thursday june 26th 2008
The Mansion is an Asset to Buffalo
Jennifer Lawandus
The Mansion located on Delaware Ave, received the Key Bank Small Business of the Year award on Thursday, June 19.
The Mansion has been welcoming local and international guests as a luxury hotel since 2001, when it opened it's doors.
The Mansion was selected for the award because of the impact it has had on Buffalo. With visitors from around the world, The Mansion gives a strong impression of what Buffalo is all about. "One way in which The Mansion gives guests a view of the city is through their shuttle service they provide for guests to theaters, city dining, downtown galas and dancing. This service gives the guests the opportunity to be exposed to almost every facet of Buffalo life. Additionally, The Mansion is known for sending guests to see the best Buffalo has to offer, including the Darwin Martin House," said Geno Principe, partner of The Mansion.
Recommending places to visit to The Mansion's guests not only helps the Buffalo economy, but "allows guests to form their own opin…
User Options
Al & Deb Warner
If you've lived in Buffalo for very long, you've probably met our friend Reverend Kenyatta Cobb, Sr. through a news bite on a local television news broadcast. Our first memory of Rev. Cobb was through a television interview where he stood beside a family whose son had just been shot during a spree of gang violence. This is a man who has often stood in that place, fighting for life in the midst of violence and death. Although he has been there far too often, death has not beaten down the spirit of this man. To be with Rev. Cobb is to be with a visionary filled with hope and passion. In fact, his aura is contagious.
Rev. Cobb’s is currently pastor of Hananiah Lutheran Church, 900 Genesee. The building they own is one of so many Buffalo buildings that have stood dormant for decades. In this case, it was even worse because the building was used for illegal drug manufacturing…
West Coast Perspective
The Erie County Public Safety Center opened in mid-2006, but the landscaping looks a bit incomplete. The striking, five-story, $33 million facility located at the intersection of South Division and Elm Streets at the entrance to downtown is in need of some groundskeeping. Workers inside may be hard at work weeding out the bad guys, but there is little weeding happening on the exterior. The south side of the building has no landscaping at all. Driving 55 MPH along Elm, one might mistake the lush green weed strip as grass. Perhaps that is the low-cost plan.
wednesday june 25th 2008
Buffalo River Boat Tip
queenseyes
While visiting The Swannie House earlier this evening we were told to take a walk across the street to check out the new public access dock. We had been down this path before a couple weeks earlier after hearing that some plans were finally being realized – plans that would give boaters the ability to tie up and take advantage of Cobblestone amenities. The people behind this public access effort will probably never be recognized for their effort, and if you talked to any one of them they would tell you that that is the way they like it. The project is not being done for any recognition… rather it is a task that they feel is necessary, and if it means rolling up a few sleeves, then so be it.
Of course all of the proper permitting measures were acquired so as to adhere to safety measures. And now there is a fun…
West Coast Perspective
Hundreds of people have moved into downtown Buffalo in recent years trading cars for bikes and walking instead of commuting.
Organizers of Buffalo Homecoming are keying up to let you experience the housing surge first-hand. On June 28th the third annual Downtown Housing Tour will showcase some of the attractive and spacious lofts, luxury condominiums, homes and apartments that are available in downtown Buffalo. The event, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., is free and open to the public.
The tour is meant to expose participants to the changing face of downtown.
Elena Cala Buscarino
RealtyTrac Inc., an online marketplace for foreclosured properties hasn't accounted for lis pendens in the past, skewing actual foreclosure data according to Western New York Law Center's (WNYLC) attorney and coordinator of Buffalo's Anti-flipping Task Force Kathleen Lynch.
The Law Center's Geographic Systems Analyst Joy McDuffie, also part of Mayor Brown's anti-flipping task force, agrees saying it makes the situation look less dire than it is. Lynch and McDuffie believe that by not including these properties that are in danger of foreclosure, we may be less eligible for government aid for the entire region.
As a result, WNYLC is conducting its own search with the help of AmeriCorps Vista (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteers. …
Eli George
If you’ve noticed the lack of Queenseyes’ posts today, that’s because Newell is out working diligently on keeping the parking meters in place to transform them to bike racks. If you read his article from yesterday, you know this is a pretty important issue to many business owners across the city.
Besides being a great way to reuse the meters, it’s also a great way to promote green and city life styles. Newell told me that if four businesses banded together, they would only have to spend around $25 a piece to get a bike rack. If a whole block of businesses, say around 20 total, banded together, they could outfit their whole block with bike racks.
That’s some pretty awesome stuff, but it comes with challenges. Namely, that the meters are being removed every single day as scheduled without an end …
Eli George
Buffalo is well known for having a lively theater scene and has plenty of local actors who become hometown favorites. However, it can be difficult to emerge onto the acting scene in a national-sense and training is usually needed. Enter Greg Natale. Natale has been a theater professional for the last 25 years. You may have even seen at To Kill A Mockingbird at Studio Arena when he played Bob Ewell.
Natale will be holding a summer training session in the Meisner Technique. His Acting Studio is not only based on Natale’s experience as a theater professional, but also his experience with the Meisner technique. He was an instructor for two years in Los Angeles and he studied the technique for three years in NYC.
For those who don’t know, there are different methods of acting. To briefly sum up the Meisner technique, it teaches an actor to improvise in response to what …
Eli George
The 10th Anniversary Erie Canal Bike Tour kicks off from Buffalo and runs from July 6 through the 13 as around five hundred cyclists bike the 400-mile canal route. Organized by Parks & Trails New York, cyclists start arriving on Saturday July 5th in droves. The Nichols School is the headquarters for the arriving cyclists, and with that many people, comes the need for volunteers.
People will be needed to help register, set-up tents and break them down, running cyclists to Campus Wheelworks to pick up their bikes, trips to historical sites around the city and Niagara Falls, a band to provide music, traffic control people, people to help with small bike repairs, and information booth volunteers.
It’s some work, but if you choose to help, you get access to the cheese and wine reception that afternoon, a free dinner on…
queenseyes
And I thought every day was Buffalo Civic Day. Actually, according to Kevin Gaughan that may be true, but Buffalo Rotary has asked if he would give a speech to mark a day (Wednesday July 9th) in which the citizens of Western New York come first. Kevin only has three more stops on his tour of Erie County's 25 towns, 16 villages and three cities. No one can recall anyone undertaking this type of reform tour before. He started in November in Lancaster when it was ten below, and here we are on this beautiful day in June. He has spoken to over 20,000 people during the course of this project regarding his ideas on how to reduce government and grow our community.
Kevin kept a journal of his journey and has decided that he is going to publish a small book based on those accounts. He feels that he understands the Western New York character - its past and present problems. "On Buffalo Ci…
