Buffalo is seen as a list of longtime problems

[WNYresident]

I spotted this on www.buffnews.com

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030801/1049665.asp

You are not replying to the actual writer. What are you comments though on thier thoughts.

www.buffalo.com

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A university in one suburb, a football stadium in another suburb, a gaming casino in yet a different suburb, beautiful beaches just a short drive away in a different country, a Metro Rail that goes nowhere, a downtown with no department stores, a deserted and vacant expanse of waterfront, a vacant auditorium, a bridge that in all likelihood will never be built, a questionable school system, politicians who talk about progress and the city's future but who are too busy arguing over everything including whether or not the sun rises in the east and sets in the west resulting in a complete lack of progress. You tell me, what is wrong with this picture?
ELISABETH M. COLUCCI
Kenmore

[Unregistered]

Why do the residents see the issues that plague WNY but the elected officials that make the decisions don't?

F

[Curmudgeon]

"What is wrong with this picture?"

Too much representation...

There are too many special interests competing for their slice of a dwindling pie. Political consolidation would result in fewer and more coherent voices. WNY has about the highest "elected official per capita" in the country.

Any idiot can stall a project indefinitly for just about any reason in this town. Remember when Pitts tried to get his "input" into the peace bridge project? What the heck does a city councilman have to do with building a bridge to Canada? Nothing. He was just using that as a tool to get something else completely unrelated to the bridge. Stupid & unproductive....

I say cut the number of elected offices in half and consolidate everything to the county level and let people get things done.

[Unregistered]

Too much representation...

OR ... too much from the outside telling us what's best for Buffalo!

funny how someone can easily say "that's the way it is"
without even living in the area to see HOW it is.

[Curmudgeon]

<<<funny how someone can easily say "that's the way it is"
without even living in the area to see HOW it is.>>>

Apparently you have a monopoly on "Knowing how it is" and I come to this web site because I have absolutely no idea what it is like to live in WNY...

Yep, you figured me out - I'm a 4'2'' coconut harverster from Sumatra named Oopukoopu and I've never even been to buffalo. In fact, I don't even know how to speak, read or write english. I just come to this web site because I'm bored with harvesting coconuts all day long.
You smart american, you!

[sbGUY27]

This guy or girl is unbelivable. Total idiot.

I would love for some outsider to come and tell Buffalo how to do it. If you could open your eyes and see that noone here knows how to fix or even have a clue of how things got so bad. The Idiots that people like unregistered vote in are the problems. Like unregistered him/herself.

azsumme2003 is welcome to spin his tales of the good life in Arizona. I need a good mental picture every once in a while. Keeps me hoping we can get ourselves out of this rusting state we are in and make something nice out of the area.

[Unregistered]

you said that you would love for some outsider to come and tell Buffalo how to do it; that is probably true. aint that what's been going on all along. hiring outside people to do 'studies' that cost upto millions just to say "this and that need to be done"

you would also love for outsiders to come in and just take our money too; to not do anything but state what should be done. why don't they just take our money and actually do something with it instead of only talking about it?

a good mental picture would be letting us take control of what wny needs and accepting advice but- not held to doing what the outside says. consider without being forced by the ones that already moved away. is wny the only place that has problems? don't the ones in other places have problems too? if they do in thier area, maybe they can do something there -to help there.

too much representation from them who don't live here!

[Curmudgeon]

<<<wny the only place that has problems? >>>

No. Newark, Gary, Id., and Baghdad are a few other places that "has problems".
The thing is, WNY chronically comes out on the bottom of the list for all kinds of metrics, like taxation and economic growth. That's why more people per capita left WNY than any other region in the USA in the last ten years.

I can't believe you refer to people who have recently left WNY as "outsiders". When you say things like that, you make a hillbilly look like einstein...

"Those durned outsiders comin in here an tellen us our business, who do they think they is, kin?"

[azsumme2003]

Well gee, "sorry" unregistered, "sorry" I am trying to establish a rapport with people who live in MY HOMETOWN! Hey, you can say all the crap you want about me (I have a sneaky suspicion you are a wolf in sheeps clothing.........) I'm not going anywhere. I am in Buffalo too many times a year and have too much family there to just look the other way.
I love Buffalo, sure do wish it would get its act together so I could move back someday. It's people like you unregistered (who ARE you anyway???) that keep Buffalo from going anywhere. It's people like Curmudgeon and WNYresident who are struggling to keep the lines of communication open. Good people who are desparately trying to open a dialogue with people from WNY. For example, setting up this website is a wonderful way to get the community talking. I salute this guys for at least making a step in the right direction!!!!!

