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Paul's Journal

paul
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03/05/2006 21:04 #32508

The gym, not the hotel
Category: body
So I decided I am done thinking about the hotel. I really don't care now that home of the hits is included in the future of elmwood. It is a waste of my time when I should be spending it on other stuff like buying a house, finishing rememberbuffalo.org before none of the original buffalo is left and working out.

I am so torn between buffalo and one hundred other cities where I could make twice as much money. I will probably end up staying here out of pure laziness. I am so motivated when it comes to programming but so unmotivated when it comes to picking out a house or say finsihing my thesis which is now screaming - LEAVE OF ABSENSE.

Technically, I already own one big house but it is on Prospect near D'Youville and honestly that part of Buffalo is just not part of my immediate future. Sure, it is improving and someday will be great but not great enough for me to live there and not great enough ever in my lifetime. When am I going to put down this freakin laptop and buy a house. House, house, house, now.

One think I have remained commmitted to besides programming is going to the gym. I have managed to continue to going three times a week. The hardest part is eating all the freakin' food but soon I will be seriously tough. Then instead of debating stuff I am just going to kick everyone's ass.

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I looked up our current residence at the historical society and it seems like our landlord paid $26,000 for this house in 1986. Now it costs around $200,000. Should I buy a house like this now - will it keep going up - or is it going to crash?
flacidness - 03/07/06 13:46
BUYING A HOUSE HUH? MY BOYS ARE FINALLY GROWING UP. GOOD LUCK ON FINDING SOMETING FABULOUS. AND MAKE SURE IT HAS ENOUGH ROOM FOR VISITORS. (HINT HINT) AS FAR AS MOVING TO ANOTHER CITY, WELL AS LONG AS IT'S NOT OUT OF THE STATE. THEN i'D HAVE TO FOLLOW YOU.
dcoffee - 03/06/06 12:47
houses around here will keep going up. it's tough to find anything decent on the west side for under 70,000 you could buy one of those and upgrade it to 120,000 if you're serious about it.
Although if the casino goes through, that could throw Buffalo's current trend out of whack, I say 65% chance the casino fails, the current lawsuit is well designed.
Anyway, if you buy a house between Richmond and Linwood, I think you're very secure.

03/05/2006 12:37 #32507

Elmwood Style
Category: elmwood
I never said I was for the Hotel [inlink]dragonfire1024,16[/inlink]. Apparently, I am part of a radical anti-progress fringe group. Having grown up along the various parts of elmwood I have to say that this along with the coop's box and the giant box house store extravaganza across the street from the coop are really changing the atmosphere of the elmwood strip. How many of you residents actually go to Abrahams Jewlers? Ok now compare that to how many of you went to Home or the Hits, Mondo Video, or Don Apparel?

For all you people that keep complaining about the condition of those houses, you cannot overlook that person who wants to have the hotel built is the one who owns them. He also tried to build a walgreens there in the past. It's just like complaining that the Atwater house in in bad condition so they should let Pano tear it down, even though Pano owns it and let it get really run down.

I am totally anti-progress and anti-change - at least in the direction it is going. Just as the coop ripped down and put up their box, and the hotel will do the same, what is going to stop a walmart or a rite aid?

Speaking of which, if we could bring in some bigger chain stores like have in other urban cities, we would be set with the mall. Maybe a gap, how about a banana republic, a rainforest cafe, a glass ceiling and oh ya security guards to keep it "safe" and drug free. What about a foodcourt? It would definately need a McDonalds in it, but not just any McDonalds - a fancy upscale appearing McDonalds that appear to be "elmwoodfied" would be required. Maybe they should dhave a thing that the workers need to appear urban too.

Just as I said before with the coop it is setting up an example for the tear down and suburbanize policy.

Pretty soon, it is going to be too upscale for all the people that made it elmwood the place it is and become a lot more like a fancy mall with upscale stores.

My question is why does elmwood need to be upscale to attract tourists? The whole Ithaca outdoor mall/ elmwood reality is coming true and once it's complete I am moving to Williamsville. I really want a place by glen falls. How about Williamville.com? I mean by the time I decide to purchase a house in my newly gentrified neighborhood it will cost about $300,000 anyways. Already so many houses are hitting the $200,000 mark in the area all around the coop.
dcoffee - 03/05/06 17:17
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.
zobar - 03/05/06 13:52
Gentrification has always been a difficult topic for me. I used to live in a tenement in New York City's Lower East Side [map]147 Orchard St, 10002[/map] above a store named 'You Give Us $5 We Give You Nice Purse,' where there was no air conditioning on the hottest summer on record, the air shaft smelled like stale curry, and a scoop of ice cream that some kid dropped on the windowsill stayed there for a month. I truly loved it there, and my rent was only $750/mo - and that got me a room in somebody else's apartment, a shelf in their bathroom, and a shelf in their kitchen. 'Way' back then, in 1999, new business started moving into the neighborhood. Nothing big - a trendy bar here, a boutique clothing store there. When I moved back to the New York City area after a couple years and popped in to my old stomping grounds, it was barely recognizable. [Thankfully Savarino seems to have more sense than the people at the Hotel Rivington :::link::: .] Investment in a poor neighborhood is wonderful, but on the flipside, not everyone benefits. Those who don't get pushed out to another ghetto, and eventually out of the city.

