Throughout the course of my life I have always felt completely inspired by people who live life to the fullest, especially those who have physical impairments. I recently learned about a local organization called Deaf Adult Services (DAS) - an organization that is dedicated to helping the deaf community. In order to maintain its operations to the fullest, and to service all of Greater Buffalo's needs, DAS is organizing an inaugural winter festival that is being called Summerfest - now how's that for a twist? 
The event is aimed at generating money for the organization's

Accounting firm Lumsden & McCormick, LLP signed a lease with Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation to relocate their offices to the Cyclorama Building at 369 Franklin Street.  Lumsden & McCormick will occupy the entire two-story building totaling approximately 26,000 square feet of office space in July. 

Founded in 1952, in Buffalo, New York, Lumsden & McCormick currently has approximately ninety employees.  They are one of the largest locally owned certified public accounting firms in Western New York.  The company will be leaving space in the Brisbane Building

MEETING SUMMARY for FEBRUARY 7, 2012:
The Council adopted a resolution sponsored by Council President and Lovejoy District Council Member Richard A. Fontana requesting that no products containing Bisphenol A ("BPA") be sold or distributed within the City of Buffalo. BPA is an industrial chemical that has been present in many hard plastic bottles and metal-based food and beverage cans since the 1960s. In September 2008, the National Toxicology Program found that BPA at current human exposure levels may be toxic to and negatively affect the brain, behavior

A friend of mine posted this inspiring photo on Facebook (thanks KJ). It's a photo of people sitting out in a cafe-style setting on a canal in Leiden, a Dutch province of South Holland. When I was young I spent a lot of winters skating on Lake George in the Adirondacks. Since the lake was smaller and shallower than Lake Erie, the ice would always freeze in a similar way... smooth as glass. 
When the ECHDC builds the extended faux canal in time for ice skating next winter, I would imagine that the ice conditions would be very similar to the conditions seen in this photo.

Three years ago, Marcus Wise stepped into the space that now holds 464 Gallery not knowing the growth that would transpire there. It's hard to imagine that the clean, welcoming creative space that exists there now was once a less-than-appealing site to behold. One room was comprised of bare walls with exposed studs, severely damaged flooring and rusted gray ceilings. "It was a little scary at first," Wise said. "I thought, 'Can we actually make this happen?'"
Wise's journey to 464 actually began well before he bought the space.  It started with his website,

Over the past several years the idea of eating local has become popular here and elsewhere, and with it the desire to experience foods fresh from the farm in our local restaurants. But without a distribution system in place for local farmers, as demand has grown, only a few farms have been willing or able to truly embrace the effort and challenges required to work with restaurants. Those that have stayed the course have found it to be a profitable and rewarding choice--chefs can appreciate the subtle adaptations a farmer can make in the growing process to really enhance a particular food, and anyone

Thanks to S. Hill for passing along a thoughtful note asking us to take a look at some inspirational playgrounds that are being designed all over the world. Of course there is something to be said for the traditional 'swing and slide' styles that we are still building in Buffalo - there will always be places for the oldies but goodies. At the same time, as we are trying to reinvent parts of the city such as Canalside where historic Military objects are commonplace, maybe there is room for a kids' draw that looks something like, say, an airplane? Or the Larkin District where creative ideas are running

The number of churches that have been forced to close their doors in recent years has been staggering. However, there have been some rare cases where churches have been able to reinvest in their historic properties and find a new life. Holy Angels Church at 348 Porter Avenue is one of those rare examples.

Built in 1856, the Roman Catholic Church has been in constant use since it was completed. The congregation was founded in 1851 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. They began

By Nicholas Miller

Last week I wrote about simple solutions that could improve Buffalo's public transit system.  This week, I would like to present a bold idea.

In my opinion, Buffalo's Metro Rail is a mass transit success story.  It has the NFTA's highest ridership and represents a fifth of the NFTA's total daily ridership.  It is also fast and follows a direct route between several of the city's major destinations. It is also the least subsidized and most cost-effect component of NFTA's transit system and attracts a substantial share of discretionary riders

The architectural firm responsible for Baltimore's Inner Harbor will design Buffalo's Choice Neighborhood plan Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority officials said Monday. 

The $624,000 contract will result in a dramatic remaking and revitalization of the Commodore Perry public housing neighborhood by Philadelphia-based Wallace, Roberts & Todd (WRT).  The BMHA Perry Choice neighborhood is bounded by South Park on the south, Smith Street to the east, Sycamore to the north and Michigan Avenue to the

If you're a fan of worldly wines and beer varietals and you would like to pay a visit to the newly renovated Statler City, then Rotary Club of Buffalo and the Buffalo Rotary Foundation have an event for you. The event is called Wines of the World and if you know anything about Rotary, then you know that the organization has changed the face of Buffalo through its fundraisers and its contributions to this city. Just think of Rotary Rink and Rotary Park - just a couple of the most noticeable contributions. 
Each year Rotary of Buffalo hosts impressive events

By Chris Phillips - Occupy Western New York:
We are Occupy Western New York, we began in late December when a number of Occupy Buffalo protesters moved to Lafayette Square and were raided 5 days later.  
We decided it was best to move into the new phase of the Occupy movement and began occupying abandoned homes and foreclosed properties as a realistic way of addressing the WNY housing crisis. Some of us just returned from Niagara Square where they recently raided the camp with dozens of police officers and took everything

Ever since the Huffington Post article came out, showing the sensitive side of Buffalo guys, I have been irked about an image that went along with the article. While all of the other images showed pretty, colorful shots of respective cities, Buffalo was, once again, depicted as a cold, desolate place. Now I'm not saying that we don't have cold winters. We do. But that's

By Rachel Mathews:
I really had decent expectations going into Superbowl XLVI as a Bills fan willing to cheer for the Giants as my adopted, second favorite, home-away-from home team. Sure it was the lesser of two evils to cheer for the Giants, especially after last week's Brady hotel comment debacle, but I also have a strong base of NYC friends who are born and raised Giants fans. I wanted to see what a city post-superbowl victory would be like, and I wanted to see my NYC friends in, what I had hoped would be, rare form. In what may potentially be a more isolated

Buffalo has an amazing and important collection of magnificent historic churches. It is a collection of great architectural heritage that ranks up there with any city in America and surpasses most.  It is a heritage built mostly with the hard earned dollars and devotion of Buffalo's early working class residents.  Much of this irreplaceable heritage is now being thrown away by WNY's current residents.  I was scheduled to write this story back in December but somehow could not bring myself to do it.  With the closing of so many churches over the last two decades the problem

Super Bowl Sunday is a big day for hot sauce companies like Frank's. The chicken wing has become symbolic food for football lovers all over the world, and thanks to Anchor Bar (inventor of the original chicken wing), Frank's has become a huge sensation producing a highly addicting wing sauce that fans all over the world say is synonymous with the flavor of the wing. 
According to a recent /city/index.html

On a day that is dedicated to the gruff, chicken wing eating, army jacket wearing, Super Bowl watching Buffalo guys, it should also be noted that despite how 'rough and tumble' Buffalo guys may want to appear, deep down there is a sensitive side to them. According to The Huffington Post writer Claire Gordon, Chemistry.com has "...scanned its male users' responses to a 56-question personality test

On the occasional Saturday I feature an obscure architectural element found in the city, to see if someone can figure out where it is. Buffalo is filled will all sorts of obscure architectural details and hidden items if interest. 
There are no clues - just a photo depicting the item. I'm sure that there are a lot of BRO readers out there who have scoured the city and have seen just about all that there is to see. Others might learn about some real treasures found in the most unlikely places. Either way, I'll keep mixing it up from week to week to keep you guessing...

I have long touted the sports strategy that Indianapolis used to revitalize its downtown as a model for cities to follow in terms of strategy led economic and community development. I really think it sets the benchmark in terms of how to do it, and it has been very successful.

Indy is hosting the Super Bowl on Sunday, something that is locally seen as a sort of crowning achievement of the 40 year sports journey. As part of that, the Indianapolis Star and public TV station WFYI produced an hour long documentary on the journey called "Naptown to Super City." I think it's a must watch for

The subjects of tagging and graffiti ares one that are oft disputed and although many people can't agree on the topics, the taggers continue to leave their marks on this city. Normally when I see a stop sign with a tag on it I don't get too upset (it's a an ugly blemish that can be easily fixed). Unfortunately, I know that that tag will most likely lead to other tags... in other places. Often times, derelict buildings are prime candidates for getting tagged. It's considered the Broken Window Theory - blight will attract more blight. 
In the past I have stated