I live in Buffalo, Allentown to be exact, and I plan on staying here. Because my future is here in Buffalo I spend a lot of time worrying over the various developments, and disasters affecting the city.

Fighting against the hotel is the wrong battle. Please let's put our energy toward stopping the downtown Casino, preventing the anti-pedestrian federal courthouse from being built on Niagara Square, Let's fight the new Health now building and demand it be more urban and pedestrian oriented, let's extend metro rail to UB North and the Airport, lets help expand the good areas of the city and make it somewhere people want to live and visit.

I want to address some of the myths surrounding this hotel issue. Many of which have been covered in great detail in the newest Artvoice, a fantastic read for anyone looking to investigate this issue.

1) The hotel will not get enough business and is doomed to fail:
The Albright Knox, and Buffalo State administrators are ecstatic about the prospects of a nearby hotel. When Albright Knox has an art opening the place will be full, currently the mansion on Delaware fills up, and after that the Hampton inn downtown, the next option is by the airport. Nobody traveling in from out of town to go see an art exhibit wants to stay next to the airport with a room overlooking highways and drainage ditches. right? They want to stay in the city and see what the city has to offer, this part of Buffalo is a great introduction for out-of-towners who know little about Buffalo besides that it snows here. There are about 10 art openings per year, that's at least 10 times that the hotel will definitely reach maximum capacity. Buff State attracts visitors for graduation and the many events it hosts at the Burchfield, their new performing arts center, and elsewhere on campus. Not to mention prospective students coming for open house, and par rents coming to town to visit their child and participate in the various planned activities that colleges do with students families, homecoming, and etc. Both the Albright and Buff State reserve rooms for their guests, donors speakers and artists that are invited to town. Savarino knows that this is a safe bet.

2) The Hotel will destroy the urban setting and feel of Elmwood:
This is the definition of friendly urban design. It's a mixed use building with retail on the first floor and people on the upper floors to patronize the businesses. That criticism is the most baffling thing about this. It seems that no matter what is proposed the public is against it. It's like the boy who cried wolf, we're opposing every project that is proposed, so when something really dangerous is about to happen, like a downtown casino, nobody will take us seriously because we ALWAYS complain. And we don't just raise the very legitimate concerns like parking and property values, we say "NO, put it elsewhere, how about in the suburbs" ... I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but that's really bad. It hurts the city, Our city. Don't build it, put it in the suburbs? I hope nobody takes you seriously.

I have a 4 story building on my corner (pictures below), what's the problem? Dense residential is great, it helps the businesses survive. I have a big grocery store on the other side of Elmwood that I use about 3 times per week, it couldn't survive without the dense residential buildings across the street from it. Having that Grocery store there makes life in Allentown better. You need more people and more density up there in the village, it would be a change for the better.

3) Building or not building this hotel will not effect the rest of the city.
I'll simplify it this way; Buffalo has 2 main objectives, 1) to keep people from moving out of depressed areas and leaving the city, and 2) encouraging people to move into and expand the good areas. Millions of possibilities exist to accomplish these goals, the hotel is a big step toward encouraging and expanding the good areas of the city. investment follows investment, if developers see success they know that if they invest in the area they will be safe too.

The reason I live in Allentown instead of further north on Elmwood is because you just don't have the businesses necessary to live an urban lifestyle. When I come home from work I park my car, and I don't need to move it until I go back to work. I walk to get everything I need, that is the appeal of cities, and it's what makes Buffalo better than West Seneca or Amherst. It's what some people are looking for, and when they realize they can pay $500 per month in Buffalo for what costs $1700 in NYC, or $1300 in Chicago there is a huge incentive to choose Buffalo. But so far Buffalo has few really walkable and pleasant urban areas.



AMENDED with my comment to Paul's concerns about the gentrification of the Elmwood Village:
"Home of the Hits is actually NOT being torn down. The buildings north of it are. I was excited to hear that since it is probably the best and most useful business on that strip.

