Buffalorising has been redesigned.

This is just insane. The national media of this country do much more harm than good. As an OIF vet I know first hand, this is just another example. It's one thing to speak about a city losing it's economy and slowly dieing, not talking anything positive from a newsroom but to go out of the way and slap us in the face with actually coming here is another.

Wolf Blitzer, Canisuis Alum could've done it and most likely spoke about the decline and what Buffalo is doing now to grow from her ashes. I suppose that wouldn't fit in CNN's agenda.

good news died a long time ago. The only news that you ever should expect to hear or read from any established source is about all the problems in society.

good news gets about a 5 second mention that if you yawned you would miss it... I gave up a long time ago on American media. I watch it but you can never assume it is objective or truthful anymore. We have conservative and liberal stations. we have people who are supposed to give the new when everyone knows they have HUGE and slighted perspectives on what they are portraying as truth?

The media has failed this country in the search for increased profits.

I just read the other article that it was about all of the US, not just an attack on Buffalo. Sorry about ranting, sometimes I get so fet up with the media and mix that with downplaying Buffalo...I'm seeing red.

Kinda ironic that they recorded the show in a building that was saved by a homegrown media/entertainment company owned by a homegrown, internationally known, Grammy award winning, musician.

Kinda ironic to portray Buffalo as a dinosaur with a dearth of progressive industry when the Church has been featured in the NY Times online style section, and has won awards for green building and adaptive reuse.

I agree, Bill – only more so. While I would not ask that Buffalo be unfairly represented as without problems and issues, the Dobbs program abused Buffalo to its own lurid, self-serving ends…promoting a book by inaccurately portraying an easy-mark city. Let’s pick on Buffalo – it sucks anyway.

But I would go beyond the inaccurate and unfair portrayal of Buffalo as a burned out rust belt union shop in my criticism of the show.

Being scripted, it could have been well-balanced and enlightened. Instead, it was uninspired and obtuse. Not only were the hand-picked questions/questioners stupid and redundant, they were never answered.

While Dobbs had his relentless teleprompters providing every aside, and the “randomly selected audience participants” had their pre-screened questions in hand and on paper before them, the local guests – to whom the questions were directed – were like deer in the headlights. Not one had seen or heard these questions before the show. An attempt at some semblance of spontaneity? No. I think not. Rather a means to make the dull-witted Dobbs appear a tad bit brighter. A very foolish technique, since the questions could not then be answered intelligently – by anyone.

And what is the question-only format all about anyway? How about comments from the audience? Being forced to pose questions presumes the host/guests have all the answers. In a Town Meeting, why wouldn’t the Town have some suggestions, answers, solutions? How about a bit of dialogue, guys? It would have been a far livelier and informative show had comments as well as questions been admitted, and they certainly had sufficient busy-bee staff prancing about to screen such questions and comments on-the-hoof, as the show progressed.

The reason for hand-picked questions and questions not comments is clear: Dobbs has an agenda and the show is warped to fit that agenda. He doesn’t get that the industrial age is over in First World economies and that these jobs NEED to head south. He doesn’t get that the manufacturing jobs that every hand-picked teamster whined about losing ARE being replaced -- by service-sector jobs, and that those industries ARE being replaced -- by knowledge-based businesses. Of course, this shift to the Information Age and its focus on self-employment, virtual work, telecommuting, small and medium sized businesses and the participation in a truly global economy spells the death of unions – and it also marks the dawn of a new age for cities of opportunity like Buffalo. Low cost of living and high quality of life, combined with a surfeit of bandwidth, make Buffalo a mecca in this New Economy – if only we can stop mourning the past and embrace the future. Education and healthcare must then also change in paradigm to meet this profoundly different way of work/life. Williams actually had it right, and the health care dude called the problem (it doesn’t work – duh!) but failed to describe the solution.

Uninspired, not informative, certainly not representative and clearly an additional abuse of Buffalo, playing off our ill-gained reputation, keying into old values and using Buffalo a cliché rather than as a real city with real problems and some very interesting solutions to them.

I protest.

There was no media agenda to screw Buffalo. Its called something you people don't live in..... Reality..!!!

were you expecting an hour long show on CNN about how great Buffalo is? Step off Elmwood Ave once in a while and while your at it take off your rose colored sunglasses.

