WBFO and BRO: Casino, Issa, Farmer's Markets, West Village Market, LaNova, Rhode Island and Recycling on Elmwood
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Newell visited WBFO on his own this week. He and Mark talked about the Buffalo Creek Casino project, centering on the fact that and the gambling and building continue, while Citizens Against Casino Gambling in Erie County do their best to make it all stop. There was some public outcry last week (and it continues) when it came to light that the Wendt Foundation had put up $2 million to help CACGEC in their efforts, money that was gained in Wendt's sale of their stock in Harrah's Entertainment, owners and or managers of 41 casinos. See the Buffalo News story here.
Next Newell and Mark talked about Bashar Issa's sale of his City Tower site to local restauranteur and parking lot maven, Mark Croce. Mark asked about Issa's intention to press on with work at the Statler Hotel, to which Newell answered that he believes that Issa's original plan for the Statler renovation--into which Issa has already sunk $8 million--was not simply a whim. Newell said that he imagined this is a time in which Issa is stepping back and reformulating plans.
In light of the new Farmer's Market opening on Hertel Avenue, Mark asked whether we might not have too many farmers markets. Is there room for all of them?
It's not often that news of a business closing makes people happy, but this is one of those cases in which the business and the controversy surrounding it had become so troublesome to its residential neighbors, that they couldn't help but be happy and hopeful about the end of theWest Village Market. Community advocate Marilyn Rogers of Johnson Park was often up front in vocalizing just how sordid and, well, scary the crowd who patronized the market was. "The hope has always been to see it shut down or sold," Newell said, adding, "It's a cool building with lots of potential...Close to Elmwood...Lots of opportunity. The neighborhood association is looking for someone to bring a market in." This could mean built-in customers with the development of the Avant and other downtown condos going up.
Next, they discussed LaNova Pizzeria and the online parking lot controversy. Newell said that residents already see seas of parking lots and they are looking for an alternative to paving the one grassy lot on the corner. "It acts as a buffer to the surrounding houses," Newell said. Also in question is how projects like this transpire without giving neighbors a chance to weigh in.
The topic moved a few blocks east to discussions about a three story brick that's been bought and is essentially saved. The building, on Rhode Island just a few blocks from the recently saved Livery, is about to get the love and attention it needs. "This is the type of project that helps secure a neighborhood," Newell said.
Lastly, Mark and Newell talked about recycling on Elmwood. Mark Griffis has made some very nice looking baskets through an Elmwood Village Association grant, and the word is: Don't just admire them (though they're beautiful), don't use them as a garbage can, but by all means, use them.
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tomwaters
An Open Letter To Newell Nussbaumer, Buffalo Rising Publisher
(This afternoon, after trying to find out when my next interview transcript was due), I got a delightful letter from Elena Buscarino, my former managing editor at Buffalo Rising, that went a little something like this (word for word, actually):
See, it's you knee-jerk, sophomoric stupidity that breaks the one rule I have. I'm not so egotistical that I would make rules for other people and let them know when they break them. It has nothing to do with pride. You are a fairly intelligent writer with a maniacal streak a mile wide. You needed a place to air your print and I gave you that. You let your enormous ego and knee-jerk anger get in the way of what could have been a good thing. I went to bat for you with admin., with the commenters...I even had to spend valuable time talking to another (expletive deleted) that you entered into an (expletive deleted) argument with after you told me you weren't going to be an (expletive deleted). You lied.
Your angry rants may work in some of your writing, but you're not worth the trouble you cause.
Guess what my rule is? So after receiving said letter, I retorted to the Newell Nussbaumer (Buffalo Rising's Publisher) with this letter, just to make sure that he was in the loop:
Newell,
I truly believed in the vision that Buffalo Rising had (or has) regarding forming a new synergy with print and online creativity in the Buffalo realm and beyond. In the span of six weeks, I formed a relationship with Elena Buscarino and it looked as if things were well on their way to cementing the start of a beautiful and productive relationship.
We spit balled ideas, I was given assignments, and a good majority of those assignments were shelved or flat out rejected after I followed Elena's specifications to the letter. Going into the agreement (since there was no pay involved), I asked Elena for three things. Two of them (verbatim) were: 1. Bring light to A, B and sometimes C list celebrities to a readership that's open to new cultural streams. -and 3.See EVERY piece that gets a green light from the editorial staff find publication in print (preferably) or online.I've got too many plates spinning at one time to invest a great deal of time and energy securing interview subjects, transcribing ten page interviews and paring them down for print purposes to see them left twisting in the wind. I apologize for being brutally frank, but we're putting our cards on the table, here.
-She told me at the outset that 'You are the sort of writer editors kill for.' After events progressed, she changed tactics and started telling me to re-tool all of my graphic novel reviews so that they had a direct correlation to the city boundaries inside of Buffalo. Perhaps this is in line with your vision or mission statement for the paper, perhaps it isn't. I had no problem doing so where the celebrity interviews were concerned, but it didn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense that book reviews (a standard in any paper, magazine or e-zine) had to relate directly to Buffalo. Some two dozen reviews and three interviews later, Elena is terminating our agreement. I'm sad to see things come to this. I've worked for pretty much every single paper in Buffalo (print, online, college, alternative and otherwise) and I'm sad to say that I've received a much higher level of editorial professionalism from every single one of them compared to the ordeal than I've been through with Buffalo Rising. I realize that I'm at fault here, too, but after my tantrums and the now-infamous Batman crusade, I settled down and was ready to get down to serious business. I don't know if your associate editor is over-worked or over-strained, but I think that I deserved better treatment and we'll never know now how well some of my Buffalo specific interviews would have been received. I pitched a trio of Buffalo Police interviews (pro-PD) starting from the beat level up to the commissioner of the city and was under the impression (up until today) that we were still going through with it. As of today, I got a one sentence email telling me 'goodbye' from Elena. You seemed like a nice guy, Newell. I know I rocked the boat until it just about capsized, but as far as I'm concerned, I did what I set out to do. Most of my publishing trials and tribulations live on for years in the form of a cold war, but I'm not keeping my mouth shut where this is concerned.I wish you and the rest of your staff the best of luck in finding and obtaining talented freelancers who are willing to work for free, re-write and incessantly edit their own material, and who are gluttons for the sort of abuse I've put up with in the last week. Sincerely, Tom Waters Not getting paid to work my butt off interviewing, transcribing and then editing six to eight page interviews or firing off graphic novel reviews (which I've since found publication for elsewhere) is a labour of love. I'm not terribly hurt about the end to this business relationship, just...dissappointed. Deeply dissappointed. Some upstarts just never get off the ground because they can't rise to level of creative content that actually justifies outlandish ad rates. So long, Buffalo Rising. I hardly knew ye, but if you're anything like what I saw at the outset, I'm not going to be missing much...
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WNYMedia
That is awesome....
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WNYMedia
Tom,
You are just the latest in a long list of former disgruntled BRO contributors looking for a new home
They gave you assignments and then edited your "free" content?
Why would you even agree to such nonsense?
If you want to write for free, join us at WNYmedia.net. There you'll be your own editor, and best yet, people might actually read your stuff...
We Don't make people go through hoops for their "free" content.
Heck, we may even pay you for that police series...
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BuffaloGeek
We don't pay our writers at WNYM, but our revenue stream is not built off of page impressions or print advertising (since we don't have a magazine). However, we offer our bloggers the opportunity to monetize their own pages if they see fit.
We provide them with an ad kit and help them utilize national ads and they can pursue local ads if they choose. Honestly, most people just write for the hell of it and we simply offer a platform with a top notch Google Page Rank and a brand. If someone does video, audio, or film work for us, we pay them. Why? Because we monetize that work.
If a company is going to make money off the production of someone's content, it should renumerate the producer. It's only fair and ethical. If you're going to ask people to sign an agreement to provide you with free content and then you monetize it to pay your overhead costs...well, that's not cool.
Why anyone would invest hours and hours of their time to produce content that others will reap benefits from is beyond me. Weird.
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jamesbflo
Opportunity, experience, and exposure trumps money in plenty of cases.
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tomwaters
SUPPORT IN DEFENSE AGAINST ELENA BUSCARINO
This is proving to be a crusade with quite a decent number of good soldiers.
Immediately after sending out an emergency email and posting my 'Open Letter To Buffalo Rising', a veritable avalanche of emails and phone calls came in. I'm only going to use first names because I'm not sure which people are willing to stick their necks out and which ones aren't. Here is just a small sampling of the support I've received since last evening.
Alycia wrote me with this:
oh my god, what happened! this sounds draining and horrible! i know its none of my business but what was the batman situation? so much of what you wrote piqued my interest! i have to say that i had a bad taste in my mouth about her- i was told by someone at the news to contact her and that they'd 'kill for a published, mediagenic author to write for them' and after three emails and a phone mesg, never heard from her so im not surprised she's shady. what was her one line email about? im sure you already talked a ton about this so you might not be in the mood to share it again but friend to friend, writer to writer, if you have any spare time this week- let me know more about what happened! im so sorry about it tom- you're a true talent and its such a shame that buffalo cant appreciate what it has and then throws tantrums when talent leaves the queen city.
