By Green Options Buffalo:

Mrs. Parks is the kind of art teacher that students love. She's famous at Kenmore West for providing a great mix of zany creativity and functional technique, and her latest project with her 3D Design students is a perfect example of that. She believes in building a student's awareness of their world, and that "It is important for our students to become more aware of their surroundings from many different aspects: reuse, thinking from a community-based mindset, and giving back. Every small stride helps the cause. The students began by exploring the assemblage

By Allita Lee:

In an effort to tap into the community's needs and insight the Wisteria Charter School Initiative respectfully asks the public to complete surveys either online or in person.  We are "casting a wide net" to reach anyone interested in enrolling their children in a Waldorf-inspired program or assisting with the creation of this charter school.  If an individual does not have Internet access then they may fill out a survey form at the Masten Resource Center (home of the Better Schools,

These... appeared, seemingly overnight ...(or over the weekend), around the FBI building downtown. 

Not sure what else to say...  here are a couple initial comments?

PaulBuffalo: Maybe they'll be installed on a gigantic railing.

Https: Maybe they intend to paint them green as a low maintenance alternative to bushes and other greenery.

JM: Paint something on it so it looks like a flip book when you walk by. My guess is this is a measure to step up security after the Murders in Az. Pretty sad on so many levels,

FASHION MANIAC TEAM:

Features Editor : Cassie Elsaesser   
All Photography & Managing Editor : Cheryl Gorski
Stylists : Cassie Elsaesser & Cameron Richard  
Makeup : Dani Weiser
Hair Stylist : James HIckey
Prop Stylist  : Todd Warfield, Lucy Mancuso, Michael Merisola
Executive Producer / Video Journalist : Richard Renda

Bowling for love by Cassie Elsaesser:

Yes, the holidays are over and the swank parties are fewer and fewer, but that doesn't mean that

By Chris Catanzaro:
 
Buffalo Powder Keg Festival has brought back some favorite sports and games from last year's festival and we are looking to add a few more niche items to the festival. The always exciting Broomball (street version) Tournament will headline the games with an expanded field of teams and a choice for competitive or social play.  Also making its way back to the festival is the always contentious rivalry of our city guardians, which will take form in the 2nd Annual Buffalo Police vs. Fire games.  The Police won by a narrow margin last year, but the

Do you love Chris Collins?  Byron Brown?  Carl Paladino? 

Its not easy, is it?

Recent history has turned Martin Luther King day into a day of service.  Service certainly is a good thing, and it is part of Dr. King's legacy. He echoed the words of Jesus Christ clearly when he stated that "Anybody can be great, because everybody can serve."  And we should serve, not only this coming weekend, but always.

Service, however, is the safe easy part of both Christ's teaching and King's.  As the nation mourns Tuscon's tragedy, it may be time

Over the past year it's been hard to miss the ongoing news reports of an imminent Asian carp invasion. Now there is an opportunity to help stop the carp happening here in Buffalo.

The Army Corps of Engineers are collecting public comments tomorrow (Tuesday, Jan 11th) at the Buffalo CONFERENCE Center (2 Fountain Plaza) from 2-8pm on their Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basin Interbasin Feasibility Study (GLMRIS). The study focus will determine if we implement a permanent solution (separating the artificially connections

We have some good news for the quick-service restaurateurs out there who are considering opening up a place in the Queen City.

Recently, QSR magazine and Pitney Bowes Business Insight conducted a survey of the top emerging restaurant markets in the country.  The results of the survey consisted of ranking the top 40 cities for restaurant expansion in the year 2011.  Not only was Buffalo among the cities listed, it just so happened to be at the top of its category.

The study broke the cities down into small-market, medium-market and large-market categories based

Now that the holidays are over, many of us here in the city feel that the wintertime hustle and bustle has come to an end.  We're happy to report that with the arrival of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy's winter festival, FLURRIOUS!, that simply isn't the case.  In this inaugural year of FLURRIOUS! a variety of cold weather activities exist for the festival-goers to participate in, including snow golf, snowshoe softball, snow beach tennis, and a couples sled pull race.  Check out the information below for registration details:
 
Snow Golf (Sunday, January

The Baldwin Building at 109 Genesee Street may be one of the smallest buildings on the Genesee Block, but it's no less important.   It was designed by the prominent firm of Esenwein and Johnson who created many of Buffalo's most recognizable landmarks.   Unfortunately, many modestly sized buildings with ornate classical detailing have been altered or modified as tastes changed, and the ornate flourishes became unfashionable.   Genesee Gateway LLC, made up of CityView Properties and the Wendt Foundation, have brought new life to this architectural gem.