Lou Dobbs didn't pick Buffalo as his backdrop because a new hat store opened up in Downtown Buffalo.

Buffalo was chosen because of the inherent problems facing the middle class, the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots, in which Buffalo is quickly emerging as a leader.

Until these and other issues are dealt with, it doesn't matter how great you or I think Buffalo is...

Welcome to the real world on how spontaneous TV, Radio, Print interviews are actually conducted.

Based upon the cost of developing and preparing the shows, the sensitivity to reviews on the survivability of the programs, it is important to preclude any and all unpleasant surprises.

So there are three basic techniques.
1) Pre screen questions and questioners;
2) Edit information presented to emphasize what supports the pre conceived purpose of the program;
3) Distort and/or fabricate to support main theme: sell Lou Dobbs books, boost Lou Dobbs' CNN program. These techniques present in ethical priority order.

It was a Lou Dobbs night, period. He sold books. And Buffalo got a raw beating.

Dear Wahtever,
Respectfully, I agree with you about a hat store not making all the difference--- but this was so pre-scripted-- Dobbs wrote the script freom an Atlanta armchair, and kept the Buffalo voices trained into his editorial. That was flatly wrong. There were views striving to be heard, but the voice was Dobbs' alone-- NOT a town forum. We were pawns sitting there, muffled precisely to his design.
--Bill

WELL.....WHO DID LOU DOBBS' STAFF RESEARCH?OUR MAYOR WAS THERE..DID MAYOR BROWN USE THE STAGE TO TOUT EMERGING BUFFALO OR WAS IT ANOTHER PHOTO OPP .WILL WATCH TONIGHT TO BYRON DEFEND OUR CITY.

Yeah it is just awful when someone comes in and speaks the truth... the city is being dragged down by unions.. it's just that simple... why are we so frightened by this truth? I couldn't agree more with "whatever..." sure elmwood and hertel are doing great.. go almost anywhere else and it's tumbleweed and boarded up buildings.. it's the truth.. deal with it.

Why don’t we watch the show before we criticize? Just a thought.

Sure, Buffalo is improving, but can you truly deny that:

1. Buffalo is a union town?
Look in front of Uniland's building on Delaware, the heavily financed Brown campaign, the big rat that is a constant sight in front of Benderson's offices, Phil Rumore (with his union cronies) and all the public employees in the area chanting to inherit every penny in government coffers.

2. We are losing jobs.
Lost over 1,000 jobs last year.

3. Have problems in health care.
Two hospitals closing

4. Rust Belt town.
Look out your window.

Why were just a select few chosen to participate if its a town hall meeting? It should have been more objective with questions and thoughts.

So whaddaya wanna do CK? We knew this shit 20 years ago, and most of us moped around about it for 19 years like Eeyore looking for his lost tail.

Now, for a number of reasons, things are just beginning to turn the corner in Buffalo. BRO started out as new media to change the self-representation of Buffalo and to get more positive angles circulating in the city, nation, and world - stories based on a lot of good (and real) things that fly under the radar of the SOSO* Buffalonians and SOSO media.

So after reading your SOSO list what should we do? Hmmm? Say, oh hell you're right what am I doing here why haven't I moved to Phoenix yet? Or should we keep trying? Should we try to combat a self-destructive self image long enough to get a "critical mass" of positive development and movement going? Or should we each personally shoot ourselves in the foot psychologically just like years of inept business and politics have shot our City in the foot?

What can you possibly gain by constantly screaming "OH IT'S REALLY SO MUCH WORSE THAN YOU LET ON!!"

You know what, you're right. A lot of bad stuff happens here. Show me a city where it doesn't. At least I can live the life I want to live here, and afford it. And I can try in small ways to be a part of a community that wants to change something for the better, instead of constantly throwing dirt at others and pining about shitty things are.

Look at BRO, they've grown a company from their computers and cafe tables and now they're developing an office in a part of town that many of written off as an industrial wasteland. I'm sure many people told them that they'd never build a profitable company off of internet and print advertising rates in Buffalo. Should they have thrown their arms up in the air and said "oh woe is us... we're a Rust Belt town losing jobs, and hospitals, and there are unions." Well, they've created jobs, are paying tenants, and are bringing life to the next development Buffalo neighborhood.

