Buffalo's politicians and community leaders should be looking for innovative ideas to keep and to draw people to live, work and play in the city.
Here's one.
UB's newspaper had an article last week about extending NFTA passes to all students for $25 each semester. This system is already in place for other local colleges, including my place of employment but I think it could go much further.
There are an average of 20 working days each month. If I were to take the metro rail, which is quite convenient to our house, a monthly pass would equal about $1.37 per trip based on a monthly pass of $55 . When a one-way ticket costs $1.50, that's not much of a savings. So, I gas up my car for $2.96 or more per gallon, (and later this spring, strap on my helmet for a bike ride), and join the throng of commuters on the road wasting fossil fuels.
My solution would be to offer any business, organization, school or group in the region the chance to sign their employees up for a discounted rate. If they want more riders, that's the way to do it. I think $30-$35 would be my personal price point to commute daily, and I'd be encouraged to use it to go shopping and to zip around town. Heck, (e:strip) could present itself as a community organization, and all (e:peeps) could qualify.

or, the recipe where I try to use up stuff in the fridge.
There are a few ways to do this. The best way to is to evaulate what's in your fridge and work from there. Ideally, you would be buying enoug fresh veggies each week to make this possible.
Take thinly sliced veggies and saute with OO and a splash of balsamic vinegar.
potential veggies: spinach, roasted red peppers, mushrooms and garlic, carrot ribbons, zucchini, onions, celery, peppers, pepperoncini. Remove from the pan to a plate.
Take bread (I use my favorite homemade focaccia) and spray each side with OO. Keeping the pan hot, toast on each side for a few seconds. Don't burn it!
Add cheese (parm, cheddar, something French) to the top of the bread, remove from the pan to the plate. Spread the veggies on top.
It's not the most elegant meal, but it's filling, healthy and a way to finish off veggies that would otherwise get gross.
If I had any, I may have added a few slices of sliced chicken or turkey, ham or salami.

To the man who left his Hummer running in the handicapped spot at the Mobil station near South Campus this morning:
I hate you, for oh so many reasons. When gas hits $4/gal I hope you suffer.

We watched episode 3 of South Park current season, and the Eric Cartman character has a pathological hatred of hippies. This recipe for granola is in honor of him.
Ingredients
4 cups old-fashioned oatmeal (rolled oats)
1 cup slivered almonds (any nut could be substituted here, but you want something small enough to clump with the oats)
2 tbsp. butter
3/4 c ap flour
1 tbsp sugar, any kind
pinch of salt
splash of vanilla
splash of almond extract (if you like almonds)
(scant) 1/3 c. maple syrup (the real stuff - not the cheapo maple-flavored crap)
1/8 cup honey
Tools
cookie sheet with a rim
a big bowl, a small bowl
a spatula
Steps
Heat the oven to 350.
Spread the oats and almonds evenly on the cookie sheet and toast for 10-12 minutes, stirring once.
In a bowl (or food processor), combine the butter, flour, salt and sugar. You'll need to chop up the butter until the whole mixture is crumbly.
In a small bowl, combine the maple syrup, honey, vanilla and almond extract. My next batch may contain dried raspberries (added after the mixture has cooled) and raspberry extract.
Remove the oats and almonds from the oven and dump them in the big bowl. Mix thoroughly. Pour the liquid mixture over the oat mixture and combine well. If you think the liquid mixture isn't thin/runny enough, use a microwavable bowl and heat it for 15 seconds.
Butter (spray or the real stuff) the cookie sheet and spread the granola mixture evenly onto it.
Bake in the 350 oven for 12-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. The original recipe called for this time, but I had to go for nearly 20 in order to get my preferred level of crispiness.
Remove from the oven, cool and store in an airtight container. If you want to add dried fruit (raisins, bananas, apples), wait until it's cool.
Another variation would be to use dried apples, and instead of a maple syrup/honey mix try boiling down some apple cider until it's supergooey.
Serve with milk, soy milk (for you hippies out there), yogurt, fruit or ice cream.
With enough experimenting, you could probably bake these into bars, which would be a serious money-saver for me. A box of Quaker granola bars is, what, $2.69? You can get a whole container of oats for less than that, and that has 15 cups in it.

Paul has proclaimed me to be the new Public Relations director (e:news,80). Cool. We talked over a few ideas last night, the bumper sticker initiative being just one of them. Since he hasn't yet posted the others, I'm going to toss them out here.
- featured content, excerpts of posts and comments, pictures or sounds, selected based on a vote by (e:peeps).
- featured peeps - like a peep of the week.
- a print version that "teases" site content for distribution in local hangouts and haunts.
- incentives for bringing in new peeps.
- publicity. No set goal for this, but as much as possible.

I had another thought this evening but I"m floating it by (e:paul) first.