Categories for Co-produced with WGRZ

Jul 11

2017

Removing the muck from Scajaquada Creek

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The ongoing restoration of Scajaquada Creek has reached one of the most-polluted sections in Delaware Park. For three years Investigative Post has reported on the creek’s disgusting condition. The chief causes of the pollution are the Buffalo and Cheektowaga sewer systems, which spew raw sewage into the creek when deluged by storm water. As a result of decades worth of sewer overflows, the creek bottom is layered with black foul smelling muck. Both Buffalo and Cheektowaga do have plans to address the sewer overflows problems. On Monday, crews began dredging a badly polluted section of the creek by Hoyt Lake.[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 6

2017

City Hall slow to enforce lead measures

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Buffalo continues to have a lead poisoning crisis – hundreds of children were diagnosed with dangerous lead levels again last year – but you wouldn’t know it by City Hall’s slow rollout of its plan to deal with the problem. Mayor Byron Brown announced his plan in May 2016 and the Common Council passed companion legislation in October. But an Investigative Post analysis shows there’s been little progress in executing the initiative. Consider: Not a single landlord has submitted a required compliance letter with the city to confirm that they and their tenant are aware that lead paint is presumed[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jun 21

2017

Mayor won’t enforce recycling rules

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The curbside recycling rate in Buffalo continues to lag behind the national average. In 2016, Buffalo reported a curbside recycling rate of 15 percent, a negligble increase from the previous year. That’s still well below the national average of 25 percent for curbside programs. The curbside rate is based primarily on paper, plastic, glass and other materials that residents place in the green totes. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown visited the Modern Disposal plant on Tuesday to accept a $62,500 check for the city’s recycling education fund. The city’s contract with Modern requires the company to finance a portion of the city’s program outreach[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jun 19

2017

“Sloppy” management of state projects

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The second of two reports issued by Bart Schwartz, hired by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to look into the management of state development projects, including the Buffalo Billion, found a “sloppy process” and “systemic problems.” Jim Heaney, speaking to WGRZ’s Michael Wooten, said the reports lack details and “raise as many questions as they answer.” He also noted that the second report was issued two months ago, but that it took a Freedom of Information request from The Buffalo News to bring the documents to public light.

Posted 7 years ago

Jun 13

2017

Headway on toxic former General Motors plant

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It has been a long wait for Virginia Golden and her neighbors in the Delavan-Grider community. For over a decade, they’ve wanted the state to clean up the former General Motors plant. There is finally progress to report less than a month after Investigative Post’s investigation. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has added a portion of the former General Motors auto manufacturing facility to its Superfund program, making it eligible for state funds for remediation. The state hired a consultant to begin the investigaton of the property at 1001 E. Delavan Ave., where oil laced with PCBs from past[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jun 1

2017

State lawmaker’s plan to combat lead poisoning

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Lead poisoning in Buffalo is a public health crisis. In fact, Investigative Post reported in November 2014 that the city is “ground zero”  for lead poisoning problems. Even low levels of lead in children’s blood can cause permanent damage, such as learning and developmental disabilities. On Thursday morning, Assemblyman Sean Ryan announced his plan to combat this problem. Ryan cited in the speech Investigative Post’s reporting in proposing a package of state legislation that he said will help prevent exposure to lead in paint and water. His first proposal would amend the state’s definition of elevated blood lead level to match what the federal[...]

Posted 7 years ago

May 23

2017

Heaney discusses homicides on WGRZ

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Jim Heaney tells Kelly Dudzik of WGRZ that Buffalo police have a poor track record of clearing homicides – generally solving a quarter to a third of murders in recent years. Departments nationally clear about 60 percent of homicides. Heaney’s comments were made in the context of plans announced by Common Council President Darius Pridgen to launch a newsletter that will feature murder victims. Pridgen, pastor of True Bethel Baptist Church, hopes the newsletter and a digital companion will help in some way to solve murders. Heaney and Steve Brown of WGRZ did stories in March of this year and[...]

Posted 7 years ago

May 23

2017

Perks of LPCiminelli’s Buffalo Billion contract

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It was an expensive dinner after a long day of meetings on the SolarCity project. A senior executive at LPCiminelli, the company building the factory, ate at an upscale Italian restaurant in Albany, joined by two architects working on the project. The cost of the meal topped $120 each. That night, LPCiminelli picked up the tab. But, ultimately, state taxpayers footed the bill. A few months later, the company listed the meal as a reimbursable expense under its contract to build the vast solar panel factory, the marquee project of the governor’s Buffalo Billion initiative, and was paid back, in[...]

Posted 7 years ago
Investigative Post