The Latino Music Festival @ LaSalle Park
For the second weekend in a row, there is an awesome festival taking place in LaSalle Park. There are still a couple of days left to enjoy the Latino Music Festival – it started yesterday. While taking the dog to the park last evening I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this carnival set up. The bands were about to take the stage and people were screaming and yelling from the tops of the rides.
Some of the acts that will be present include Steve Balesteri, La Krema, La Potencia, Tito Puente Jr. and Wendell Rivera. Wendell takes the stage on Sunday, but if you've got the kids and are looking to hit up some fun rides along the water, you may want to take advantage of weather ASAP. Sunday there is a fireworks display planned as the festivities come to an end. How often to you get to enjoy carnival rides and live music all in one urban setting?
There should be a festival at LaSalle every weekend... last week was the Rick James tribute (see post). The more attention we pay to this park, the better chance that it will one day get the funding it needs to be a Class A destination on the water.
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comptart_lws
Doesn't the city have to issue a permit for events like this, in our parks? Wouldn't it be lovely for the City website to have a "Happening In Our Parks" page on their website??? I live down the street from LaSalle and had NO CLUE about either event (last weekend or this one). Maybe attendance (and use of the parks) would improve if there was a place to look this stuff up! In fact, they could also do an "On Our Streets" page, too — so we could have a clue of what races and parades and street fests are going on, blocking roards or affecting traffic!. The City has the ability to at least "announce" if not "promote" in the process of doing permits. I met a visitor to the area yesterday who asked what's going on this weekend — the only thiing I could come up with is the Chicken Wing Fest. How nice it would have been to suggest she look at the city's "In Our Parks" web page! (don't worry, I suggested she look on BRO but, that is often only useful for day-of or day-after notice!
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newskylinebuffalo
How about moving the Erie County Fair here? Wow, that would be somethin ;)
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Quijibo
Newskylinebuffalo - Yes, we should move all suburban events to the City. This is in the best interest of everyone in the city. We are treating Buffalo like an appendage instead of the torso, we are the reason for the suburbs. We should mandate that the Erie County Fair and the Bills are returned to their rightful place in the city. We should put a moratorium on all new developments in the suburbs and require a tax on any house over a certain size. All new suburban buildings should pay a tax to the City of Buffalo for not building within the city limits. I would like to see 5% of the total value of the project. Suburban residents should pay a 2% commuter tax for the extra use that they put on City resources when they work in the City. Other cities have done this successfully and have seen an increase in development in the City. Look at Philadelphia, Washington DC, Boston, and Atlanta for examples.
Suburban residents who own property in the city must pay additional taxes on their property for the extra services that their tenants use. If a suburban landlord does not take care of the property then they lose it to the tenants. It should be that simple.
The City could do a lot with the increased revenue and solidarity of the residents. It is time that Buffalo took charge of the area with her namesake. It is time that we push people to move to the city, no more suburban sprawl, no more companies moving to the suburbs, make the city the strongest part of our region and the entire region will get stronger.
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Username
Quijibo, we live in a democratic republic tempered and sustained by a (relatively) free market capitalist economy. The ideas you have just conveyed suggest a downright frightening degree of state meddling in private enterprise.
I'd like to see more people and business in the city as well. I live and work downtown. I think our degree of suburban spread is a shame. No offense, but what you propose is so fundamentally backward to a free-market economy as to make it ludicrous. It is, in part, such government-centric, top-down thinking like this that has scared so many small and large businesses away from the urban core to begin with. Taxes are not going to fix the problem.
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comptart_lws
suggested UB Study: percent of non-tax-paying parcels (convert to acreage or sq miles) in the city — broken down by, municipal, county seat, state-owned, federal, religious, social services and any other non-tax category. Compare to entire land-mass (just for starters). Then, roll in for comparison: owner-occupied residential (STAR would be one qualifier) other residential, vacant and commercial. I can't imagine that the beginnings of such a survey can't be found somewhere! This is the type of thing that CitiStat should be looking at as a way to form revenue policy. It would be interesting to see just how much regional overhead and religious exemption we city tax-payers underwrite.
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newskylinebuffalo
Downtown needs to be the place to be. Whether that is taking all of our suburban attractions downtown, or luring new retail, events, attractions, and tourist options into Buffalo. We need downtown to be the place to be. That is the purpose of a downtown isn't it? The purpose isn't supposed to be for a dead, boring city with rust belt reputations, etc, while being surrounded by happening suburbs!? Move Dave and Buster's to the Waterfront, get a really nice shopping mall downtown, move suburban businesses downtown, more living, more events, lots of new attractions and tourisim based out of our Waterfront. Im tired of hearing how so many in the suburbs won't even dream of stepping into the ghetto - which is apparently all of Buffalo to them, because of the crime, and wierd people/boarded up buildings. There would be no fantastic suburbs without the city to come first anyway. The city came first, then the suburbs. Just listen to Petula Clark's "downtown song" - which is most definately what downtown Buffalo should be. More lights, skyscrapers and incredible modern architecture, entertainment, search lights, events, and the list goes on and on. Though we do have the HSBC Arena downtown and the Ballpark (thank God), there are very few things in Buffalo for suburbanites to see (and tourists alike). Get some advertising out there, Buffalo! We want you to come back strong.