*SOSO - Same Old Same Old

Dear "Let's be honest...."

I would bet you money that Lou Dobbs does not say, when his program airs tonight, that Buffalo is being "dragged down by unions." To say so would both be truthful AND against his personal agenda (writing books?). Don't think for one second that Lou Dobbs is going to advocate ditching unions in favor of cheaper contracts to reduce the cost of city government. He will fight for exactly the opposite.

Lou Dobbs apparently graduated with an economics degree from Harvard... but you'd never know it from his show or publications.

Where can I get the Cool Aid everyone seems to be drinking--and spike it?

Whether the information discussed and presented last night was slanted or not, it demonstrates terrible judgment on behalf of the “power players” in Buffalo to allow Dobbs to host this event in the Queen City in the first place.

One glance at the subject matter for this discussion, and it was obvious this “town meeting” would generate more negative PR for Buffalo. While Buffalo certainly is a prime example of a depleted rustbelt city with a faltering economy, there are no benefits to highlighting this fact on national television.

I am not sure if most people still living in, or near WNY are cognizant of Buffalo’s very poor national reputation as a cold, snow laden dilapidated city with an NFL team. The very nature of this discussion will further negative perceptions. Those of us in marketing are repeatedly taught that “perception = reality.”

The struggles of middle class America are real, but having Buffalo volunteer to be the poster child does not help the area. These matters are best discussed within the area and behind the scenes, not on national talk shows.

Buffalo continues to be its own worst enemy. Buffalo reminds me of people (in general) with low self-esteem and an overall negative outlook. Those people who, without prompting routinely offer negative information and inadequacies about themselves to new people they meet. This disclosure somehow makes them feel better, but they fail to realize the negative perceptions it creates in the other persons mind. They do not understand their lack of confidence is the root of their poor image.

Contrary to the popular saying, bad publicity is very real, and can inflict serious damage.

Edward Street:

oh please.... 14 jobs? Yeay let's throw a party... tell that to the thousand PLUS people who lost their jobs last year...

To use BRO as an example of Buffalo turning a corner is as fraudulent as the advertorial news stories this site boasts day in and day out. This online community does nothing but sweep reality under the rug as is appearent by the cool-aid you and your kind are evidently drinking...

D-O-Double BS --- That's hilarious!

Edward Street:

Anger management classes may be in store for you.

Part of the healing process is understanding what the problems are. It seems that there are plenty of people on this site who overlook these problems. It's great to be a cheerleader, but don't cover your eyes to the glaring problems that exist. You might just loose your balance and fall off the top of the pyramid and land on your head.

I don't know where your rage came from or what you read that led you to believe that I was insinuating, well, that we continue on the same path, or that wait for our saving grace, or anything else. All I said is that we do have problems. It's time to recognize them and fix them.

You want solutions:

Stop reelecting the same jackasses to office.
Stop pitting Buffalo against the suburbs.
Create a regional dialog based on promoting a healthy regional economy.
Move on a path towards regionalism, start with the easier stuff and go from there.
Play on the regions strengths.
Begin marketing the area to the local citizens. Erase the inbread attitude that things are terrible here. Show the assests we have and what there is to do here. Inform the ignorant.

Aren't we just giving a little too much credit to the influence that Lou Dobbs has in this universe?

The pictures of The Church look great.

I agree that we should wait to fully comment on this show until after it airs. I hope BRO writes a follow up tomorrow to give people the opportunity to respond.

Well, Matt,
this was the follow-up.
You can follow up again, tomorrow, after you see the show tonight.
--Bill

The problem with Buffalo and unfortunately now to a fault with BR is the lack of rational, pragmatic thinking. Being overly optimistic or negative does nothing to facilitate legitimate ideas which create real solutions.

Hamp-Dobbs program (I believe) has over 1 million viewers on CNN. Remember, the negative perception of Buffalo was not created from one event or news story. It developed over time based on scores of negative reports, articles, events, etc.

