Buffalo, NY - In 1987, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech in the shadow of the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate, imploring the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to “tear down this wall”. Two years later, it came down as a democratic revolution swept over the Warsaw Pact countries within the course of about 5 months.

The Berlin Wall wasn’t just a physical barrier. It was symbolic - it was the very embodiment of the East’s lack of freedom. It prevented its prisoners from visiting the West, where they would certainly come quickly to realize the inferiority of the brutal totalitarian state in which they lived. It was also one of the most brutally fortified de facto international frontiers in existence.

During the Berlin Wall’s 1963 - 1989 history, there were 5,000 escape attempts and 239 people perished trying to escape a communist totalitarian dictatorship and make a better, freer life in the West.

In 2007, a group of non-profits and community activists calling itself the “Waterfront Coalition” drenched itself in offensiveness and irony.

In order to protest one “wall” - the bermed Route 5 - the Waterfront Coalition purchased space on an actual wall. A billboard.

With respect to the elevated I-190 that runs like a gash through downtown Buffalo, we are hardly alone. Back in the 50s and 60s, many other older cities actually wanted to separate their thriving downtowns from their smelly, industrial waterfronts. An elevated highway to make it easy to pass through or commute to downtown was a welcome addition. In Buffalo, the I-190 snakes its way not too far from the shore of the Niagara River, and is at-grade pretty much all the way down until it reaches the Niagara Street exit.

Mayor Brown and Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson announced that the ninety new police officers will join the twelve former Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority police officers that were added to the Department November 19th following their successful completion of the Police Department exam and a three-week “refresher” training course.

The new Police Academy class will begin January 21, 2008 and will conclude July 3rd. Prior to entering the Academy the recruits are sworn in as Probationary Police Officers, added to the Department’s payroll and, upon leaving the Academy, they will be immediately available for assignment.

The financial uncertainty surrounding the Rochester Americans was too much for the Buffalo Sabres, who will end their 29-year relationship with the AHL franchise at the end of the 2007-08 season, according to published reports.

Today Buffalo Common Council member Joe Golombek and the Rev. Terry King announced that Saving Grace Ministires has withdrawn their proposal for a level 3 sexual offenders house at 31 Tonawanda Street.

“This is not a problem that will be going away. We will continue to seek a site that is appropriate.” said Rev. King.

Rev. King on withdrawing the proposal:

In the City of Buffalo, there are over 600 registered sex offenders with more than 200 level III offenders.

The state of New York is releasing sex offenders into our community almost daily. Some may not even be from our community and are only here to receive treatment that is unavailable in other parts of the state.

Golombek announced that a commission will be formed to study this growing problem to try and see if these offenders are even from the community in which they are being dumped.

Golombek on Commission:

“we want to take a look a how many offenders we are talking about.”

listen to the full news conference: