...from the 1965 Yellow Pages

What in 1965 was Del-Ton Buick, at 363 Delaware in the City of Tonawanda, is now home to Awnings Plus,  FiveWest Enterprises, and FW Signs. In later years, Del-Ton (on DELaware in TONawanda, get it?) would go on to become Skill Buick, and in 2005 Keyser Buick — where I got my first job in the car business. Keyser closed in 2007 in the great GM paring down of single-brand franchises; it was sold and moved to Don Davis Pontiac-GMC on Niagara Falls Boulevard, where it remains today.

In 1965, when this ad ran, Buick had 27 different models, ranging from the Special Thin-pillar Coupe at $2,343 on up to the Electra 225 convertible at $4,440.

363 Delaware St. today

...from the brochure, 1965 Buick LeSabres

From the “Snappy Answers to Stupid Claims” department…

On page A3 of today’s Buffalo News, you can read the full-color, full-page open letter to the community from The Buffalo Niagara Partnership Executive Committee, also known as “the usual suspects.”

Question: What kind of Chamber of Commerce is so jittery about its public image that it feels the need to buy such expensive ad space in an attempt to convince the community it allegedly serves that things are on the right track?

Here are the things the BNP is taking credit for:

UB 2020 established as the regional priority for Albany action

Unfortunately, it’s a plan rooted in the dream that public money should be spent with no oversight. This is a plan? Why not just propose robbing Fort Knox? Both plots are illegal. Only difference is when the UB plan fails, the perpetrators won’t go to jail, they’ll just blame “politics as usual” for foiling their dubious scheme.

Modernization of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport and bringing low-cost carriers to our region

Just how much more modernization needs to be done at the airport? Transporter machines? This place has been modernized so many times you’d think we’d be zipping around it like the Jetsons wearing jet packs.

Construction of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and creation of nearly 5,000 jobs in the life sciences

Sure. How are things progressing with the dissolution of ECMC as a public benefit corporation? Don’t mind me, just a taxpayer, just asking.

Federal Courthouse going up on Delaware Avenue

Really? Taking credit for this? I had no idea a group of local businessmen exerted such influence on the Federal Government. Should be a busy place.

Development of more than 1,000 lofts, apartments and condos in downtown Buffalo—a place very few people lived in just a decade ago

Over the past 16 years, Andrew Rudnick has made like $6 million dollars in salary as head of BNP. Buffalo is the third poorest city in the nation, and lots of people live downtown. They just don’t have much food, and little shelter.

Demolition of the Aud and significant work on the outer and inner harbors

Excellent. Destroy a monument to American War Veterans in the hope of luring a fishing store. Better throw a few more buckets of tax breaks into the water. Drives ‘em into a feeding frenzy.

Retention of the Niagara Air Reserve Station

“Retention” sounds so much better than “reduction.”

Creation of Charter Schools throughout the region

Why shouldn’t we be discovering more ways to siphon public education funding into private enterprises? Think about the kids.

Downsizing of the Buffalo Common Council
The benefits of this accomplishment are all around us, for everyone to see.

Introduction of an affordable Enhanced Drivers License as an alternative to passports at the border

I don’t know whether I should feel safer or more of a sucker. Maybe I should buy a Nexus card for good measure.

Business Backs the Bills effort, which kept the team here

Which, for nine days every fall, guarantees a surge in alcohol related arrests for local law enforcement.

“Some of our success, however, is largely invisible,” the ad crows. Yeah, we know all about it. Invisible like the Emperor’s New Clothes.

At the risk of drawing to him the attention he so craves, I will respond to Joe Illuzzi’s rant about the post three below this one, in which I reported that Stonewall Democrats of Western New York has endorsed Mickey Kearns for mayor. Outcome magazine reported that Mayor Byron Brown was ineligible for the endorsement under Stonewall’s rules because Brown advertises with Illuzzi, who Stonewall considers to be an opponent to LGBT rights.

