Despite the fact that they live in a city with such a significant historic role as a Great Lakes port, many of Buffalo's public school students are lacking in knowledge and hands-on experience with the great natural resource that lies just outside their door.
A locally-based organization, Buffalo Urban Outdoor Education (BUOE) is partnering with the school-based community organization Closing the Gap in Student Performance, to provide hands-on water education and sailing programs on Lake Erie for hundreds of Buffalo students. BUOE offers several program options,

Preservation Buffalo Niagara is recognizing outstanding preservation projects and those contributing to preservation efforts at its annual awards ceremony May 30, 11:30 AM in the Statler's Golden Ballroom.  Award categories were established to acknowledge distinguished contributions to our community through preservation activity. Recipients will be recognized in several areas including: preservation craft; rehabilitation/adaptive use; stewardship; neighborhood conservation; planning/reconstruction; and

By Michael Hargrave: 
While we've been covering a number of West Side advancements as of late, including a number of developments on Massachusetts Avenue, there is one important project that deserves special attention. 456 Massachusetts Avenue, like many of the other People United for Sustainable Houses (PUSH) rehabs, is a great looking restoration project. But it's more than that. PUSH is currently occupying the storefront and is using the space as the home for its PUSH Green operation. 

Laurel Street in Buffalo runs through the East Side between Main Street and Fillmore. It has been ingloriously severed at the Kensington carbon monoxide trench, a highway formerly known for being a wonderful tree-lined parkway.  For most of its length Laurel Street exhibits all the ills the East Side is famous for - derelict houses, disinvestment, abandonment, poverty, and vacant lots.  It is easy to write off this street and think no more about it, and that is pretty much what has been done by the City and most of the rest of the metropolitan population.  But most is not all.

By Joshua Bauer (Football Nation):
Bills fans, did you ever wonder when your team turned into the Rodney Dangerfield of the NFL? Point at the four consecutive Super Bowl losses, or point at the 12-year playoff drought, but when the schedules are released annually, Buffalo just seems to get no respect. Sure, the 2012 Bills may have made some noise this offseason, may be whispered as sleeper picks for the playoffs, may be building something

Can Buffalo do it? More importantly, can Shredd and Ragan do it? 
After witnessing all of the hype surrounding Dyngus Day, 103.3 The Edge's Shredd and Ragan began to hatch a plot. If a 'B-list' holiday such as Dyngus Day could suddenly catapult to infamy, then maybe they could use a similar formula to see if they could get another 'B-list' holiday off the ground. That's when they thumbed through the calendar and realized that Arbor Day was right around the corner. That's it... Arbor Day!
The first thing that the on-air team did was to research

Ever since Canalside began picking up steam, Kevin Townsell felt that it would be the perfect spot to hold the Buffalo Irish Festival. Being the Festival Chair, Kevin anticipated that renewed excitement at the Inner Harbor would draw a whole new crowd of festival-goers, while past fans of the two-day affair would love enjoy celebrating the waterfront's history and how the Irish helped to shape the spirit of Buffalo. According to Townsell, "As a cultural Festival promoting Irish Heritage, I don't think you could find a more appropriate

Purchase a great meal for a great cause on Tuesday, April 24 when nearly 100 restaurants in Erie, Niagara, and Chautauqua counties participate in the tenth annual Dining Out For Life community fund-raiser.
Choose a restaurant, make reservations and enjoy dinner there. The restaurants will contribute 25 percent or more of that day's food sales to Evergreen Health Services of WNY (new name of AIDS Community Services). The agency is dedicated to stopping

Where are you from originally? 
Niagara Falls, NY (LaSalle area)
What is your medium?
I used to paint primarily with oil, but now I use oil, acrylic, pastel, ink, chalk, charcoal......just about anything I can drag across canvas.
How has Buffalo influenced your work? 
I was working in the Washington, DC area for many years before coming back to Buffalo in 2008. I think starting over in a new city (though WNY was my childhood home,

By Michael Hargrave:
UPDATED PHOTOS - People United for Sustainable Housing's (PUSH) Campaign Kickoff meeting last night covered myriad topics, from the housing projects that the organization is most well known for, to green housing initiatives and a campaign to get a better housing weatherization program from National Gas. 
New housing rehab plans were announced for 99 Chenango and 562 W. Utica (photos below), as well as PUSH's first