Sue writes with:
Tom,
I am ready to quit the (expletive deleted) thing myself I already went to Newell - on my own and it is politics - I was told BRO exclusive and even had (name withheld) go there because they were getting stacks of CDS sent to MY ATTENTION and were being handed over to young geek students to write of until bands were contacting me because they liked MY style of reviewing and I called her on that and big name bands too - so (name withheld) himself went down there to pick up my CDS and I never would have known unless the bands did not ask me about it themselves I also tried to ask for pay ha ha . . . but what I will do is keep this for what it is - one vehicle - trust me everyone I know has had their battles with Buffalo Rising - me included as of late and between us I know I do not have to say that to you but (expletive deleted), me and Elena got into it good - she even went as far to tell me to call before I submit anything and I said I am not even getting paid for this! SO (name withheld) of (popular jazz band) paid her a visit and now everything is cool - no pay but she got the message and even said she was going to wait of me after work to pick up my CDS and (name withheld) shows instead of me so there that'll teach people to be mean to me. I get a ton of shit DENIED because it is not BRO exclusive so the only things I am allowed to submit are only to BRO so I just do what I do and submit anyhow, (expletive deleted) them- the CD Reviews and it may be lying but who gives a crap, I am not getting paid . . . plus as of late I have other avenues . . . and in print is a joke. . . that was a fluke . . . so in all I can give BRO press and have someone else write of it, but I myself cannot write of it because it is going to other places too - that is their policy - how (expletive deleted) in the head is that (expletive deleted)? SO what happens is I give Elena press - some person writes of it who knows nothing of the event - makes all kinds of (expletive deleted) mistakes and then I go and email the both with the correct information. Please, tell me I am insane. NOW if I were getting AID OK then it would be BRO exclusive but I am not so that is just retarded. Don't feel bad we need a BRO support group I know of at least 10 writers who are and have dealt the same headaches. We are just finding out now is all.
Holy crap she told you goodbye? What the (expletive deleted)? It is the past month I saw changes in Elena myself. Trust me I know . . . was wondering if it was just me.
And the beat goes on. Carrie wrote me with:
Woah. And you copied all of those people. Again, more proof that you are my hero.
What a set of BALLS!
I can't wait to read their the reply. Good for you for setting boundaries.
I have to get out of here now (still at work).
Scott was gracious enough to offer me yet another avenue for my creative endeavors:
Tom,
I just recently found your stuff at BR ... and thought the batman stuff was pretty cool.
If you're looking for an outlet that will really let you do your own thing, I might recommend WNYMedia.net. There's no print version, but their website is really cool and the way they run things there seems to flow pretty well. They've got a long list of contributors (including myself) and their interests go from politics to sports to theatre to ... everything that isn't politics, sports and theatre.
Anyway, best of luck and let me know.
Richard came to the rescue this morning by saying this:
Elena doesn't realize what a valuable thing she is giving up. If she continues on as editor, I can see Buffalo Rising folding.
And finally, Newell responded to my email with this:
OMG. Hang on... I'm dead tired and need to get to an event, but let me get back to you in the morning. Sorry... let me have a sec to digest this.
Now I may be a pretty prickly pear, but this...all-out war is proving to be bigger than the two of us. It looks as if Elena should probably start seeking another job (and apparently, some psychiatric help along with a handful of prescriptions). I truly appreciate the well-spring of 'here here's' along with so many offers for help. I know that I haven't been easy to deal with over the years, but I would like to think that the good I've done for Buffalo has far outweighed all of my tantrums, outbursts and wrath-filled outbreaks. This isn't over. Not by a long shot. This proves that once again, a) Don't f with me, because I'm going to bite back, break the skin and make it ten times worse and b) Find out who you're dealing with before you pee in their faces. You never know how many friends (and in what sort of positions of power and leverage) they may have. Thanks, everybody. Keep fighting the good fight for me because honestly, I don't always have the strength.
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tomwaters
SUPPORT IN DEFENSE AGAINST ELENA BUSCARINO
This is proving to be a crusade with quite a decent number of good soldiers.
Immediately after sending out an emergency email and posting my 'Open Letter To Buffalo Rising', a veritable avalanche of emails and phone calls came in. I'm only going to use first names because I'm not sure which people are willing to stick their necks out and which ones aren't. Here is just a small sampling of the support I've received since last evening.
Alycia wrote me with this:
oh my god, what happened! this sounds draining and horrible! i know its none of my business but what was the batman situation? so much of what you wrote piqued my interest! i have to say that i had a bad taste in my mouth about her- i was told by someone at the news to contact her and that they'd 'kill for a published, mediagenic author to write for them' and after three emails and a phone mesg, never heard from her so im not surprised she's shady. what was her one line email about? im sure you already talked a ton about this so you might not be in the mood to share it again but friend to friend, writer to writer, if you have any spare time this week- let me know more about what happened! im so sorry about it tom- you're a true talent and its such a shame that buffalo cant appreciate what it has and then throws tantrums when talent leaves the queen city.
