NEW YORK -- Four diehard Buffalo Sabres fans from West Seneca were there. Some natives of hockey-crazed Minnesota were excited to be in his presence. An attorney from St. Louis handed out props even though he didn't know the name. And a few hundred others, most of whom had never heard of Ryan Miller, braved a chilly Manhattan morning to cheer and ogle at the Sabres goalie Monday on NBC's "Today" show.
Miller gets celebrity treatment on NBC’s “Today” show
on March 9th, 2010
Veteran tackle signs with Bills
on March 9th, 2010
The Buffalo Bills went into the offseason needing to address their offensive line problems. They hope they took a step in that direction with free agent tackle Cornell Green, who signed a three-year contract on Monday worth $9 million, according to league sources.
Woman charged with DWI after hitting house, trees, fence and barbecue
on March 9th, 2010
A Colden woman who recorded a 0.22 percent blood-alcohol level after her vehicle went off Route 240 in Colden and scraped the outside of a home Monday night was charged with felony DWI, Erie County sheriff's deputies reported.
Mom arrested after leaving kids in vehicle
on March 9th, 2010
Four young children, from 3 to 8 years old, were left unattended inside a vehicle in a mall parking lot Monday while their mother was in an office for about half an hour, State Police at Clarence reported today.
Hometown News at Noon: Tuesday, March 9
on March 9th, 2010
Image via Wikipedia
Democratic Congressman Eric Massa officially resigned yesterday afternoon. But Massa, who claimed the White House and the Democratic Party were out to get him, did not go quietly. In a radio interview, Massa called White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, quote, “the son of the devil’s spawn.” Massa claimed Emanuel, quote, “would sell his mother to get a vote,” and “would strap his children to the front of a steam locomotive.” Massa criticized Emanuel for confronting him in a gym shower over a congressional vote, one of the few Democratic votes against healthcare reform.
A retrial is about to begin for a man previously convicted in two 1981 murders. Robie Drake is being retried on two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of teenagers Amy Smith and Steven Rosenthal as they sat in a car in North Tonawanda. The final juror and two alternates are due to be selected Tuesday morning and then opening statements will be made. Drake was convicted in 1982 and sentenced to serve two consecutive terms of 25 years to life. After years of appeals, he finally won a new trial last year, when a federal appeals court ruled that there had been prosecutorial misconduct as well as perjury by a witness in the original trial.
A Wilson man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he tried to kill his ex-wife. 68-year-old Jonathan Cheek allegedly attacked the woman in her Amherst home on January 13th before trying to run her car off the road. Cheek has been indicted on charges of attempted murder, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief. He is free on 100-thousand dollars bail.
Congressman Chris Lee wants the federal government to save some green by going “green.” Lee is introducing a measure for Congress to stop making copies of legislation. The Republican representative says the feds could save more than two-million dollars a year if they did not print out five copies of every bill for every member of the House and Senate. He says the documents could be delivered electronically to save resources.
A Derby man has been found guilty of fraud. 40-year-old Shane bought a 52-inch flat screen television and other appliances and with what he called a bonded promissory note from HSBC Bank. Buczek alleged that he had 100-million dollars in a Treasury Department account. He also faces a trial next month on passport fraud and will face contempt of court charges in June.
Family members and friends packed Buffalo-Niagara International Airport Monday night to welcome back gold-medal bobsledder Steve Mesler. Mesler’s flight from Charlottetouched down about an hour late but that didn’t diminish the enthusiasm among those waiting. Mesler was one of four members of “The Night Train” bobsled team, piloted by Steve Holcomb.
A new poll finds a majority of New Yorkers believe Governor Paterson should remain in office until the end of his term. The Siena College poll found that 55 percent of respondents do not believe that Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch should finish the governor’s term. And an even larger majority, 71 percent, would rather see Paterson finish his term than have the state Legislature move to impeach him.
Free Agency news & notes
on March 9th, 2010
Some Buffalo Bills related free agency notes you may or may not have already known for Tuesday morning.
♦♦ Terrell Owens will be in Cincinnati today. The Bengals are expected to sign a wide receiver as early as this afternoon and it could be Owens or fellow free agent wide receiver Antonio Bryant. As we all [...]
