I've been volunteering with Westminster Economic Development Initiative since last summer helping low-income people start up small businesses on the West Side . It's really neat work that helps people become financially independent and create wealth-building assets, as well as stabilizes the neighborhood by occupying previously empty storefronts and creating economic activity where there wasn't any before.

In collaboration with MicroBiz Buffalo, Councilmember Rivera's office, Grant-Ferry Association, and other West Side groups, WEDI is working on a bazaar, a kind of retail incubator. We're providing one-on-one mentoring and workshops to help wanna-be entrepreneurs do it right from the start. This includes a creating business plan and cash-flow projection, getting a sales tax certificate of authority, health dept licenses, other permits & licenses that the biz might need, working on customs/import issues, etc. The location is still up in the air, but is starting to get settled. We plan on opening in June. We hope to have about 20 vendors at opening - we're currently working with about 33 vendors but when June comes, 20 ready vendors would be great. Vendors are eligible for Individual Development Accounts through MicroBiz Buffalo & the Belmont Shelter - they put in $500 from earned income and get $2000 back after six months and use it for start up costs for their new business. (About IDAs ).

Vendors have a wide variety of backgrounds - refugees & immigrants from Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, Burma, Arabic-speaking and Latin American countries; African Americans, Latinos and whites. They're interested in starting businesses with a wide range of products: food, electronics, imported crafts, locally produced crafts, books, gift items, other stuff.

This photo is of one bazaar vendor who will be selling baskets made in refugee camps in Darfur. How freakin' cool to help someone set up a business that not only helps her but also helps alleviate some of the most awful conditions in the world.



I'm posting this to ask if any of you would be interested in mentoring. Mentors don't have to actually know the business stuff in advance, they can learn business how-tos along with the vendor-to-be. Mentors are supportive and helpful and know how to ask questions/get answers - kind of like a link to the mainstream. I'm particularly asking (e:jason) & (e:joshua) to consider this - it's helping people become capitalists, right? ;-)

For more information, comment here or message me and I'll connect you & my colleague Bonnie Smith, economic development director at WEDI. Bonnie's the keeper of the mentors and has all the info you'd need to start as an effective mentor.

I gave a presentation on recordkeeping to the vendors & mentors last week that included the basics of sales tax, the point-of-sale process, banking process, and the concepts of a profit & loss statement and a balance sheet. I'm not going to directly mentor any of the vendors, but I'm available as a resource on many of the aspects of the business start up process.

To support the West Side Bazaar, WEDI is holding a fund raising event tonight at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 724 Delaware Ave., $15 per person. Doors open at 6:30, music by the Sugar & Jazz Orchestra starts at 7. Hors d'oeuvres, cash bar, silent auction, raffle. Some of the bazaar vendors will be set up to sell things.

(e:mike)! glitter glue $1 a bottle @ joann fabrics!

Someone (e:messaged) me about my comment to (e:metalpeter,50910) - since I'm not sure who, I'll just make a new post.

1. Don't go to H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt or Liberty Tax. If your return is actually complicated, you should have a real accountant (enrolled agent, CPA, lawyer). If it's as simple as most people's returns (W-2 income, maybe 1099s, a mortgage, child care, student loans) then you should be doing it yourself using one of the excellent online filing applications.

2. Absolutely do not get an "instant refund" or "refund anticipation loans." They are predatory loans with fees and interest representing an annual percentage rate of 50-500%.

You now not only paying H&R Block an obscene amount of money to do a few simple data entry tasks, now you're paying them an even more obscene amount of money to give you your own money! You lent the government your money interest-free during the year when your employer collected payroll taxes from you. Your refund is YOUR money! You deserve ALL of it!

Instead, file and wait the 8 or so days that it'll take for the IRS to deposit your refund into your checking or savings account.

In general, the effective annual percentage rate (APR) for a RAL can range from about 50% (for a $10,000 RAL) to nearly 500% (for a $300 RAL). If a $40 add-on fee is charged and included in the calculation, the effective APRs range from about 85% to nearly 1,300%. An average RAL of $3,300 carries an APR of 72%.

National Consumer Law Center (PDF)

(More refs: Kiplinger Tax Girl and an excellent report by the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina (PDF) )

3. FREE FILE!

New York state free file options: I've used Taxslayer and I-Can EFile

(not free NY options: )

The IRS will also help you find a company to free file or efile with. I've used TaxAct (one of the paid versions) for about eight years. Pennsylvania's direct efile site is pretty easy, and free!

