Categories for Co-produced with WGRZ

Feb 8

2013

Pegula of Sabres pushed for hydrofracking in New York

Published by

Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula, who made his fortune hydrofracking, has used his status as a sports mogul at least once to lobby state lawmakers to embrace drilling for natural gas. Jon Campbell of the Gannett News Service’s capital bureau in Albany is reporting that Pegula invited lawmakers to his hockey arena 15 months ago and pitched them on the merits of hydrofracking. In late November 2011, nine months after he took control of the National Hockey League club, Pegula gathered Buffalo-area officials and state lawmakers in a boardroom at then-HSBC Arena. There, he and members of his East Resources team[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Feb 5

2013

Buffalonians getting stuck in traffic more often

Published by

You know this: Buffalo-area commuters are stuck in traffic a lot less than their counterparts in many other large cities. What you probably don’t know: Buffalonians are sitting in traffic a lot longer than they used to. The 2012 Urban Mobility Report issued by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute considered traffic congestion in the nation’s 101 largest metropolitan areas. The report includes slews of tables from which we gleaned a few highlights, Buffalo-area motorists spent an average of 33 hours in traffic due to congestion, ranking the region No. 45. The average in comparable large metro areas is 37 hours.[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Jan 31

2013

Is traffic—or money—driving Peace Bridge plan?

Published by

Public Bridge Authority officials say they’re focused on expanding the Peace Bridge Plaza on the American side because it will improve traffic flow. But a look at the authority’s books reveals another possible motive: Money. While passenger vehicles account for almost 80 percent of bridge traffic, car tolls account for only 21 percent of authority revenue. Truck tolls, on the other hand, generate 48 percent of the authority’s revenues, almost $16 million a year. Duty Free stores at the base of the bridge in Buffalo and Fort Erie account for another 22 percent, or $7.2 million projected for this fiscal[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Jan 27

2013

Q&A: Jordan Levy

Published by

Jordan Levy is one of Western New York’s most successful entrepreneurs in recent times. He might be best known to local residents as the former chairman of the Erie Harbor Canal Development Corp., which is developing Canalside. He served in that capacity for four years before stepping down in 2011. During that time he first supported the controversial plan to construct a Bass Pro store in the inner-harbor then lead the EHCDC  in its embrace of a more popular approach dubbed “lighter, faster, cheaper.” Levy, 57, has enjoyed a long and successful career in the private sector. He is a general partner[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Jan 20

2013

Interview: Preservationist Tim Tielman

Published by

Few people in Buffalo elicit a stronger response than Tim Tielman. To some, he is a champion of preserving the city’s urban fabric. Others consider him an obstructionist. Tielman, 53, is executive director of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Architecture & Culture and principal of The Neighborhood Workshop, an urban design consulting firm best know for its design of Larkinville, aka Larkin Square. He is also a member of the Buffalo Preservation Board.  Tielman has been involved in every preservation issue in the city for the past 25 years, usually as an advocate and sometimes as a plaintiff. His causes have included  the Richardson[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Jan 11

2013

Is climate change ‘rampaging our planet?’

Published by

I find it ironic that after writing about Buffalo shattering its annual average temperature in 2012 that we may experience a weekend with 60 degree temperatures. In January? Really? Jay Burney, who founded the Learning Sustainability Campaign, believes too many people are in denial about climate change. His Dec. 2 opinion piece in The Buffalo News contends that rising temperatures and its impacts have reached an emergency level in Western New York. One of the first meetings I attended when I moved here was the Western New York Environmental Alliance’s quarterly meeting at the Marcy Casino in Delaware Park. The WNYEA is a[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Dec 21

2012

The Bills lease by the numbers

Published by

Some perspective on the Bills lease signed Friday. In terms of sheer public dollars, state and local government are getting off relatively cheap, although you’ve got to keep in mind that the improvements are intended as a 10-year stop gap at the aging Ralph Wilson Stadium. New York State and Erie County are on the hook for $95 million. Compare that with Kansas City, where taxpayers spent $250 million to renovate Arrowhead Stadium. Or the $160 million spent by taxpayers to renovate Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers. Or the $548 million Minnesota taxpayers will pay for a[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Dec 20

2012

Job claims inflated for Billion To Buffalo project

Published by

Governor Andrew Cuomo summoned hundreds of muckety-mucks to the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center two weeks ago to make the kind of announcement that politicians live for: government aid to bring jobs to an economically struggling region. In this instance, Cuomo told the assembled that the first $50 million of his $1 billion in promised state economic development funds had leveraged a commitment from Albany Molecular Research Inc. to bring 250 jobs and up to $250 million in private investment to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Reads the headline on the governor’s press release: “Governor and (Western New York Regional Economic[...]

Posted 12 years ago
Investigative Post