There we were again in WBFO’s Studio B with News Director Mark Scott, when Mark, a bit of a political pundit (he’s been at this a long time), threw us a question about the upcoming race for mayor of Buffalo. His point was that it’s May, and not a soul has announced a run.
Our guess is it’s going to be a small race, and that any of the parties that may be involved (such as Councilman Mickey Kearns and our present Mayor Byron Brown) have no reason to start spilling the war chests until they have to. Frankly, when you’re looking at the expense of a media blitz campaign, the time to start spending is when the other guy announces. So far, no real news. We just hope they’ll announce in time to get some issues on the table and hold some healthy debates.
Next we talked about green jobs, and the efforts some people around town, like Michael Gainer of Buffalo ReUse are making to get the money to train the workers. We have the pool of people, now all we need is a puddle of money to get it going. Green begets green.
Newell reviewed some of his posts from the past week with Mark, namely the Rhode Island redo that’s been started by John Crawford and Scott Washburn, the 91 totems being built and installed at Urban Roots and Newell’s favorite little folding house, which is an interactive art project.
We also reviewed the Tank Yank. Somehow the conversation went all Dr. Seuss, when I had occasion to thank Hank (Sontag) for alerting me to the tank yank. He was fairly rankled and felt someone should be spanked. Truth be told, he said slapped with a fine, but you get the gist.
We finished up with a story about two extraordinary local individuals, who do amazing things to help people. UB grad, Aaron Krolikowski, honored us here at BRO by wearing one of our T-shirts for an article that appeared about him in USA Today.
Lastly, we talked about the amazing Joy McDuffie, organizer of Buffalo’s First Dropout Prevention Leadership Summit (see story below). Joy will also be interviewed on air by Mark today, and she will appear on AM Buffalo tomorrow morning. If you can on Wednesday, stop by the summit. If you can’t, keep you eyes and ears here. We’ll let you know what Joy needs next.
Image: Mark’s St. Bonaventure class ring, moving fast.