The New York Times featured another article by Nicolai Ouroussoff, pointing to Buffalo as perhaps “the most intriguing test case for reimagining our failing cities.” Ouroussoff laments the Department of Homeland Security plan that “would require the demolition of five and a half blocks in a diverse working-class neighborhood with a rich architectural history, from late-19th-century Italianate mansions to modest two-family homes built in the 1920s.”

Meanwhile, yesterday’s Buffalo News ran a story quoting Clarence Republican Chris Lee on the issue: “We’re beating a dead horse here,” he said. “We need to focus on the project at hand, which is to get a new Peace Bridge built.” Buffalo Democrat Brian Higgins also chimes in on the issue: “Western New York residents and businesses are sick of studies and setbacks, they just want to see a bridge built. This is a move in the wrong direction.”

Meanwhile, Representative Louise Slaughter says, “Shared border management not only presents the best possible solution to the security and legal issues facing a new Peace Bridge plaza, but also prevents the residents of the historic Peace Bridge neighborhood from being displaced.”

Which begs the question: Is Louise Slaughter the only local politician who reads the New York Times?

As of 5pm this evening, according to spokespeople for New York State Senator Antoine Thompson, the proposal to begin selling wine in supermarkets is not included in the new state budget—despite a hard last-minute push from Governor David Patterson today. Voting on the budget begins tomorrow.

The proposal had been championed earlier this month in a Buffalo News editorial, likening the 2,600 small businesses in New York State known as liquor stores to a “legal monopoly.” Now, thanks to a strenuous and well-reasoned campaign by opponents of the proposal—which would have snatched a quick, one-time windfall in permit fees (up to $159 million projected) from supermarkets and other big-box stores—the measure is being recognized as short-sighted for a number of reasons.

The move would likely mean the closure of over a thousand small liquor store businesses across the state, while dealing a blow to New York’s burgeoning wineries. (The Finger Lakes recently recently displaced Niagara Falls as the number two tourist destination in the state, thanks in large part to their flourishing wine trail.)

In the meantime, it would have created no new jobs. After all, the same supermarket staff that sells you beer, soda, pet food and toilet paper can just as easily ring up a box of Franzia, but it’s doubtful the same sixteen-year-old at the checkout would be able to recommend anything more sophisticated to go with your dinner that night.

In the end, the most convincing arguments may have centered on public safety. At last Tuesday’s Common Council hearing, city lawmakers unanimously voted against the idea and sent their concerns to Albany. Aside from the real damage to small retailers, wineries, and the loss of jobs, lawmakers also sided with the Erie County Association of Chiefs of Police who see the proposed move as a great way to increase underage drinking and DWI collisions statewide. Studies have shown higher alcohol-related fatalities in states where wine is available at markets and department stores.

For more on the subject, click here for an interview with Burt Notarius, president of Premier Liquor.

Tonight at 7pm, there’s a meeting at the Allendale Theatre (203 Allen Street) concerning a possible reuse for Buffalo Public School #36, which sits on the northwest corner of Days Park in Allentown and fronts on Hudson Street as well. At the meeting, the Elmwood Village Charter School (124 Elmwood Avenue) will make a pitch for reusing the school, which is slated for closure—as a school.

Three years ago Days Park was on a list of schools the BPS wanted to close. (We wrote about it back in 2006.) It didn’t close back then, in large part because the Herman Badillo school was not yet ready to absorb its students, but it will close in June. Knowing that, neighbors have been casting around for someone interested in developing the site or reusing the existing building—anything to prevent the blight that an abandoned hulk of a building would inflict on the surrounding blocks.

Plans for some sort of residential development went nowhere. But now the Elmwood Village Charter School has come forward with an idea. The state board that regulates charter schools has given permission for the Elmwood Village Charter School to expand. The school can’t expand in the building its using now, and so is interested in acquiring School #36.

It seems a perfect match: BPS wants to close a school, and another, successful school would like to move in. But to move along the process—whereby the BPS decommissions the school and turns it over to the city’s real estate department, which can negotiate a deal with the charter school—the BPS wants to see some sign of community support.

Tonight’s meeting is the time to learn about the project and decide whether you’re in.

(A new weekly feature. Vehicles not currently available in North America — for whatever reason.)

2009 Mazda Demio

The Mazda Demio, as it is known in Japan, will, in a way, be coming to North America in 2010 as the new Ford Fiesta. Ford owns a share of Mazda (for now), and the Mazda 2 (as the Demio is known in Europe) shares its platform with the new Fiesta.