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newskylinebuffalo
Get the BIlls down here too - next to HSBC Arena and Dunn Tire Park!!! With the Casino there too, and perhaps a light rail expansion loop into this new district, we could have a mini-sports strip, complete with restaurants, parks, and some attractions like a Buffalo Sports Museum, and there you have a fantastic district that would bring people downtown and when they dump money into the Buffalo economy, then leave, they are left with a good impression of Downtown Buffalo. An observation deck in the middle of the Sports district would be incredible - you could see all 3 stadiums, and downtown, the lake, windmills, and more. What an incredible area with such potential!!! (and there goes those blasted surface parking lots!)
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heathersmiles
^^ God bless the sentimentalists!
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buffaloweiner
Here is what I think would be a cool discussion.
Instead of discussing immigration, particularly with respect to hispanics of mexico and central america...
why not a discussion for applications to statehood.
The mexican provinces along the US border would make welcome additions to our union.
Central American nations like Belize, Costa Rica and Panama in particular would make perfect states. Panama is already a US protectorate.
Why not make all the nations of Central America US States rather than amnesty after amnesty for illegals and years of waiting for legals.
now that would make a very interesting discussion while celebrating our hispanic addition to our american culture.
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PaulBuffalo
Buffaloweiner, so you're in to forced nation building, too? Considering your previously stated anti-semitic, racist and homophobic views, I doubt Central America would want you as a neighbor.
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al-alo
username,
there is nothing free market about suburban sprawl. its tax incentivized and supported, with government constructed infrastructure.
back when laissez faire really meant hands off (ie: "look out, that machine without any safety devices just chopped your hands off"), it was cities and and dense towns that grew. why? because the economic model makes sense. current land planning and tax code just are forcing a square peg in a round hole.
so, in fairness, any law or tax that created a disincentive for sprawl would be no different. perhaps some new strategies would just be righting the balance.*
*not necessarily the strategies that Quijibo mentioned. although who could argue with a fat, balding, North American ape with no chin?
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al-alo
the idea of a western hemisphere dominated by a larger U.S. is not entirely new - nor entirely without precedent.
a few actual nations have been integrated wholesale into our republic: Hawaii & Texas for example (dont say the Confederacy was a nation too. that discussion gives me a headache). not to mention other expansions by purchase, cession or conquest: you remember, the northern third of mexico, Alaska (hmm, now that i see that VP pic - can we give them back?), Louisiana & Gadsden Purchase, wars with Spain, Britain, Spain, etc, etc. . . then there is the whole Native American thing.
these expansions were not generally clean neat events. actually, what Buffalowiener has proposed is a much more democratic approach than our previous history. not that i think its realistic, but it isnt at the point of a bayonet.
interestingly enough, during these periods of expansionism, some senators predicted a single united western hemisphere with a capital city in Panama.
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300miles
Hello? Ooops. I thought this was the Latino Music Festival thread. (How embarassing...)
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buffaloweiner
sorry but I never said anything about forcing any nation into the US union.
Considering the pressure for an amnesty so hispanics can become US citizens and the immigration rates from hispanic countries.....
I merely said that it should be an option....and in my opinion statehood is a better option than repeated immigration amnesties
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heathersmiles
Or we could just build a bigger wall.
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buffaloweiner
well somethings gotta give...we cannot keep opening our border to immigration at the same time we are hemmorhaging .....outsourcing/offshoring jobs and industries
the saddest truth is what immigration really is meant to disguise.
NYS and California pay the highest school taxes in the nation via its property taxes (that means that NYS and CA spend more than most nations in the world!). California has even enshrined minimum percentage spending on education into its state constitution. Yet with all that money they still lag behind world standards for developed countries and still have 50% drop out rates.
What does that mean? It means that we are paying the highest taxes in the world to failed public school systems because no politician can stand up to civil service unions and all those illiterate dropouts and failures winding up on welfare or in prison instead of having professional careers are being replaced by immigrants.
Atleast with statehood, we get land annexed to the US in exchange for citizenship. Land which is already considered the new Florida for US and Canadian retirees.
How does a bigger wall make a difference when we dont control immigration from anywhere else in the world, or track people who overstay their visas, etc.
The biggest problem with hispanics is that many of the guerillas that fought civil wars during Reagan have morphed into international crime and drug cartels, and gangs. There are more illegal immigrants in US prison than any other ethnic group.
Though statehood would be different because they would have no place to hide. Thei home country would come under US law and jurisdiction.
In some cases Mexico has exported 30%-40% of its population and in some cases up to 70% of its provincial population is illegally in the US. Now if we are going to accept that many mexicans then why not annex those provinces into the US when offering them citizenship?
What hispanics have in their favor is obvious? Unlike Europes Jews and Muslims which prefer to consider themselves separate races to various degrees of assimilation and overtly / covertly try to use secular diversity to over-through western values. Hispanics and asians are much more capable of assimilation into our culture than muslim immigrants to europe.
The US most definitely needs a moratorium on immigration (with an exception for statehood application), especially during times of rising unemployment and recession/depression which we are experiencing now.
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Tomg
Tell Comptart_lws that the City of Buffalo website has a News and Calendar site with an Events section- this festival and all others in the COB are listed! So, now you've GOT A CLUE!
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Tomg
Tell Comptart_lws that the City of Buffalo website has a News and Calendar site with an Events section- this festival and all others in the COB are listed! So, now you've GOT A CLUE!
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Tomg
Tell Comptart_lws that the City of Buffalo website has a News and Calendar site with an Events section- this festival and all others in the COB are listed! So, now you've GOT A CLUE!
Report this