Author: Bill Zimmermann

Bill runs Seven Seas Sailing school, and is a staunch waterfront activist. He is also heavily involved with preserving, maintaining, and promoting the South Buffalo Lighthouse. When Bill first started writing for Buffalo Rising, he wrote an article a day for 365 days - each article coincided with a significant historic event that happened in Buffalo on that same day.

In the original article, it was stated that Taste of Buffalo lost an account due to changing demographics brought about by the lack of regionalistic visions. That statement was not verified, and has been stricken from the article.  Buffalo’s Al Coppola has been striving to create an atmosphere of discussion about the benefits of regionally governed resources since he first introduced the concept to the Buffalo Common Council in 1995. The Buffalo region has twice the government than the City of Las Vegas, and when there’s that much government, there’s less community voice guiding its direction. Former State Senator and…

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This is a story that WNY Media Network produced back in 2007. Marc Odien and Bill Zimmermann (Buffalo World Institute) have recounted the 50+ year friendship of Conrad Mikulec from Buffalo, and ‘Thaison’ from Vietnam.  Although worlds apart, these men were brought together by the common goal of getting John McCain and other POW’s released from Vietnam.  Against their efforts, McCain refused to leave until all the US captives were released together in 1973.  Mikulec could be a cantankerous SOB but he was a brilliant man. Among other achievements, he developed the ABC fire extinguisher, and he invented the first aluminum scuba tank for Jaques Cousteau, enabling…

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Come Learn to Sail… for Life. Try to Imagine an early spring Saturday; frost is everywhere as we drive down to meet up along the Buffalo Ship Canal at the historical industrial end of Buffalo. We’re wearing winter knit caps and foul-weather jackets, gloves, and holding bundles of life vests. In the morning fog, mental images of old shanty town workers from a hundred years ago dance in my head, their black boot prints tarred with waste oil, with the smell in the air of oats and wheat and whatever filled those concrete beasts along these remnants of old tracks,…

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By Captain Bill Zimmermann: Imagine an early spring Saturday; frost is everywhere as we drive down to meet up along the Buffalo Ship Canal at the historical industrial end of Buffalo. We’re wearing winter knit caps and foul-weather jackets, gloves, and holding bundles of life vests. In the morning fog, mental images of old shanty town workers from a hundred years ago dance in my head, their black boot prints tarred with waste oil, with the smell in the air of oats and wheat and whatever filled those concrete beasts along these remnants of old tracks, and I imagine the…

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The Can-Am was created in 2006 by the Niagara Frontier Bicycle Club (NFBC) and Mary Alice Tock as a way to show off Buffalo and the Niagara Frontier not only for its great riding opportunities but also for its architecture, natural wonders, and friendly people. The Can Am Invitational is a three-distance bicycle ride taking place August 17 and will generate its program, hosted by the NFBC, from a starting base at Buffalo’s waterfront. Registration is still open to new cyclists who will pedal 35 miles, 62 miles, or 100 miles. The two longer rides will be in the US…

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In its most basic form a blog is defined as a website where the entries are dated. With the increased presence of the internet in virtually everyone’s life, blogs have become a way for many people to source their news and gossip, fact find about things they’re interested in, and even network. Technology and programming have evolved to the point where blogs are so commonplace that people dedicate their energies to documenting trifling subject matter such as the daily life of their house cat or their obsession with fabric softener sheets. So, it’s no surprise that blogging about food is…

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In its most basic form a blog is defined as a website where the entries are dated. With the increased presence of the internet in virtually everyone’s life, blogs have become a way for many people to source their news and gossip, fact find about things they’re interested in, and even network. Technology and programming have evolved to the point where blogs are so commonplace that people dedicate their energies to documenting trifling subject matter such as the daily life of their house cat or their obsession with fabric softener sheets. So, it’s no surprise that blogging about food is…

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Richie’s opened last week. If you remember, we talked about it a few weeks ago when construction was still underway. Occupying a very small building on the corner of Amherst Street and Elmwood Avenue, Richie’s Place offers American and Caribbean cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week. When Rich called to tell me of the opening, I zipped an email over to reader Willie1 to see if he was interested in meeting for lunch. He’s pretty invested in the neighborhood as a home owner and member of the Grant-Amherst Association. He and his neighbors were happy to…

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Sage derby has become an increasingly popular cheese. The fact that it can be found at most cheese counters in Buffalo is a testament to that. Unfortunately, it has been most commonly relegated to the now ubiquitous turkey sandwich with cranberry mayo–though in Buffalo Le Metro deserves its props for being the first (and only for a long time) shop to serve this combination. Made in England, this mild cow’s milk cheese was first introduced in the 17th century when it was incorrectly determined that sage had miraculous health benefits. Today, this cheese takes many forms, some far better than…

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You live in Buffalo. It’s Saturday. There are only 10 shopping days until Christmas. For three days local media outlets have been forecasting an incoming snow storm rumored to wipe out all of your plans for the next two days. So what do you do? You head to the supermarket. This afternoon as I pulled into the Wegmans on Amherst Street, I was sure that I would be risking life and limb by stopping in for a few items. Of course it would be busy, people have been whispering “snow storm” for days, and when those two words come into…

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