Free Buffalo Mayoral Survey

[Jim Ostrowski]

We will be publishing our surveys of the legislative and comptroller candidates shortly.

There's no time for a similarly lengthy survey of the mayoral candidates.

Therefore, we have come up with just one simple question which we will pose to all the candidates:

"Why has Greater Buffalo steadily declined in the last 45 years, losing people, jobs and businesses, compared with other metropolitan areas in the nation, including many in the Northeast?

We will ask the candidates to post their responses on this thread to allow for public comment.

Jim Ostrowski
President
Free Buffalo

[Jim Ostrowski]

This letter just went out to the official campaign email addresses of the four Buffalo mayoral candidates.

Greetings:

Free Buffalo is doing a one-question survey of the Buffalo mayoral
candidates. We're doing it online so the public can see the responses and respond themselves.

The survey is on the popular website, Speakupwny.com, the largest political site in Western New York.

I believe that at anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 people will view the resulting "thread". Free Buffalo will forward the thread to its own list of 800 members.

Here is the question:

"Why has Greater Buffalo steadily declined in the last 45 years, losing people, jobs and businesses, compared with other metropolitan areas in the nation, including many in the Northeast?"

Here is the URL of the thread--

http://speakupwny.com/forum/showthre...8889#post68889

Please send your responses to me and I will post them on the site. This will insure that the posted responses are indeed from the actual candidates.

Please send the responses from your official campaign email addresses.

Thank you.

Jim Ostrowski
President
Free Buffalo
jameso@apollo3.com
435-8918

[Jim Ostrowski]

Here is the response of Charles J. Flynn, Independence Party candidate. His web site is:

http://www.flynn4mayor.com/

**************************************************

Buffalo has lost population, jobs and businesses over the last 45 years for several reasons.

1. The invention of air conditioning allowed people from the north to live in the south with the same comforts of the north.

2. Air cargo transport made our shipping and railroads obsolete.

3. Sprawl in Erie County and Western New York allowed for the urban hub to be left behind.

4. Over taxation by corrupt elected officials put in by corrupt political parties forced businesses and population out. Our incompetent elected officials are to blame the most and turn around is impossible as long as hand-picked candidates come from corrupt political parties!

Charles J. Flynn


**************************************************

Posted by Jim Ostrowski

[therising]

So it was the invention of air conditioning, NOT the decline of manufacturing jobs.

Very interesting.

[steven]

Now we know.......

"The rest of the story"

[hank Kaczmarek]

I guess you know now not to waste your vote on Mr. Flynn

He touts himself as the only candidate educated inside the city.

I guess he didn't pay much attention in school.

5th Grade @PS 65 in 1966 taught that Buffalo was the main transfer point for midwest grain going to the east coast. Some got milled into flour here, and some got made into products, like HO Oats and Cheerios. However, once the St.Lawrence Seaway and the Welland Canal came along, (1960) Buffalo was no longer needed as a ship/railway transfer point to the markets on the Atlantic Coast.

If you lived in Buffalo in those days, most likely nearly every parent you knew worked at Chevrolet Tonawanda or Saginaw on Delavan, one of the Trico Plants, Ford Stamping, Harrison Radiator, Dunlop, DuPont, Western Electric, Westinghouse, Republic Steel or Bethlehem Steel. Almost all of those tens of thousands of jobs are gone.

Air Conditioning??? Where the hell did he get that one??

Hank Kaczmarek

[therising]

The invention of television can not be disounted either. People now saw that that life outside of Buffalo was pretty damn neat.

The clock radio didn't help, either....

[WNYresident]

I see where jim if coming from about A/C but then again we invented furnaces so the warm climates would of beat us there. If we didn't invent furnaces would the south of prospered long before the colder climates?

I think I'd rather sweat some than freeze to death. But in Jim's defense inventions have made the world smaller.

All in all what hurt us in my opinion is taxes and the cost of doing business. The USA is still sort of fine but WNY got bones because our politicians couldn't control thier spending. Its just cheaper to do business almost anywhere else. Now the issue is how do we pry thier fingers out of our pockets. They got the system down so good in thier favor they don't want to let go.

Just think of the BILLIONS of dollars they are taking out of our communities in WNY/NYS

[Jim Ostrowski]

This thread is an experiment in whether the web can actually make an impact in a local election.

I fervently hope that people focus on substance here as the previous poster did. (Thanks.)

Mr. Flynn mentioned a number of points, including but not limited to, AC. Hank mentions the Seaway.

We're waiting to hear from the other three candidates.

I know they are busy, but Jeez, if, after campaigning for mayor for over a year, they can't--off the top of their heads--answer this question, you have to wonder.

If you support one of the three candidates, please call them or email them and ask them to respond. Tell them they are missing out on an opportunity to reach thousands of people--for free!

I have already posted this link on Free Buffalo's site and with a popular email discussion group.

Finally, if you live in the suburbs, please send this link to all your friends and family who live in Buffalo. Thanks.

Jim Ostrowski
North Buffalo

[CindyLocklear]

A/C was invented in Buffalo. Interesting irony?

http://www.buffalonian.com/history/i...ditioning.html

[tronix75]

Originally posted by CindyLocklear
A/C was invented in Buffalo. Interesting irony?

http://www.buffalonian.com/history/i...ditioning.html

Just our luck, a local boy's invention is partly responsible for our area's demise, sad irony indeed Cindy.
I always thought one reason people moved south was for the warm weather, now I find out that they move because they want to sit inside an air conditioned room. My whole world has been turned upside down, now I know how people felt when they found out that the world wasn't flat. :-)

Ray
Free Buffalo

[Jim Ostrowski]

Here's three cities that are, I think, colder than Buffalo but doing much better: Chicago, Toronto, Minneapolis. Weather does not explain our downfall.

Still waiting for Mr. Helfer, Ms. Einach, and Mr. Brown to chime in.

If the next mayor does not understand why we are where we are, he or she will simply be wasting our next four years, as the incumbent mayor wasted the last twelve.

[Jim Ostrowski]

Okay. I give up. Let's decide the election on feel-good ads paid for by special interests.

And let's not try to figure out why Buffalo declined, because we might actually have to do something about it.

[Jim Ostrowski]

Still waiting for Mr. Helfer, Mr. Brown and Ms. Einach.

[CindyLocklear]

Originally posted by Jim Ostrowski
Still waiting for Mr. Helfer, Mr. Brown and Ms. Einach.

Reminds me of the song... "I 've been waiting in the rain for hours..."