Categories for DailyPost

Nov 3

2024

Buffalo’s growing remote workforce

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Downtown Buffalo has been hit hard since the pandemic, with a loss of an estimated 20,000 workers. That helps to explain the rise in remote work in our region, as reported last week by Coworking Cafe. The share of people in Buffalo working from home has grown from 4.1% in 2019 to 10.7% in 2023. Our share of the remote workforce is a little below the national average of 13.8 percent. That number in neighboring Rochester is 8.8 percent. Partly as a result of fewer people commuting to work, traffic volume and congestion is down. In Buffalo, the declines were[...]

Posted 1 week ago

Nov 1

2024

Infographic: Move your car

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Over the past year, Buffalo issued more parking summonses, by far, for not following alternate side of the street parking rules than for anything else. Using city parking summons data available through Open Buffalo, Investigative Post found 43 percent of over 142,000 summons issued in a one-year period – ending in late October – went to vehicles parked on the wrong side of the street.  The next most frequently issued tickets went to vehicles in No Parking zones. They represented 12 percent of tickets. As a comparison,  we looked at ticketing data the city released for an almost 18-year period[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 31

2024

Whistleblower suit against OTB going forward

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Batavia Downs. Photo by Garrett Looker. A lawsuit filed by a former Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. executive – who claims he was fired for cooperating with state and federal investigators examining the operation – is moving forward. In a ruling issued last week, U.S. District Court Judge William Skretny dismissed several claims, narrowing the scope of a lawsuit filed in August 2021 by OTB’s former chief operating officer, Michael Nolan. But Skretny denied a request from OTB to toss what Nolan’s attorney described as the “most important” causes of action in the lawsuit. Barring an appeal, Skretny’s ruling clears[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 30

2024

Buffalo readying hostel’s former home for sale

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Hostel Buffalo-Niagara in downtown Buffalo’s Theater District. Photo by Garrett Looker. Members of  the Hostel Buffalo-Niagara board are working to reclaim the lodge’s former home at 667 Main St. – though they may have some competition. The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency last week said its real estate team has been showing the property – located in the heart of the Theatre District – to several potential buyers.  BURA officials didn’t name any interested parties beyond the hostel, which is partnering with developer Sam Savarino to create a construction plan for the property. The hostel’s board hopes that Savarino can acquire[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 29

2024

16 deaths blamed on domestic violence in one year

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Last year, nearly 6,600 women, men, and children throughout Erie County were victims of domestic violence.  It was the highest victim total in the past decade — 14 percent higher than the previous year, according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Domestic violence incidents have been on the rise in the past several years. Since 2018, 61 domestic violence deaths were reported in Erie County.  In most cases,  the victims of abuse were killed, though several abusers and other family members also died.   Sixteen of those deaths occurred in one year, 2022. Those rising numbers concern[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 28

2024

Ethics board says former Evans supervisor owes $23K

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Mary Hosler, Erie County’s chief auditor, should be fined $23,000 for payments she took but was not entitled to while serving as Evans town supervisor, the town’s Ethics Committee concluded last week. The five-member panel  agreed with a recent audit by the state comptroller’s office that found Hosler improperly took compensation for opting out of the town’s health insurance coverage.  (Investigative Post wrote about  the audit last month.) Elected officials were not entitled to such opt-out payments at the time Hosler sought the money, the ethics board concluded. On top of that, Hosler was covered by the town’s health insurance[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 27

2024

Billionaire wants to buy parent company of Buffalo News

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A Florida billionaire is making noises about buying Lee Enterprises, and with it, The Buffalo News. The New York Times reported last week that David Hoffmann, worth $1.6 billion, has bought 5.2 percent of Lee’s stock and wants to obtain majority interest. Hoffman told The Times that while he recognizes the newspaper industry’s trend to digital, he believes print still has a future. And he believes in local news. As The Times wrote: “He wants to preserve community news — including more local sports coverage.”  The Times provided this background on the 72-year-old investor: Mr. Hoffmann is a relative newcomer to the[...]

Posted 2 weeks ago

Oct 24

2024

OTB hires two Brown lieutenants from City Hall

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Byron Brown answers questions from reporters at Thursday’s OTB meeting. Photo by Garrett Looker. Steven Casey, a longtime aide to Byron Brown and a political operative whose consulting firm pleaded guilty to felony charges in 2021, was hired Thursday as the former mayor’s right-hand man at the Western Regional Off-Track Betting. The OTB board voted to hire Casey for one year as chief administrative officer and chief of staff under Brown, OTB’s new president and CEO. Casey will be paid $190,000. OTB will retain Scott Kiedrowski, OTB’s current No. 2, who is named in a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago
Investigative Post