North Coast Online

The Government Really Can Create Jobs

You'll want to read Rod Watson's column.  It's about how the $1 billion Buffalo school renovation project isn't only about the children.  It's also a job bank for well-connected minorities (and, well, anyone willing to put his business in his wife's or black buddy's name.)

Like Throwing Them Chum

The Buffalo News series on the Niagara Power Authority has had exactly the effect I figured it would.  It  has kindled interest in reopening negotiations with the utility and its publicizing of just how much that utility makes has caused even more groups to line up at the feed trough.  Interestingly enough, none of them gives a damn about reducing Western New Yorkers' electric bills -- though that would mean a huge economic boost to the area.

No, they've each got their pet project which they're convinced would do vastly more for us than wasteful family and business financial savings.  And now we can even add racial reparations to that list.

Opportunity Lost

I made my first and last foray into local activism back when a $1/4 billion convention center was proposed for downtown.  I was invited to join a group opposing the project after a "My View" op-ed I'd written had appeared in the paper.  I was quite flattered and eager to help if I could.

I didn't last three or four meetings.  It quickly became clear that, while I agreed with the group's disapproval of the location which would have seen entire blocks razed; the group didn't share my distaste for spending taxpayers' money.  I saw killing the convention center as a chance to save New Yorkers $250,000,000.  The others saw an opportunity to spend it on something else.

It sounds as if that same sentiment shaped the negotiations with the Power Authority last year.

“I’m extremely disappointed. I think there was so much more the community could have gotten from this once-every-50-year opportunity,” said Kevin J. Donovan, a senior official with the United Auto Workers who was involved in negotiations.

Bruce Carpenter, an environmental attorney based out of Albany, said he was struck by the local politics he encountered while negotiating on behalf of environmental groups.

“Community against community, group against group. All these little factions,” he said. “It was clear there were a lot of people out for their own piece of the pie.”

Instead of lowering electrical rates for all Western New Yorkers, the special interest groups fought to get at the front of the hand-out line.  Instead of bargaining for a larger chunk of the power to remain here, the activists and politicians chose to try and get some of those juicy profits for themselves.  It's a sad fact that, after a half century of decline, Buffalo can't figure out how to make money but it can smell a tax dollar half a state away and jump on it with both feet before the guy who earned it has had a chance to file his return.   

Punishing The Victim

Here's an example of the wrong solution to a real problem.  North District Common Council member Joseph Golombek, Jr. is proposing that Buffalo impound abandoned shopping carts and charge their owners a fee to get them back.  I suppose this this is the "deep-pockets" school of legislating -- that's the one where you don't punish the criminal, you nail the party which somehow allowed him to commit his crime -- usually a business.

Next thing you know, Golombek will be asking that we fine the owners of stolen cars which turn up illegally parked somewhere.  It's ludicrous.  Each one of those shopping carts can cost the supermarket more than $100.  People are stealing them and Joseph Golombek would fine the victims.  It's asinine, and catch this howler.

Golombek said he is not worried that such a law might be branded anti-business.

“We’re just trying to make sure our corporate neighbors are good citizens,” he said.

Well, Joe, in this case it's our regular neighbors who aren't behaving like good citizens.  The few corporate neighbors we've got left can do without any more harassment from City Hall then they get already.  Why don't you propose ticketing anyone seen pushing a shopping cart outside the supermarket's parking lot?

Oh I know, that would be a nightmare for the police, and you'd be criticized for harming the poor and the homeless.  But it would address the problem honestly, and if you can't do that then just quit grandstanding and leave it alone. 

 

We Have A Dream

The Common Council has laid out its priorities for the coming year.

Lifting the wage freeze, hiring more police officers and improving neighborhoods are among the things the Common Council would like to see in the coming year.

   Seven lawmakers held a news conference this afternoon to outline 36 priorities for the fiscal year that starts July 1. They include installing surveillance cameras at crime hot spots, boosting recycling efforts and taking steps to spur economic development.

But, as the Buffalo News notes, they did "not address strategies for financing the initiatives."  All the easier to blame a lack of results on the eeevil control board, I suppose.

What If You Passed A Law And No One Enforced It?

The Buffalo News editorial board quite sensibly raps Demone Smith's knuckles.

The use of harmful artificial fats is indeed a health issue that diners should be aware of, and should be a factor in their individual choice of restaurants. But to make that an effective government edict here, either funding would have to be allocated to the county for enforcement or elected city officials would have to come up with some way to propose and create a separate city health department to enforce the ban.

That need for funding is especially troubling in a region already battling excessive governmental costs. This is a proposed law that is not only too narrowly targeted but has the potential of becoming another idea that's never enforced

It brings to mind David Franczyk's brilliant suggestion last year to ban the installation of loud, car stereos within the city limits of Buffalo.  As if Cheektowaga and Amherst weren't a mile or two away.  Gets their names in the paper, though. 

Good Idea, Wrong Place -- Wrong Time

The idea of a vastly expanded downtown ECC campus is very attractive.  6,000 students, 1/3 of who might even live down there, would be an incredible addition to downtown activity.  Trouble is, there is one, well two, problems.