Word of mouth is the most powerful source of perceptions. Not everyone has to see a program or read an article to get the “gist” of the story.

Downtown Buffalo is experiencing a great deal of development and growth. The statistics demonstrate that our region is losing jobs, but what many fail to recognize are the types of jobs being created at the same time, albeit not the same rate. So we're losing defunct manufacturing based jobs that are only operating on borrowed time anyways...i'll gladly trade those at a 2 for 1 exchange rat for new, innovative, technologically or medically based, service oriented jobs in this area.

Buffalo is in a period of painful, yet important, transition. We're not moving at the pace of sunbelt cities, but we're moving in the right direction nonetheless. We have control boards, but at least their presence indicates that the downward spiral has stopped. Hospitals are closing - but the writing has been on the wall for many years as the population has decreased. I think the best way to look at our situation is that the people that notoriously fight any necessary transition in this town are LOSING the battle.

I noticed the reference to the Uniland Building on Delaware and the union protest...sure, they're our there. However, unlike the old days, when unions had to the power to prevent that building from even being built, now they're merely delaying the trucks for a few seconds before they pull into the site. The building is still being built - a symbol, to some, of defiance against the unions.

Buffalo still has many fundamental problems that new steel building frames cannot solve. The difference is, though, that people are no longer ignoring these problems. Regionalism might still be a slang term to most, but we're having a hard time ignoring the money it would reportedly save. Developers are investing in this area...and not mere pennies, folks. Our colleges are growing, with renewed commitments to the city. The medical campus is beginning to produce dividends. The NFTA is out of the waterfront picture. Main Street is changing. Restaurants are relocating. Store fronts are emerging. Maybe the statistics do not back up this positive change, but ask a city resident if they can recall more development in their lifetime...

I understand and in many ways agree with the points people like CK make in their posts, but i think that they misunderstand us "cool aid" drinkers if they think we're trying to erase Buffalo's fundamental problems with a few lofts or startup companies. We know your arguments, only too well. We agree that the city schools must improve to bring back the middle class. We read the stats.

But - we also see the positives hidden underneath the pile of negatives, and have learned that sites like BRO can identify those positives and create one of the most important mechanisms for rebirth/renaissance/revival/solutions - the mechanism is positive MOMENTUM. We can't erase rustbelt reality, but if we grasp onto positive momentum, we can use the negatives as motivation for growth/solutions, rather than letting the negatives envelope our lives so that we become apathetic and look out only for ourselves rather than where we live.

I'd rather follow someone beating the drum of change, even if they only leased a small office with a handful of employees, than follow those beating a dead horse.

I'm going to have to see this thing for myself - like somone said, all those people (including Mayor Brown) DID agree to participate in this thing. Is really the way it is, or are we only hearing from a vocal minority - a kind of localized Borat movie?

Nice comments, Matt B.

Matt B. thank you for the thoughtful commentary and post. :)

Hello Bill,
Great post. I stopped watching channels like CNN years ago, and now I read websites like buffalo rising to get information. The web gives you depth, context and real audience participation unlike CNN and their ilk. I wouldn't fret too much about the image of Buffalo portrayed by the Lou Dobbs program; people know better. I suspect mass media is the next industry to die off. Maybe Lou Dobbs knows that too, which would explain his outlook on life in the last few years.

Matt -
Thanks for stating your opinions so clearly and thoughtfully. I couldn't agree more with your take on things.

Dobbs is a first rate clown. His fans the flames of xenophobia with his 'immigration reform' obsession, and clings to the fictional utopian economy of the 1950's as if there is an option to simply go back to the 'good old days.'

He conducts these 'town hall' meetings in places like Buffalo because he thinks he'll find supporters for his nonsense. Unfortunately, as a result of his forum-shopping, he makes Buffalo look and sound like Flint, MI. It would have been better for our image to have OJ interviewed here.