In Japan the Demio offers a choice of 1.3- and 1.5-liter engines and a range of transmissions: five-speed manual, four-speed automatic, and CVT (depending on engine choice). Prices in the home market range from ¥1,190,000 to ¥1,580,000 ($12,147 to $16,128). Although Ford hasn’t announced U.S. Fiesta pricing, industry followers expect it to be in the 12-to-14 grand range, and probably offer the 1.5-liter engine.

Call this one wasted opportunities. Countless shots ringing off the post. An anemic power play.

Despite outshooting the New York Titans 59-40, the Buffalo Bandits failed to capitalize on their chances, and fell to New York by a score of 11-9, before a near sellout crowd of 18,550 at HSBC Arena.

One of Buffalo’s prettiest goals happened early on. John Tavares was fighting for control of a loose ball just off to the side of the New York net while his teammates were making a player change. That change was very slow in happening, leaving Tavares to fend for himself. Getting no help, he managed to outfight four New York defenders and send the ball back to Tom Montour, who then re-fed it to right back to Tavares, then burying the ball behind goaltender Matt Vinc.

Otherwise, Vinc was absolutely fabulous in the crease tonight, especially in the first quarter, when he held Buffalo to just two goals on 19 shots, making several highlight reel saves in the process. At the other end, goalie Mikey Thompson was the last minute starter as Ken Montour was scratched due to the flu. “Matt was terrific tonight he made the difference,” said a disappointed Coach Darris Kilgour. “From our end, I thought Mikey (Thompson) let in a couple easy ones.” Kilgour added that Thompson did not know he would be playing until just half an hour before the game.

Buffalo trailed 6-3 at the half, and then brought it within two early in the 3rd on a strange looking dribbler that was credited to John Tavares. From there Buffalo went into an offensive funk for most of the 3rd quarter, until Mark Steenhuis lit the lamp twice late in the frame, one on a laser shot.

That gave Buffalo a spark heading into the 4th quarter. Billy Dee Smith tied the score at eight on a breakaway just over three minutes into the frame, but New York immediately retook the lead, and every time Buffalo made it close, the Titans answered. “Yeah it’s frustrating,” said Smith. “I was in the right spot for that breakaway, and I just knew I would bury it. That was the time for a momentum changer but we could not seal the deal.”

Buffalo earned a 4 minute power play at the 6:38 mark, thanks to Bill Greer’s check from behind on Mark Steenhuis, but the Bandits could not mount much of any pressure during that time, misfiring on most shots and not being able to find their shot lanes. Steenhuis brought it to within one with less than three minutes to go, but as was the case all night, New York immediately answered, closing out the scoring and an 11-9 win. “Our power play was horrible, we had so many opportunities to put this one away and we didn’t,” said Mike Accursi, who had a goal and two assists on the night. “We must have hit 10 or 15 posts tonight. I have to give New York credit they made the big plays when it counted.”

Buffalo did get some help on the scoreboard tonight (Gee those are words you’ll never read in a Sabres story), as Rochester defeated Boston, and Toronto also lost, and now the Bandits find themselves nursing just a one game lead on Both New York and Boston. “This is a tough division,” said Accursi. “Remember last year, you look at this division, there were four teams at 10-6, that speaks for itself. I expect nothing different this season it will be a dogfight.”

The Bandits head to Boston next Saturday to face the Blazers in a first place showdown. “This isn’t a typical expansion team, they are stacked with seasoned veterans,” said Accursi. Coach Kilgour added, “They start with (forward Dan) Dawson and finish with (goalie Anthony) Cosmo. They are about as tough a team as they come.”

John Tavares scored four points on the night, bringing him within just six points to 1400 in his amazing career.

CHEERS AND JEERS…

Cheers to HSBC Arena management, for putting the Sabres game against Montreal, still in progress, up on the video board as soon as the Bandits game ended, inviting fans to stick around and watch. The game was past the halfway mark of the 3rd period tied at 3 at the time. And that leads to…

Jeers to HSBC Arena management, for cutting the game off at the end of regulation, with the score still tied at 3, and shooing the fans out of the seating bowl. Gratefully, the game was still running on the monitors in the pavilion (sans sound), and after doing our postgame interviews we stuck around with about 500 other hardy fans to watch the game to its exciting conclusion, a six round shootout won by the Sabres.

Goalie Mike Thompson can just look on in disbelief as New York opens a 6-3 lead late in the second quarter.
-Photo credit: Mark Byrnes, WNY Media

It was your typical Sabres and Leafs clash at the HSBC Arena. Leaf fans piled into the building.  Leaf fan partied in our streets afterward. Leaf fan crosses the border to Canada with their money in our pockets.

