Tag: economic development

Sep 2

2012

Interview: Activist Aaron Bartley

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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[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Jul 16

2012

Interview: Allison Duwe of Coalition for Economic Justice

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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[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Jul 1

2012

Complete Jim Allen interview

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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.”

Posted 12 years ago

Jul 1

2012

Interview: IDA chief Jim Allen

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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[...]

Posted 12 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 12 years ago

May 2

2012

Notes on the news

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My take on recent developments: There’s a movement afoot to redevelop the outer harbor into a park. Doing so would give Western New Yorkers a grand 120 acre playground in the summer – and a 120 acre wasteland in the winter, and a good part of the spring and fall, too. Should a good chunk of the 120 acres provide the public access to its waterfront? Absolutely. Can that be done while still accommodating development that could not only attract visitors year-round but add to the city’s tax base? Absolutely. Are the two objectives mutually exclusive? Absolutely not. Nearly everyone[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Apr 19

2012

IDA deals trigger backlash

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The Erie County Industrial Development Agency has put a moratorium on granting tax breaks to hotels. The Lancaster IDA is having second thoughts about proposed tax breaks for a pizzeria. Labor unions are challenging the hiring practices at a Niagara Falls company that received property  in tax breaks in 2010. After years of “full steam ahead,” local IDAs are starting to have second thoughts about business as usual. That’s not to say they’ve necessarily changed their ways – questionable projects continue to get the green light more often than not – but there’s been an unmistakenable swing in momentum. “IDAs[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Apr 5

2012

Lessons for Buffalo from a boomtown

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Buffalo is not Austin, Texas, and never will be. They bake. We freeze. They have Lance Armstrong. We had OJ. They don’t pay state income taxes. We do. Oh boy, do we. But I’ve come away from two visits to Austin since last summer thinking there are lessons to be learned. The Texas capital is booming. Austin proper added some 160,000 residents between 2001 and 2010, up 20 percent. Only one major metro area grew at a faster pace. The region also added jobs at a faster rate than any major metro area in the nation over the past eight[...]

Posted 12 years ago
Investigative Post

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