Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo
Cuyahoga at Lake and Rail Buffalo NY by tark9, on Flickr
1. Shorter Buffalo News piece on Deputy Mayor Steve Casey: he’s a dick who terrorizes staff and throws Democrats under the bus in favor of Chris Collins, but he’s the Mayor’s dick.
2. The Buffalo News calls this Hochul ad misleading. How so? It doesn’t say Collins got rich off of Ingenious’ Balance Buddy. It says he makes more money by outsourcing the manufacturing in China rather than building the device in western New York.
Asked why Ingenious would contract with a manufacturer in China, Collins said that it would be too expensive to make the product in the United States. ’It would not be feasible to have that product made and packaged for $7 in the U.S.,’ Collins said. (Cannot link directly to Buffalo News story because of its wholly unusable web presence).
China manipulates its currency, steals intellectual property from American companies, subsidizes government-owned businesses that compete with firms in the United States and closes its markets to foreign products.
“It’s not OK,” he said.
If the trade inequities with China are removed, “those jobs come back,” Collins said.
That’s patently true – by Collins’ own admission – and not at all misleading. In fact, the Buffalo News’ “fact check” is misleading. Also – perhaps more egregiously – he conducted Ingenious business from the 16th floor of the Rath Building, and so badly screwed over the initial investors that they’ve sued him.
3. If there’s one thing Donn Esmonde loves to do, he loves to pat himself on the back. He loves being the official organ of Buffalo’s development/preservationist intelligentsia. So, he twists and contorts to the conclusion that the Liberty Hound‘s success somehow prove that the “lighter, quicker, cheaper” scam is the best thing ever. What the Liberty Hound’s success – as well as the success of a lot of Canalside’s summertime programming – really establishes is that the waterfront will be a popular place if you give people something to do there. Lighter, quicker, cheaper didn’t give us Liberty Hound – that was a big project done with a state agency, a partnership of two successful restaurateurs, a museum, and an assist from big political players. Lighter, quicker, cheaper gave us the Fred Kent “placemaking” sideshow, the snack shack, and brightly colored Adirondack chairs. The ECHDC was bullied into doing it by a supposedly earnest man endlessly pushing solar-powered carousels who wasn’t so quick to disclose that his interests in the matter also involved how Canalside might affect the bar and restaurant business in Black Rock and Allentown.
I take umbrage to your last sentence if, as it appears to me, you are taking one of your side swipes at Mark Goldman. While Mark is obviously a business person, I seriously doubt that that he backed “lighter,quicker, cheaper” because he was worried about how waterfront development was going to affect his bar business in Allentown.
Why?
I’d doubt that Mark is in need of cash. While no one is in business to loose money, it’s always been my impression of his “business” efforts, that he enjoys the challenge more than the dough. Why else would you open an “Arts Cafe” on a street lined with abandoned buildings, hookers, and druggies. I would argue that Goldman opened the “Calumet” to bolster the thesis he put forward in his book “High Hopes” that investing in the arts leads the way towards inner city revitalization. I think he proved his point much to his own consternation.
Fascinating how this time Don Esmonde failed to fellate Mark Goldman and Tim Tielman in his bi monthly diatribe (and it is the same old shit every time he writes it). Donny must have had an off day.
But Alan you are spot in… that entire ilk of the Goldmans et al were posturing, suing, demonstrating and obstructing every step of the way.Everything changed when the ECHDC raised the white flag and hired Fred Kent of the Citizens for the Public Good Projects and Spaces, or whatever it they call themselves these days, at mucho bucks no less, as a “consultant”. This rancid bottom feeder came up with his flexible lawns, triangulations and adirondack chairs. Just like that, the obstructionists dropped their objections and now puff their chests and take credit for what the rest of us have known all along…put nice things down there and people will come.
We need 10 more Liberty Hound type establishments, and shops, and homes, and entertainment venues and things to do, as well as businesses catering to the hockey and sports crowds, and Canalside will be a smashing success. Most of us have known that for years. Sadly, it took the extortion of public funds from some very disgusting and immoral people to get them out of the way and let things start to take shape.
You forgot to add flexible lawns to your tags