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Mar 27

2014

Chippewa Street is a red blight district

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Last week I wrote about the overflowing trash bins up and down Chippewa Street that greeted fans in town for the NCAA basketball tournament. That did not make it an unusual week for the downtown entertainment strip – actually, it was a typical one. The truth is, Chippewa is dirty, smelly and uninviting most of the time. I know because I walk the street five, sometimes six days a week. I park workdays at WGRZ on Delaware Avenue and walk up Chippewa to my office on Pearl Street. I retrace my steps on the way home in the evening. In[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Mar 26

2014

Air pollution a major killer

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Air pollution killed 7 million worldwide last year, the World Health Organization reports. Put another way: dirty air is associated with one in eight deaths. While the problem is more prevalent in rapidly developing Third World nations, we in WNY deal with the problem, as well. A story from the New York Times.

Posted 11 years ago

Mar 24

2014

Sheldon Silver is no liberal

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He’s been protecting male lawmakers who sexually harass female employees for years. Now comes a report that the Assembly speaker has used his influence to thwart development that would have brought low-income residents to Silver’s neighborhood. A report from The New York Times.

Posted 11 years ago

Mar 22

2014

Clearing the Delaware North HQ site

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Demolition crews are in the home stretch of work to clear the northwest corner of Delaware Avenue and Chippewa Street for construction of new corporate headquarters for Delaware North. The project involves at least $10.6 million in tax breaks for the project developer, Uniland, and Delaware North, which will be the building’s primary tenant.

Posted 11 years ago

Mar 22

2014

The State of Investigative Post, 2014

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Investigative Post recently celebrated its second anniversary and I want to use the occasion to recap the past year and provide a peek of what lies ahead in 2014. When I contemplated leaving The Buffalo News several years ago I wrestled with the prospect of losing the platform that comes with writing for the largest media outlet in the region. That was no small consideration because journalism, to have value, must have impact, and to have impact, must reach a broad audience. Using those benchmarks, Investigative Post had a successful second year, and is poised to have an even better[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Mar 21

2014

Scajaquada Creek: a Buffalo toilet

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Scajaquada Creek meanders through Buffalo’s most-prized park and yet it reeks of sewage and chemicals. This creek is literally a toilet, especially after heavy rainfall. Don’t believe me? Have a look for yourself: I snapped this photograph last summer while riding my bike through Delaware Park near Hoyt Lake. I smelled something putrid and this was the source. The chemical trails made rainbows in the water. Fish, some several feet long, ate the decay and whatever else was in this mess. I came back 30 minutes later and a group of immigrants  had dropped their fishing lines near here. Raw sewage overflows[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Mar 21

2014

Belated Chippewa Street cleanup

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Rain washed away the stale beer and vomit and city crews finally emptied overflowing trash receptacles along Chippewa Street on Wednesday after Investigative Post and WGRZ pointed out the poor impression conditions were leaving on basketball fans visiting Buffalo for the NCAA tournament.

Posted 11 years ago
Investigative Post