Free Tax Help Available Nationwide

R-2010-15, Jan. 29, 2010

WASHINGTON - Nearly 12,000 free tax preparation sites will be open nationwide this year as the Internal Revenue Service continues to expand its partnerships with nonprofit and community organizations performing vital tax preparation services for low-income and elderly taxpayers.

The IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program offers free tax help to people who earn less than $49,000. The Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) Program offers free tax help to taxpayers who are 60 and older.

I'm happy to rant about this if you'd like me to continue :-) Everyone should have a basic understanding of what their paystubs say, how payroll taxes work, W-4s and their annual income taxes. This should not be a big mystery or intimidating.

If you don't have a bank account to direct deposit your refund into, you should (unless you're trying to stay off grid, of course). This helps you build credit history and legitimacy. There are several good area banks that help contribute to a healthy local economy by keeping investment here, including First Niagara, Northwest, Lake Shore, and Five Star. (Thanks to (e:dcoffee) for this link) Another option is the Buffalo Coop Credit Union if you're a member of one of the participating coops, such as the Lexington Coop.

Hope this helps!

I bought myself a printer a few weeks ago (thanks (e:enknot) & (e:terry) for bringing it upstairs and starting the setup!). I finally got it set up today - the book instructions were pretty bad and I had to resort to the extra network setup manual on the CD. I managed to destroy my wireless network in the process and had to reset that, too! I was feeling pretty technically incompetent.

But it works now! I've got it set up on my laptop and desktop.

WIRELESSLY!

Brother HL-3070cw color wireless printer. It uses LED technology, not laser.



I don't know if my Asus EEEpc with its odd linux distro will ever connect to it, but I might try.

I'm in town a lot over the next few weeks - let's do stuff! Classes don't start until 2/4.

Don't forget Mardi Gras 2/16 @ Nietzsche's. (artvoice: ) I had a blast last year. I made it a meetup for the Buffalo Queer Women group, but I want to invite all the (e:peeps), too! Lagniappe's is planning an alligator roast, according to Chris' facebook page.

(A follow up to (e:heidi,50116) and (e:heidi,50510) )

I'm sorry I can't do some nifty (e:video) trick, but here's some interesting news coverage of my town and our successful effort to save our high school (and you get to see Jill):
Such a cute little town! I'm tickled by the video images.

NYS has a moratorium of sorts on drilling in the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation, but PA doesn't. I find it really interesting that the headline for the Syracuse-based News Ten Now Time Warner Cable channel is about how great the gas drilling is for our area, but this article in the Elmira (NY) Star Gazette doesn't mention gas at all: Since I don't watch local news and only follow the loudest NYS news, I don't know what the current media landscape looks like wrt to the Marcellus Shale gas play in NY but this looks like a political point about how it could be benefiting small NY towns if only the gas companies were allowed to drill.

This article in the Williamsport (PA) Sun Gazette has a more balanced approach that mentions the impact gas well drilling is having/going to have on school enrollment yet also shows some of the work the community put into saving the school.

The best article is from our weekly county newspaper but they don't web publish all their content, just article teasers:

I've been working on this project since mid-October and it's been eating gobs of time & energy. I wasn't expecting a vote until Feb. 8 - when I wouldn't have been able to attend the meeting - so I'm happy that I got to be there and that my campaign plan was so successful, but it feels weird to have had a plan that doesn't need to be followed through on because we won! early!

Two well-publicized homophobic attacks occurred on New Years. Others go unreported or under-reported far too often.

Enough is enough. We are encouraging as many as possible to rally at Days Park on Friday, January 15 at 7 PM to take back our city from bigots.



We will then march down the sidewalk of Allen Street to Main Street at about 7:15 to 7:30.

If you are able, please bring candles, and if you are also willing, please wear rainbow and/or hot pink items. We want to be as noticeable as possible.

Flyer, feel free to print off and post:

More details will come soon.



If anyone is interested in joining a neighborhood watch for Allentown, please join this group:

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I woke up this morning sandwiched between a fat black cat and a little grey
poodle. Cuddling luxury! She's cold from our adventures this afternoon, so I
left her coat on.

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I woke up this morning sandwiched between a fat black cat and a little grey poodle. Cuddling luxury! She's cold from our adventures this afternoon, so I left her coat on.

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Thank you, (e:tinypliny), for making cookies and biscuits with me! And thank you for the beautiful vest.