Yours is a very real concern, it's the flipside of a city that is improving, prices go up. But I would rather have my city improve, than see Buffalo's urban real estate stay one of the lowest priced in the nation. It will grow from Elmwood outward toward Grant and Main St, and I for one am willing pioneer into the edges of a neighborhood and invest in a home.

I want to buy a home on the lower west side, or just west of Richmond and help the Elmwood / Allen areas further improve by being involved in my community. I'll take a hands on approach to bettering my neighborhood, because I think this community is great and I want other people to come in and appreciate it too. When new businesses and new people feel secure moving into the area, that means I have succeeded.

If you're worried about low cost housing and amenities there are other ways to address the issue. The Co-op Mansion on North and Elmwood is a good housing solution, or move into an apartment building instead of a two family home. As for retail, the demand for inexpensive rents will always be there, and building owners will take the opportunity to start opening basement and side-street commercial spaces.

It is possible for upscale visitors to coexist with the current environment. We should at least give them a chance."



Compare My corner, which is very comfortable and welcoming in my eyes.



to the hotel corner


also looks like a great spot to live or visit.




I'm going to close with a quote from Tim Tillman as published in the Artvoice article. For those who don't know Tillman could well be described as "THE" Preservationist of Buffalo, he heads the Campaign for Buffalo History, Architecture & Culture, and is constantly sticking his neck out for Buffalo's history and future.

"I support the hotel," said Tielman. "We did have concerns about the project initially, and when we spoke to them they addressed our concerns on a number of issues-scale, mass, the color of the building. I met with Karl Frizlen, the architect, and Savarino and explained our concerns about the bulkiness of the building, sound, light, issues like that. And they did address them. So it's not like we looked at it uncritically-it's not like we just went 'Yahoo, we're getting a hotel.'

"This project expresses things we've been preaching. It exchanges retail for retail and it adds to the number of people occupying the block. Instead of residents they happen to be hotel guests, but it's putting more people on the sidewalk, which we like.

"And demolishing those buildings Hans Mobius owns is different than the Atwater case," Tielman added, referring to the fight he led against restaurateur Pano Giorgiadis' plan to demolish the Atwater house, which is on the same block. "What makes the Atwater case different is that it's the oldest house on the block, it's rare, architecturally significant and compelling."

Speaking of the Atwater, it's worth noting that an online petition to stop the hotel project had only 72 signatures as of Wednesday, March 1. Compare that to the online petition against the demolition of the Atwater, which more than 6,000 people signed.

"But one of the things I like most about the proposed hotel project," Tielman continued, "is the process that Savarino has engaged in. Having attended both the meeting for the proposed new Buff State Burchfield-Penney Art Center on Saturday and the one for the Elmwood Village Hotel on the following Tuesday, I can't tell you how different these two meetings were. The difference was day and night.

"On Saturday, Buffalo State was arrogant; they didn't want to entertain any idea that somehow their design wasn't the best. Their attitude was that their architect is an Olympian figure and, heaven forbid, they didn't want to change anything that this person very close to God had come up with. It was unimaginable to them.

"On the other hand, Savarino established that their meeting was to get information from the community; that they want to build a hotel and what do you people think? I was just amazed, and I told city officials who were there, I said, 'Man, I just can't believe the difference between these two meetings.' And the Tuesday meeting with Savarino was much better attended and there were a lot of emotions. But things played out much better at the meeting for the hotel, and that had a lot to do with the receptivity of the developer to making changes."

This is one of the things I love about the internet, you can go to the primary source and get the information for yourself. You don't have to rely on cnn and radio show hosts to reinterpret it. I've been reading news articles and listening to people talk about this stuff all day.

Here's the video.
It's hosted by Crooks and Liars, my new favorite website. also check out the video of John Stewart on Lary King, and Arianna Huffington, and Bush interviewed about Katrina on ABC .


