"This is one of the dumbest posts I've ever read. A city receives state revenue. Big deal. So does Manhattan, much more per capita than Buffalo does. That's a fact. That makes New York an economic headcase, in your book, right?"
Well actually no.... Buffalo recieves STATE AID to make up for the SHORTFALL in its own tax revenue. Buffalo is recieving AIM, Aid and Incentives to Municipalities (AIM): "Total Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) funding for City of Buffalo will increase from $155.0 million in 2007-08 to $171.7 million". NYC's AIM? "The Enacted Budget provides $246 million in AIM aid to New York City" for 2007.
Isnt NYC's population in excess of 8 million and Buffalo's 258,000? So tell me, what is your definition of per capita?
You have to take EVERY revenue stream into account. Not just aid. NY's bureaucracy is labyrinthine. For instance, who runs New York City Public Housing? Interestingly enough, it falls under the Power Authority's jurisdiction, and there you have a massive aid transfer into the city. Who subsidizes the cheap cost of electric in NYC? The rest of the state. It's not so easy as looking at the budget and determining aid for schools, etc. Especially when you're looking at just the CITY of Buffalo and not Erie County. Read the article I just linked to in my earlier post that shows how money is slopped around in this state.
"Trust me, people would LOVE for Buffalo to cut ties with New York, because the federally guaranteed energy resources up here would make the region into a goldmine, instead of having Albany take it and dole it out to people in the Capital Region, or else sell it fund public housing in Manhattan. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars there. Not to mentino onerous tax laws that are ONLY appropriate for Manhattan, yet the rest of the state has to abide by them."
Provide a source if you would please.... (sounds like baseless supposition to me). What is the NYPA going to do, sell the excess energy that WNY doesn't use and send everyone a check? WNY can be socialist but the rest of the country has to compete in a normal market economy? Niagra Falls appears to be the only economically viable asset in WNY by your statements.
It's the law!! WNY gets 1/3rd of that energy for local industry. But the problem has always been that politicians elsewhere play games. I provided the link on this issue in the article above. Take Alcoa in Watertown. They just signed a 50 year free energy agreement. The net total investment from WNY per job is going to be $1.2 million per job at Alcoa. Whereas the guidelines call for a max total state investment of $50,000 per job. This is the sort of thing NY pols love: pork. As for free energy on the open market, that's dreamland. Natural resources all over the United States are tied by Federal Law to their states and communities, while the same federal laws also require them to be shared (hence, WNY exports energy and subsidizes it for Ohio and other states). Every so often, the long term laws are due to expire, and the state must renegotiate it with its constituents, or else the resource issue is taken up in congress, and then it really is a free market free for all. That's why these negotiations never make it to the free market stage and why there's a lot of horse-trading. It costs a community quite a bit to run a power authority, by the way. For instance, the boom lowered into the river every Fall backs up ice which acts as a freezer for the community, lowering the temps by 10 degrees and causing heating bills to rise, which takes a huge chunk of dough out of the community. Have you ever walked by the Niagara river in downtown Buffalo? You may have noticed a precipitous temperature drop. These are precisely the sort of reasons why host communities get first dibs on resources, typically.
As for saying it's the only asset in WNY: it's practically the only asset in the entire state and region. The most freshwater in the entire world.
And oh by the way.... Just how much revenue do you think NY Harbor and Boston Harbor generate in comparison to Niagra Falls??? lol :bricks:
"Your ignorance of Buffalo is easily proven. You ridicule me for saying Buffalo's architecture takes a back seat to none of these northeastern cities. The fact is, it doesn't.
I'm not the only one who says so:"
Yes, you are. Show me another who says it. I provided you with an article that shows you how well Buffalo's architecture is regarded. Show me one other person other than you who think this. Just one.[/COLOR
"Buffalo was a huge boomtown, one of the richest in the United States, at the turn of the last century when the first hydropower electric projects started here. That's the exact period that coincided with America's greatest public planning and architectural movements, as Frank Lloyd Wright spent more time here than anywhere else outside Chicago. Frederick Law Olmstead called it the best planned city in the world, with parkspace, waterfront, and roads and neighborhoods. Arts & Crafts architecture was huge here at the time, HH Richardson, it goes on and on. The other cities I listed can't beat Buffalo in this. It's that simple."
how many? High fuel prices, cheap houses and mass transit mean anything to you? Necessity mean anything?
Fuel prices have gne up in the last several months. You think people have abandoned their suburbs and moved into buffalo in the last several months? Bizarre thinking. It's happened for the better part of a decade.
"it's gentrified" Yes, this is common in low income areas....:bricks:
"there are lots of new restaurants, clubs, theaters, things to do. The waterfront is rebuilt with parks and boardwalks. Like most American cities, it has improved hugely in the last decade. Just as Boston has. I'm old enough to remember when the Pour House on Newbury in Boston was a tough biker bar that was dangerous, not some yuppified Armani den full of neon lights. City's change, you have to keep an open mind. I moved here from Providence (after living in Boston) and I don't regret it one bit. Great restaurants, pro sports, great parks, access to the water and great natural areas for hiking nearby, lakes, wineries, a vibrant arts community, and best of all affordable housing that makes all my friends envious when they visit us. Quite simply, the houses here are amazing." (amazingly cheap)