Buffalo Rising Online

Well, I think that everyone in Buffalo and the surrounding communities should be outraged and make their community voices heard to the Senecas and to their politicians. Why?

Many of us want a casino or are resigned to accepting a Buffalo Casino.

However, we must send a strong message that the Senecas are in a real city (Buffalo) with real businesses, institutions, organizations and communities to which they must build good relations!

That means, if you want a future 250 room hotel, then dont use your sovereignty and tax advantage to compete with existing hotels....partner with them

That means, if you want a future 250 room hotel, dont build it with space for conventions and compete unfairly with our Buffalo & Erie County Convention Center

That means, if you want restaurants, entertainment or parking then partner with the existing tax paying businesses and venues!

Dont unfairly compete. Niagara Falls was a blank slate. The city was demolished long ago and never rebuilt which meant that there were few local institutions and businesses to consult or include. This is not the case with Buffalo!

We must should welcome the Senecas but send a strong message that Buffalo may be a struggling city but we are still a city and if you wrong us....we will fight for our city as strongly as the Senecas fight for their reservation!

Well said

Why not get Carl Paladino on for a podcast interview? He's got his fair share of critics via this website. Why not get his perspective on these development projects and the prospective casino?

At their press conference a few weeks ago, someone asked the Seneca chief why he hadn't met with local preservationists and he replied "Because I don't have to."

I think there's essentially zero leverage available that could result in them not deciding to eventually build their own hotel, etc. They'll probably do a lot of retail using casino as a cover and make huge profits in particular on tax-free cigs.

Lou and others, just how exactly do you think we can "send a strong message" and "fight for our city" in these regards since the State Legislature has passed the compacts allowing them to do all these things? I realize the Federal lawsuit is in the works, but public pressure will have no influence on that either way. Any other ideas or is this all just well-intentioned dreaming?

Good... maybe in the meantime they can put SOME BOARDS ON THE FREAKING WINDOWS!!

I don't usually use such profanity, or post in all capital letters, but this building is one of my pet peeves.

It's Huge, lots of square feet, meaning potentially a lot of real estate dollars ( can you say Larking Building ). But its Large size also means that when you're driving into downtown from the south you can't miss this giant, vacant, ugly, rust belt trademark. Complete with broken windows and the 6-foot tall trees on the roof, this lovely piece of real estate is becoming more dangerous by the day.

I wonder how many times Ellicott Development and Mr. Carl Palidino have been cited by the housing department in regards to this building. because if the housing codes were actually being enforced here, the trees on the roof wouldn't be 6-feet tall!!!

Palidino needs an interview here to clear his 'good' name.

How do we convince the Senecas to listen to the local preservationists, the local convention center, the local hoteliers, the local restaurantuers and entertainers, the local parking, etc.

Well, there are always picketers....and anonymous shootings and lighting a few cars on fire certainly is keeping the NYS Govenor to scared to collect the tax on cigarettes and gasoline.

I am not going to participate in violence nor do I advocate it but I do know that every city has its share of the poor, marginalized and disenfrachised....and it wouldnt take much to mobilize them to a cause.....with equal vengence as the Senecas used to defend their interestes!

The Senecas have the opportunity to unite the pandering politicians, the conservative business community, the religious community, the poor and the liberal cultural & preservationists....for only the Senecas threaten all interests groups in they choose to alienate them!

ur f****d up Jerry.

I'm not one that trades in the flaming liberal positions, having had most of my youthful lefty enthusiasm burnt out by the excesses of the 60's and 70's...however, even mentioning the idea of violence in relation to the Senecas-however it was packaged-is disgusting given the history.

Support the casino or oppose it...that's fair. Worry about turning prime downtown real estate over to a sovereign nation...fine.

But let's keep the history of genocide in our minds, and temper our remarks accordingly. I will rail with the best of you regarding our political leaders being complicit in bad deals around this issue, but the Senecas, I think, have a history that gives them the right to be ruthless.

But hey,

Wouldn't it be great if this building IS developed?

Yes STEEL it definitely would be good to see some improvement on this building, I'm looking forward to it.

for all of my anti Casino and anti Las Vegas friends here read this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11030070/

Seems to me that comparison to Vegas is irrelevant for several reasons. One is that Vegas has tax-paying private enterprise casinos and thus there's a counterbalance to gambling negativity. \

Secondly, since they're not tax-free the Vegas casinos don't have the huge advantage the Secenas will have here when competing for restaurant and bar business (tax free AND smoking allowed). I see the pros and cons of gambling but I do think it should be legal and zoned, much like strip clubs. But I'm greatly opposed to granting the Senecas a tax-free monopoly for this.

Lastly, that article you cited about Vegas economy booming is also an irrelevant comparison to Buffalo because they have many economic advantages over us that have nothing to do with casinos (low taxes, business-friendly regulations, low union mebership). Those reasons are plenty to explain their success as compared to us, and the idea that we'll be having similar success when a casino opens is very far fetched. Just go out there and see how many non-casino buildings are going up out there - it's amazing, and won't happen here due to our government policies.

great point Roger...good to see at least YOU get it!

Does anybody have any Seneca Nation Laws handy? I am truely curious what I can cross north of South Park Ave and do legally that I couldn't do on the south side of it? I think there's to ba a few fun things.....