We don't need it and we can't afford it.

If there were an agreed-upon plan to phase out the Hamburg and Williamsville campuses, then this might make sense.  I've always thought it incredibly wasteful for a broke county to support three community colleges.  But they're not going away.  Suburban residents are quite happy with their two bucolic campi and won't permit them to be closed. Right or wrong, they just are not keen on sending their kids (or themselves for that matter) downtown for a junior college education.

Besides, Erie County is crawling with colleges and universties, and they're nowhere near full.  In a shrinking county, a project like this one might even harm those existing institutions.  Look, no young person desiring to better his or her future need fear going without an education because we didn't go further in hock to build them another.

Then there's that little matter of the cost, $45 million.  Enough said.

I'm afraid that, as enticing as it sounds, this idea is nothing more than Joel Giambra's legacy-maker.  We don't have enough money to pay for what we already have and we'll be damned lucky to find the bucks to pay for new infrastructure that we really need.  Improving the core of the city is great but not so much if it's only supported by even more tax dollars.

We're finally seeing development downtown that isn't government-sponsored, better maybe we encourage more rather than just latching on to the latest political big-spending scheme.

A Tree Grows On Mass Ave

The Buffalo News estimates that the City paid 50% to 85% more for storm debris clean-up than Amherst did.  Amherst Town Supervisor Mohan is to be praised for his attention to costs and Buffalo Mayor Brown is to be lauded for his quick action.  I've been pleased and not a little amazed at the speed with which Buffalo has been relighted, pruned and cleaned up.

While Buffalo certainly can't afford to waste money, it's still true that generations of city residents have left in part due to the dismal provision of basic public services.  Brown and Joseph Giambra made a decision to move quickly on the clean-up and they were wise.  The city is much more dependent on clear sidewalks than the suburbs and with on-street parking more common than not, there was little room or time to let piles of tree branches linger at the curb.

But add to my amazement over the swift clean-up the fact that upon arriving home from work just four days after the storm, I found that two brand-new garbage totes had been delivered (the old ones were stolen.)   Now, it's true that it had been a couple months since I'd reported them missing (this isn't a fairy-tale,) but there was a time when I would have dismissed any chance that City Hall would even remember I'd filed a complaint.

That they were delivered even as National Grid labored to restore power and the very first tree-crews were just showing up was testimony to a real change.  And -- now, I hate to sound gushy here, you'll recall I campaigned hard against Byron Brown -- when I got home from work just yesterday, a new tree had been planted in front of the house next door to replace one that came down during the storm.  I kid you not.

Whoever said "all politics is local" was right. I can't recall just at the moment who that was, but he was very wise.  He must have been a Republican.

Brown Continues To Amaze Me

A couple days ago I complimented Buffalo Mayor Brown and I'm about to do it again. 

I have been very pleased (and not a little surprised) all week as I've listened to the parade of post-storm press conferences held by local officials.  Every day Mr. Brown has come to the microphone prepared, calm and professional. 

While Giambra was begging for the National Guard, Brown said he thought Buffalo could do without it.  When Amherst couldn't decide whether clean-up would cost $1 million or $50 million, Brown already had a preliminary number and you got the impression it was backed up by some research.  In fact the entire spectacle of Amherst's board arguing with Mohan contrasted sharply with the Common Council's blessed silence.  Whether true or not, you're left with the impression that City government is working as one.

And I'm seeing results, too.

My little corner of the West Side had power restored within two days (not that Brown did that, but it did contribute to an impression of competency somewhere) and tree clean-up crews have been combing the neighborhood today preparing it for the start of school Monday.  After 15 years of watching friends move out of Buffalo because the city services were so poor, I feel just the slightest spark of hope that someone's been elected who might change that.

You see, as Buffalo's arguably most conservative remaining Republican, I judge government by the results that it gets more than by the goals it claims to strive for.  I expect that sooner or later Byron Brown will set some goals I disagree with, but if, in the meantime, he continues to improve the services that only local government can provide -- and cleaning up after major storms is exactly one of those -- he will continue to prove a refreshing change from decades of cronyism and incompetence.  More than any downtown apartments or waterfront development, Buffalo's hopes lie in its reputation for delivering those services.

I want to  mention one other thing Mayor Brown did this week.  He went out to the Eastern Hills Mall where the utilities have set up their staging area for the thousands of workers they've brought in.  He met with the crews, inspected the temporary logistics facilities and thanked them all for their efforts.  Now, for those of you who live outside the area, that may not seem like much.

But in my 15 years in Buffalo, I've never known a mayor of Buffalo to actually show up in the suburbs and let the press know about it.  For some reason, it's just not been done.  In this case, it was absolutely the right thing to do and for the first time ever, I was actually proud of my Mayor.

As If He Were A Mime

Just watched Mayor Brown's latest news conference.  What's up with Sam Hoyt?  He was making more faces than Hillary at a State of the Union Address.