But I'm still pro-hotel. Why? Gentrification is something that happens when rich people move in to a poor section of town, but I would not consider Elmwood Ave to be a low-rent district in the first place - at least not until you get up to Black Rock. One of the tenants has said that the Mobius 'slum' was the only place he could afford on the strip, and it's been like that at least since he moved in, which was over a decade ago. I know a guy who was looking for a place for his new scooter shop :::link::: . He was not looking on Elmwood, but he was looking at a tiny, mediocre building just off Allen on Franklin that was going for $1/4 million, and another off Delaware at Forest that was going for $200,000. If it's gentrification we're against, we've already missed the bus, and leaving the Mobius 'slums' there isn't going to stop it. [The scooter shop, by the way, is now located in an actual poor neighborhood at 10 E Oakwood Pl [map]10 E Oakwood Pl[/map] and will be opening up at the end of this month.]

- Z

03/04/2006 21:26 #32506

The proposed hotel location
Category: map
So those of you that are confused about the location. You can fly around it with microsoft Local Live Here is the direct location.

The actual location is on the corner there. I marked the atwater house. It is so cute, I wish I owned it. I remember they used to have the best stciky buns there.

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dragonfire1024 - 03/05/06 09:05
Those of you who read my latest article on this disaster project: The Atwater house was at sometime between 1900 and 1902-03 was a "hotel". Most likely a bed and breakfast type place by the looks of the house. The "hotel" Was called: John C. Hotel. According to a book in one of those 3 years (i looked at 3 books) the name given, presumeably the owner/operator? was: John C. Hill. So far through the Buffalo Historical Society I have not been able to determine any relation between Atwater and John C. Hill. At this time. from what I can see, this is newly discovered information. I plan on contacting the society on monday and the Preservation Board as well for more info, if there is any. BTW in the book I saw it has only the name and address and on another page the name and the hotel name and address. Nothing more or less...no description or anything...

03/04/2006 17:50 #32505

Italian Wedding Soup
Category: food
At wegmans it says we should eat rainbows. I keep trying.

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Everyone in our house is sick so it hasn't been the most exhilerating weekend. I caught up with some star trek and programming and decided today that I would try my hand at cooking. Cooking is deifnately not my strong point. I hate following recipes which useually is not good but I guess I kind of ahave an idea of what geos together from vegan yearts when I actually cooked.

I tried to make Italian Wedding soup. It is this relaly yummy soup with little meatballs, clear broth and escarole. According to wikipedia, "The term "wedding soup" is a mistranslation of the Italian minestra maritata, which is a reference to the fact that green vegetables and meats go well together."

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No, ecarole (WIKIPEDIA - ecarole) is not snails but rather a type of bitter green lettuce. Because I rused to use a recipe it probably is not much like the real thing but it tastes pretty good. I used

I subsituted cow meatbalss for buffalo ones. I put so much garlic in because we were sick. I had a hard time not eating all the meatballs before they got in the soup. In fact I had to pregame it with garlic shrimp because I could not wait.

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Here is my recipe:
little buffalo meatballs with garlic fried
2 boxes chicken chicken broth
4 cups escarole, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups orzo or ditalini pasta - I used rice for mr gluten intolerant
3 stalks of celery chopped
1 carrot chopped
some basil
lots of garlic - lots

Cook broth plus veggies in a large pot, salt and pepper.
Fry meatballs after mixing with lots of garlic and some oregano
Put meatballs in soup
Add some noodles

dcoffee - 03/05/06 17:19
Awesome, one of my absolute favorite soups, good idea Paul!!
mrdt - 03/04/06 19:23
yummy...IWS is one of my favorite soups...did you say you used buffalo meat. where can i get that?

03/03/2006 18:22 #32504

My name isn't dave
Category: web
I just got a message on the site saying

Hey Dave! I guess you must have saw my pix on here cuz I'm good friends with ladycroft. Drop me a line sometime! aj_cich AT adelphia.net



But I am not dave, maybe that will help someone else out.

On another note I have finally completed the new chat which looks about the same but the code is so amazing you can't imagine. I will release it this weekend. I only wish that I had the inspiration to promote it more. (e:shawnr) showed me a chat at 3 bubbles that is much like our chat but they are pimping it out as a blog comment chat solution.

Mine is just better. no iframes, no stupid javascript embedded in the xhtml, everythign is perfectly separated, XHTML and CSS styled. It doesn't even require mysql anymore. If you turn styles off on their page, there isn't even a chat. Plus no image dragging, thumbnail popping ufn. So now I am torn. Do I pimp my chat solution out as a solution for other sites or sit on it because I cringe at the thought of someone else possibly profitting from my programming.

So while looking at other stuff online at AJAX matter.com I discovered this ad from yahoo. I guess they are either really in the future of ajax or they have really bad AI for their advertisment robot.



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paul - 03/03/06 19:45
Sorry, It was in the first link on that site :::link:::
ajay - 03/03/06 19:42
I don't see the Ad from Yahoo...
ladycroft - 03/03/06 18:28
i think that was meant for dcoffee :)