The statistics demonstrate that our region is losing jobs, but what many fail to recognize are the types of jobs being created at the same time, albeit not the same rate. So we're losing defunct manufacturing based jobs that are only operating on borrowed time anyways...i'll gladly trade those at a 2 for 1 exchange rate for new, innovative, technologically or medically based, service oriented jobs in this area.

matt b, I'll add to the praise of how well written your comment was, but have a couple beefs about the substance:

1. Re. "defunct", it's a myth that manufacturing is anywhere near defunct in the U.S., and IMO it's a huge problem that WNY is losing so much while many states are gaining thousands of good solid manufacturing jobs. One great example, although far from the only one, is Asian car companies (incl. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hundai) building dozens of U.S. factories in states such as Indiana, West Virginia, Alabama, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, California, etc. As far as I know, none of those companies has ever even conisdered WNY as a serious contender for a plant. Manufacturing careers in plants such as these are still a very good middle class jobs and we're being left far behind other areas in the U.S.

2. Your willingness to accept the "2 to 1" job losses for the forseeable future means a continued very steep decline in our population. At that rate, we wont even be a Top 100 U.S. city in another 20 years. We've fallen out of the top 40 already. In general size doesn't necessarily matter but there's a lot of problems that will be further aggrivated if we shrink that fast, such as thousands more abandoned houses when we can't even afford to demosish the thousands we already have. Another example is we won't have the tax base to fund all the public employee retirement committments we have. Just many problems associated with shrinking that fast.

Bottom line is high tech and "new economy" jobs are great if we can get them but it's very unrealisitic to think we can get enough of those to keep enough people in good middle class jobs to sustain a population anywhere near our current size. We need good middle class jobs in manufacturing also and nevermind China and Mexico, we need to make big changes so we can compete with Tennessee, Indiana, Alabama, etc.

Dobbs? Dig deeper into the realm of middle class, or forego your dramatics meant to sell books.

America is going to have welcome a watershed of a growing lower income class-- but like the old movies, it can be where to be poor didn't mean you lacked integrity; you still held your head high, with a Horatio Alger hope of upward mobility.

Everybody doesn't have to own a blackberry....or be put down because of a lack of it. We're going to have to face a larger, poorer population, and welcome them as part of the American Family.

We're losing the Ameican grounded corporation, and their high paid CEO's are basing subtly everywhere but here. Say good bye and let's deal with it. Add tarrifs, sure. Add trade rules, quotas, incentives, sure. But face it-- even the hinese factories are already preparing robots to ensure against rights of a rising class of workers in their factories.

Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and more daily do relocate to Beijing, etc., right under our noses and they don't waste a postage stamps' worth of asset exchange in the evolving process called reality.

How can this be addressed in your campaign to address the war on the middle class? Let's protect the US integrity as we grow the lower class population.

The upshot is this: To have a surviving middle class, it's not a matter of saving anyone; rather, it is a matter of addressing realities for the accommodations of a growing lower class-- the McJobbers-- encourage and educate those 50% of students who aren't enabled to aspire within the excesses of this land, to learn to meld with a survivable middle class' enablement to serve lower and upper as they always have.

Sounds mean, sounds right, sounds real.

If America prepares for safekeeping its soon to be "watershed growing lower classes," it's the reappraised and surviving middle class that will caretake for all. It's not the lightbulb of middle class for us to keep changing; rather, it's the bulb's socket and origin of society called a safer lower class of able means to care for their families.

America is too arrogrant to think it can consume the majority of the world's goods at every level; there needs to be three balanced and safe levels. Reality has arrived; usher open its doors to the truth.

Tariffs won't answer everything either. You just can't stop a river...but you can become buoyant and water ready.

Tsunami here it comes. Readdress a better lower class and keep it accessible and safe; readdress areas for salvaging the middle class, and readdress taxing the upper class as it historically, patriotically, and conscientiously was kept closer to the middle class we all identified with.

.

The position Buffalo finds itself in in relation to (most of) the national media is not unlike that of African-American actors, who have any number of talents, but Hollywood and its tributaries offer them little more than gangsta and ho roles. It is clear in this case that Buffalo was intended play a heavily stereotyped role.

So what do we do when the only time the national media turns to us is when they need the big blizzard/losing ball team/economic collapse story?

We can do what actors do and what Buffalo Rising exemplifies. There is more power behind the camera than in front of it. We start our own media and production companies. We blog, we contribute our own videos to YouTube and its competitors, we upload our own memes wherever we can.