And most importantly, Leaf fan watched their team fall to  the Sabres as Buffalo took advantage of some hideous amateur goaltending from far-over-the-hill Curtis Joseph and staved off a late Toronto rally in a 5-3 victory over the QEW archrival Maple Leafs.

The struggling Jochen Hecht opened the scoring on a rebound in the game’s first minute to set the tone for the match. Tim Connolly would double the score with a goal of his own about halfway through the first period. And in a period in which the Sabres were outshot by a 14-4 margin, the Sabres would go into the intermission with a 2-0 lead.

Joseph’s suckitude would continue into the second as Danny Paille and Connolly would add another pair of goals just twenty one seconds apart early in the stanza. Belfour out, Pogge in. Final stat line: four goals allowed, five saves. Shaq O’Neal would be proud of that shooting percentage.

And yet despite the pounding, the Leafs wouldn’t go quietly. Trailing 4-1 in the third they struck with two quick goals in the span of a minute to rally to within a goal. The last coming on a power play goal by Nikolai Kulemin as he desperately flung the puck in the direction of the net and voila! Goal!

The goal sent the crowd into a bipartisan frenzy as fans of both clubs were at a full throated boisterous pitch. And with the Sabres reeling and headed in the direction of a meltdown Sabres fans had to be thinking “here we go again”.

Then Jochen Hecht came into the offensive zone and lobbed a shot at Justin Pogge that the keeper had a tough time with. One scrum in front of the net and one puck in the back of it, and it was 5-3 Buffalo. Game over, right?

Not without one last bit of suspense, as Toni Lydman was sent to the box with just under two minutes left for cross checking. The Leafs pulled the goalie at that point and were up two men for the rest of the game. Buffalo was able to handle situation well and the final score stood.

The game marked the return of Ryan Miller in net for the Sabres as he turned back 33 of 36 shots in the win. As for tommorow night’s game in Montreal….coach Ruff minced no words about who would be in net: “Miller will play tommorow, I don’t think there’s any secret there”.

With the win Buffalo is within five points of eighth place Montreal. It’s no secret, tommorow is everything for the Sabres slim postseason hopes.

Random stuff –

The videoboard threw out the question of “who had the last shutout for Buffalo against the Leafs” while Miller was pitching a shutout with about five minutes left in the second period. Sure enough, not two minutes later Miller gives up his first goal. On a shorthanded goal no less.

Maybe it is the jersey? The Sabres are 11-3 when wearing the throwback third jersey. “Slug” jersey – meet “New” Coke?

Oh, and by the way…unlike some other folks around here. I actually like that pregame intro with the kids playing pond hockey.

David Torke has a terrific series of posts going over at Fix Buffalo. He’s taking a critical look at Belmont Shelter’s $12.1 million plan to build 50 “rent-to-own” houses on the city’s East Side, in the Cold Springs neighborhood, scattered across 60 city blocks.

He questions whether scattershot new-builds are a good strategy for revitalization. He asks whether $240,000 per house is a bit too keen a pricetag for these sorts of properties in these neighborhoods. He suggests, and references, what a lot of other smart people have been saying: that we’d do better to focus our energies on preserving and rehabbing historic structures in tightly focused project areas, preserving the urban nature of the environment rather than swapping it out for a false sense of suburbia.

Torke is at four posts and counting. Start with this one.

Interestingly, someone who claims to be former board member of Belmont Shelter has been commenting on Torke’s posts, suggesting Belmont’s first loyalty is not to its housing mission or to its target communities, but to the bottom lines of the for-profit construction, development, and property ownership companies that are subsidiaries of the not-for-profit housing agency.

MINI Clubman/Airstream trailer

MINI and Airstream, the iconic vacation trailer manufacturer, have unveiled their joint exhibit for this year’s Salone del Mobile.

The what? Well, the Salone del Mobile is the International Furniture Fair of Milan, and this year’s is the 48th annual, which will be held from April 22 through 27 at the Milan Fairgrounds in Rho. So if you’re not busy that week…

The MINI/Airstream exhibit was designed by Republic of Fritz Hansen, the “…Copenhagen based premium furniture brand known for its minimalist and functional design.” They’ve redesigned the MINI’s interior using the surfer lifestyle as their inspiration, and the exterior in jet black with “wetsuit neoprene accents” along with green trim. The Airstream features “…new interpretations of Arne Jacobsen’s Egg™ and Swan™ Chair and a table set up with four unique Series Seven™ chairs, allowing plenty of room for guests.” Finished in sleek wood paneling, it sounds like the ultimate surfer dude and dudette’s hangout.

