Category: Local Interest

#Buffalove: What is it Good for?

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Image via behance.net

“Buffalove” is a portmanteau of “Buffalo” and “love”, often seen hashtagged on Twitter when someone plunks 130 other characters about some thing or event around Buffalo of which s/he approves. 

But what does it really mean? Is Buffaloving something akin to a declaration that it’s good enough? At what point do we demand more? What is the interplay between good things we like and the local leadership that is uniquely positioned to expand or enhance it? How many opportunities are we missing or losing by being satisfied, and “Buffaloving” something? 

It’s a long-running gag that we don’t really want to make Buffalo better – we like it just the way it is. “Keep Buffalo Lame” was a popular t-shirt we sold at WNYMedia back in the day. We like our weather, our 20 minute drives, our shopping is ok, certain parts of the city seem to be doing better, what’s not to Buffalove? 

Brad Riter, Chris Smith, and I discussed it at length in this Trending Buffalo podcast: 

http://www.trendingbuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/TB08-21-13buffalove.mp3

So, Who’s Texting BuzzFeed’s Rosie Gray?

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Which Buffalo BuzzFeed fan was texting Rosie Gray out of the clear blue sky last night, telling her how beautiful she looked on the teevee? 

So, who locally has a Verizon cellphone with 716-713-6xxx, and how soon before we make Forbes’ “top 10 cities with creepy Luddite would-be sexters”? 

Clarence Revote Budget : Tip of the Iceberg

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Clarence overwhelmingly passed its revote budget last night. So did most other revote budget districts – Bemus Point passed its original, above-cap budget, but Wilson will be finding out about austerity next year.

In Clarence, 5,358 voted – less than May 21st’s record, but about double what the town usually sees for school vote turnout. On May 21st, 8,232 people voted, and the results were No: 4,801 Yes: 3,431

Last night, we had 3,541 yes votes and 1,817 voted no. That means we gained about 100 yes votes, and the no votes stayed home in droves. To the extent that the formerly warring factions came together last week to urge, in unison, a “yes” vote on this revote budget, we didn’t get a lot more “yes”, but at least the “no” weren’t energized enough to make the trip anymore.

A quality education is something to which every child is entitled (yes, entitled). There is a concerted effort underway in this country to dismantle the very things that helped lurch us from a frontier backwater into the superpower we are today. There is an organized and well-funded movement to fight a war on the middle class, protecting and comforting the very rich while punishing the poor and destroying the middle class that built this country.

On June 6th, serial entrepreneur Nick Hanauer testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs. (Website here) I think that what he said is a fundamental truth that helps inform why providing equal opportunity for America’s middle class families to thrive, excel, and do better each day as compared to the last.

For 30 years, Americans on the right and left have accepted a particular explanation for the origins of Prosperity in capitalist economies. It is that rich business people like me are “Job Creators.” That if taxes go up on us or our companies, we will create fewer jobs. And that the lower our taxes are, the more jobs we will create and the more general prosperity we’ ll have. Read more

Eating, Drinking, Being Merry

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Happy New Year, Buffalo. I hope you enjoyed some time off with family and friends, and that you begin 2013 refreshed in mind and body. 

The 400 or so of you who also happen to be my friend on Facebook might be expecting a post about restaurants this morning. Suffice it to say that some of the best inexplicable back-stabbing is perpetrated by portly weathermen – (to be a meteorologist, one needs to have credentials). 

I will write about food today, (something I usually reserve for my gig with the Spree, but I will make an exception here), but only to present to you two “year in review” food posts from different Buffalo-based food writers. 

Andrew Galarneau, the Buffalo News’ restaurant critic, gives a year-end assessment here. 

Jeremy Horwitz, the author of Buffalo Chow, exits hiatus to present a year-in-review of restaurants he’s visited elsewhere in the US and how he sees those experiences in comparison to what’s going on in Buffalo and western New York. He considers that the domestic food scene is undergoing a revolution, and that it’s largely passing Buffalo by. There’s a lot of food for thought there, pun intended. 

Also, consider that it was a year ago that we all helped to unravel the lies and cons of the fake Iron Chef who briefly ran “Valenti’s” in North Tonawanda, where a Mighty Taco now stands. Look for a “where are they now” post in the coming days. 

Scumbag Buffalo

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The “Scumbag Steve” internet meme: 

Scumbag Steve is an image macro series featuring a kid with a sideways fitted cap standing in a hallway. The overlaid text generally centers around unethical behavior regarding drugs, partying, and other hedonistic behaviors.

Example: 


See more on Know Your Meme

Yesterday, in light of the horrible stories about awful people doing terrible things, Tom Dolina from Tommunisms was good enough to create a “Scumbag Buffalo” meme blank, replacing “Steve” with City Hall – the background, the hat worn at a rakish tilt are all there. Here are some examples: 

   

   

   

 

 

 

 

Heckuva Job, Humanity

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1. Just after 9:00 am yesterday, a 24-year old woman was driving her SUV while drunk. She crossed the center line and plowed her SUV into a Pontiac sedan driven by a 31 year-old mother. The impact split the sedan in two, critically injuring the driver and killing her beautiful 7-month old baby, Baylee Marie Dion. 

