Tag: City Hall

Apr 30

2019

A bad week for female candidates in Buffalo

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State Supreme Court Judge Tracey Bannister on Monday expressed “some regret” in upholding the disqualification of three candidates for Buffalo Common Council, based on what she called a “material” and “substantive” defect in the form of their nominating petitions.   Indeed, there is much to regret in this imbroglio, from its beginning to its conclusion. The case now moves to the 4th Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court. “I’ve done what you’ve done and I know it’s hard,” Bannister told the three women — Melanie McMahan, Bernice Radle and Antoinette Craig — who were knocked from the June 25[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Mar 5

2019

A changing tide on license suspensions

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New York is one of at least 41 states that suspend drivers’ licenses if they fail to pay traffic fines. In 2016, the state Department of Motor Vehicles issued 53,648 suspension or revocation orders to drivers in Erie County, according to data obtained Investigative Post. This captures suspensions issued for any reason, but experts said the vast majority are related to traffic tickets. “Suspending a license is a patently absurd remedy to someone who can’t pay traffic tickets,” Blake Strode, the executive director of ArchCity Defenders, a civil rights law firm based in Missouri, told Investigative Post. New York’s practice[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Feb 27

2019

City Hall cashing in on traffic tickets

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 First, City Hall talked the state into allowing it to keep most of the money from traffic tickets issued by Buffalo police. Police then started handing out tickets in record numbers, jumping from around 32,000 in the year before the Buffalo Traffic Violations Agency was created in 2015 to more than 52,000 the year after. Since then, police have written far more tickets for tinted windows than for speeding or running red lights and stop signs. Revenues soared accordingly—up from around $500,000 in the year before the traffic agency was created, to more than $2.8 million in the fiscal[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Sep 12

2018

Council presses mayor’s staff on fair housing

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 The Common Council has asked the Brown administration to account for its enforcement of – or, failure to enforce – the city’s fair housing law. Last week, the Council asked for a report on the city’s handling of housing discrimination complaints over the past three years. At a brief appearance before a Council committee Tuesday, Harold Cardwell, the city’s fair housing officer, agreed to provide that report within 30 days. The Council’s request, initiated by President Darius Pridgen, came after Investigative Post reported in July that City Hall has largely failed to enforce the fair housing law. The law[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Aug 1

2018

Council considers action on fair housing law

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Buffalo’s fair housing law is supposed to prevent landlords from refusing to rent to someone simply because they rely on government assistance – like a Section 8 voucher – to help pay their rent. But that law, introduced in 2006, has gone largely unenforced, despite the more than two dozen discrimination complaints, most of them substantiated by undercover testing, that have been filed with the city. Last week, members of the Common Council said they would consider taking steps to ensure the law is enforced. “If we find out something is not being enforced or something is not staffed, it[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 17

2018

Keith discusses fair housing law on WBFO

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Charlotte Keith talks to Jay Moran of WBFO on Press Pass about her recent story on Buffalo’s failure to enforce its fair housing law, which is supposed to protect the thousands of city residents who rely on Section 8 vouchers or other forms of government assistance to pay their rent.  

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 14

2018

Heaney talks City Hall on ‘Pressroom

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Susan Arbetter, host of The Capitol Pressroom, told Editor Jim Heaney a recent story by Charlotte Keith produced by Investigative Post made her “angry.” The story documented the failure by the administration of Mayor Byron Brown to enforce the city’s fair housing law. Arbetter’s angst was rooted in the mayor’s indifference to the plight of the city’s poor, who are often discriminated against when they attempt to rent apartments with the help of government assistance such as Section 8. Heaney told her inaction by the city is just the latest example of the mayor turning a blind eye to injustices[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jul 5

2018

Vet a victim of discrimination – and inaction

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The red brick apartment building on Crescent Avenue is two blocks from Delaware Park. Online listings show pictures of light-filled rooms with hardwood floors and decorative fireplaces. Reginald Holloway never got to see inside. In 2008, Holloway, a disabled Marine Corps veteran, was looking for a one-bedroom apartment in a peaceful neighborhood. He still struggled with flashbacks and nightmares from his military service and wanted to live somewhere quiet; doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs had diagnosed him with chronic post traumatic stress disorder. Holloway had a Section 8 voucher that would help him pay the rent and, in[...]

Posted 7 years ago
Investigative Post