(A meme is a unit of cultural information transferable from one mind to another. Examples of memes are tunes, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. A meme propagates itself as a unit of cultural evolution and diffusion — analogous in many ways to the behavior of the gene, the unit of genetic information. Thank you, Wikipedia.)

We subvert the dominant media paradigm.

Having just seen the entire show on CNN...I don't think it did any damage to Buffalo directly. The issues brought up were hardly unique to Buffalo. It did however place a focus on Buffalo and showed how we represent America.

While Buffalo has begun to move in the right direction, we still need to recognize that we have fundamental problems that need to be solved for the trend to continue.

To be very excited about what is happening here is understandable, but don't buy into the idea that Buffalo is cured because of it. Until we fix the underlying problems, our situation will remain, loosing jobs and population.

Typical ultra-lib posturing by CNN...doom and gloom. Did they mention 40 years of overpopulated democratic political leadership--or 'the cost of politics...or the number of people who ruined this town by living off the public tit? Sure, we've got our problems--but in the midst of it all, there are some positive things happening in Buffalo. We are in the midst of a slow, painful transition. I really gotta blame those who willingly particpated in a completely scripted telecast. People should've walked out when they saw what was happening.

The program focused on a dark subject. Honestly, I believe it gave a positive representation of Buffalo.

I guess I'm kind of out of it. Although I've seen the name "Lou Dobbs" in print I really don't know what he's all about. But I agree with Apollo, Buffalo is often it's own worst enemy.

whatever.....
every source i've seen shows us gaining a net 1200 jobs or so over 2005.

so exactly...whatever.

Did anyone else notice that he heralded every negative "oh woe-is-me" comment made, but completely ignored the professor of economics he brought in? Did he think this gentleman was going to jump on the BS bandwagon, or did he just bring him there in order to ignore him? I have great disdain for anyone who covers bigotry, profiteering, and single-mindedness in a cloak of academic and objective discourse.

I agree Dobbs is a clown - he did try top play up alot of negatives more than necessary, but I thought the Mayor and others did a good job keeping him contained.

I think there was alot more discussion regarding proposed modifications to the educational system than your article lead us to expect. Superintendent Williams may not be 100% liked, but he is definitely progressive. The necessary competition with overseas systems is a bigger issue than most want to recognize. I'll catch some flack for this one, but maybe the union that will really end up holding this city back will be the teacher's union!

But really, I didn't think the show was that awful. Anyone who needs to feel better about Buffalo should know enough to stay away from national media outlets!

The Lou Dobbs show was an embarrassment for WNY and our "leader" did a great job sticking with the tightly scripted, one-sided agenda. Shame on the Mayor and the Partnership (I heard they were involved, too) for not having the foresight to see how this show would cast our region and solidify our poor national image. It simply shows that our guys just DON'T GET IT and should have had the wherewithal to keep distance from a show like this.

Instead of seize the moment, the Mayor proved that he is nothing more than a box of rocks. He has no clue, no idea, no passion and no balls. He sat there with his Marv Levy stair and played right into the script. What a sad joke... if he is re-elected - I will have ZERO sympathy for the residents of Buffalo.

Yes, no doubt we have a weak economy but; there was ZERO balance to this show. I know that was due to Dobbs but the Mayor could have been a strong advocate/ambassor... FOX would have done a far better job with this topic.

Again, this show highlighted how our castrated politicians FAIL to see the big picture and win the battle. Instead, Buffalo was exploited like the starving children in Ethiopia. Did they not realize that this was not a WIN-WIN for Buffalo?

Kudos to the Professor from UB and the Superintendent - they did a superior job and did a great job upstaging our Mayor. Byron Brown must go. Time Buffalo elect someone with real passion or at least a brain; instead of more the same wasted space.

Bring in a Giuliani like mayor, now!

Unfortunately, I did not have time to read everyone's comments, so I apologize if I am reiterating something that was already said.

I watched the Lou Dobbs special from my apartment in New York, where I am a college student, and truly enjoyed seeing my beloved hometown on national television, even if Lou Dobbs can be pretty obnoxious.

