In a story like Sunday's feature on the past, present and future of the St. Lawrence
Seaway in Buffalo, it is difficult to pinpoint the Seaway's exact role in shaping the last
50 years of the city's history. How big of a role do you think it played? What would the city
look like if it was still a transshipment port? Does shipping have potential in Buffalo, or is
tourism and development the only future for Buffalo's once industry-laden waterfront?
In addition, here are some items that didn't make it into the print version.
- Bob Grande, the veteran grain scooper in the story, said he and his colleagues used
to "choke the dust" after work, in order to rid themselves of the grain dust that entered
their eyes, nose and mouth while scooping. To "choke the dust," he said, meant to head to
the Old First Ward pubs and have a couple of beers, and by a couple, he meant "more than
a couple."
- The Port of Buffalo was not always in its present location. Most of the "outer harbor,"
including the former grounds of the Pier Restaurant, constituted the old Port of Buffalo
until 1983, when it was bought by Buffalo Crushed Stone, and moved down the lakeshore,
close to the old Bethlehem Steel grounds.
- The environmental impact the Seaway has had on the Great Lakes has been studied.
Jennifer Nalbone, the campaign director of navigation and invasive species for the Great
Lakes United coalition, passed along these links describing those effects.
http://www.glu.org/en/campaigns/invasives/50years/stories
http://www.glu.org/sites/default/files/lodge_factsheet.pdf
Here is a press release from the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation
on the significance of the last 50 years.
http://www.greatlakes-seaway.com/en/news/press-releases/pr20090331.html
The Buffalo Industrial Heritage Committee, and the Lower Lakes Marine Historical
Society, provide a wealth of knowledge on the topic.
http://industrialheritage-buffalo.com/
http://www.llmhs.org/
-Brian Hayden
Time magazine has an interesting package about what it expects to be a better-than-expected 
situation for teens seeking summer jobs.
- Stimulus Sparks a Summer Jobs' Comeback
For many low-income teens in the U.S., ... jobs have been in scarce supply since the Federal Government gutted its summer-jobs program about a decade ago. But the Obama Administration is changing all that, having directed $1.2 billion to pay for summer jobs for youths.
Time also offers a list of 10 good careers to follow, during the current recession, and after.
- Finding a New Boom Amid the Bust:
- Accountant
- Entrepreneur
- Police officer
- Network and Computer Systems
- Nurse
- Nutritionist
- Physical Therapist
- Teacher
- Mathematician
- Government Management
-- George Pyle
It must be nice to hear that your job is more important than ever. Even if the reason your job matters more is that so many other people are losing theirs.
The Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers, meeting this week in Amherst, brought in big-time economist Paul Harrington for an update on the economy or, as his talk was officially titled, "The Labor Market in a Deflationary Economic Context." That's important to a group that brings college career counselors together with corporate recruiters.
- Career counseling now vital
Manufacturing firms that trained their own employees in specialized skills and provided lifetime 
livelihoods to industrious but minimally educated workers are gone for good, Harrington said. He said the manufacturing economy that must replace it — bioengineering, energy, information technology — will require both more formal education and more active contacts between colleges and universities on the one hand and employers on the other.
Meanwhile, unemployment stats are out, and Buffalo is doing better.
- Regional jobless rate improves slightly
The region’s unemployment rate improved to 8.3 percent in May, even though the pace of job losses here accelerated to its fastest rate since late 2001, the state Labor Department said today. [Chart. Details.]
Other takes on unemployment numbers from The Poughkeepsie Journal, The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, The Albany Times-Union, The Syracuse Post-Standard, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Portland Press-Herald, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Los Angeles Times, The Charlotte Observer, The Houston Chronicle and, where it's really depressing, The Detroit Free Press.
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
[Photo of March New York City job fair by AP]
The "Cash for Clunkers" program, designed to get customers to trade in less fuel-efficient vehicles for more fuel-efficient ones, is working its way through Congress. The program would provide vouchers of up to $4,500 toward the purchase of new vehicles, as long as the deal meets eligibility requirements based on fuel economy standards and the price of the new vehicle.