Illuzzi responded to the post thusly:

I have just been told by an impeccable source that this entire Artvoice – Outcome scheme was orchestrated by Assemblyman Sam Lollipop Kid Hoyt & Artvoice scribe former Giambra Deputy Erie County Executive  Bruce Fisher.
In fact what we have here is Hoyt & Fisher using their resources, GLBT advocate Artvoice, GLBT Outcome & the  Stonewall Democrats,  to extort from political candidates a commitment not to advertise with PoliticsNY.Net or lose the Stonewall endorsement (which means absolutely nothing).
Please remember two years ago GLBT Outcome, Hoyt, et al., tried the same thing. This time they got dirt/scum bag Deputy Erie County Executive Bruce Fisher & GLBT advocate Artvoice to go along. Fisher not only writes for Artvoice but he is a neighbor & friend of Publisher Jamie Moses. Outcome actually writing that Hoyt was innocent of the charges laid against him with the NYS Assembly. Please recall the Assembly ethics committee found against Hoyt predicated on one of his very young vicitms testimony; later Hoyt admitted to at least one violation of his oath with a student. Hoyt was thrown out of the Intern program for his malfeasnace. The story is far more egregious than a simple affair with a student 15 years younger than Hoyt. But why inflict any more pain on his very young victims for making bad choices. Hoyt’s statement about protecting his family were all lies. He got caught with his pants down via his published emails. Bruce Fisher isn’t much better an ego driven dirt/scum bag, the Biblical fool. It is worth repeating other than Giambra I have not found one person in Giambra’s inner circle who does not say former Deputy Erie County Executive Bruce Fisher was the heart & soul of Giambra’s failed administration other than Giambra himself. …

On background a few days ago I saw Artvoice writer, former & all around dirt/scum bag former Deputy Erie County Executive Bruce Fisher huddled with Sam Lollipop Kid Hoyt at an Elmwood coffee house. Fisher is the central figure in the failure of the Giambra administration other than Giambra himself.
Artvoice this week under Editor Geoff Kelly’s by line does a hit piece on yours truly for my position opposing gay marriage (scroll down) using the same Stonewall questionnaire. I have always held back with respect to Artvoice because of my regard for Publisher Jamie Moses. I will write I was Artvoice’s principle source via the City Charter review 10 years ago & the original source when Moses decided to enter the fray with respect to the  Golisano/Sabres story a few years back. However, in this weeks’ edition, & I know this is Bruce Fisher not Kelly, Kelly starts quoting Hoyt’s favorite BI weekly or BI something “Outcome” in a personal attack against yours truly. I am very disappointed Moses would allow this to happen. I know Moses story! But you know what … so what … we’ll just let this one pass! …

So many inaccuracies. Here are a few:

1. Illuzzi was not AV’s primary source on our coverage of Buffalo’s charter revision process. How can I be sure? Because I wrote many articles in Artvoice about the Charter Review Commission, and Illuzzi and I have never met or spoken. My primary sources were Jim Magavern and George Arthur. (In an email, Joe said he spent time talking with another Artvoice correspondent on the issue. Okay, sure. But another journalist, if that’s what Illuzzi fancies himself, has never been a “primary source” for any AV article about local government.)

2. This was not a hit piece on Illuzzi. Just because his name is mentioned in a story, it does not follow that he is its subject. The subject was Stonewall’s endorsement. Pride goeth before the fall, Joe. (In his email, Joe continues to insist the post was entirely aimed at him.)

3. Illuzzi’s “impeccable source” is a liar. Neither Hoyt nor Fisher put me up to writing that innocuous blog post; neither of them is capable of steering me, or Jamie Moses, or any other writer at this paper to do anything. That they can is a fantasy concocted in the fertile, paranoid imaginations of Joe Illuzzi and possibly the mayor’s office. (Illuzzi’s response: “No! Geoff you are the liar!” Welcome to the schoolyard.)

4. Fisher is my friend and Jamie’s. He is not a neighbor to either of us. All of our addresses are simple to find, but I don’t think Illuzzi is big on fact-checking.

