Author: chao li

Don’t forget that at 8:30pm people are being urged to take part of Earth Hour. All you have to do is be a part of a worldwide movement that was established in order to make our nations cognizant of the various ways to save electricity through an awareness that actually hits home. Join the effort along with friends, neighbors, neighboring cities and even world-renowned landmark buildings.In the end, it’s not even about the energy saved during that hour. It’s about the message of awareness that will be spread. From a child asking why the lights are off, to leaders who…

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Last summer I had the pleasure of working on an exciting project in Black Rock that, for a number of reasons, has had a tough time getting support. The project in question is Rock Harbor Village – an eco-friendly student village proposed by Atlas Steel’s Ed Hogle. Although the project has been waiting in standby mode in hopes that a higher education institution, such as Buffalo State College, would see the upside of the project, Ed has been busy looking for alternative ideas to run with in order to keep the concept of the village moving forward. When Ed first…

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In the last couple of years we’ve seen a plethora of intriguing developments take place on Connecticut Street. We witnessed the establishment of a bank, along with the building of loft-style apartments (thanks to the Christianos of Left Bank). Old world businesses like The Golden Key Tavern, Mineo and Sapio and Vilardo Printing still anchor Connecticut, beckoning further developments such as Horsefeathers and now Bella Tootsie.Bella Tootsie is a shoe-spa-boutique specializing in fashionable-yet-affordable ladies’ heels, sandals and boots. Annette Caldwell is the proprietor behind this creative endeavor, which not only sells fun and functional kicks… after you’ve picked out your…

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If you’re like me, maybe you’ve heard of some the 21st Century Fund’s past initiatives, but you were never exactly sure how the process worked. How did past winners make it all the way to the finals in order to land the $100,000 grand prize? For starters, in order to be eligible at all, the organizations must all be non-profits. Then there is the project criteria that requires, among other qualifications, project readiness, impact on the community, and ongoing sustainability. If you look at past winners, you can see that all of them, in some shape or form, embody those…

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With the recent success of the exhibit Body World, the Museum of Science is hot to find inventive ways to draw new crowds to its ‘front door’*. Body World welcomed over 160,000 visitors in 88 days and set records for exhibit attendance. According to Mark Mortenson, President and CEO of the Buffalo Museum of Science, “The Body World exhibit set records for attendance, revenue and profit generation. What was great about the Body Worlds exhibit is it proved that Buffalo is worthy (and lucrative) for these unique, world renown exhibits.” Now, how do you keep the momentum going? You look…

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Some people might scoff at the idea of retiring in Buffalo. I completely understand that as many people get older their color pallets of choice tend to gravitate towards yellow and orange pastels, and hearty pastimes such as skiing give way to strolling around easy-to-navigate smooth grass surfaces. I get it. Believe it or not, there are some folks who would rather live in Buffalo during their golden years… people like Ed Hogle (of Atlas Steel) who once told me that he could pick up and leave at any time to go chase golf balls in Florida. At one point…

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Another first for Buffalo and another festival to add to our growing list… does this make us the festival capital of the country yet? This festival is a bit different though as it runs from June 18th to July 25th and incorporates The Garden Walk along with 16 other Western New York garden walks. I had no idea that the count had grown to sixteen. The ‘umbrella’ festival touts our signature Garden Walk as “the largest event of its size in the country.The announcement for the National Buffalo Garden Festival is taking place tomorrow at the Buffalo and Erie County…

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It’s kind of hard to imagine what one person, or one business can do to make our regional water sources cleaner. It’s a good thing that we have an organization like Riverkeeper around to hi-light the different green projects throughout the area that might otherwise go unrewarded on days such as World Water Day (tomorrow). Coinciding with the United Nations designated observance, Riverkeeper is unofficially recognizing a green development that happens to be celebrating a grand opening in coming weeks.On Friday April 9th (5pm-7pm), the public is invited to check out 257 Lafayette Center (corner of Parkdale) – a West…

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According to a recent MSNBC post (among various other media outlets), Buffalo is one of the ‘Final Four’ cities that have remained relatively unscathed throughout the Great Recession. Associated Press disseminated the government report, which attributes the findings to the city’s recent diversification in industry. Even though part of why Buffalo and Rochester made it on the list was due to having slower economies before the recession, the report points to alternative growth industries (i.e. medical) and the Canadian dollar (increased cross-border shopping) as reasons for the economic faring.In coming weeks we’ll be running a series on some different ways…

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Have you ever experienced vertigo? It’s never happened to me until today. About an hour ago I walked into Acropolis Restaurant and literally took a step backwards thinking that I had mistakenly walked into the wrong building. The interior that I was familiar with was… gone. The diner-esque eatery had been transformed into a swank, dark wood bistro with window seating, cafe tables and a full length bar. It wasn’t until I saw Bob Petrik (owner of Mother Nature) sitting at a window seat that I was sure that I had walked into the right place.Now I’ve listened to Paul…

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