Categories for Outrages & Insights

Dec 5

2012

Good plan off to bad start

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There’s a lot to like about the blueprint for spending $1 billion in state aid to revitalize the Western New York economy that was released Tuesday. I’d feel better about the plan’s prospects, however, if Gov. Andrew Cuomo hadn’t used its release to announce a heavily subsidized deal to bring 250 jobs here that smacks of the business-as-usual, smokestack-chasing approach that has failed us in the past. Let me get my skepticism out of the way up front. The state has agreed to spend $50 million on a biomedical facility and equipment to accommodate an expansion of Albany Molecular Research to[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Nov 15

2012

Transparency is the best policy

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Note: This post was written in November 2012 and has been amended to reflect a change in the presidency of Investigative Post. Dan Telvock, our environmental reporter, has a new report about the failure of the Department of Environmental Conservation to aggressively act on requests to enforce state law at the Peace Bridge that prohibits trucks from idling. It is the first in a series of stories that Dan intends to produce regarding the Peace Bridge. In many ways, covering the Peace Bridge makes perfect sense for Investigative Post, although it is not without complications, for reasons I’ll explain in[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Oct 24

2012

Not the same as the old boss

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These are about to be interesting times at the Buffalo News. I say this because for the first time in decades—maybe forever—the paper has gone outside to hire an editor. Margaret Sullivan, who started at the News as an intern, held the editor’s job for 13 years before leaving in August for the New York Times, where she works as the public editor. Her predecessor, Murray B. Light, held the top job for 20 years, plus a lengthy stretch when he split a shared editorship. The legendary Alfred Kirchhofer ran the newsroom for 39 years. Put another way, factoring out[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Aug 8

2012

White hue of Brown’s cabinet extends to politics, policy

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Byron Brown’s track record of hiring African Americans administrators – he doesn’t, for the most part – is surprising until you put it in a larger context. An analysis by Sue Schulman of The Buffalo News two weeks ago showed blacks account for only one of 12 commissioners, all of whom operate under the heavy hand of Deputy Mayor Steve Casey, who, is, well, let’s just say it’s doubtful he’s got Dr. Dre or Lil Wayne loaded in his CD player. Yes, the Brown administration is hiring more women and people of color for lower-level positions, and that should not[...]

Posted 13 years ago

Jun 21

2012

Democracy and demagoguery

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Kevin Gaughan is challenging Sean Ryan for the 149th Assembly seat. Good. I mean this as no disrespect towards Ryan. Rather, he was essentially handed the seat last year when Sam Hoyt stepped down to head up Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s economic development and political operations for Western New York. There were no party primaries for the vacant seat and Ryan cruised over a weak Republican opponent in the September special election. Sorry, but that’s not the way it’s supposed to work. Folks other than a handful of Democratic Party insiders ought to have a say in who holds elected office,[...]

Posted 13 years ago

May 31

2012

The rap (sheet) on the Common Council

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Brian Davis’s plea to federal corruption charges Tuesday comes as no surprise. Neither does the Common Council’s appointment of a bartender to fill Mickey Kearn’s vacant seat. Such is the state of the Common Council. Jimmy Griffin used to call them the “Comical Council” back in the day and yes, they used to bicker a lot. But once upon a time, the Common Council had a core of stellar lawmakers—think Gene Fahey, Jim Pitts, and Dave Rutecki, among others, followed in later years by the likes of Brian Higgins and Kevin Helfer—who attempted to deal with serious issues and function[...]

Posted 13 years ago

May 23

2012

Making the case for more than a park

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The Outer Harbor represents Buffalo’s opportunity to get something big right. And what an opportunity it presents. Lake Erie out front. Downtown out back. Just a few miles from a busy international crossing. Is there another city in the nation that has such a prime piece of undeveloped real estate? There’s a push on to redevelop 120 acres of the Outer Harbor into a park. What’s not to love about a park? Well, in this case, several things, if all that’s developed is a park. Consider: Our winters pretty much assure that a stand-alone waterfront park would go largely unused[...]

Posted 13 years ago

May 7

2012

Byron Brown’s bridge over troubled water

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Momentum is building to do something with the Outer Harbor and just days after a group of  community activists called for developing its 120 acres into a park Mayor Byron Brown make a pitch for City Hall to play a role, perhaps a big one. The Outer Harbor is state land, controlled by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. The NFTA wants to get out of the real estate business, which has begged the question, who would assume responsibility for developing the property? Some think the task should fall to the Erie Harbor Canal Development Corp., a subsidiary of Empire State[...]

Posted 13 years ago
Investigative Post