[Unregistered]

who am I? you ask. I'm a life-long Buffalonian that is fed up with everybody else making us listen to how things should be when they don't live here and don't know what it takes to weather the storms of Buffalo (and not just the snow).

you said you love Buffalo, that may be true. You love what's on the map for your friends and family that still live here. But as far as you coming back to live, I highly doubt those words could be held true. You love Buffalo, yet you clearly cant stand the people (other than those you know) who live and work Buffalo everyday, to make it a better place.

you said I was a wolf in sheeps clothing, isn't that the phrase that's used to describe Wal-mart? I'm not a walmart looking to come in and take over the small business of an area, I am a small business trying to shelter myself from the takeovers like wal-mart.

And trying to let people from another state know we need help not hinderence! Buffalo is seen as a list of longtime problems, more so by ones like you that constantly bringing us down one by one with the replies in your posting. Because it's people like me who see people like you a menace when you say "do this, don't do that, do it this way, not that way and okay I'm off to my pad in another state, bye, bye"
maybe you are the wolf and just don't know it.

Maybe you could offer a list of suggestions to consider instead of cramming down our necks that we have problems, I think the teenagers say "well, duh" when it's something we already know.

I'm sure your intentions are good for your family here, but maybe it's the way you come across that is, how shall I say.................Intimidating to people like me that sweat over making Buffalo a better place everyday, and not just through via the internet.

[Curmudgeon]

<<<Maybe you could offer a list of suggestions to consider instead of cramming down our necks that we have problems, I think the teenagers say "well, duh" when it's something we already know.>>>

The region has had the same set of suggestions suggested over and over again. The problem is that people in WNY choose to ignore them. Lind of like a nice uncle that everyone likes who happens to be a jobless alcoholic. After a while his excuses and procrastination become intolerable. Obviously the state government has had enough - they appointed the control board. So, I say to you, enough is enough! Time to get your s**t together and stop living in the 1950's already. Take our "suggestions" and actually implement them. Realize that if the region doesn't change, it will turn into a giant ghetto. Get over yourself.

[WNYresident]

If you notice we are stating the issues that are pulling WNY down. We dont' care who is in control, it's thier actions that are causing to a point of what is going on.

We have to get NYS out of hte issue of everyhting is guaranteed. Let some other country or state take the losers that want guarantes.

I for one wouldn't mind all contracts null and void seeing they weren't signed with the resident's well being in mind. They were written to gain the unions votes.

Notice how the police are backing Dan ward seeing Joel wants to regionlize them. I hope once dan is elected he spanks the police and the police that are over paid in the burbs back to reality. If we didn't have people that were willing to fill thier jobs that honestly will do it as well i would see the high salaries. BUT, seeing we can replace them like we did with the airline controllers in the 80's lets do it. NOW I don't mean all of the civil employees etc.. YOU know what i mean, the ones that play the games with over time and stuff. THere are a lot that are fairly paid for thier duties but the bad apples have to go. I dont want to be quoted 4 years from now that i stated all unions have to be replaced. Oh imeddianty stop pensions based on your highest three years os salary. You can't have overtime count, it's human nature to abuse it.


IT's the WNY economy or them. I'm finally tired of worrying about the minority of people versus the majority of people.

ALso, once again, ALL POLITICIANS ARE going to cut there pay before this site is over with :) Once anyone can prove Tony Mascellio, Pataki or GIambra and thier cronies are worth what we pay them, then i'll shut up. :) Until then, we are not getting our moneys worth.



I do not know why people don't say it the way it is.

[TDoran]

You may want to bring some "outsiders" back into the fray.....they don't refer to the Buffalo and Erie County "Brain Drain" in terms of the amount of lost BOCES graduates.....


Speaking of population loss.....

Metro Area / 2000 Pop. / 1990 Pop. / Change / Percentage Change

Pittsburgh, PA MSA 2,358,695 / 2, 394,811 / -36,116 / -1.5%

Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY MSA 1,170,111 / 1,189,288 / -19,177 /-1.6%

The only metro areas in the top 50 to lose any population are the two above.


Other happening metro areas:

Syracuse, NY / -1.4%

Scranton-Wilkes Barre-Hazleton, PA / -2.1%

Youngstown-Warren, OH / -1.0%

Utica-Rome, NY / -5.3%

Binghamton, NY / -4.6%

Johnstown, PA / -3.6%

Wheeling, WV-OH / -3.8%

Jamestown, NY / -1.5%

Steubenville-Weirton, OH-WV / -7.4%


Sizeable contingent of booming upstate NY communities.

[TDoran]

Originally posted by WNYresident




A university in one suburb, a football stadium in another suburb, a gaming casino in yet a different suburb, beautiful beaches just a short drive away in a different country, a Metro Rail that goes nowhere, a downtown with no department stores, a deserted and vacant expanse of waterfront, a vacant auditorium, a bridge that in all likelihood will never be built, a questionable school system, politicians who talk about progress and the city's future but who are too busy arguing over everything including whether or not the sun rises in the east and sets in the west resulting in a complete lack of progress. You tell me, what is wrong with this picture?
ELISABETH M. COLUCCI
Kenmore [/B]

1. UB's main campus should be downtown / waterfront

2. Who cares if the football stadium is in the suburbs. If you want to make any money on something like that, a major league baseball team and facility would have fostered some development in the area around Pilot Field.