It has generated considerable debate. Backers say it will help take gas guzzlers off the road for good, since they would be scrapped, and give the new-car business a much-needed boost. Critics say the program is a poor use of taxpayer dollars or doesn't go far enough in its requirements for fuel economy.
What are your thoughts on the program? Do you intend to take advantage of it if it goes into effect?
-- Matt Glynn
President Obama has formally proposed a new regulatory regime for the nation's financial institutions.
Unveiling his proposal before an East Room audience, Obama blamed the financial 
crisis on "a culture of irresponsibility" and outdated financial rules that were created in the wake of the Great Depression of the 1930s but had been "overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy."
- The Associated Press has the story, the bullet points and the video.
- The White House press release/blog is here.
- The Treasury Department's full report is here.
- Reporting and analysis from The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Guardian and Aljezeera.
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
A new report from the eggheads at the Brookings Institution gives Buffalo a gentleman's C for economic health. We stand near the top on stats such as homes retaining their value and staying out of foreclosure -- no small accomplishment these days. But Buffalo, along with the rest of Upstate New York, scrapes the bottom on metrics such as wage growth, employment and economic output.
As outlined in today's Buffalo News article, Going beneath the hood, the Brookings findings support the arguments being made by the leaders of the University at Buffalo that education and medical services -- Eds and Meds to folks in the biz -- are the future.
The Brookings summary is here.
The full MetroMonitor report is here.
And the video is here:
Remembering that all news is local, here are takes on the same info from The Express-News in top-ranked San Antonio and The Oklahoman in runner-up OKC. It was played up big in The Omaha World-Herald, which compared the Brookings picture of the American economy to a good baseball team - with strength up the middle.
The story was also picked up in The Virginian-Pilot, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Sacramento Bee, The Washington Post, The Seattle Times, The Houston Chronicle and The Columbus Dispatch, which works in a dig at income taxes but curiously fails to explain why the Ohio capital and home of Ohio State University does so well -- Eds, Meds and Government.
There were write-ups in The Miami Herald and in Jacksonville's Florida Times-Union, where many cities are near the bottom. But I found no mention of the report in either The Detroit Free Press or The Detroit News, which serve the city that came in last. Maybe that's more bad news than they can handle.
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
Lots of property changing hands these days, locally:
- Area housing market shows signs of recovery
Home sales in the Buffalo Niagara region rose from a year ago for the first time in nearly a year in May, as signs of a recovery start to take hold.
Last month, 906 homes changed hands locally, up 3.3 percent from 877 a year ago, according to new statictics released Monday from the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors. That’s the highest total since last October and the first time since last June that there’s been a year-over-year increase in closed sales.
- Managers buy Town Ballroom
The managers of the Town Ballroom in downtown Buffalo have purchased their building and property on
Main Street [right] and paid off a city loan, with the help of an independent concert promoter from Nantucket Island acting as an angel investor.
Shadigee Properties LLC, an entity registered to music promoter John Peters of Nantucket, off Cape Cod, Mass., paid $622,000 to purchase the property at 681 Main St. from MJG of Buffalo, according to Erie County Clerk records.
And elsewhere:
- New owner planning to strengthen Maine newspapers
- Boston newspaper for sale -- but at what price?
- GM to sell Swedish unit Saab to Koenigsegg
- Merck, Schering-Plough set meetings on merger
- Irish company buys Ill. wind farms
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
The bad news:
- Americans are often unprepared to retire
Just 14 percent of Americans feel well-prepared financially for retirement, while the rest “do not have any idea about what their retirement income will look like,” according to an annual survey by HSBC Insurance.
... “A perfect storm is confronting pensions planning, created by an aging population, falling pension funds values, a drop in state and employer contributions and an economic downturn which is forcing people to make tough financial choices,” HSBC Group Chairman Stephen Green said in the release.
The good news:
- Goldilocks home market looks hot - Buffalo's Business by David Robinson
In one first-quarter report by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Buffalo Niagara region ranked fourth out of 294 metropolitan areas for home price appreciation over the last year.
In another, by the National Association of Realtors, the increase in median sale prices here was the 10th highest during the first quarter.
- Leisure Living doesn't let a near-disaster keep it down 
Just over a year ago, fire swept through a warehouse at the rear of Leisure Living’s property on Niagara Street. Firefighters prevented the blaze from spreading and destroying the entire business.
