti-suburbs, anti-public school ersatz-columnist, has finally stumbled upon a building he’d like to demolish. In a column hilarious for its blatant hypocrisy, Mr. Preservation, Mr. “This Place Matters”, calls for the implosion and disposal of the 40-story modernist but distressed structure that stands empty at the foot of Main Street. The guy who lauds Tielman, Goldman, and Termini for their historic preservation of Buffalo’s existing buildings, regardless of their architectural merit (see, e.g., Freezer Queen), reckons we should rip down the city’s most prominent tower. 

The city’s roster of registered landmarks contains an armful of bog-standard square brick warehouses and the Tishman Building, but not our most prominent skyline feature? That’s amazing. 

In the late 60s, the thriving and locally-owned Marine Midland Bank retained the world-renowned firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill to design its world headquarters. (They also did the Albright Knox’s annex). This was when Buffalo was deep into its catastrophic urban renewal, which was the trend at the time. But just like Boston can’t just un-do its uninvitingly Brutalist Government Center and City Hall, Buffalo can’t just eliminate a temporarily inconvenient skyscraper. One Seneca Tower’s occupancy rate was close to 90% less than five years ago. When HSBC, the Canadian Consulate,and Philips Lytle vacated all within weeks of each other, the building essentially emptied out. 

That doesn’t mean it’s useless. Just because it’s difficult for one out-of-town investor to execute a rehabilitation plan doesn’t mean it’s impossible, nor does it render the building garbage. Or insignificant. Or ripe for demolition.

If the peeling, dilapidated, blight of the Freezer Queen is worth saving, how is it that One Seneca Tower is worth demolishing? 

Because Rocco Termini and Paul Ciminelli say it’s hard to redevelop. 

Maybe Termini could open up another hipster fast food joint named after a sex position made from faux shipping containers. Maybe Ciminelli just hasn’t paid off contributed to the right politicians to make the project work. So many variables, so little “belovedness”. 

Forget the bottomless-pocket developer with more optimism than sense.

What the giant albatross of One Seneca Tower may need more than anything is David Copperfield.

The best thing that could happen for downtown is for the vacant, 38-story behemoth to suddenly disappear.

Problem solved, with the wave of a wand.

The New York City developer who conditionally bought Buffalo’s tallest building backed out last week. Harvey Kaylie was predictably unable to find anyone to help lift the $27 million purchase load – and estimated $100 million rehab.

The problem isn’t that the place is too big to fail. It’s too big to fill.

For now. 

One Seneca Tower stands a block from a still-under-construction Canalside, a place where the old Donovan building has undergone a gut rehab and the Pegulas put up a massive 20-story hotel and rink project. One Canalside has 8 stories, housing a law firm and a hotel. That’s 28 stories recently completed steps from the 38-story Tower. The demand for space there may not be there now, because it’s over 40 years old, empty, has high carrying costs, and needs rehab. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible or unfeasible. 

Esmonde won an award for championing the preservation of the Richardson Towers – a series of buildings that stood empty for decades before someone finally, recently, undertook a rehabilitation. LP Ciminelli is in charge of that costly, heavily subsidized rehabilitation, but the former insane asylum is “beloved”. Specifically, the Richardson deal is, “assisted by $64 million in State funding.”

That’s the reason only out-of-towners have sniffed around this stinker. The locals who know the Buffalo market understand that the numbers don’t make sense. Not for $27 million. Not, maybe, for $27.

“I wouldn’t touch it for a dollar,” developer Paul Ciminelli said. “It’s so big. You’ve got $100 million in rehab, plus years of carrying costs before you turn the lights on.”

Benderson spent $30 million to re-do the empty Donovan Building. HarborCenter cost the Pegulas an estimated $172 million. But $100 million is too much? Hell, the state is paying Ciminelli $750 million to do the SolarCity facility. I guess the argument is that the people earning bigger bucks at SolarCity or the Medical Campus simply wouldn’t be interested in living, working, or playing in a mixed-use rehabilitation of a building with the best views in Buffalo – and underground parking, to boot. 