The first example suggests Illuzzi is deluded; the second that he is self-absorbed; the third that he will believe—and publish—anything anyone tells him; the fourth that he can’t be bothered to check if what he writes has any validity to it. Why then should anyone believe anything he publishes?

To borrow one of Joe’s favorite phrases: That’s rhetorical.

Ladies and Gentlemen, for one night, and one night only, the incomparable Twangbangers are jamming the big rig into gear, and letting the air-horn blow for the swinginest, psychobilliest, cry-in-your beeriest, butt-to-nuttiest geetar apocalypto blowout at the Sportsmen’s Tavern. Bill Kirchen and Redd Volkaert.

That night is tonight, cats and kittens.

We can’t seem to locate Arseno, the artist who made this gum wrapper portrait of Barack Obama:

The Wrigley people want to get a hold of you. Hopefully to make you some money, not to sue you. To be safe, het a hold of us here at Artvoice: editorial@artvoice.com.

Mickey Kearns

On Tuesday night, Stonewall Democrats of Western New York endorsed Mickey Kearns for mayor. Stonewall joins the PBA, Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, and Nosotros. Four of his fellow councilmembers support Kearns, as well.

Mayor Byron Brown was not deemed eligible for the Stonewall endorsement, according to Outcome magazine, because his campaign has paid for advertising on Joe Illuzzi’s Web site. Illuzzi is prone to homophobic rants:

Mayor Byron Brown’s campaign finance disclosure reports show that on July 28, 2008 his campaign committee known as “MAYOR BROWN’S LEADERSHIP COUNCIL” paid Joseph Illuzzi owner of politicswny.net $3,000.00.

Mr. Illuzzi is one of the leading anti gay activist in Western New York and often uses his web site to make false claims against candidates that do not pay him for ad placement on his site. In 2008 he used the site in an attempted blackmail scheme against an incumbent state legislator who had publicaly refused to pay Illuzzi and urged other elected officials to do the same.

His handful of endorsements may seem like a thin line of support, especially as these endorsements have not seemed to produce substantial financial support for his campaign, but they reveal some gaps in Brown’s armor, which is is beginning to look a little tarnished anyway, as investigations into the use of anti-poverty funds mount. A source in the Kearns campaign told me on Monday that the real push begins this weekend, when volunteers will fab fan out across the city to deliver literature.

...from the brochure

1966 AMC Ambassador 990, Olean, N.Y.

What you’re looking at is a 1966 AMC Ambassador 990, parked in the dirt of a used car lot in Olean, N.Y. It’s significant in that it was the first year that Ambassadors weren’t badged as Ramblers any more; the Ambassador (along with the Marlin sports coupe) was marketed in 1966 as a separate AMC make, even though you’d be hard put from a block away to tell a ‘66 AMC Ambassador apart from a ‘65 Rambler Ambassador. This was pretty much AMC’s last gasp effort to keep up with The Big Three. AMC tried to pretend that they could match them model-for-model, but when you came right down to it, many of its cars were cut from the same cloth — and the buying public wasn’t fooled. In a further effort to stretch the number of different badges, the ultra-luxurious new DPL hardtop, conceived to compete with the Ford LTD and Chevy Caprice, wasn’t officially an Ambassador — but was just an AMC DPL.

1966 AMC DPL - not an Ambassador!

In 1968 the Ambassador made news when it became the first volume car to make air-conditioning standard across the board — something not even Cadillac or Lincoln could boast of. Alas, it didn’t help much, and the Ambassador departed from the AMC lineup after the 1974 model year.

In response to a letter from South District Councilmember Mickey Kearns, US Department of Housing and Urban Development Inspector General Kenneth M. Donohue has pledged to audit Buffalo’s administration of federal anti-poverty funds. The probe will focus on the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corporation.