Erie County Jails: Lots of Spin But No One Wins
on March 9th, 2010
Erie County Attorney Cheryl Green is spinning this story so fast, she’s making herself dizzy.
Let’s be clear, this was not a “win” for Erie County or Cheryl Green. Judge William Skretny approved the request for discovery by the Department of Justice, without condition.
This interview with Channel 2’s Josh Boose is her latest attempt to blow smoke up everyone’s ass. It’s a shame that Boose didn’t bother to read the decision by the Judge prior to conducting the interview, or he might have been able to ask some of those “tough questions”.
Green states:
“Had the Justice Department just agreed from day one to allow the county to be present during these types of proceedings, we would have agreed to the discovery. They refused to do so.”
Despite what Green claims, the DOJ has never been opposed to having “ECHC staff” accompany investigators in touring the facility. In fact, they asked for it:
Based on the current situation in the prison, with accusations of maltreatment of prisoners, it is well within reason that the DOJ attorneys be allowed unsupervised access to inmates during the interview process. Contrary to Green’s claim that this issue is yet to be “clarified” by Judge Skretny, the judge approved without condition, the discovery request filed by the DOJ. In fact, he expedited their request from the standard 30 days (as requested by DOJ) to 14 days due to the severity of the problems he observed.
Here is what Green told the Buffalo News back in October when the DOJ asked for the discovery process to begin immediately:
Green opposes the Justice Department’s latest request as well, describing it as improper until U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny rules on her motion to dismiss the Justice Department’s lawsuit against the county and the officials who manage its jails.
Motion to Dismiss FAIL. Judge Skretny ruled in favor of the DOJ that the civil rights lawsuit suit may continue and further clarification of his decision will be forthcoming.
This lawsuit is about much more than access. It is about a series of civil rights violations brought to the attention of the DOJ and which make up the content of their original lawsuit.
The suicide prevention standards and monitoring of inmates identified as suicide risks is just a small part of the overall issue. The premise of the DOJ lawsuit is to determine whether there are fundamental violations of civil rights in our county prisons. You can read the summary of the initial DOJ findings and the basis for their lawsuit in this 50 page report released in July.
It’s important to remember that all of this spin are stalling tactics by Erie County. If the County had nothing to hide, this investigation could have proceeded, lives could have been saved and standards could have been adhered to. Instead, Green’s antics have forced the DOJ to file an “unnecessary lawsuit” and “irresponsible and illegal requests for discovery” because of the inability or unwillingness of Sheriff Howard to adhere to minimum and reasonable standards for the handling of inmates.
Of course, the DOJ lawsuit is just ONE of the lawsuits against Erie County. Who might be the plaintiff in that other suit? The New York State Commission of Correction. You know, the organization Green so frequently claims as the governing authority for standards in Erie County facilities.
The State Commission of Correction charged in a lawsuit Tuesday that the Erie County Holding Center consistently violates state standards and that jail managers have failed to correct the problems, despite their claims.
The lawsuit, filed by the state attorney general’s office on the commission’s behalf, asks the State Supreme Court to order Sheriff Timothy B. Howard to operate the jail in a “safe, stable and humane manner.”
I think we can dispense with that talking point. The NY State Commission on Corrections claims that “Erie County consistently violates state standards and that jail managers have failed to correct the problems, despite their claims to the contrary,” Yet, Ms. Green has the temerity to claim in her response to the DOJ civil rights lawsuit that Erie County meets the standards of the State Commission. Read that again, Josh Boose. The State says Erie County is not in compliance with the very standards Green cites as evidence that she can tell the DOJ to get fucked.
A concern at this point is that the county has 14 days to clean up any mess they don’t want investigators to see. And that’s where we all lose.
The latest Collins/Green/Howard talking point has been centered around the DOJ statistic that the ECHC’s suicide rate is 5 times that of the national average. The county and its minions claim that number is false, but to date, have not provided any evidence to the contrary. Not to the Legislature. Not to the DOJ. And evidently, not to Judge Skretny:
A lot of talking out of both sides of their mouth, but always met with the same result. A County Executive and Sheriff who are quick to lay blame on everyone but themselves, wasting taxpayer money and not focusing on basic civil rights and running a competent and safe correctional facility
Town of Tonawanda considers solar energy moratorium
on March 9th, 2010
Town of Tonawanda lawmakers are calling for a temporary ban on solar energy facilities as planners work on a local law to regulate them.
