Buffalo: The Titanic of Cities

Back at the start of this year, I wrote the following:

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.

In the comments section of that post, Assemblyman Sam Hoyt responded with the following:

The so called “proxy war” is more one sided than you may think. I do not consider myself at war with anyone. I am by no means trying to take over the Democratic party here…

That said, I can assure you that there is no grand plot to take over anything or even to position myself for some next move on the political chess board. I plan on running for reelection and, voters willing, continuing to represent the people of the 144th a.d. and all of wny.

So, is it really one sided?  Based on the various press releases we have received at WNYMedia over the past 14 days, I would argue that it isn’t.

First up was the article posted on Joe Illuzzi’s sorry excuse for a website regarding Sam’s marital indiscretions with women in Albany who may or may not have been interns in the Assembly.  Not only did the alleged bank robber/deadbeat Dad/born again Christian post private emails between Sam and his paramours, he threatened to continue doing so in some pique of moral outrage.  This raised a stink in the local press and even Sandy Beach got his Depends in a bunch over the whole affair.

Rumors began circulating that the posting of these emails on Illuzzi’s apparent pay-for-play site was some sort of conspiracy hatched amongst the collective enemies of Sam Hoyt.  Frankly, the content of the emails was pretty entertaining and only in Albany does a romantic letter between illicit lovers include references to using one another as human lollipops and the desire for a permanent parking space.

As I stated in the comments section at Pundit’s site, I’m not all that surprised at these revelations about Hoyt.  He is your typical guy who was born into privilege and power, ya know, the kind of guy who was born on third base thinking he hit a triple.  Like the others who have gone before him, he’s a frat boy who never grew up.  Frankly, I’m tired of guys like this being in positions of power in this region.  It’s why we haven’t moved forward in nearly 50 years and we end up on Top 5 Dying Cities Lists in national publications.

Anyhow, I digress…

The very next day, a group calling itself WNYFirst sent us (and every other media outlet in town) a press release which claimed a high level city official was allegedly engaged in an illicit gay romance with another high profile local personality and was apparently using city time and resources to conduct the affair.

Today we received yet another press release from a group calling itself “TruthInBuffalo” which claimed there was an alleged coordinated effort amongst City officials and Joe Illuzzi to prosecute a smear campaign against Mr. Hoyt in exchange for money and other “considerations”.

It’s pretty well known that Illuzzi is a bit, well, less than upfront about his motivations when writing articles and he is apparently quite entangled with Messrs. Pigeon and Orsini, the toxic twins of local politics.  It’s also pretty well known that Glenn Gramigna (former Illuzzi cohort) is apparently in the pocket of Len Lenihan and the establishment Democrats.

It’s times like these where I’m glad we really fail to monetize this site in any appreciable way.  It allows us to point fingers and criticize media outlets for their lack of ethics.  I can unequivocally say that we have never been paid to write anything (positive or negative) and we find it troubling that other local sites allegedly take money to write articles.  How are people supposed to know what’s real and what’s pablum for the internecine warfare of party politics in Buffalo?

So, we have marital cheaters, alleged closeted gay government officials, corrupt alternative media sources, all wrapped up in a tawdry affair that is an affront to common sense, good will, and progress.  Instead of working to make Buffalo a better place to work and live, these people are arguing over who will get to hand out jobs in this sinking Titanic of a city.  That’s really what it all comes down to, who has the authority to appoint, who can get supporters jobs on the public dole, and who can take credit for whatever incremental progress happens in this one step forward, two steps back town.

I’m not sure who is behind the various emails and press releases which have been sent, but I can certainly make some pretty educated guesses.  I’d like to air my opinion on the issue but under legal counsel, it’s probably wise to keep my yap shut at this particular point in time and not get slapped with a defamation suit.

What a fucking disgrace.