Sep 10
2012
Regional Economic Development Council on Monday outlined progress in putting Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s pledge into action. Six targeted industry sectors and public initiatives have been identified, and over next two months the council will establish a five-year blueprint and select three to five “signature” projects that will be implemented next year.
Sep 9
2012
Rocco Termini is riding high these days. He recently completely a painstaking restoration of the Lafayette Hotel that is playing to rave reviews. He’s converting the Webb Building into a boutique hotel. And, if Gov. Andrew Cuomo agrees to increase state tax credits, he is poised to redevelop the AM&A’s building, a project long on the city’s “to do” list. Unlike most developers, Termini, president of Signature Development, is focused on downtown Buffalo. He’s developed some 400 apartments over the past decade, in addition to commercial projects. Rather than build new, Termini restores. Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed[...]
Sep 2
2012
Aaron Bartley is arguably Buffalo’s leading community activist, someone who has worked in the trenches since his college days. Bartley is a Buffalo native and graduate of City Honors, Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School. While at Harvard co-founded the Harvard Living Wage Campaign in support of the university’s service workers. He then served as labor organizer in SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign in Boston. Eight years ago, Bartley co-founded People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo), which has focused on organizing residents of the city’s West Side to improve employment opportunities and housing and other neighborhood conditions. PUSH Buffalo[...]
Jul 16
2012
Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed Allison Duwe, Executive Director of the Coalition for Economic Justice, on the plight of the 99%, corporate subsidies, and the aversion of local politicians to progressive policies. Duwe, in the interview that aired on WGRZ’s Sunday Daybreak, said: Western New York’s economic problems stem in part to too many residents working low-wage jobs and a concentration of the poor in the City of Buffalo. Adults, rather than teenagers, hold five of six minimum wage jobs. Economic subsidies across the state total about $3 billion a year and produce meager results. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s $1 billion initiative[...]
Jul 1
2012
Amherst IDA director explains why his agency does what it does, often to the chagrin of its critics; discusses what we’re doing right and wrong to improve the regional economy; and recommends more of an emphasis on promoting entrepreneurs and making the area attractive to the “creative class.”
Jul 1
2012
Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney interviewed Jim Allen, Executive Director of the Amherst Industrial Development Agency, on the state of the regional economy and some of the controversial projects that have been subsidized of late by local IDA’s. Allen, in the interview that aired on WGRZ’s Daybreak Sunday, said: The state is much better off focusing $1 billion in aid pledged by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to promote entrepreneurship and nurture a creative class in Western New York than on trying to lure manufacturers and other large companies to the region. The regional economy is more diversified and otherwise in better[...]
Jun 28
2012
Esteemed magazine strikes a positive tone about economic fortunes of upstate’s two largest cities.
May 7
2012
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[...]