Would-be welfare queen Larry Quinn

On Tuesday, the Common Council will vote on whether to withhold 13 acres of city-owned land from the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC) unless ECHDC agrees to a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) for the proposed Canal Side development.

So what’s a Community Benefits Agreement?  It’s a binding agreement negotiated between representatives of the community and a developer seeking public support for a project.  The agreement lays out, in black and white, just what the community will get out of its investment.  The proposed CBA for the Canal Side project includes provisions for local businesses, a living wage requirement, and environmental building standards.  You would think that the governments and agencies responsible for handing out more than $154 million in public money for this project might have thought about protecting the public by including these standards, but they were busy with more important matters, like subsidizing failed restaurants and buying tax-free homes in Empire Zones.

So who is the “Community” in CBA?  Folks like the Coalition for Economic Justice, Buffalo Urban League, PUSH Buffalo and other groups . . . you know, the good guys.

So what can I do to help ensure that we get more than poverty wage jobs in exchange for all this public largesse?  Come out to the vote on Tuesday at 2.  Or better yet, show up at City Hall a half hour early and participate in a press conference calling on the Common Council to do the right thing.