I take particular issue with this statement:
"We're a lot more things than a union city -- what we are is a mix of bio-med-tech and a growing knowledge-based work community. Our city is artistic and collegiate. None of that was represented. CNN's representation was off the mark."

The Buffalo METROPOLITAN REGION (which is what was referred to on the special) is overwhelmingly blue-collar. It is really unfair to say that CNN misrepresented this The people on BRO and on Elmwood constitute a white-collar minority (which was proportionately represented on CNN) who in their valiant efforts to cast a positive light on Buffalo have a tendency to ignore the REAL problems discussed last night.

I could tell from the tone of the blogs that Dobbs went over like a lead balloon. I often think about Buffalo's fate and I think it boils down to one thing. Government money.

Florida and California look like armed military camps. Well stocked and well oiled Defense installations are everywhere, companies that feed off Defense contracts spring up like weeds and are everywhere up and down the coast, federally funded highway and bridge construction goes on 24/7 here, hey why not?

Florida probably has 50 bridge construction projects going, all bigger than the Peace Bridge project which is more imporatant than all of them put together. Bridges here simply whisk people off to the beaches. Bush is a very popular guy in Florida. Money just pours in from all directions. 4 devistating hurricanes in one season couldn't even make a dent in it. Awarding huge government defense contracts isn't even front page news anymore, it has become routine.

I think a day of reckoning is coming though and maybe it has even started with the Democrats taking back Congress and very likely the Presidency in 08. Housing has hit the skids and the full effects are only now starting to be felt.

Last week the paper had two full pages of foreclosures for the month of November in just this county. There was not a mention of it anywhere. People are working but they can't afford to live in the grossly overpriced homes they purchased. There seems to be a sort of taboo about saying anything negative about the housing market here. I attended a government contracting luncheon and the speaker reminded everyone there that there is a little known clause in every government contract that basically says the government can cancel that contract without warning. Old timers like me remember stuff like that.

What it boils down to is boom and bust and people in Cape Canaveral know it all too well when the space program all but shut down a few times.

We left Buffalo to be near our kids, its the only reason.

Our kids left Buffalo because there are limited career opportunities and lower pay scales which kind of came across in the Dobbs piece.

Many cities would kill for Buffalo's waterfront, for it's architecture, it's history, even it's freaky weather.

I always thought that Buffalo had a 100 year curse on it for the McKinley assasination but that theory is gone becasue it happened over 100 years ago.

I also thought that Buffalo's low cost real estate market would eventually attract big money back to Buffalo and start a new boom but that theory is out too.

Then I thought, maybe there is really nothing wrong with Buffalo.
That it's problems are no different than any other cities problems.

Sure they do seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to government handouts, and their electric rates are the highest in the country even though they invented hyrdroelectric power with Niagara Falls.

I mean, where can you find bars like they have in Buffalo, where can you find a self-funded, 37 year old sailing school like Seven Seas with its limited season that gives all its stuff away, and damnit, where can you get a good fish fry for under 10 bucks?

Buffalo is a great place just like it is.
We miss it.
Lou Dobbs-- spelled "D-O-Double BS" really missed it.
And, we mis all of you!

Lou Dobbs of CNN did a piece on Buffalo last night was not really representative of that great city or its people. Sure it has got its problems,but what city doesn't?

Highlighted were people who were way down on their luck, inner city school issues, angry union leaders, and somehow this is supposed to be about Buffalo? It is about Buffalo, but absent were the unallowed-to-speak positive doers in the City-- they were muffled and muzzled by CNN editors beforehand.

Many of these types of issues were national in their significance and not unique to Buffalo. Take my word for it folks, Buffalo is really a cool place with very unique attractions and things to do and the rustbelt
loser image that came across last night might have worked in the 60's or 70's but its not anything like that now.

Wish we were back in Buffalo; wish Lou Dobbs wasn't.

Whit,
You said, "The Buffalo METROPOLITAN REGION (which is what was referred to on the special) is overwhelmingly blue-collar." Is this really true? Please don't think that I am 'calling you out' or something like that, I have always thought that the big employers are places like M&T and UB. If the Buffalo Metropolitan region really is overwhelmingly blue-collar than that would be truly unique.

