Buffalo Rising Online

So my question is, out of all of this development, how much of it is due to something Brown implemented and how much is despite Brown?

I think he speaks very well and comes across as hopefully and well meaning. I still want to really know what he has done to make the city a better place for business. I just don't hear about any internal changes that make a difference. I see the same people. Doing the same job, in the same offices as years past. If anything I have seen more people in city hall in recent years. And that cop getting paid who knows what to sit on his ass every day in front of the mayors office needs to go! what a waste of taxpayer money.

The better question is: Can you breakdown the total dollars of taxpayer-funded development vs. private sector development? He keeps touting all this development and a large chunk is govt spending and false advertising.

Secondly, if this is such a great place to do business, why is Bashar Issa's project dying (overpriced union labor) and where all the NEW OUT OF TOWN BUSINESSES? Economic development isn't pushing the same pieces around a chess (moving New Era from one muni to another, which is neither new nor sustainable), it's actually attractig new businesses that create new jobs and in turn help stabilize the region, not just Buffalo.

Brown is just another in a long line of bad leaders who touts inconsequential movement as true change and action.

There is no economic development and there is no "this is a good aplce to due business" when taxes are the highest in the country and the state just jacked the budget up almost 5% and included $8 billion in new borrowing. That's called cutting off your nose to spite your face. It's another nail in the coffin. This place, under current leadership and laws, will NEVER overcome it's imagaine as a union-infested, under-educated, blue collar, high-taxed dump.

What about the 10 New jobs from Labatte? lol

Thinker...you just hit the nail on the head....maybe your should join Local210 with hammer accuracy like that...jk Seriously, good point.

thinker,

On some level you are right that economic development is about the creation of new jobs, but we should appreciate that New Era, Labbatt, etc. is willing to operate within city limits. Even if its shifting jobs from Newfane to Buffalo, it benefits the city. I'm not up on who funds what project, but even if private sector development is subsidized by the state, county, local govt's, it helps in the long run. In an economically depressed area like Buffalo, the initial jumpstart is needed. Brown is right. Local government has to do something to encourage private sector development. If we sit on our hands, nothing is going to come our way.

Issa' project and failure is his own fault. He had a history of slow funding and development in the UK and it doesn't look like things have changed. While labor unions need to go, Issa needs to take responsibility for not properly securing funding and tax credits that he was able to.

bflorox - Good question. To answer we'd need to see a breakdown of what projects add up to this claim:

To date, according to Mayor Brown, approximately $1 billion of public and private investments have been completed in the city completed since January 2006 and an additional $1 billion is under construction.

I wonder if WCP asked the mayor's office for that info, if they'd provide it to him to publish here?

Also might be interesting to see a comparison of how the private sector portion of that "approximately $1 billion" since Jan 2006 compares to the amount of private sector development in other similarly sized cities.

What have been the big private sector projects? HealthNow moved from Main/Jefferson to downtown. That move completed after Jan 2006 so that's part of it. New Era moved their HQ back to their hometown, that was nice. And what else? 200 Delaware is part of the underway $1B. What else? Statler, such as it is. Some downtown residential. Most of that approximate $1B will be public sector spending, and of the private sector part most will be residential. Casino probably isn't being counted until the court action is resolved.

Notice he cleverly worded it: approximately $1B of public and private combined have been completed since he took office. Doesn't mean $1B in development was spent here since he took office just that it completed since then, and it probably counts a lot of public school project spending.

List of completed/proposed/UC projects is on the City's website here.

Full Disclosure: All of the quotes and figures (minus details on the 200 Delaware project) were lifted off a City Hall press release.

Thanks WCP. From a quick glance at that list, we see about 500 million was city public schools projects. So that's about half of the approximate 1 billion completed since he took office.

HealthNow is another $110 million, so between that and the schools it's about 60%. UB/BNMC and Roswell is another $120M combined. Private sector investment other than HealthNow looks to be a pretty small portion of the $1B, and mostly residential.

The "1 billion" figure make a nice sound bite.

Sbrof I think it is unfair to say that Mayor Brown has the same people doing the same things, when he just appointed Brian reilly as Chief Economic Development Officer. My understanding is that Brian led development efforts in Milwaukee and Cleveland prior to being tapped for the post in the Brown administration. Based on his quote, it appears he is focused on removing the "hasselfactor" to expedite more projects. I also have heard that he wants to reform the zoning code which would be an excellent start(as it did in Milwaukee and other places). I think this hire demonstrates that Mayor Brown, although proud of the progress being made, recognizes that more needs to be done. I believe that Buffalo is on the right track (despite the institutional impediments and taxes primarily driven by NY State).

Don't forget Cleveland BioLabs, Labatt isnt the only company to have recently moved here

the economy here isn't strong...it's "strong"

lol

and by "strong" we mean weak

Speaking of development. Does anyone know anything about the Boutique Hotel by mark Croce going up behind Darcy McGee's? Apparently it is 25 stories.

I for one, have to hand it to these developers. They are putting up a building with actual tennants. Again, I stress, build as needed not on a whim.

I am glad that UB will be putting it's medical school downtown (again, built as needed with a tennant in place, themselves).