... But the business recovered and managed to follow through on a plan it had laid out before the blaze, moving into larger space to accommodate its growth.
The chicken:
- Where there’s smoke, there’s often Chiavetta’s
The same marinated aroma is familiar in towns and villages, at churches, fire halls, legion posts and Kiwanis Clubs throughout Western New York. The Chiavetta’s name has become a staple of summer barbecuing and fundraising in the region, raising nearly a half a million dollars for the hundreds of nonprofit organizations that use it for their events each year.
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
See. Here's why you have to make sure to read the whole newspaper.
On the Business Today cover, rich man wants to stage coup against the leaders of a local business group.
- Paladino seeks to oust Rudnick
Outspoken downtown real estate developer Carl Paladino is calling on Buffalo Niagara Partnership CEO Andrew Rudnick to resign, saying he has been ineffective and threatening to pull members away into a new organization within 60 days.
On Page A6, richer man surveys the wreckage caused by the coup he staged against the leaders of 
the New York State Senate. At the same time, said richer man makes common cause with the target of the not-quite-so-rich man's overthrow designs.
- Golisano emboldened by role in Albany coup
Buffalo Sabres owner B. Thomas Golisano [right] acknowledged in the lobby of HSBC Arena on Thursday that after running three times for governor and spending millions on State Senate Democrats, the coup he orchestrated this week in Albany may finally net the results he has been seeking.
... After he and political adviser G. Steven Pigeon engineered a stunning yet tenuous Republican takeover of the Senate on Monday, Golisano made it clear that he is not stopping there. He appeared with the leaders of two major upstate business organizations — Andrew J. Rudnick [see above] of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership and Sandy Parker of the Rochester Business Alliance — to announce he will financially support their efforts to reduce taxes and roll back business regulation in New York State through their Unshackle Upstate organization.
Update: Judge tells State Senate to settle its feud
Related:
- Coup leaves State Senate paralyzed
The State Senate can now post a simple sign on its door: “Closed.”
An attempt Thursday by a new Republican-led team of senators to start passing bills ground to a halt
after one of two Democratic rebels balked and walked out of the chamber — leaving the razor-thin majority one vote short of a quorum.
Unless the situation changes when lawmakers return to the Capitol on Monday, it will be impossible for the Senate to pass any bills. That would be bad news for an array of interests, such as plans for new school construction in Buffalo and dozens of localities across the state that are awaiting legislative action on home rule requests.
Related related:
The New York Daily News has launched a Page One editorial campaign entitled "Don't Pay the Bums" and offers insight from columnists Juan Gonzalez and Elizabeth Benjamin.
More on this from The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and its columnist Denise-Marie Santiago. From The Albany Times-Union Newsday, The New York Times, The Syracuse Post-Standard and its columnist Sean Kirst.
But it's not a total loss. Here's a clever summary from a Boston commentator who at least gets to comfort himself with the belief that someone, somewhere, has to deal with more screwed-up politics than he does.
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
A business-y day in today's Buffalo News
Out front:
- Wilmers resigns as leader of Empire State Development 
Just one year after becoming the state’s economic development czar, Robert G. Wilmers [right] is stepping down from the post, the latest in a growing lineup of officials departing the Paterson administration. [Statements from Wilmers and Gov. Paterson are here.]
More on this from The New York Daily News, The New York Observer, Crain's New York Business News and The Syracuse Post-Standard.
- Yahoo! asks for site approval, tax break in Town of Lockport
The Town of Lockport announced Thursday that Internet giant Yahoo! has applied for site plan approval and a property tax break for a massive $150 million data center in the town industrial park.
More on this story from Lockport Union-Sun & Journal.
In the Business Today Section:
- Hyatt Regency unveils results of $15 million in upgrades
The completion of a major overhaul of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Buffalo, unveiled Thursday, will soon be followed by a makeover of the neighboring convention center.
- Buffalo Niagara tops state in auto thefts
The Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area continues to have the highest vehicle theft rate in the state, ahead of even the New York City area that includes northern New Jersey and Long Island, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. [Details here.]
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