"Federal officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief of possible devastation just before Hurricane Katrina struck. Six days of video footage from briefings and transcripts were obtained by The Associated Press. The warnings were that the storm could breach levees, risk lives in the New Orleans Superdome and overwhelm rescuers.A-P reports Bush didn't ask any questions during the final government-wide briefing the day before Katrina struck on August 29th"

The day after the mosque was blown up in Iraq and the "sectarian violence" or civil war began, the news provided us with a number of known dead. The day after the bombing I woke up and the headline said 111 dead so far, later in the day it was around 134 dead. then the number stopped being widely reported. Damage control? well of course, there's more outrageous political manipulations to talk about than this, but today the Washington post gave us a peek at the numbers game

"Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari said Tuesday that the death toll provided to The Washington Post by morgue workers -- more than 1,300 dead since last Wednesday -- was "inaccurate and exaggerated." Jafari said the toll was 379. Gen. Ali Shamarri of the Interior Ministry's statistics department put the toll at 1,077."

But you know, I think this whole civil war thing is "made up by the media" what about you Rupert?

Trent Lott is straight up "offended" by Bush's veto threat, you gotta watch this video. it shows you exactly how much the president's own Republican Party is getting annoyed by his imperial attitude.

Crooks and Liars has the Movie Here

I'm very thankful I could be a part of the event. Great group of people. and it was great to put Internet personalities together with the real thing. Great to meet (e:Paul) Buffalo Pundit Zack Schneider Cynthia Van Ness and others. Thanks again For the invitation Paul, it was a great experience.

Everyone had great stuff to share, there was really a wealth of ideas and talent there. Aside from 3created who realy didn't have a good product. but it was great to see and hear everyone else. I got a lot out of Zack Schneider's talk he definitely does great stuff with web design.

I always like doing speaking engagements, this was my first in Buffalo. Of course they make you nervous, but I accept that, and I know that throughout life I will have to do public speaking, and the more practice I get the better. I Learned a lot this time, for one I hardly looked at my notes, part of the reason was that I couldn't read them in that setting, and the other part was that following words on paper just wasn't going to help get my point across. unfortunately I think I left a lot out of my presentation due to my lack of adequate notes. next time, bullet points, and 25pt font size!

But since I painstakingly typed up notes for my presentation here they are.



Notes From my Geek Meet Presentation:
Politics and the Buffalo Internet

I'm going to talk about What kinds of websites exist in WNY, where they came from and what their role is in shaping the public discourse as well as how they are putting pressure on the local government.

First a little bit about my Background, BA Political Science, started Masters at UB but I left that for the New Media Design Program � at the same time I got internship for Brian Higgins, to see what it was like behind the scenes.

As For My Web Design background, I started coding in notepad, and am currently using CSS PHP and other basic languages that I've learned at UB.

Also participate by writing for WNY Media, for almost a year.

So Regarding Politics and the Buffalo Web,
the Internet has Suddenly emerged as an important medium for local politics and news.

Technology has progressed to make Internet Publishing easier and more affordable,

And over the past year many important websites have been started, but a big factor in the rise of the Buffalo Internet is that Local news has been so interesting.

The Buffalo Mayoral Race kind of solidified and encouraged all the alternative news websites. But also
Erie County's fiscal crisis - Downtown Casino - Waterfront Development - Increasing investment in city neighborhoods.

Lots of issues have pushed local news to the front of peoples minds.

More Western New Yorkers are paying attention to local politics,
meaning more people want to talk about and read about local politics.

People have gone beyond simply reading the Buffalo News, and watching the major news channels. Now they are finding news online.

For example a site like WNY Media, gets over 30,000 hits per day,
it is also listed under Google news,
and it is more popular than all four TV news network websites.

Meaning that online news readership has grown tremendously. STOP

Lets think about who is reading online news.

some are just concerned community members like myself, but journalists and politicians also make up a significant part of online news readership.

Politicians and Journalists have a vested interest in public sentiment, and perception of different issues.
Journalists want to know what people are talking about, so that they can produce more Attractive News Coverage.

Politicians want to get reelected, so they want to make sure that they know about public discontent and can either cover their butt, or proactively address a winning issue.

If for example someone writes an article about Brian Higgins or one of his issues, Brian and the people who work for him are going to want to know what is said. It's their job to stay connected to the public and make sure that their candidate looks good.