We made the lace cookies from (e:jenks,50610) as well as these biscotti-like speculoos that I didn't like but many others did - the plate was almost empty. And we made my and (e:jim)'s fav molasses crinkle cookies (e:heidi,48165).

Thank you, (e:pmt), for hosting yet another awesome party! It was so cool to finally meet (e:leetee), (e:uncutsaniflush) & (e:himay). Alisha teaching (e:tinypliny) to salsa and meringue was so cute.

I hope everyone has a fun-filled, goal-achieving 2010!


(e:tinypliny)'s new userpic:

I had a wonderful time in Maryland visiting my bff M*'s family. M* lives in Raleigh (and attends law school there) and her mom's house is halfway. I drove down Tuesday and spent a little time in Columbia, a planned community built by James Rouse in the '60s. It's a shining example of corporatism (gov't of/by/for corporations), suburbanist car culture, and consumerism. I would love to see a comparison/critique of Rouse and Robert Moses (the I-190 & Robert Moses Parkway guy) and how their planning philosophies relate to current localist, independent, green, higher density, transit-oriented planning (yea Buffalo First!). (Must take at least one urban planning course before leaving school!)

Until I read the wikipedia entry about James Rouse I didn't realize he was the planner of Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace. I knew he designed Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Both these places are used as "good models" for promoting the current plan for the Erie Canal Harbor/waterfront development in Buffalo that uses Bass Pro as an anchor store for an "urban theme park." Benderson, the proposed developer for the waterfront, creates suburban strip malls. I have been questioning the wisdom of the waterfront plan, but being in Columbia again gave it a whole 'nother layer of questioning. (For one critique of the waterfront plan: )

I stopped in Columbia because it has Daedalus Books, my fav bookstore ever Lots of academic press books for $5 or less. Yum yum! I picked up a hardback of Octavia Butler's Fledgling for M*. I also love Akbar a pretty standard Indian restaurant just a half mile (and 20 minutes of driving thanks to INSANE traffic) away. I find it interesting that Indian restaurants are rather homogenized. Akbar's food is very similar to that of India Gate on Elmwood, Passage to India in Harrisburg, Pangea in the Poconos, and a couple other Indian restaurants that I've been to and can't remember the names of. Is there an Indian-restaurant supply company? Anyway, the manager recognized me, even though I haven't lived there since 2003! I have stopped in during most of my MD/DC trips since then, so I'm not -that- surprised, but I was definitely pleased.

My phone is broken - I also stopped at a Verizon kiosk at a BJs, another half-mile, 20-minute drive up Snowden River Parkway in Columbia to try to get it fixed. The kiosk guy made me call a service line, CSR1 transferred me to CSR2 who decided it was the battery. Although my magic-pixie-dust electronics sense says it's the phone, I allowed him to send me a new battery, "We'll FedEx overnight it! You'll have it tomorrow!" Ha ha. I gave them M*'s mom's address and of course it didn't show up Wednesday, nor Thursday, nor Saturday. So here I am in Pennsylvania with a phone that only works when plugged in, and not even continuously when plugged in, but the battery is probably going to show up at M*'s mom's tomorrow and I'll need to get my hands on it before I'm able to continue the troubleshooting process. *sigh* travel is difficult.

M* loved the gourd (see last post for pix) and book; her mom loved the three gourd ornaments (who knew you could find brown Santas in Tioga County?!?); we played lots of Wii (I'm getting *good* at the table tennis and archery of the new Resort Sports); we drank a lot of Ketel One Citroen, mango rum, lemonade & grenadine; I had wonderful conversations with M's family & fun bunch friends. I'm so glad I went, although I'm sad about missing xmas with A's family. I spent some very pleasant/bittersweet time there tonight, though.

M*'s mom gave me a quesadilla making machine! How neat. I make quesadillas all the time - hopefully this will make it even easier. Jill & Kelly got me one of those nifty Keurig single-serve coffee machines with a whole box of hot chocolate cups. Appliances!

(2nd post)

To follow up on (e:tinypliny,50598) here are some of the gifts I'm giving this year...

An amazing gourd by Valorie West, Gourds Galore, Mansfield, Pa.


A pine tree in a chimney


More of Valorie's gourds


Some handmade soap by Splat Cat Crafts, Blossburg, Pa. (lard! yum!)


A balsam 'n cedar candle by Frosty Hollow Candles, Blossburg, Pa. (no photo)

Some Carhartt gear, a fishing license gift certificate, a couple pizza shop gift certificates, and doggie treats.

(Luckily no one who will be receiving these gifts reads this!)