Thinking Urban: Rochester Helps Out
on March 9th, 2010
Howard Decker has been an influential player in the architecture world. He was a founding partner with DLK architects in Chicago a firm which has a major roll in shaping Chicago's built environment. After 15 years at DLK he moved to Washington DC to become head curator of the National Building Museum. After a 4 year stint at the museum he returned to design, briefly running an independent consulting firm before becoming Project Director in the Washington, D.C. office of Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn where he has participated in several very large scale architecture and urban design projects. Mr. Decker continues to consult on urban design and transit matters for Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn while he also travels and completes research for a book he is preparing entitled The Next City: Shaping a Useable Future. He says the blog is a testing ground and loose outline for the book as he formulates his thesis.
The Blog first caught my eye because the last several entries have focused on the Urbanism of Rochester New York (with a laser). After traveling all over the world and posting their observations and thoughts on urbanism from that perspective Hecker&Decker have settled briefly (?) in Rochester (due to family connection of Hecker's). Howard Decker, a native of Chicago has become immersed in the city's history and urbanism and has produced a wonderful set of stories on the beauty and tragedy of Rochester's urban environment. On Rochester he states:
"...we also decided that DC could be swapped for somewhere we felt more comfortable. And here we are [in Rochester]. And then as I worked on the book, I realized that it would be good if I had a place I could use as a kind of case study, first for urban ills, and then as a platform for speculating about how to fix things. Thus Rochester, my guinea pig."
"I have actually been enjoying enormously getting to know this place better. We have been coming here for decades to see family and friends, but now I get to dive deeper into this city, and I am finding it really engaging and interesting."
People in small to mid sized metros such as Rochester (and Buffalo) tend to have an inferiority complex about their city's place in the world. The population in general has a pervasive defeatist mentality that everyplace else is better and that there is nothing special about their small unimportant city. This mentality can lead to acceptance of mediocrity and inaction. So, it is refreshing to see people like Howard Decker come to Rochester and say - this is a great place to be and you don't have to accept mediocrity because of history and size and bad governance.
Rochester is an interesting and unexpected choice to study urbanism. It was an early and vigorous adopter of early idealistic urban renewal schemes developed at mid century. It is also very representative of the current American disaster that is our sprawl system that is overlaid onto a city with great historic assets, assets, which point the way into a possibly better way of building, if anyone will take note. It is easy to build highly functional pedestrian oriented places in large cities. They have a critical mass of people to support those environments. But lessons learned from cities like NYC or Chicago do not translate to the circumstances of most urban places in America. Can we create great urban pedestrian oriented urban space in America? Is there a way to do this in a place such as Rochester which is much more representative of most American cities? Stay tuned to this blog and see if Mr. Decker can answer that question.
A Town Square conversations about where we live: http://heckeranddecker.wordpress.com/
Mr. Decker has also compiled his blog into a printed form at Blurb.com as an outline for his book. He updates the "on demand" book from time to time and it can be found here.
I am always searching for thought provoking writing and information on urbanism and proposals for pointing a possible path forward in fixing our broken way of making built environments in America (and it IS very, very broken). Once in a while I stumble on a treasure. One new site that I recently found is called "A Town Square". The site description says the following:
Welcome. We have embarked on a journey of exploration, a journey with many destinations. We invite you to join us: these pages will provide a time and place for us to share our discoveries, and for you to share your thoughts.This blog on urbanism is composed of a series of observations, comparisons and other thoughts on urbanism and the follies of our current system of building in America and around the world. It is produced by architect and planner Howard Decker and his wife Amy Hecker. They go by the catch phrase Hecker and Decker so you know they are fun loving people but take the crisis of urbanism in this country seriously.
As we travel and explore, we find ourselves wondering about the Next City, where all of us will live. How will that city sustain us, our future generations, and itself? Most of America's cities are facing an era of enormous challenge, and an urgent need for reinvention. Join us as we think about these matters.
We stand here confronted by insurmountable opportunity.