The former HSBC Tower is a symbol of a particular time in Buffalo’s past, but only the short-sighted or cynical would think it is valueless going forward. 

The Urban Land Institute suggested a few years ago that the community “partner” in the building’s revival with a huge subsidy. That notion landed with a thud. The CEO of Ciminelli Development thinks any tax dollars would be better spent on a wrecking ball.

“To me, demo it for $20 million and put out [development] proposals for a great, open site,” Ciminelli said. “You could do something exceptional there.”

Just not 38 stories high.

Granted, demolition is an extreme solution. And not the first option. But it’s not as if the building is beloved.

That last sentence underscores the cynical phoniness of a lot of “historical preservation” in Buffalo. It’s not really about a building’s objective historical significance – it’s about emotion. One Seneca Tower is not “beloved”, so the preservationists’ signature propagandist is okay with its demolition. Yet Freezer Queen and Trico are somehow “beloved”? The Bethlehem Steel administration building was so “beloved”, it had been vacant, ignored, and covered in weeds for decades.

It looks like it was birthed by a mammoth waffle iron. It’s hardly unique – the same uninspiring mold stamped out a multitude of similarly cross-hatched ’70s buildings. Its perimeter is infuriatingly anti-urban – a square block walled off from its surroundings, like a castle designed to keep out the infidels. The building is part of an architectural era aptly known as “brutalism.” If we’re lucky, the tower – in a two-for-one demo deal – will take out the Skyway on the way down.

Inaccurate. It shares its design with only one other building – a tower in Minneapolis – and is an example of modernist, not brutalist, architecture. (They are related, but not identical. Brutalism usually incorporates bare concrete, which isn’t used in the One Seneca Tower). According to Architecture.com, modernism is recognized by its use of “rectangular or cubist shapes; minimal or no ornamentation; steel and or reinforced concrete; large windows; [and their] open plan.” As for its fortress-like base, there are no doubt myriad ways that skilled designers could figure out ways to improve that, especially if the structure is transformed into a mixed residential/hotel/business building.

Put an observation deck and restaurant on the top floor, while we’re at it. No building has better views. 

One thing is certain: The huge empty building is an embarrassment. It stands at the foot of Main Street like a giant exclamation counterpoint to downtown’s rebirth and Canalside’s development. As long as its lights are out – and the nearby 19-story Statler’s cup remains 9/10ths empty – downtown’s revival comes with a huge asterisk.

It’s been empty for only a couple of years; five years ago it was filled and bustling. Now that new uses for it must be examined, there’s a cost involved in updating it. But Buffalo is “America’s Best-Designed City” with One Seneca Tower in it. When talking about a flop-house-turned-luxury-hotel, Esmonde says, “We are repopulating downtown and transforming such icons of the past as the Lafayette Hotel – saved from the wrecking ball – into foundations of our future. It’s deeply gratifying for all of those who fought over the years for civic sanity.” Except for the city’s largest and most prominent building. Go ahead and rip it down because it’s not “beloved” by Esmonde and his clique. “So many of the stories we now tell about Buffalo and our identity concern sites or buildings that were saved by preservationists.” Except, I guess, the story of Marine Midland Bank. I guess that entity doesn’t “matter”, and isn’t part of Buffalo’s “identity”. 

Maybe it all means that Tim Tielman doesn’t like the tower, so Esmonde doesn’t care, either. When the Chautauqua Institution announced plans to re-construct its auditorium to make it technologically up-to-date and ADA compliant, Esmonde had a predictable fit. It’s “beloved”, after all. Buffalo’s tallest building? Meh. 

Life was good, when former tenant HSBC Bank took up three-quarters of the space. The bank’s departure three years ago made a huge sucking sound still echoing through 1 million square feet of emptiness.

When the preservationists demanded that Trico not be demolished, one person said that place “mattered” because her parents met while working there. Yet, a place that is – if nothing else – symbolic of Buffalo’s never-ending aspirations to be a world-class city should be demolished without a second thought. Maybe we just need to find some people whose parents met while working at HSBC. 

If it was Matt Enstice who was advocating for the demolition of the tower, rather than Ciminelli or Termini, Esmonde would be screaming for it to be heart-bombed, the subject of a teach-in, and treated to a human chain. 