The biggest mistake Buffalo could make right now is not to look beyond Erie County. There is no credit out there for speculative building and if there were, over building for development sake would lead to empty and bankrupt builders/developers with the bank eventually holding the note and hoping for a FDIC bail out. Remember the S and L crisis in the eighties and early nineties. This one, pending, has the potential to make it look like an April shower as opposed to the potential January Blizzard.

I would not want to be in the position of developments like Gate's Circle and others if they over build will have to survive a possible long, very long, absorbtion period.

But, what do I know? I am just the thousand pound gorrilla in the room.

Does this guy Issa have WIFI at whatever airport he is stuck in? I sure hope so.

Issa should just lay low and either finish it or not, but at this point he has no business being so public, to date a few new elevators and a power boat for non existent hotel guests.

The corporate state is alive and well in Buffalo, that's all. If you are a rich developer, you can get a $7 million grant and a package of loans and tax credits.

When's the last time anyone offered you that kind of package? It's a zero sum game with money mulcted from the taxpayer and given to politically-connected businesses.

You see the shiny new office building; the costs are largely invisible--too finely dispersed throughout the economy. But when you add up the combined costs of all such misguided policies over the last fifty years, you get a city in obvious decline. Just take a drive around and see. Eyes wide open please and rose-colored glasses off.

Why would Issa use labor unions if they are too Pricey?

thinker,

great post....any minute now SimCoe will be here with another dumb comment to try to refute it

Most of this development started under Masiello. He was also the ultimate booster for Buffalo, conducting tours of dowtown every weekend. I have never seen Brown anywhere near downtown on his off time, though it would be nice to see him getting up early on a Saturday and conducting tours of what's happening downtown.

bini - Yes ok, he's a nice guy and he'd be great at selling ice to the Eskimos.

Don't know that his administration is any more productive, efficient or effective than his predecessors', but he makes a reasonable PR person.

In an ideal world we could change his title to Promoter-in-Chief, put him in charge of bragging about us every day, and have someone else take over as mayor who would bring serious reforms, accountability, and new thinking about how City Hall operates instead of just saying everything's great. I bet Chris Collins would mak a positive impact if asked to handle Buffalo's mayoral duties on his lunch hour. For just one example of many, every time the city permits-inspections dept topic comes up on BR there's still a list of horror stories from people about how impossible the system is to work through. Would Collins tolerate that year after year?

I agree economic development isn't something any mayor can just make happen, but Brown was state senator a few terms before being mayor and did nothing to make or even propose serious positive changes at the state level when he served there. He supported the status quo then, and even now the biggest change he pushes for from Albany is something in the exact wrong direction - softening the city's fiscal control board before lower cost contracts are in place. That and ask for more and more aid without reform strings attached.

But then again, why should Buffalo need any big reforms it's already strong, growing, and having a renaissance? - as he said we are earlier this year.

issa might as well build a space ship in buffalo. Our suburban interest is enough to make that sound appealing.

i'm not a hater or the mayor. things have been going very well in the city recently. if its his doing or not doesnt really matter to me.

and please if all you people were the mayor thinking about running again you would be at every construction site too. who are you all kidding?

The reason Brown is not around the city on the weekend's is they still can't find the car keys after hiding them from their son.

Brown hasn't really done much more for Buffalo than any of his predecessors, however, for whatever reason there has been more positive developments since he has been in office than any other mayor in a long time.

Perhaps Masiello laid the ground work for him, but there seems to be more going on. Maybe Brown is just in the right place at the right time.

Considering the national economy and real estate market, Buffalo has held up surprisingly well.

The Statler is an important piece of the puzzle and must be completed to keep this momentum going.

UB medical is also an enormous part of the process. Things seem like they are really coming together for the first time in a long time.

PS - why not power spray City Hall, clean that building up a bit..... Little weathered.

City Hall was just cleaned recently. There was scaffolding on the building for a year or better.

they only cleaned the upper chunk of it, they were supposed to finish it this year but I don't know if that is still going to happen.

Some differences in public style but in many ways Masiello and Brown seem similar to me.

If Masiello, did anything someone let me know.

Both prefer optimistic promotional talk over straight talk. Neither favor much reform of how city government operates. Both are career politicians favoring the status quo with more and more state aid but only minor tweaks to anything else (1-officer patrol cars from Tony, now street surveillance cameras from Byron).

Some good development projects occurred while each has been mayor, accompanied by sharp population declines under both.

Most of that $1B in development completed since Jan 2006 which Brown bragged about was state-funded public sector projects that started while Masiello was still mayor ($500M public school construction, $60M each apparently for UB life science campus and Roswell Park upgrade). Some private sector projects happened during Masiello's time (incl. new $110M HQ for HealthNow kept jobs here, and new $10M HQ for New Era Cap brought some jobs from Chatauqua Co). And a few are happending while Brown is mayor (incl. $64M Dulski 200 Delaware, $325M Seneca Casino/Hotel, and more public school construction). Target came while Tony was mayor, Kohls is coming while Byron is mayor.

I don't think most of those public or private projects were affected one way or another by who the mayor is.