3. Put all the casinos in Niagara Falls

4. Beaches are too polluted presently. Major hangup at the Bethlehem site over re-development, property ownership.

5. Metro rail goes about 3 miles, yes? Or does nowhere refer to the often vacant downtown?

6. No dept. stores.....see #5

7. Waterfront is deserted for the most part, but the rest of it kind of resembles the 5 points in the Gangs of NY :D

8. Not only a vacant Memorial Aud.....but a crumbling one at that.

9. I have no idea what's going on with the bridge anymore. Someone fill me in on the latest news.

10. Calling the school system questionable is being WAY too kind.

11. They could always do an environmental impact study on where the sun sets.....due to the amount of overcast days in Buffalo, it may difficult to know exactly where it sets. Wonder if we can somehow fit then one in under the control board's radar?????????

[WNYresident]

Tdoran, I didn't write the post, I posted it here seeing it seemed interesting on thier point of view.

I agree with some of it but not all of it. Some things in the burbs are fine but a lot of items should be in the city. It's called sprawl. If sprawl didn't cost everyone money then no one would care but it does.

But you know why think this has happened? I believe it was greedy developers profiteering on working with the burbs as where buffalo made it too costly.

You get a bunch of small brained town board member going "OH OH we are going to get a "fill in the blank" built in our town. Now a lot of these board members couldn't run a lemonade stand without assistance so to them this is a feather in thier cap. They under estimate the cost to the town once that item is built. I mean road maintance, police etc... Then to boot they give them tax incentives to build there so for up to 10 years they are not even contributing to the community and the residents have to foot the bill.

Just look at the crappy work that lancaster has in some of the sub-divisions. Not even up to code and then the town must take over the road repairs after a year or so. ALL ON THE original residents in that c ommunity. See what is wrong with the picture?

There is a slow economy over all but we weren't prepared for it.

ALSO!!!! DO NOT BORROW MONEY YOU DON"T HAVE. The area gets strapped paying the interest. YOU learn to spend only when you got it!

[Curmudgeon]

<<<ALSO!!!! DO NOT BORROW MONEY YOU DON"T HAVE. >>>

Gospel.

And, don't pass your bills onto your kids. One of the big problems here is retirement benefits and health care for retirees, Back in the 60's gov't leaders elected to give their employees overly generous retirement benefits in lieu of market-value wages. Now we're paying a fortune in benefits to the guy who used to run the lawnmower in 1972. And, the generation that got the lawn mowed is now retired and "living on a fixed income".

Sounded good at the time, but nobody forsaw their children getting wise to the scam and moving out of the region. That's what's happening right now. Looks like the older generation that pulled off this fraud is getting stuck with the bill after all!

Perhaps that's why no one moves here - they don't want to pay for the sweet-deal retirement of the lawn guy that retired in 1994 with their property taxes.

[WNYresident]

OH a few people do move back. I see them occasionally. THey love thier family more than the burden of what our local goverments have created.

You know what is starting to tick me off some? Closed control board sessions that i read about in the paper. Why?


Also, some people mentioned some of the goverment items should be kept secret. Pay, contracts etc... WHY? THATS OUR MONEY, who the hell is blowing smoke up thier butts thinking we shouldn't know what is going on. I want to know exactly what is going on with MY money.

:) OK it's monday, give me a break.

[TDoran]

WNY,

I know you didn't write that article, I was just responding to it.


You guys should raise a big stink and demand full disclosure of control board meetings. They can't keep the public closed to what's occurring.

[WNYresident]

You know we should of held a rally and told them we wanted a federal control board with NO ties to NYS at all. NONE.

Did you hear they are talking about talking state bonds out to cover billions of dollar in debt for NYC. Could this be true? I for one do not want ONE cent of my money going anywhere but here if need be. It's bad enough we support our local leaders, we don't need to support NYC's too.

IT"S time to take care of our own and I don't mean unions, I mean the residents.

[Unregistered]

We should become our own district. Like Washington. Not part of the state but a lone body governing it self and by itself.

[WNYresident]

Do we have enough cash churn here to allow that and abandon NYC/Downstate?

That would be a rather big step.

If that step would be taken we would have to purge all pre-elected officials to truely start with a clean slate.

Null and void all labor pack agreements and all union contracts.

OH, keep our own electric if possible so it's cheaper here than anywhere else. Let them buy thier electric from coal plants and let us use the hydro.



I mentioned to one politician about pay cuts for all elected officials and I get "it's just a small percentage of the acutal budget". If each small part was one drop of water and you add enough up, you end up with buckets water. They all add up.

[Unregistered]

That would never happen. The people that recieve our funds would fight tooth and nail not to have that stop. You don't understand the level of power and control the state has. It's might not be morally right the way the money is handed out and used, but they are not going to let that control stop.