“They’re testing the market, and finding out there is no market,” said developer Rocco Termini, who counts the 1904 Hotel @ The Lafayette among his downtown resurrections. “The smart money is not going for that building. There’s so much space to fill.”

Termini thinks the building may be beyond private-sector salvation. If the price drops to $10 million, he thinks the state should step in with Buffalo Billion dollars and repurpose One Seneca.

Termini can rehabilitate a warehouse and turn it into lofts because of a public subsidy. Rocco Termini and Paul Ciminelli don’t have the vision, inclination, or money to rehabilitate Buffalo’s tallest tower, but perhaps someone does. Maybe not right now, but at some point. Suffice it to say that demolition seems, at the very least, extraordinarily wasteful. That building may need rehab, but everything about it was designed for flexibility of use, and the location is unbeatable.

“They’re running out of space on the Medical Campus, which is connected [to One Seneca] by Metro Rail – and you’ve got underground parking at the Tower,” noted Termini. “ECC is spending $30 million on a STEM building at North Campus. It would work better in One Seneca. I can’t believe the state couldn’t find a use for the building.”

It may have to. Unless somebody has a spare $100 million, we’re looking for a magic wand – or a wrecking ball.

From the City’s own statutes, 

The Preservation Board shall, upon such investigation as it deems necessary, make a determination as to whether a proposed landmark, landmark site or historic district meets one or more of the following criteria:

(1) It has character, interest or value as part of the development, heritage or cultural characteristics of the City, state or nation.

Buffalo’s own Marine Midland Bank built One Seneca Tower to be its world headquarters. Marine Midland’s history goes back to 1850, when it was founded in Buffalo to serve the economic needs of Buffalo’s waterfront. The tower was an emblem of its then-prominence as the region’s largest bank; by 1980, it was a national bank with $20 billion in assets. 

(2) Its location is a site of a significant local, state or national event.

(3) It exemplifies the historic, aesthetic, architectural, archaeological, educational, economic or cultural heritage of the City, state or nation.

That location at the base of Main Street and adjacent to Canalside is undoubtedly significant, and the building exemplifies the economic and historic heritage of the City of Buffalo. Again, it was built to be the headquarters of a locally based national banking entity. It’s not very sexy, but neither are wiper blades. 

(4) It is identified with a person or persons who significantly contributed to the development of the City, state or nation.

The people who created Marine Midland helped to finance the growth of Buffalo’s waterfront industries – the ones that left places like Silo City behind. How can Silo City matter, but not the bank that financed its creation? 

(5) It embodies distinguishing characteristics of an architectural style valuable for the study of a period, type, method of construction or use of indigenous materials.

(6) It is the work of a master builder, engineer, designer, architect or landscape architect whose individual work has influenced the development of the City, state or nation.

(7) It embodies elements of design, detailing, materials or craftsmanship that render it architecturally significant.

(8) It embodies elements that make it structurally or architecturally innovative.

It is a Modernist building designed by world-renowned architects who also built other landmarks such as the Lever Building in New York and Chicago’s Sears Tower. Nothing in this code, it should be noted, mentions whether a building is “beloved”. 

(9) It is a unique location or contains singular physical characteristics that make it an established or familiar visual feature within the City.

I’m pretty sure that the tallest building in Buffalo – which has had that title since its construction – has “singular physical characteristics” that make it a “familiar visual feature” of Buffalo’s. 

B. Any structure, property or area that meets one or more of the above criteria shall also have sufficient integrity of location, design, materials and workmanship to make it worthy of preservation or restoration.

There’s nothing wrong with the Tower; it’s not structurally unsound nor otherwise objectively unworthy of preservation or updating. It’s ready to go – 40 stories of what was until very recently Class A office space. 

But it’s not “beloved”, and Donn Esmonde talked to two buddies who are developers, and they say it’s hard to rehab. So, Donn Esmonde has found for himself the very first building whose demolition he advocates. 

Perhaps we could slap some red cardboard cut-out hearts with slogans like “This Place Matters” and “#Buffalove”, and people could learn to love it.