Here’s a piece that a writer substituting for Andrew Sullivan wrote at the Daily Dish, highlighting art and the Garden Walk.

Yet, I fully expect people to go all hissy-fit because of this rather typical passage:

Buffalo” (NY) and “beauty” do not normally occur in the same sentence. We’re talking about a city ‘belted’ with derelict factories that’s been losing population for a generation. It’s struggling to demolish thousands of abandoned houses. It’s been known to get snowed on for 100 days in a row (I was there — with a long driveway and no snow-blower).

But Buffalo has elements of beauty dear to a few doughty hearts…

It snows.  Embrace it.  The first winter I spent here, we had a 5-day storm that dumped 7 feet on Williamsville, where we were living.  I loved it, and we haven’t had anything similar since.

Buffalo Heritage, a local book publisher, put out this press release yesterday:

Here we go again. Buffalo Charges Ahead into Past  by Rick Hampson in USA Today (Monday, December 14) extols Buffalo’s architectural treasures, but once again manages to perpetuate the myth that Buffalo suffers from unusually awful winter weather. Phrases like “now known mostly for the snowy “lake effect” and the suggestion that Buffalo’s population decline may be weather-related – in an article ostensibly about our architecture! – are the final straw.

Buffalo Heritage and Dr. Mark Donnelly are drawing a line in the slush. At a press conference appropriately located at the Lake Effect Diner (3165 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14214) at 7:30 PM, Monday, December 14, a national campaign to set the record straight on Buffalo’s no-worse-than-average-in-the-northeast winter weather will be launched.

In  addition to Mr. Hampson at USA Today, more than three dozen national news desk anchors, weather channel personnel, and morning and late night talk show hosts will be sent by Priority Mail the following message: “After you shovel away all of the myths about Buffalo, New York’s winter weather, all you have left is an amazing city,” accompanied by a copy of Buffalo’s new, beautiful tool to address this national misinformation campaign: Frozen Assets: The Beautiful Truth About Western New York’s Fourth Season.

This is a public relations war against the national news sources that perpetuate the myths about Buffalo’s winter that are holding the city back, making it difficult to attract new talent and investment to the region. It’s about economic development and prosperity in the Queen City. How better to accomplish this than with facts and humor – on a national scale.

It sounds a lot more passive-aggressive than humorous, to me.

As I said before, because we do get a lot of snow, and we are losing population, and we do have a lot of derelict factories, it hardly makes a lot of sense to complain.  Chicago is the “Windy City” – not the “City that has a thriving arts scene”.  It snows. We have brownfields.  Embrace the former, and push to fix the latter.  But we need to stop whining like some sort of victim.

If I had a lot of time and money, I’d design, build, and sell a line of snow tires that were Buffalo tested, Buffalo approved.  I don’t see Finns or Swedes whinging about snow, for God’s sake.

(Photo via Buffalowaterfront.com)