How many more lives need to be destroyed before selfish, reckless assholes decide that it’s a bad idea to get behind the wheel when they’re drunk? How many more babies need to be homicide victims before some people get it through their thick idiot heads that maybe you don’t get drunk when you have to drive somewhere. The woman who killed Baylee was stopped for DWI in 2009. Our society glamorizes going out and getting hammered. Hooray us. 

2. During the course of a home invasion burglary on Buffalo’s east side, the 3 thugs beat the 96 year-old victim. I mean, you’re already violating his property, why not violate his personal safety, right?  To top it off, civic leaders responding to the horrific beating had to put out a call for area residents to set aside the general rule of “no snitching”.

I’m sure that the elderly resident was just jumping up to physically threaten three young men, right? The beating was totally necessary in furtherance of collecting a few tchotchkes, right? Happy Holidays!

3. A mother in Niagara Falls left her 2 year-old and the child’s father in the car while she ran into the store to get something. As she shopped, a drive-by shooting happened to erupt outside, and a bullet hit the child in the face. People are now discussing whether the 2 year-old was the intended victim. Perhaps someone will come forward in the Falls to provide law enforcement with some information.

Niagara Falls is the place where nothing good ever happens, it seems. Gynophobic newspaper editors, a city that gave up a swath of downtown to a casino that isn’t paying its debts, streets paved with depleted uranium, no jobs, vast poverty, dysfunctional government, waste, fraud, and corruption. ‘Tis the Season!

 

If anyone can photoshop the scumbag Steve hat onto a picture of a Buffalo, I’d love that. Thanks.  Thanks to Tom Dolina for assisting with the “Scumbag Buffalo” meme. 

TEDx Buffalo 2012

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Yesterday, the second annual TEDx Buffalo was held at the Montante Center at Canisius College. It was a day filled with good ideas and inspirational people. The theme of this year’s event was “The World in Our Backyard” – it started literally with amateur astronomer Alan Friedman’s incredible images of our solar system, taken from telescopes and cameras set up in his backyard. Kevin Gardner, the founder of Five Points Bakery, argued that change in the world starts by looking at yourself and making positive changes in your own life. 

Dr. Jonathan Lawrence of Canisius College showed that Buffalo’s population is becoming more diverse, and that we have people and faiths from around the world right here, and he sends his students out to learn about and document others’ traditions. Tom McManus from Kegworks explained how Buffalo is uniquely positioned to be a leader in e-commerce – once set up to do that, a business is literally a global one. Fully 45% of the US population lives within the 2-day package shipment radius of Buffalo, and our proximity to Canada makes importation speedier than reliance on the larger domestic ports. 

Matthew Walter from Oogie Games explained how a dramatic car crash caused him to utter a phrase – “where am I” – that everyone should ask themselves with respect to what they’re doing with their lives – if you don’t like the answer, take needed risks and change something.  Executive Chef James Roberts extolled the virtues of mentorship and how it helps you to improve yourself, to help others, and to organically grow the best staff you could ask for. Our own Chris Smith talked about the July 2011 genesis of his Cash Mobs idea, which is a reverse Groupon that has spread literally throughout the world; a grassroots movement to help local businesses in a tough economy. Joy Kuebler talked about a “pop-up” playground that she helped organize on Buffalo’s East Side. Giving kids tools and materials and asking them to use their imagination to build something to play on, it was incredible to see the results. 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAgkVa6UFuU]

Geoff “DeafGeoff” Herbert, a hearing-impaired DJ, explained how it’s more important to listen than to hear.  Adrienne Bermingham explained how anyone – even the very young can help improve the environment around them through community mapping. Kate Holzemer mesmerized the audience with beautiful, haunting solo renditions of Bach pieces on the viola. 

Interspersed with a selection of videos from the global TED conference and some local iterations, our local speakers were all though-provoking and inspirational in their own ways. They all helped cement the idea that Buffalo and WNY doesn’t exist in some vacuum, insulated from the rest of the world. Instead, even the smallest change, the simplest idea, can have a global and positive impact. 

 

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Questions, Questions

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From the Buffalo News story about the food trucks’ issues in Amherst: 

In light of recent events, Ketchum and Police Chief John Askey said they’ve instructed their people not to disrupt food truck operations. If they do enforce the permit requirements, they said, they’ll simply issue a court appearance ticket and let a judge decide how to handle it.

Askey also said he was embarrassed to learn that the “anonymous complaint” lodged with the Building Department against the Lloyd Taco Truck on Monday came from one of his own officers, who has relatives in the restaurant business and called in the complaint as a private citizen.

“I spoke with him today,” Askey said Tuesday. “I specifically told him to have no interaction with those trucks. We are not, independently – through back channels or forward channels – going after these people on their own. I can’t fix what happened, but I can make sure we’re reasonable going to forward.”

Please tell me which officer, and which restaurant, are implicated by emailing me at buffalopundit[at]gmail.com. I have some questions for them. 

Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo

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Cuyahoga at Lake and Rail Buffalo NY

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.

Statement A:

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). 

Statement B: 

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.  

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