-Pogo
Howard Decker has been an influential player in the architecture world. He was a founding partner with DLK architects in Chicago a firm which has a major roll in shaping Chicago's built environment. After 15 years at DLK he moved to Washington DC to become head curator of the National Building Museum. After a 4 year stint at the museum he returned to design, briefly running an independent consulting firm before becoming Project Director in the Washington, D.C. office of Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn where he has participated in several very large scale architecture and urban design projects. Mr. Decker continues to consult on urban design and transit matters for Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn while he also travels and completes research for a book he is preparing entitled The Next City: Shaping a Useable Future. He says the blog is a testing ground and loose outline for the book as he formulates his thesis.
The Blog first caught my eye because the last several entries have focused on the Urbanism of Rochester New York (with a laser). After traveling all over the world and posting their observations and thoughts on urbanism from that perspective Hecker&Decker have settled briefly (?) in Rochester (due to family connection of Hecker's). Howard Decker, a native of Chicago has become immersed in the city's history and urbanism and has produced a wonderful set of stories on the beauty and tragedy of Rochester's urban environment. On Rochester he states:
"...we also decided that DC could be swapped for somewhere we felt more comfortable. And here we are [in Rochester]. And then as I worked on the book, I realized that it would be good if I had a place I could use as a kind of case study, first for urban ills, and then as a platform for speculating about how to fix things. Thus Rochester, my guinea pig."
"I have actually been enjoying enormously getting to know this place better. We have been coming here for decades to see family and friends, but now I get to dive deeper into this city, and I am finding it really engaging and interesting."
People in small to mid sized metros such as Rochester (and Buffalo) tend to have an inferiority complex about their city's place in the world. The population in general has a pervasive defeatist mentality that everyplace else is better and that there is nothing special about their small unimportant city. This mentality can lead to acceptance of mediocrity and inaction. So, it is refreshing to see people like Howard Decker come to Rochester and say - this is a great place to be and you don't have to accept mediocrity because of history and size and bad governance.
Rochester is an interesting and unexpected choice to study urbanism. It was an early and vigorous adopter of early idealistic urban renewal schemes developed at mid century. It is also very representative of the current American disaster that is our sprawl system that is overlaid onto a city with great historic assets, assets, which point the way into a possibly better way of building, if anyone will take note. It is easy to build highly functional pedestrian oriented places in large cities. They have a critical mass of people to support those environments. But lessons learned from cities like NYC or Chicago do not translate to the circumstances of most urban places in America. Can we create great urban pedestrian oriented urban space in America? Is there a way to do this in a place such as Rochester which is much more representative of most American cities? Stay tuned to this blog and see if Mr. Decker can answer that question.
A Town Square conversations about where we live: http://heckeranddecker.wordpress.com/
Mr. Decker has also compiled his blog into a printed form at Blurb.com as an outline for his book. He updates the "on demand" book from time to time and it can be found here.
Hamburg Town Board acts to aid Hilbert
on March 9th, 2010
Hamburg Town Board members Monday night decided to create a new nonprofit corporation to help finance improvements at Hilbert College.
Hate crime claim disputed in Buffalo State attack
on March 9th, 2010
Two Buffalo brothers who suffered concussions in an attack after a championship high school basketball game at Buffalo State College say they are the victims of a hate crime.
Elimination of Regents tests called unlikely
on March 9th, 2010
The wholesale elimination of New York State Regents exams is unlikely, but state education officials are looking for ways to place greater emphasis on strategic tests given throughout the school year and less reliance on year-end exams, a Board of Regents member said Monday.
Business coalition targets State Senate Democrats
on March 9th, 2010
A coalition of non-New York City business organizations that includes the Buffalo Niagara Partnership is taking aim at State Senate Democrats and plans to raise enough money to fuel its effort.
Kawika’s Uganda trip blog: Day 1 in Africa
on March 9th, 2010
For the next week Bills linebacker Kawika Mitchell is teaming up with New York Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka in a charity effort to help villages in Kiwanuka’s native Uganda. Mitchell will ...
Leadership conference planned at Buffalo, Amherst and Rochester Campuses
on March 9th, 2010
On Friday, May 7, 2010, ten of the world‘s best leaders will speak about the leadership principles that matter most at the Be the One Leadercast. Medaille will host this full-day leadership event at each of its campuses in Buffalo, Amherst and Rochester.
The video conference event features Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, Ed Bastian, [...]