Joe Tomasulo grew up on Buffalo’s Italian West Side many years ago. Now, through his work with the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corporation, he’s rebuilding it into what he calls an international marketplace. Tomasulo’s office, in the heart of Grant Street, is a satellite to BERC in Buffalo’s City Hall. Offered to him for use by Sam Guercio of Guercio’s Market, Tomasulo keeps company with boxes and stacks of Guercio’s paperwork, but he’s very happy to be in this anchor building, one of three that Guercio owns on the same block as the market. According to Tomasulo, the phone and copy…
Author: Courtney
We were invited over to Eric Mower and Associates today for a review of yesterday’s Super Bowl ads with Partner and Creative Director Richard Skiermont, Associate Creative Director Gretchen Galley, Senior Art Director Michael Tsanis and Assistant Account Executive Latrese Burruss. It was fun reviewing all of the commercials that aired during the Bowl game, with commentary from experts who do work for local notables such as the Western New York Ford Dealers, Fisher-Price, Welch’s and National Fuel.The overall feeling among the group, voiced by Skiermont, was that there was nothing really exciting this year. “It was pretty disappointing. Usually there’s…
Superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools Dr. James Williams has 22 appointed, non-union employees. Those employees have each given back to the district in the past three years by giving up 2 sick days ($56,100 in savings), 3 personal days ($84,150 in savings) and by paying 20 percent of their health insurance costs ($123,000 in savings). The final savings of $263,250 was realized over the three-year period, since Williams took the superintendent’s position in July of 2005. “It is important for me to lead by example and I have always paid a portion of my health insurance and gave back…
Starbucks is closing 300 US stores and putting nearly 7000 employees out of work, and whether or not that will have an effect on the local stores is yet to be seen.We are, however, getting a new coffee chain along with corporate offices. Coffee Culture’s headquarters will be moving into the nearly new, Uniland-built office building at 285 Dealware, just up the street from a Starbucks and a SPoT Coffee shop. They will not open a shop so close to the corner we like to refer to as Chippewa and Coffee, but intend to open in Williamsville and Ellicottville, with…
“What planet are you from? Have you no decency? Would your parents approve? Would they be proud of you?” These are questions local developer Carl Paladino asked of Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore in a letter that went out to all local media.”The part about his parents really got to him,” Carl said. “But I wasn’t saying anything bad about his parents. Quite the opposite, I was saying something bad about him.”The flack stems from Paladino’s outrage over Rumore’s court action to have multiple-carrier insurance reinstated to Buffalo teachers. Paladino chides Rumore for wanting what he says is an…
I took a little trip to the Erie Basin Marina yesterday to see firemen hosing down the lake for next week’s Labatt Pond Hockey Tournament.The wind we’ve had made for a choppy surface, and with snow on the way, the powers that be thought it best to give the surface a good drink to even it out for play.While Lt. Keith LoCicero and Firefighter James Pierce of Truck 2 were in the bucket, the rest of us stood around on the ground, watching the water gush and enjoying the rainbows it made.Labatt Brand Manager Dave Grohusko, who oversaw last year’s…
There’s going to be a meeting tonight to unveil updated plans for the design and stabilization of the H. H. Richardson Complex, and we know RaChaCha will be there, taking it all in and reporting back to us. In the meanwhile, I spoke to someone else who had another idea about what to do with the former insane asylum, and depending on how you feel about it, it’s maybe…er…uh…not so crazy.Carl Paladino was talking about the “broken public education system,” and saying how he’s an advocate of residency charter schools. The way Carl sees it – education specialists would identify…
The Infinity Blues Project band is headed to Memphis for the 25th International Blues Challenge, with the support of the Blues Society of WNY. Tomorrow, Infinity will give a preview of their Memphis performance at the Tralf at 2:00.The band of 14 to 19-year-olds is newly formed last summer under the mentorship of Ron Graham and Steve Davis of Jamestown’s Infinity Performing Arts School, but each one of the band members has years of musical experience to devote to this endeavor. Placers in this year’s Memphis Bound Competition at the Lafayette Tap Room, Infinity will be featured in the Blues…
Cummins Wide: Photographs from the Arkansas State Prison by Bruce Jackson opens at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery tonight. The work of SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor of American Culture in the Department of English at the University at Buffalo, Cummins Wide is a haunting and powerful collection of 53 panoramic black and white photographs portraying the Cummins Prison Farm in Lincoln County, Arkansas, between 1971 and 1975. Jackson walked us through the exhibit pointing out the nuances in the imagery created with a Widelux F6B camera. Along with the fact that the lens of the camera pans…
Jewel Salon opened up just prior to Christmas in the storefront at 425 Elmwood, between The Wine Thief and Tabree. Formerly, it was Karl Salon, where Karl Radetich styled hair in the back of the shop and showed the jewelry designs he made up front. Presently, Ann Forrester has taken up jewelry store operations, sending Karl upstairs to ply the hair biz.”We offer everything from faux to fabulous,” Forrester says, “with prices that range from $10 to the thousands.” Along with jewelry, you’ll discover gifts, accessories, some antiques, men’s silk ties and an odd piece of furniture or two that may make…