Lou Dobbs anti-free trade tirade is oblivious to Buffalo-Niagara businesses that compete successfully in a global economy and thrive on exports to Asia and other industrializing regions of the globe.

For goodness sakes, our treasured Statler Towers is being remodeled with foreign direct investment from an Iraq-born Londoner and our hockey arena is partly financed and named after a global banking powerhouse headquartered in Hong Kong.

Lou Dobbs and his populist political brethren fan the flames of foreigner hatred to sell books and get elected. If those demagogues really wanted to help the American Middle Class prosper they would try to open up more markets overseas for US exports and stop scaring away foreign investments in America.

Lou Dobbs anti-free trade tirade is oblivious to Buffalo-Niagara businesses that compete successfully in a global economy and thrive on exports to Asia and other industrializing regions of the globe.

For goodness sakes, our treasured Statler Towers is being remodeled with foreign direct investment from an Iraq-born Londoner and our hockey arena is partly financed and named after a global banking powerhouse headquartered in Hong Kong.

Lou Dobbs and his populist political brethren fan the flames of foreigner hatred to sell books and get elected. If those demagogues really wanted to help the American Middle Class prosper they would try to open up more markets overseas for US exports and stop scaring away foreign investments in America.

You all take this guy that seriously?

95% of his audience won't remember 5% of the subject of his program 10 minutes after it is over. There is NOTHING he can add to an already widespread perception of the current condition and probable fate of America's so-called "rust-belt" cities. It's been drummed into us for more than two decades now. So what?

Oddly enough, though, those cities continue to struggle, hundreds of thousands of people refuse to give up on them, and many of them offer a pretty wonderful quality of life, everything considered and despite the admitted and persistent negatives, unless you think suburban Atlanta is something to emulate.

I just received a brochure from an investment company with an ariel view of what I assume was a part of Los Angeles-- as though it was representative of societal success. I am sure the individual houses-- virtually on top of one another-- are worth close to a million dollars each. But other than rooftops, there was nothing but asphalt, and freeways and service roads, all cluttered with cars. The survival of this warm-weather-is-wonderful, shopping-and-driving economy is dependent totally on cheap gas.

Don't blame the hapless immigrants for taking advantage of the idiocy of the "unnegotiable" American way of life.

I watched quite a bit of it. It seemed very well rehearsed and scripted.

It was to pro-union for my tastes....in its support for public school systems instead of the mores successful school choice and school voucher sytems that have been championed in other cities and led to major changes in viability for urban neighborhoods. Good schools do alot to bring back the middle class and their families.

It was also to pro-government and pro-institution. When asked where to go for solutions....I heard...call your congress person. Well when it comes to things like the unfair tax and trade policies, unfunded mandates at the federal and state levels, ineffectual state agencies like the NFTA, BMHA, MBBA that do more to destroy a neighborhood than build it up....by all means call your elected officials.

What did it miss? Buffalo has one of the highest and most diverse group of non-profits in the country that have been working diligently to turn this city around and it is they who are the untold half of the story.

As far as health care....I believe in universal health coverage but not like people believe. I believe in whats called universal health stabilization meaning...you see a doctor or clinic for general coverage immunizations, colds, flu, ... minimal care, then you need separate insurance or acute care, separate insurance for hospitalization and separate insurance for nursing home/hospice, etc.

But the point wasnt that Buffalo was a basket case...or to be negative on Buffalo. They used to say that if it played in Peoria then it would play anywhere...because it was the heartland...where its values were typical of sensibilities throughout the country (a bellweather). Well Buffalo is a bellweather for the 2nd wave of industrialization in america (the first of course was New England and the third was simultaneously in the south and the west after WWII).

But believe it or not...if you leave Austin, TX or Alexadria, VA then you will see the same levels of poverty as in New England and the Midwest. Which is why an open discussion in Buffalo wasnt a bash on Buffalo.

I applaud Lou Dobbs but I urge him to tell the rest of the story.

Lou Slobbs, typical democrat asshole. Im surprised he didnt get with the BUffalo leaders to create a new task force, or development corporation, or some bullshit commitee of the same old cronies like the Goia's, Rich's, Larry Quinn and the regualr jackasses that run Buffalo