The implementation of "Complete Streets" creates opportunities for everyone, regardless of how we choose to get around - by car, bike, transit, or our own two feet and creates an inviting environment for residents, travelers and businesses alike.  How can we design streets to promote sustainability, economic development and improve health? 
That's the theme of the Buffalo Complete Streets Summit this evening from 5:30pm - 7:30pm at Asbury Hall (341 Delaware Ave). The event is free and open to the public. 
The event will explore

By Michelle Gigante - Director Shakti Yoga:
It seems that now-a-days art is created on the basis of earning potential. Musicians are preoccupied with how many youtube hits they may get, theatre producer are concerned with choosing plays that will sell the most seats and artists create with someone's living room decoration in mind.
What happened to art for art sake: art as a simple offering of expression that comes from someone's soul, subconscious or heart? Just like the yoga practice art is a way of releasing what is deep

The repolished crown jewel of downtown is almost ready for her close-up as workers finish up at the Hotel Lafayette. Over two hundred people are working throughout the building almost every day of the week to get the historic landmark ready its official debut in just a few weeks.

Chandeliers have been refurbished and returned to the Crystal Dining Room, the ornate plaster ceiling of the grand ballroom has been repaired, and the scagliola has been replicated along Peacock Alley. The transformation is nothing short of amazing

UB Law School's Regional Economic Development class is bringing fresh economic development ideas to neighborhoods that need a boost.  "Railroad Renaissance: An Urbane North Buffalo Community" was created by the student team of Michael Cimasi, Shervin Rismani and Jeffrey Tyrpak, with Teresa Bosch de Celis and Meng Yu. Below is an abbreviated version of their report.

This project seeks to blend certain notions of idyllic urbanity with a pre-existing North Buffalo Community by introducing a new mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly yet auto accessible, Boulevard across the now vacant Erie-Lackawanna

Where are you from originally? 
I have lived in Buffalo all my life. 
How has Buffalo influenced your work? 
It's impossible for me to determine how living here has influenced my art. But One of my sons refers to Buffalo as a gothic city because to him- no matter how bright the sun shines here it still looks grey. If that's true maybe unconsciously I am attracted to vibrant colors, like a piece of orange in the middle of blue and green. 
What

If there is something that I have learned about the jazz community throughout the world, it is generous when it comes to helping out for a good cause. That sentiment especially rings true where a local jazz master is concerned. Currently underway is an effort to rescue the house of legendary jazz great Elvin 'Shep' Shepherd. Shep's house was scheduled for demolition, but thanks to an amazing reversal of fate, the community has come together and is not only attempting to save the house, but would like to turn it into a museum called The Historic Shepherd House. After all, it was a young

Meeting highlights include: 1) Creation of a Medical Corridor Resident Advisory Committee 2) Designation of St. John Community Development Corporation ("CDC") as the developer of 50 City-owned parcels of land located in the Ellicott District. St. John CDC is proposing to construct 17 energy efficient townhomes on the sites as part of an overall project to build a total of 49 townhouses.
The Council adopted a resolution sponsored by Delaware District Council Member Michael J. LoCurto and Majority Leader and Masten District Council Member Demone A.

Those who have been considering making a change to cleaner, more sustainable heating options for their homes or commercial spaces have probably tossed around the idea of geothermal heating. However, some of us are still in the dark about how these systems work and what the benefits and expenses will be. If you're considering pursuing this idea, or just want to learn more about how geothermal heating works, the next installment of the WNY Sustainable Energy Association's Reitan speaker series is a great place to start.
This evening, Wednesday, April 18, the organization

By Elizabeth Lamont:
Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper is recruiting volunteers to join the Spring Shoreline Cleanup on Saturday, April 21, 2012 from 9am to noon.    
With the early spring weather we are experiencing in Western New York, many people are starting spring cleaning in their homes and yards.  Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, the environmental group whose mission is to protect and restore the quality and quantity of the waters of the Buffalo and Niagara Rivers, is seeking volunteers to help with "spring cleaning"

By Joshua Bauer (Football Nation):
You may be asking yourself, "Self, I've been hearing alot about the Bills switching to a 4-3 defense in 2012... Why are they doing this and what does this mean?".
Good question. With the sudden clamor surrounding the rebuilt Buffalo defensive line and Dave Wannstedt's ascension to defensive coach, perhaps some of the fans don't really know what all these numbers mean. Truth be told,