By Chris Story, Crystal Wicker, & Kara Weymouth:
Fashion Maniac: Keeping tabs on Buffalo's fashion industry, including models, catwalks, retailers, designers, stylists, visual merchandisers and jewelers. 
Whether you're a red-blooded conservative or a peace-loving beatnik or like most of us fall somewhere in between, one thing is remains constant: military fashion is here to stay. Don't think it's true? Turn on any television or browse through any fashion site on the

"Obviously, there's something I'm not doing correctly with this football team in the second half."
The above words may have been spoken by Buffalo coach Chan Gailey, but they apply across the board for the Bills right now as they come off their 45-3 beating by the 49ers.
When Buffalo went shopping for defense after such a poor showing in 2011, what they came up with was looked at early as potentially being one of the best in the NFL.
The acquisition of Mario Williams and Mark Anderson was supposed to make the

By Suzanne Jaszcz:
Lights, camera, action!  Movie magic is about to take place this fall in Buffalo as the local film "Give & Take" starts production.  The screenplay by local actress and entrepreneur Gail Golden (founder of Dramatic Solutions and Wondermakers) is inspired by her real life experiences working as an actress in Buffalo and beyond.  The film is a coming of age story that takes place in the wacky, wonderful and sometimes dysfunctional world of the theatre.  Gail first wrote the screenplay seven years ago and was recently

This restaurant location at the corner of Elmwood and Utica is a prime spot in the Elmwood Village. It's a beautiful building with oversized windows, off street parking, kitchen equipment... everything that a restaurant owner would want to start a business. Unfortunately the space has been sitting vacant for a couple of years now, which is not good for commercial and residential neighbors. The lack of a tenant leads me to suspect that maybe the property owner is asking too much per month. The space is listed at $5500 a month, which is a fairly large nut to crack. Then again, it's got a lot of great

Letter to the editor by M. Schifano:
The proposed apartment complex on the site (unless I missed something) of the old and long neglected Erie Freight House is a great idea. Population density is what is missing from that part of town. To be sure, there are already people living in the area, but a fresh project that would attract more people with the means to support all of the other businesses that make a neighborhood successful is a good idea.
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By Bernice Radle:
WNYSEA is bringing BRO readers a daily article about green buildings in Buffalo. Each green building will be available for you to see for FREE on Saturday, October 13, 2012 at the WNY Solar Homes and Green Buildings Tour from 10am - 4pm. While this tour is not limited to the city itself, it is very important to give a HUGE cheer to the city of Buffalo because there are so many great projects within the city limits. For a full list of tour sites go to www.wnysea.com or www.energysage.com

By Giovanni Centurione: Opening Monday is one of downtown's newest retailers, Althea's 2nd Time Around boutique, located at 661 Main Street (see more). This new shop takes up residence in the recently restored Pierce Building across from Shea's Buffalo, offering a wide selection of men, women, and children's clothing, accessories, furniture and artwork. This is an exciting time for Buffalo's Theater District, as construction of auto-sharing

Matt and Kim played at the Town Ballroom last night, bringing with them the same energy and zest that they have been delivering since they first formed the duo in 2005. To be clear, my wife and I have been fans of the band for years, catching them for the first time in Toronto when they opened for The Go Team back in 2008. Then we were fortunate to see them again in 2010 at Soundlab here in Buffalo. When we heard that they were coming to play Town Ballroom we knew that there was no way that we were going to miss the show. The group recently released its latest CD (in October) called Lightning,

By Giovanni Centurione: Edible Arrangements has officially opened its doors in Lafayette Square's Brisbane Building. If you are familiar with their other locations, EA is known to offer a wide variety of fruit-based gift baskets and arrangements for any occasion. Upon mention of the business, many people might think of just a few different types of offerings, including corporate gift selections and edible "Thank You" arrangements. What might come as a surprise to some is that the fresh fruit bouquet offers a lot more variety

When I listen to folks in cities below the first tier talk, I so often hear some variation of a story about people from out of town and exclaim about how great the place is saying, "I had no idea your city was this cool or had all this stuff." Or we hear about the person who moved there from New York, fell in love, and is now the city's biggest champion.
I think all of these should be taken with a grain of salt. 
First, how often do you visit someone's house and then make a disparaging comment about it to their face? My guess: never.