Jennifer

"Hop a train to Buffalo, the upstate New York jewel bedazzled with art, music, architecture and over-the-top nature." -Kathy Baruffi, (Detour) Amtrak Magazine

November-December's Amtrak Magazine includes a heartfelt summation of Buffalo's cultural climate. With a hat tip to Ani DiFranco and Tom Fontana, the article leads the reader down an intimate road with plenty of notable destinations found along the way. Of course it's the mission of an Amtrak writer to get as many people interested in destinations along the

By Molly Clauss:
 
Our region has not hosted an informal technology group for teachers in many years. On February 5th, this will change!  The Elmwood Franklin School is hosting an event they are calling "T4 - a Teachers and Technology Think Tank." 
 
This exciting event takes place on Saturday, February 5th, from 9-11am at the Elmwood Franklin School. Teachers will be grouped,

With the 85th anniversary of Shea's Performing Arts Center coming up on January 16, organizers have decided to pay tribute to the history of "The Wonder Theatre" by taking audiences back to its roots.

The historic building was originally opened in 1926 as a movie theater.  Every January, in honor of its humble beginnings, Shea's puts on the presentation of a silent film to "provide patrons with the opportunity to experience Shea's as patrons did during the theatre's early days," said Shea's President Tony Conte.  The upcoming presentation will feature the 1925 film "The Lost

By Greg Conley:

A great series was on TV in the fall that a lot of Buffalonians might have an interest in watching. It flew under the radar for most TV viewers, but it was certainly a captivating, real example of how cities work. Buffalo has quite a bit in common with Newark, New Jersey, otherwise known as "Brick City." It's been plagued by high crime rates, little investment, and too many cronies. Most importantly though, this city has a dynamic mayor by the name of Cory Booker.

From the Sundance Channel:
/city/index.html

Jennifer Walkowski, Architectural Historian with Clinton Brown Company Architecture and Acting President of the Louise Bethune Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), is the featured guest on On Target, the weekly radio program hosted by State Supreme Court Justice Penny Wolfgang.  Walkowski's work has been featured on Buffalo Rising including the Kaman Building's addition to the National Register, the history

By BFLO Rome:

Van DiBernardo designed women's shoes for DKNY - a career that kept him "up in the air", from Spain to Italy to Brazil, when not working from his employer's Manhattan headquarters.  Today, Van is firmly rooted back in Buffalo, where he manages the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis since his diagnosis a dozen years ago.
 
Van is proof that you can take the boy out of the design room, but you can't take the designer from the boy.
 
Right now, Van is trying to launch the fashionable cooling vest he designed for people with heat

"Larger projects are great for "getting the ball rolling" - and for opening the eyes of investors who may have a difficult time seeing potential amidst the ruins - but small projects, whether they are individual homes or storefronts, are what really generate momentum for wholesale changes at the neighborhood level." - Structure Hub

Couldn't have said it better myself. Is the writer speaking of incremental advancements that go towards enhancing our quality of life?

The Chicago Tribune published an interesting chart Wednesday comparing the tourism marketing done by Chicago versus that of Indianapolis.  It made me wonder how Buffalo-Niagara stacked up.  Chicago is one of the nation's top tier convention cities annually drawing almost 40 million people generating near $11 billion in economic activity in the region.  That said I was not much interested in the Chicago stats.  What struck me was the Indianapolis numbers.  

At 1.7 million people the Indianapolis metro is similar to Buffalo's 1.1 million metro in size (US).

One of the newest additions to the medical campus, Kaleida Health's $64 million long term care facility, held its "topping off" ceremony Tuesday afternoon. The new 300-bed nursing home facility will replace two smaller, outdated facilities, the 242-bed Deaconess Center on Humboldt Parkway and the 75-bed skilled-nursing unit in Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital, which are both slated to close within the next two years.  

In October it was announced that the facility would receive

OK, it's not officially an "annual report," but Buffalo