.:Gotta Drop a Blog in The Corner:.

you'd think that the people of buffalo would learn their lesson after all these years. there have been so many instances when hopes have been dashed, promises have been unkept, and it would have been expected that all would have just given up on our fair city, never to believe in it again. however... we always wake up the next day with the faintest glimmer of hope that it will be a better day one way or another. maybe that's what i like about this city... it's a mentality that you can't understand unless you've lived here. it's about people going about their everyday lives knowing that everything is pretty much crumbling around you, but you don't give a damn and your gonna do your thing anyways. sure we can get bitter and complain, after all if you look through our history in the last half a century it has all seemed to go downhill with very few positives coming out. obviously over these decades our national face has come mostly through our sports teams. the bills losing championship after championship after championship.... uhhhh... after championship in the 90s. the sabres coming oh so close in the conference and cup finals so many times. anyways, this year that started out so promising for both teams (each going out and winning games like we haven't seen in some time) seems to have gone wrong. the bills have lost 4 straight (minus the win from today which would have really turned off a lot of people since kansas city has only 1 win this season). the sabres are in a slump of their own with 5 in a row so far. despite our 2 professional teams getting kicked around recently... ub the team that 3 years ago was rated the worst team in ncaa division 1a college football, won the mac east division... and are gonna not only play for the mac championship, but are going to their first bowl game ever. mind you... this isn't a bcs bowl or anything... or even a tier 2 or 3 bowl as they seem to be handing out bowl games to almost everyone these last couple years... but it's a bowl game nonetheless.

in other buffalo news... the nytimes had a story about buffalo's architecture recently. also... 2 stories about the unusual position of buffalo in being a border city and how new businesses from canada have impacted the area. labatt usa's headquarters may be moved out of buffalo after the sale of anheuser-busch to inbev depending on who picks up labatt usa. also the site of one of my favorite ice cream places, sweet jenny's (which closed down recently due to a non-renewal of a lease) will become a coffee culture. i will have to see if it's any good... though i'll miss sweet jenny's for sure. on the plus side, the new burchfield penney art center moved over and opened in their new building.

i am also hoping that with the election of obama there might be some positive developments in some infrastructure improvements for older cities like buffalo through fdr type new deal projects as his economic team tries to get us out of a prolonged recession and economic contraction. fdr's new deal projects included the build-out of our national interstate system and other public works type projects. with a metro area like buffalo-niagara falls that still has around a million people living in it... we can drastically improve our public infrastructure, cut our dependence on oil, and help improve our environment by building out and expanding our public transportation system. there are times when i like driving and having a car around, but i think the system we have right now is not used to it's full potential because it is too small. the metro rail doesn't go anywhere really. for most people they still depend on a car to drive to a park and ride lot and then take the train a few short miles to get downtown. buffalo being an old industrial center with plenty of railroad rights of ways can fix up and re-lay some tracks to expand the commuter rail system. a reason this could work is that the population has really spread beyond the city into the surrounding areas, and i think if a system can be built out, people will use it as the price of gas continues to increase and/or the recession becomes a prolonged depression. the citizens regional transit corporation has developed different lines over the past couple of years, to expand the use of a light rail system within buffalo and niagara falls. this could be an opportune time to implement their plans. in addition, i think it'd be really cool to ride take a train and get off at a station named shredded wheat (of course located at what used to be nabisco's old site in niagara falls).

anyhow, that is it for now. maybe i'll get a chance to write something else up in the next couple days and start this thing up again.