When I was working in Higgins office, I got an email on Buffalo Issue Alerts listserv and that same day one of Higgins staff was talking about the e-mail, calling somebody to find out if the issue had been addressed, quoting the e-mail. I asked her if she was on the Buffalo Issue Alerts listserv and she said that she tries to keep up with everything she can, and she also gets forwards from people, e-mails and news articles that might be important to the Brian Higgins Team.

Ok, I've mentioned some of the local websites, and I'd like to show you some of them, and get into specifics.


Examples:



WNY Media Network:
About one year old
30,000 hits per day, just wnymedia
Site ranks higher on a daily basis than all 4 local TV stations
Started email � budget disaster - > website
Wordpress Blogs sponsored through the site, Judy, Buffalo Pundit 12 total regularly updated
Many Writers on main site, easy to get involved.
ie. My articles
Buffalo News Part of the problem � 238 reads
Impeaching the President � 878 reads
Relevant articles get 70 reads in 2 days
Joe Illuzzi Front page Buffalo News, Beast broke story originally.
Members meeting in person who never knew each other before the websites started.
Reporters contacting webmasters about community happenings. Marc "all the time"
Helping local community endeavors, "Save Santaland"
Marc fired from channel 2
"we have grown from 1 site less than a year ago to 12 quality daily updated websites. We
have all grown closer as friends in the process and I have met dozens if not hundreds of people through our website. We continuously get tips and information from people"





Buffalo Rising:
1 year May 2004
Started with a blogger account to supliment their small free magazine.
Quickly increasing number of visitors. About one third as popular as WNY Media
on par with WBEN Radio News website.
Very relevant, talks about community development and positive points.
Publicity given on B Rising definitely helps issues.
Community meetings, Charity gatherings, arts, etc


Speakup WNY:
2.5 years may 2003
Very popular twice WNY Media, but focused on discussion board.
Skewed statistics because small number of people checking their posts.
Relevant but focused on community discussion, can be chaotic.


Buffalo Issue Alerts:
3.5 years 2002
List Serv 300 subscribers
Started from local concerns and e-mail
Ideas frequently picked up by Buffalo Rising
Promoted petitions through listserv, to save Antwater House, and prevent gates circle Walgreans


Buffalo Pundit:
Buffalo Pundit nearly 2 years. Started before to promote Wes Clark for President,
About 1000 visitors per day, higher on weekdays
Illuzzi Webstats Story picked up
Hosted 2 "BloggerCon" events many locals attended both
Promoted petitions by others



Fix Buffalo:
1 year Oct 2004
Lives on near east side
300 visitors per day 130 subscribers
Interviewed by News and Artvoice about Woodlawn Row houses
"I've met more people this past year in decision making rolls than I would have otherwise."
"upset that the City of Buffalo could hold private property owners to a higher standard than they use themselves in maintaining real property."



Politics WNY:
7.5 years old 1998
Somewhat popular.
Snail Mail turned into e-mail, website, new magazine.

One thing I can say is, I'm glad I don't work in the whitehouse right now. News today of Iraq possibly drifting into Civil War because one of the holiest shia shrines in Iraq had it's dome blown off...

wow, it makes me realy sad to think about what's next.. I know peopple are talking about civil war... I can't wrap my mind around it, what a horrible situation.

meanwhile it makes me feel bad for the whitehouse too, throw in the other big news that Dick Cheney shot he friend with birdshot, and this whole Port issue with national security... man, that's stress.
I mean could you imagine being all embarrassed because you're the vice president and you just shot your friend in the face, then the whole congress Republican and Democrat is pissed off at you for turning over our ports to a questionable nation. and then.. after all that you wake up to find out that someone just blew the giant gold dome off of one of the holiest shia mosques.

But then again, the bush regime is much better off than the people who are actually dying in the streets, because of GOP incompetence. Dying in America and overseas.

this entry could have also been entitled "Bush: off his Rocker" because not only does Bush have no clothes, he's dropping hints that he is actually naked.

