I would also have to point out that routes to which one would travel between either city, or airport are already equipped to handle current heavy traffic flow, thus not jeopardizing the existing context of the proposed suburban area.

I think it’s due time that Western NY embraces the interest of companies that exist within the fields of technology and sustainability. We have for some time felt the effects of downsizing factories, and urban and suburban layoffs are on the rise. Yahoo! and similar companies would serve as a resource to help sustain the economic shifts occuring from the weakening industrial era to a post-industrial revolution of technology and sustainability.

If you want to see the worst examples of urban sprawl, drive to the urban and suburban locales Mr. Smith favors. An asphalt jungle. The only green areas to see are the large tracts of land in the city that have been long abandoned and bulldozed and left as wasteland.

And how would placing a data center in a rural area “encourage wasteful planning?” I’d be willing to bet that many of these areas have land use plans that are more equipped to handle large development than Buffalo and Niagara Falls – urban centers which have far too dysfunctional governments to engage in good urban planning – much less attract business in the first place.

I’m sensitive to Mr. Smith’s attempts to rationalize why development should occur in his own back yard. However, Google and Yahoo are not interested in his back yard. It’s Medina, and Pembroke, and Pendleton that they like. Clearly, this realization is hard on the urban conscience.

Clean Energy and HSBC, of course, I meant.

Stupid me, not being the IT guy, would think that proximity to the physical fiber would be a major factor in choosing a site. Cleaning energy and sych is nice, but when we have a DATA CENTER, you need a big pipe close to the biggest pipe available. I had heard that Buffalo has major fiber infrastructure, because the location between NY and TO.

Sooooo, where is the fibre in Pembroke? HSBA was going to put a data center there, so it must be close? Could “shovel ready” sites in Buffalo not be that shovel ready because its too hard to lay new fiber in ground where steel was smelted for 100 years? I’m asking because I don’t know.

Personally, if they only have the three sites to work in, I hope they choose the one between NF and Lockport. At least then its in the Buff-Niagara area. Ironically, if it goes to Orleans County, its in WNY, but counted against Rochester’s MSA and shows as jobs in “their” numbers. It would further reinforce nothing tech wise happens in Buffalo, but does in Rochester.

With that said, Yahoo moving in that direction certainly opens up significant opportunities for partnership with local vendors and amplifies the silliness of locating in a remote area.

Joking aside, Yahoo! really isn’t dead yet, they just need to redirect their focus away from traditional web search to stay viable. I find their portal content to be better than Google’s, especially the financial news.

So, it could be in Orleans or Genesee counties depending where on Route 77 the facility is dropped.

In Niagara County, the proposed locations are supposedly in an area north of Lockport and another in Cambria.

I grew up in Medina and I don’t believe that it makes very much sense for Yahoo! to be in Medina. It’s a very blue collar area, many people have little to no college education, factory jobs prevail.

How does this analysis move from your blog to the attention of the masses and the pols? Who’s positioned to carry this message?

This is the economic development equivalent of “I have a girlfriend, she’s from Canada…you don’t know her” If folks can’t see that Yahoo is there, then it fails to become a relevant win and industry leader in the region.