An Oktoberfest party is happening today at Més Que located at 1420 Hertel Avenue.  You don't have to drive to Ellicottville to celebrate, and we guarantee you'll have just as much fun. Party, celebrate and cheer for your favorite soccer (football) team! 
For every draft beer that's purchased, Més Que will donate $1 to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Western New York. Wear your most creative Oktoberfest costume, and Best Male and Female Costume winners will take home a $25

Chef Chris Silverstein, owner of the Lagniappes French Quarter Cafe on Allen Street is looking to get into the food truck business. I spoke to Chris yesterday about his decision to get his restaurant on the road, and he told me that the ability to create a four wheel enterprise is just too tempting. He also alluded that he was looking at two completely different scenarios that he would like to roll out. Intrigued, I asked him to send along images that would represent the two directions that he was looking to go.
When Chris showed me the two different

Of Those Persons who are narrow-minded enough to try to belittle Buffalo. If they will "knock" our city, they will likewise "knock" their best friends. Beware of them! If they won't "boost" Buffalo, tell them to go back to wherever they came. And while on the subject, let us go back 100 years when Buffalo first became an incorporated settlement. Supposing those strong and hearty men who founded Buffalo had "knocked" their city? Where would we be now? Probably a suburb of Fredonia or Angola. Let's all start boosting, as they must have done, so that our children's children 100 years

Over the past two years the Mayor's Office of Strategic Planning, its consultant team, and the community have been diligently working on the Buffalo Green Code. This past June, over 400 residents attended neighborhood open houses, providing significant input for the new Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). Based upon this input and the thousands of comments received prior to these meetings, the consultants have been busy preparing a draft of the UDO, and the City is now ready to start reviewing the details.

Coming into Week 5 of the NFL, Bills fans have quite a few questions about their franchise, but there seems to be none more pressing than, "Where's Mario?".
Seen as a boon when he was signed to a $100 million contract in the offseason, Mario Williams has yet to perform up to expectations, those of both fans and the coaches.
Although he has been defended by the Bills' organization, including GM Buddy Nix, who said, "...the money he's got he's never going to live up to," he also added, "Mario wants to play better and we expect him to."
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Remember this past summer when the 500 Block of Main Street went to great lengths to beautify a run down old alleyway? It was a tremendous effort that paid off for the district, mainly because a neglected eyesore was turned into a vibrant and popular artistic feature. Now the company that operates the pass through, Allpro Parking LLC has notified the neighborhood that they intend to erect a fence along Main Street, thus preventing people from walking across what is private property. To me, I'm perplexed and upset that this is the 'thanks' that some people get for attempting to clean up this

It was back in 2009 when 'crit' racing first came to the Cobblestone District. Since that time The Cobblestone Criterium (bike racing) has grown in numbers, attracting hoards of racers and fans to downtown Buffalo. In fact, the series has grown so much that it is moving to another part of the city in order to accommodate the growth. Fortunately, the move will not only be great for racers and fans, it will also be a big boost for the city. You see, the Cobblestone District was a great place for the race series

Buffalo is engaged in an evolutionary process. Visionaries are finding ways to activate formally dormant districts, and centers of activity are emerging around the city, in a variety of neighborhoods. The city is in the process of retooling and inventing it's future.  A linked situation is evolving, informed by the lessons of the past, fueling innovation, moving forward.  At this crucial time it is essential to analyze and assess the city's re-emergence, the Situation is Now.      The debate on the status of the city is an ongoing project,

Over the past decade, Ron Cozzi has seen plenty of change in his neighborhood.  Cozzi's Old Edition Book Shop at 74 E. Huron Street opened in 2003 and since then the blocks surrounding the store have gone from forlorn to spiffed up.  Former County Executive Dennis Gorski's dreams for a new convention center that would have straddled Ellicott Street and removed two or more blocks of buildings were torpedoed by newly-elected County Executive Joel Giambra in 2000.  In ensuing years, buildings on Huron, Broadway, Washington, Genesee,

After a successful warm weather run, The Peddler (retro, vintage and antique market) is heading indoors for the winter. Seeing that this Saturday is going to be windy and a bit cold, the sellers are scrambling for cover. Fortunately one of our neighbors, The Lafayette Presbyterian Church, has opened its doors to The Peddler and as of this Saturday the flea market will be open for business in its new location (at least until spring that is). 
With a 9am opening, visitors to The Peddler can enter the church from the Lafayette