If you’re in Milan, don’t miss it!

Here’s the HUD report on Buffalo’s CDBG program I wrote about in this week’s Artvoice. I think that I forgot to mention a key feature of the report: For each of the 19 deficiencies HUD identified in the city’s administration of its community development block grant, it has either 30 or 60 days to respond to HUD and address the problems.

Playoffs???

By now it has come to this… Montreal, Florida and Buffalo duking it out for the 8th and final seed. To get to the promised land, the Sabres would have to beat both the Panthers and the Canadiens head on in these final weeks leading to the end of the regular season.

Tonight at HSBC Arena before a sellout crowd of 18,690, the Buffalo Sabres’ slide to oblivion was put on hiatus, as the team managed a dramatic come from behind victory, beating the Panthers, 5-3. “It’s huge,” said Jason Pominville after the game. “It was pretty much do or die, that’s how this game was.”

Buffalo had a couple great chances early on to grab the lead. Even Coach Lindy Ruff said “There were good areas of the game earlier.” Drew Stafford’s dribbler in the crease went inches wide of the net. Jason Pominville also had a golden opportunity to put one away early. Florida would take the early lead, but Craig Rivet tied it late in the first period on the power play, scoring off a rebound with the net wide open.

In a lackadaisical second period, Richard Zednik tallied the only goal, and by the end of the second period the boos were raining down on the Sabres as the teams skated off the ice. The misery continued early in the 3rd, as the Panthers’ Michael Florik scored off a weird bounce to up their lead to 3-1.

Game over. Season over.

Then the team woke out of its slumber.

“We were cheating the game,” said Ruff. “We were hoping for that dramatic goal. So we go with the guys who want to put the puck at the net. For a team that’s said to be lacking character and toughness, we answered the call tonight.”

Jason Pominville (remember him?) got his 16th of the season at the 6:14 mark, and less then a minute later, Clarke MacArthur (remember him?) got the equalizer. The fans got their game faces back on, giving the Sabres a thunderous ovation. Pominville, who tallied a goal and two assists and earned the game’s first star, gave props to the fans. “We heard the boos. They have every right to boo. But we heard both ends of the spectrum tonight, and when the fans got into it, we fed off their energy. They were great tonight. I hope our play reflected all they gave to us late in the game.”

A few seconds later, the Sabres went on the power play, thanks to a cross check into the Florida net which knocked it off its mooring. With the noise at a fever pitch, the Sabres capitalized quickly, with Tim Connolly (remember him?) scoring the go ahead goal off of the point.

Florida called a timeout to try to settled the team down. It didn’t matter. The Sabres sent wave after wave of attack into the offensive zone, producing scoring chances and even a bit of “pinball hockey” on belaeguered goalie Tomas Vokoun. Florida could not produce many decent scoring chances in the last 9 minutes, and with the goalie pulled, it was Maxim Afinogenov, of all people, who hustled down the left side and got the empty net goal unassisted to seal the victory.

“They never quit. They continued to battle. You’ve got to keep battling,” added Ruff, liking what he saw in the team’s intensity and passion when things seemed at their bleakest. Ruff admitted that a virus going around the locker room has sapped the team’s strength in recent weeks. “It has affected our energy level. They’ve worked hard. Everyone is frustrated.”

Goaltender Mikael Tellqvist notched his first win as a Buffalo Sabre, stopping 30 of 33 shots, including a couple huge saves late in the game with the Sabres nursing a one goal lead.. “He gave us saves at key moments,” said Ruff. “Then the guys gave him support.” Tellqvist was critical of recent reports questioning the team’s heart. “Everyone has a lot of pride on this room,” said Tellqvist. Speaking about the goals that got behind him, he said “That third goal was sort of a fluke goal. After that I wanted to make some big saves.”

With the win, the Sabres pull to within three points of 9th place Florida and five points behind the 8th place Montreal Canadiens. And who comes to town next? The Toronto Maple Leaves on Friday night, who are actually breathing down the Sabres neck for the 10th spot, and then the do or die showdown at Montreal on Saturday.

Pominville admits that every game is huge, but the stage is set for an epic showdown. “They (Toronto) are a good team. They skate fast and they’ve come around lately. A Friday night in Buffalo, all those Leafs fans, and so very much at stake. Who could ask for a better script than that?” said Pominville.

The Sabres may still be on life support. But it ain’t over till the Fat Lady sings. And since she’s dead, Ronan Tynan, who was in the building tonight singing his rendition of God Bless America, and breaking his own long personal Sabres losing streak in the process, will have to do.