As I posted last week [inlink]dcoffee,53[/inlink] 6 US ports are in the process of being sold to DP World, a state owned company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Wondering WTF is the UAE? Well if you remember a few years ago, some planes flew into the world trade center in NYC, the pentagon and etc. there were 19 hijackers none were from Iraq, 16 were from Saudi Arabia, and 2 of those hijackers were from the UAE. in addition, the funding for the September 11 hijackers came largely through UAE banks. And when we wanted to investigate the financial sources of these terrorists the UAE refused to cooperate, no data from UAE. Seems a little fucked up to open our borders to these guys.

Plus The UAE has transported nuclear materials to Iran, North Korea, and Lybia among other countries. Huh? They are heavily involved in shipping, some of that activity involves transporting Nuclear materials to the "Axis of Evil"? Nothing wrong with that?!?!?!


Well Guess what, congress and the media have actually picked up on this story and are looking for answers. Republican leaders Bill Frist and Dennis Hastert are asking to delay the transaction, yea that's right the majority leader of the house and the speaker in the senate. Frist said he would introduce a bill to delay the sale if Bush refused to give the sale further consideration.

Bush's response to the criticism,
"There's a mandated process we go through. ... They ought to listen to what I have to say to this. I'll deal with it with a veto,"

Bush has never vetoed any bill, but he will veto this one. Smart, very smart, way to go George.



"I can understand why some in Congress have raised questions about whether or not our country will be less secure as a result of this transaction,'' the president said. ``But they need to know that our government has looked at this issue and looked at it carefully.''
Oh, nevermind, the president has checked it out and everything is fine.

In reality, it took 25 days for the sale to go through. You think I'm bullshitting you?
UPDATE: Rumsfeld never even heard about the deal until this past weekend so much for government oversight.


well George I hope you'll forgive us if we don't trust you on this one. with Iraq Osama and Katrina on our minds, you don't look so trustworthy Bucko. in fact you look like a miserable failure.

The party of national security my fat ass. this is the party of profit. Remember the bush clan has strong ties to middle eastern businesses and businesses through the Carlyle group. I suspect someone is making some serious bucks .

National Security is the Neo Con's last card, and Bush just let it fall out of his sleeve onto the poker table. the Truth is that the Free market is loyal only to profit, that means international corporations. Bush doesn't just hate black people, he hates America my friends. he doesn't give a flying fuck about any of you.


CNN

Guardian UK

Nice Quotes from Lawmakers in opposition

one of the great things about Internet News is that you can embed your sources directly into the text. This enables the reader to get more thou roughly informed about an issue, and it also gives the article some legitimacy by making all the facts verifiable. many people thing if you got some piece of news from the "web" it's automatically suspect, probably a bunch of nonsense. Blog sites like Think Progress and Huffington Post are great examples of this. it's easy to wrap your mind around an issue by following some of the links in the text to get more info.

Check out Think Progress:
and Huffington Post:

From Democracy Now!

John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," will talk about his former work, going into various countries to try to strongarm leaders into creating policy favorable to the U.S government and corporations. Perkins describes himself as an economic hit man.

JOHN PERKINS: We economic hit men, during the last 30 or 40 years, have really created the world's first truly global empire, and we've done this primarily through economics, and the military only coming in as a last resort. Therefore, it's been done pretty much secretly. Most of the people in the United States have no idea that we've created this empire and, in fact, throughout the world it's been done very quietly, unlike old empires, where the army marched in; it was obvious. So I think the significance of the things you discussed, the fact that over 80% of the population of South America recently voted in an anti-U.S. president and what's going on at the World Trade Organization, and also, in fact, with the transit strike here in New York, is that people are beginning to understand that the middle class and the lower classes around the world are being terribly, terribly exploited by what I call the corporatocracy, which really runs this empire.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, before we move further, your experience with it? Explain the vantage point you come from. What does it mean to be an economic hit man?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, what we've done -- we use many techniques, but probably the most common is that we'll go to a country that has resources that our corporations covet, like oil, and we'll arrange a huge loan to that country from an organization like the World Bank or one of its sisters, but almost all of the money goes to the U.S. corporations, not to the country itself, corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton, General Motors, General Electric, these types of organizations, and they build huge infrastructure projects in that country: power plants, highways, ports, industrial parks, things that serve the very rich and seldom even reach the poor. In fact, the poor suffer, because the loans have to be repaid, and they're huge loans, and the repayment of them means that the poor won't get education, health, and other social services, and the country is left holding a huge debt, by intention. We go back, we economic hit men, to this country and say, "Look, you owe us a lot of money. You can't repay your debts, so give us a pound of flesh. Sell our oil companies your oil real cheap or vote with us at the next U.N. vote or send troops in support of ours to some place in the world such as Iraq." And in that way, we've managed to build a world empire with very few people actually knowing that we've done this.

