With the holiday season nearing it’s closure and a new year upon us, I thought it was time to cobble together a random musings post which details where my mind is at right now as both a blogger and Citizen of Buffalo. It’s one part recap of 2007 and one part resolutions for 2008…

• I thought 2007 would be the year in which Buffalo made some tremendous strides both politically and economically. Unfortunately, it was a lot like 2006, 2005, and 2004; Iterative progress which doesn’t amount to much of a “revolution”. Positive developments can be found if you look hard enough. However, when I look back on 2007, I don’t see much progress made on addressing the massive problems of poverty, urban blight, racism, vacant properties, and failing public education system that engulf vast swaths of our urban environment. I also see little progress being made on the statewide level to address our overbearing business costs, over regulation, excessive personal tax rates, corruption, abuse of taxpayer monies, unaccountable authorities, and unresponsive elected officials. It doesn’t inspire much hope for 2008. Hey, way to kick things off with a tidal wave of optimism, eh?
• I can’t decide which politician has been a bigger disappointment to the people of Buffalo, Byron Brown or Eliot Spitzer. Frankly, I voted for neither, so I can’t say I’m surprised they have been massive disappointments. It seems as if Mayor Brown is looking to create as little ruckus as possible while he waits for Rep. Louise Slaughter to retire. Congress is calling, don’t want to rock the boat too much and piss off any potential constituencies! Spitzer seems to lack the ability to lead or build consensus. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who was an observer of his behavior as Attorney General. State Senator Joe Bruno has effectively neutered Spitzer and without a massive Mea Culpa, I don’t see a way for Spitzer to rebuild political capital to fight back or accomplish any of his ambitious agenda.
• The proxy war for the Democratic Party in the City of Buffalo continues unabated between Sam Hoyt and Byron Brown. Shifting allegiances in party politics, control of the Common Council, control of district committeemen, control of patronage power, control of party messaging and candidates…all of it up for grabs as Hoyt and the Party square off against Byron and Grassroots. What does any of this matter in the grand scheme of things? Absolutely nothing and is a total distraction from the business of the people. See my first point about why 2007 was like any other year…
• Tell Bashar Issa to give me a call when he gets something significant done over at the Statler. Until then, I’d like it if he’d stop with the grand proclamations about his massive design plans to reinvigorate the entirety of Buffalo proper. He is a walking silver bullet plan to the denizens of “New Buffalo” and it is growing execeedingly tedious. To belabor his efforts and support him vociferously every time he farts in our general direction makes us look small and insignificant.
• Piggybacking on that, I’d like to define the difference between “efforts” and “results” for people in this town as it seems as if we are so disconnected from someone actually getting something done that we often confuse the two…
  • Results - Something tangible that comes from the conscious application of effort. Something to be celebrated.
  • Efforts - The work done to achieve a particular end. Not worth celebrating.

Checking out the progress of work at Ralph Wilson Stadium this afternoon, there on the ice was Dan Craig, NHL Facilities Operations Manager and the guy in charge of this entire affair. But he wasn’t just on the ice - he laced up a pair of skates and was giving the surface he had built a whirl. “It felt good. We’re almost at the point we were in Edmonton four years ago at this time.”The place is really taking shape. Walking into the stadium today, I was absolutely amazed at how they got this place tidied up, a far contrast from the dreck and mess in the concourses, ramps and seating bowl the other day. Crews are still dashing around the building getting ready for the big event. Down on the field, the ice has been painted, the glass is up, the zamboni is applying water and smoothing the ice. And now they’re actually trucking IN snow to give the field a neat cosmetic appearance.

Today’s 2PM daily briefing was a more crowded affair - media from national outlets and from other cities were in attendance, and joining Craig and Don Renzulli was NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, who was piped in to the briefing via teleconference from New York City.

If you would just like to see the inauguration and hear his speech, this is the video to watch:

If your interested in seeing the entire event including the performances and blessings, click through to see it.

A half inch of ice is now down and the playing surface is painted white

Outgoing Erie County executive Joel Giambra announced today that he is leaving Erie County in the black.

His administrations 2007 Forecast results:

• Certain operating surplus of $12.2 million
• Potential surplus of $15 to $20 Millio: Depending on December sales tax results