It’s Christmas weekend, so in the spirit of the holiday, we’re not going to dwell on the fact the most important Bills game in two years won’t be televised in the Buffalo area. Or the archaic National Football League policy that forces the blackout. Or the remarkable arrogance showed by the NFL in scheduling a full complement of games on Christmas Eve, rather than shifting the bulk of Week 16 to Saturday. Instead, we’ll focus on what has to happen for next week’s Bills game, in Baltimore on New Year’s Eve, to be equally meaningful.
Author: BuffaloPundit
We’ve heard all about Buffalo’s housing market, as development builds up and houses are renovated across the city. One of the things we’ve been pushing as a community is for outsiders (even those as close as the suburbs) to realize the value and the affordability of living in our city. No where I’ve been has there been such a stock of beautiful, affordable, historic houses just waiting to be snatched up. My apartment outside of Washington, D.C. was half the size, double the cost, and had triple the crime as my current North Buffalo abode. The quality of life and…
With all the talk around town about developing retail downtown, it’s about time someone stepped up and made the first move. Rocco Termini will do just that in a very big way when he opens the retail space of Ellicott Commons to several businesses, which will come together in downtown’s only modern department store. The 3,000 sq. ft. space will serve as an incubator for five or six businesses looking to establish themselves downtown. The storefront will come together in an attractive urban department store that encourages new business owners to start up and existing ones to branch out by…
Parts of the city’s West Side have seen a slow turn-around over the past few years, an emergence from their often crime-ridden past, in large part due to the street-by-street work of private residents investing themselves and their money into the neighborhood they call home. Citizens have formed organizations, like the West Side Community Collaborative, to address the problems that plague their community. Their most visible successes can be found on the cleaned-up 19th Street and in the greenery sprouting from private and community gardens throughout the neighborhood. They’ve bought, renovated and found owners for properties at no profit (see…
Construction is steadily moving along on the new home of the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, located on Masten Avenue in an east side neighborhood that is slowly becoming another haven for Buffalo’s arts community. The former Buffalo Traditional High School is in the midst of a $28 million renovation that will turn it into a brand new, state-of-the-art facility to foster Buffalo’s youngest talents ,Aei students in grades 5 through 12. ,AeuTo get the best artists you have to have great facilities,,Aeu said Rob McDow, the project administrator overseeing the Joint Schools Reconstruction Project. ,AeuWe want to…
These businesses on E. Lovejoy Street in Buffalo’s east side are now eligible for a facelift and facade improvements, thanks to the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corporation. Business owners from Bailey to Geothe streets can apply for matching grants to improve their storefronts through the organization’s CARE program, created in an effort to promote the economic vitality of some of the city’s older neighborhood commercial districts. The program, operated through a partnership between residents, merchants, city government and BERC, has already provided funds to rehab areas of Jefferson Avenue, Niagara Street, Grant/Ferry, Broadway/Fillmore, Seneca Street and Fillmore/Leroy.
On Friday night (5-8 p.m.) Club Marcella is hosting a benefit for Buffalo Police Officers Patricia Parete and Carl E. Andolina, who were both shot when responding to a fight call outside a convenience store on Elmwood and Chippewa. At $25 a head, the 3-hour open bar will feature free bottled beer, well drinks and finger foods. All proceeds from the night will benefit the officers and their families. One their website, Club Marcella urges awareness and action surrounding the shootings: It is a time for Buffalo to show support for the police officers that protect us all and for…
Tune in to WBFO 88.7 FM from 2-4 p.m. today to join Buffalo native and comedian Tom Irwin on NPR’s Talk Of The Nation, in a special report from Fort Dix, New Jersey. The special broadcast joins friends and family as they say goodbye to their loved ones before the troops ship off to Iraq. Irwin spent two years enlisted in the Army and, now a professional comedian, returned to entertain the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is now traveling the U.S. on a comedy tour entitled “25 Days In Iraq,” sharing with the audience the stories of his…
Encouraging the development of creative minds can really help a city like ours take off. When new ideas and creative personalities can thrive, communities often prosper. Many of the things I love most about Buffalo come at the hands of truly unique individuals who are doing all they can to live out their dreams (for both themselves and the city). So as a city it is vital that we nurture these creatives, stimulate the artists and designers, the thinkers and shakers, to make and keep Buffalo their home. Part of keeping them here is giving them an outlet to commingle,…
Carolers decked out in Santa hats filled the halls outside Mayor Brown and Governor Pataki’s offices today. But the songs they sang were about more than spreading Christmas cheer ,Aei they were about facilitating change and bringing hope to our city’s neediest neighborhoods. And they carried this message to the men-in-charge in a most unconventional way, through original lyrics sung to the tune of holiday classics like Jingle Bells: They bought your bad tax liens, when you were dead broke, now they’ve got control, you only have one hope,AeP The carolers were members of People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH),…