News missed on mansion coverage

Delicate times are upon us, both for the City of Buffalo as well as the nation as a whole. Thus, it warmed my heart to read about the Miller Mansion and its owner.
The morale of Buffalo and its inhabitants is at an all-time low. In the same paper that features the story about the Miller Mansion, one can read about how Buffalo's Academy for Visual and Performing Arts has to cut fresh, young teachers due to lack of funding. One can also read about "absolutely necessary" Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority fare increases because the city is in despair.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to notice that many neighborhoods in Buffalo are impoverished beyond belief, having streets strewn with litter and graffiti on each block. Rich architectural structures and cultural institutions have taken a severe beating as the city shrivels like grapes on the vine. To see that The News found it newsworthy to write about the owner of the Miller Mansion placing his miniature castle up for sale at the swollen price of $2.1 million is altogether nauseating, and disconcerting, too.

Years of governmental largess have thrown this city into a tailspin, and many bright area graduates are having a hard time making a living wage so that they may stay in their hometown. Yet we're expected to care that the owner of this home is selling his palatial estate because it's a "baby-proofing nightmare"?

Since when were the proclaimed annoyances of society's upper-echelon considered to be of note? Of course, it did assuage my conscience to read that the owners would be "investing heavily" in gates to keep kids away from the stairs. Investing heavily? Are they gold-plated gates?

The extravagance of this house, the irrelevance of the story and the arrogance of The News to think that the inhabitants of Buffalo care to read about the plight of the affluent around here encapsulates what is wrong with this city. Oh well. We can always cup our hands, gaze through the leaded-glass windows and pretend to know what life is like so problem-free.

BETH KONTRABECKI
Buffalo


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