AMY GOODMAN: And you worked for?

JOHN PERKINS: I was recruited by the National Security Agency, the one that's in the news so much today because of spying on people, and I was tested by them, recruited by them --

AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean you were recruited by them?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, while I was a senior in business school at Boston University, they came to me and suggested that I take their test. I had connections through my wife with people in the agency, and they put me through a series of tests, personality tests, lie detector, several days, and concluded that I would make a good economic hit man, and they also discovered a number of weaknesses in my character, which they could use then to hook me into the business, and then I ended up working for a private corporation.

AMY GOODMAN: Why didn't you work for the N.S.A.?

JOHN PERKINS: Because these days it's not done that way. Nobody wants to be able to connect the dots. So the N.S.A., the C.I.A., these types of organizations often recruit economic hit men and the jackals, the assassins, the 007 types, but they will recruit us, maybe train us, and then turn us over to a private corporation, so that you really can't make the connection, so that if I were caught at what I was doing in one of these countries, it would not reflect on our government; it would only reflect on the corporation that I worked for.

AMY GOODMAN: And who did you work for?

JOHN PERKINS: I worked for a company called Charles T. Main, a big consulting firm out of Boston.

AMY GOODMAN: And your job?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, I started off as economist, became chief economist, and my job really – I had a staff of several dozen people. My job was to get them, and for me to convince these countries to accept these very large loans, to get the banks to make the loans, to set up the deal so that the money went to big U.S. corporations. The country was left holding a huge debt, and then I would go in or one of my people would go in and say, "Look, you know, you owe us all this money. You can't pay your debts. Give us that pound of flesh."

The other thing we do, Amy, and what's going on right now in Latin America is that as soon as one of these anti-American presidents is elected, such as Evo Morales, who you mentioned, in Bolivia, one of us goes in and says, "Hey, congratulations, Mr. President. Now that you're president, I just want to tell you that I can make you very, very rich, you and your family. We have several hundred million dollars in this pocket if you play the game our way. If you decide not to, over in this pocket, I've got a gun with a bullet with your name on it, in case you decide to keep your campaign promises and throw us out."

AMY GOODMAN: Well, explain actually how that plays out, because it's not really in this pocket and that.

JOHN PERKINS: No, it's – what I'm saying is that, you know, I can make sure that this man makes a great deal of money, he and his family, through contracts, through various quasi-legal means, and I can also – if he doesn't accept this, you know, the same thing is going to happen to him that happened to Jaime Roldos in Ecuador and Omar Torrijos in Panama and Allende in Chile, and we tried to do it to Chavez in Venezuela and are still trying – that we will send in the people to try to overthrow him, as, in fact, we recently did with the President of Ecuador, or if we don't overthrow him, we'll assassinate him. And these people all know the history. They know that this has happened many, many, many times in the past.

---

The Rest of the interview on Democracy Now!

Six US Ports have been sold to United Arab Emirates company DP World. That's right, US ports in the continental United States, Miami, New York and Philadelphia to be exact, have been sold to a Middle Eastern nation. Port security is not America's strong suit in the war against terrorism, so it's a little troubling that we will now have even less control over six of them.

The Seattle times has the scoop from before the sale "A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six U.S. ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism."

My opinion: The free market will not solve all of the problems in the world. Many conservatives seem to put far too much faith in market forces. We can talk about Enron and California's energy crisis, or the skyrocketing cost of healthcare, or any number of other problems facing us today, the point is that the free market can be a problem rather than a solution. This time it is making us more vulnerable to a terrorist attack.