Sue writes with:
Tom,
I am ready to quit the (expletive deleted) thing myself I already went to Newell - on my own and it is politics - I was told BRO exclusive and even had (name withheld) go there because they were getting stacks of CDS sent to MY ATTENTION and were being handed over to young geek students to write of until bands were contacting me because they liked MY style of reviewing and I called her on that and big name bands too - so (name withheld) himself went down there to pick up my CDS and I never would have known unless the bands did not ask me about it themselves I also tried to ask for pay ha ha . . . but what I will do is keep this for what it is - one vehicle - trust me everyone I know has had their battles with Buffalo Rising - me included as of late and between us I know I do not have to say that to you but (expletive deleted), me and Elena got into it good - she even went as far to tell me to call before I submit anything and I said I am not even getting paid for this! SO (name withheld) of (popular jazz band) paid her a visit and now everything is cool - no pay but she got the message and even said she was going to wait of me after work to pick up my CDS and (name withheld) shows instead of me so there that'll teach people to be mean to me. I get a ton of shit DENIED because it is not BRO exclusive so the only things I am allowed to submit are only to BRO so I just do what I do and submit anyhow, (expletive deleted) them- the CD Reviews and it may be lying but who gives a crap, I am not getting paid . . . plus as of late I have other avenues . . . and in print is a joke. . . that was a fluke . . . so in all I can give BRO press and have someone else write of it, but I myself cannot write of it because it is going to other places too - that is their policy - how (expletive deleted) in the head is that (expletive deleted)? SO what happens is I give Elena press - some person writes of it who knows nothing of the event - makes all kinds of (expletive deleted) mistakes and then I go and email the both with the correct information. Please, tell me I am insane. NOW if I were getting AID OK then it would be BRO exclusive but I am not so that is just retarded. Don't feel bad we need a BRO support group I know of at least 10 writers who are and have dealt the same headaches. We are just finding out now is all.
Holy crap she told you goodbye? What the (expletive deleted)? It is the past month I saw changes in Elena myself. Trust me I know . . . was wondering if it was just me.
And the beat goes on. Carrie wrote me with:
Woah. And you copied all of those people. Again, more proof that you are my hero.
What a set of BALLS!
I can't wait to read their the reply. Good for you for setting boundaries.
I have to get out of here now (still at work).
Scott was gracious enough to offer me yet another avenue for my creative endeavors:
Tom,
I just recently found your stuff at BR ... and thought the batman stuff was pretty cool.
If you're looking for an outlet that will really let you do your own thing, I might recommend WNYMedia.net. There's no print version, but their website is really cool and the way they run things there seems to flow pretty well. They've got a long list of contributors (including myself) and their interests go from politics to sports to theatre to ... everything that isn't politics, sports and theatre.
Anyway, best of luck and let me know.
Richard came to the rescue this morning by saying this:
Elena doesn't realize what a valuable thing she is giving up. If she continues on as editor, I can see Buffalo Rising folding.
And finally, Newell responded to my email with this:
OMG. Hang on... I'm dead tired and need to get to an event, but let me get back to you in the morning. Sorry... let me have a sec to digest this.
Now I may be a pretty prickly pear, but this...all-out war is proving to be bigger than the two of us. It looks as if Elena should probably start seeking another job (and apparently, some psychiatric help along with a handful of prescriptions). I truly appreciate the well-spring of 'here here's' along with so many offers for help. I know that I haven't been easy to deal with over the years, but I would like to think that the good I've done for Buffalo has far outweighed all of my tantrums, outbursts and wrath-filled outbreaks. This isn't over. Not by a long shot. This proves that once again, a) Don't f with me, because I'm going to bite back, break the skin and make it ten times worse and b) Find out who you're dealing with before you pee in their faces. You never know how many friends (and in what sort of positions of power and leverage) they may have. Thanks, everybody. Keep fighting the good fight for me because honestly, I don't always have the strength.
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Colin
Uh, "all-out war?" You mean a pointless squabble on a blog?
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livesintheburbsworksinthecity
Just when you think this amateur blog couldn't get any more childish, we get this crap.
Stay classy BRO & tomwaters....
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galaxyjay
Is this guy kidding me? Can we block him? WTF
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nb3004
If you want to block a user, just click the avoid user button on their comment and they won't appear when you are logged in.
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PaulBuffalo
Tomwaters, maybe you think what you've '... done for Buffalo has far outweighed all of my tantrums, outbursts and wrath-filled outbreaks'. I disagree. You've displayed vulgarity, lack of discretion, lack of professionalism, amateurish ability, and infantilism.
If you're 13 years old or younger, you are excused from my criticism.
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12GrainStudio
Well Tom, you're our hero. I go before you on that list of degraded interns.
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TranspoGuy
Tom Waters,
Grow up. You are acting like a junior high schooler. Read some Batman comics and stop publicly reporting your personal grievences, nobody cares.
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impressingagent
I really enjoy this like many people enjoy football on Sunday. It is not about politics but heart and i would like to thank you guys for showing it.
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