In a July 24 letter, Donohue writes, “Based on our review of the HUD Monitoring Report and discussions with the HUD Buffalo Community Planning and Development Director, we have concluded that an audit of the corporation is warranted.”

In March, HUD released a report that recorded 19 “findings”—that is, deficiencies—in the city’s administration of community development block grant funds, based on the federal program’s statutory or regulatory requirements. (We reported about it here.) HUD also recorded two “concerns”—that is, deficiencies based not on any statute or regulation, but sufficiently worrisome to HUD’s monitors to bear mention.

The findings ranged from poor bookkeeping practices to misuse of funds, including $2.6 million used to pay down a $6 million Fannie Mae loan that bankrolled the high-end loft developments in the 800 block of Main Street (the Granite Works) and at 210 Ellicott Street (the Warehouse Lofts). Neither project, according to HUD, benefits the the CDBG program’s target clientele, which comprises low- and moderate-income residents.

The montoring report required the city to respond to its findings and concerns and take corrective ation on a schedule that ranged from 30 to 90 days. The city filed responses, but it’s not clear what, if any, corrective action has been taken.

Kearns held a press conference this morning at 11:15. Donohue anticipates that the audit will begin in early September.

The national debate about drilling in natural areas is heating up locally as the U.S. Energy Development Corporation, located at 2350 North Forest Road in Getzville, NY, proceeds with plans to develop five new wells in Allegany State Park.

Recently, NYS Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, Larry Beahan, and other concerned citizens have been turning their attention to the state park, as they did over a decade ago when the Pataki administration was moving toward selling timber rights in the park. Back then, former 10,000 Maniac Natalie Merchant hopped on the bandwagon and public opinion swung against the lumber industry.

Now, Hoyt is spearheading efforts with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation “to forever protect Allegany from commercial logging and oil and mineral mining.”

Just as pro-drilling forces are losing their perkiest national cheerleader in the form of ex-Alaska Governor Sarah (Drill, baby, drill!) Palin—their case is further compromised by U.S. Energy Development Corporation’s recent rebuke from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, for their activities just south of Allegany State Park, across the state border in McKean and Warren counties.

On July 10, the department issued a cease and desist order to U.S. Energy “for persistent and repeated violations of environmental laws and regulations. The order prohibits the company from conducting all earth disturbance, drilling and hydro-fracturing operations throughout Pennsylvania.”

Over a period of just two years, beginning in August, 2007, U.S. Energy chalked up 302 violations of the Clean Streams Law, the Dam Safety and Encroachments Act, the Oil and Gas Act, and the Solid Waste Management Act. U.S. Energy is the owner and operator of the wells in the Alleghany National Forest in Pennsylvania, which borders Allegany State Park in New York.

According to the order, one third of the violations have been corrected, but the civil penalties for those violations have not been resolved. Among the many violations cited by the DEP are the unpermitted discharge of residual and industrial waste into the ground and the waters of the Commonwealth.

In Pennsylvania, U.S. Energy has had to “cease all gas and oil well activities including, but not limited to well stimulation, well drilling, road construction, pipeline construction and any other related well activities” in the state until the DEP notifies them in writing that they have complied with all the obligations of the order. They must also stop all “earth disturbance activities” except those necessary to fix the damage they’ve already done. View the cease and desist order here.

Prior to the park’s official designation in 1921, the area was widely drilled for oil, including the first oil well in New York State, which was completed in 1864. While the state controls the surface rights to the park land, private interests have been unwilling to relinquish ownership of what lies beneath to this day.

One bill supported by Hoyt would create a sunset provision for privately held oil and gas interests beneath the park.

U.S. Energy spokesperson Matt Iak confirmed that they have access to mineral rights in Allegany State Park, and that they are “going through the various channels” to make those wells a reality.

However, a spokesperson for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation had this to report: “U.S. Energy has never applied for drilling permits in Allegany State Park. That being said, they have been drilling wells on a regular basis in other parts of Region 9 area (Western New York), and DEC does receive drilling applications from them on a regular basis.”

When asked about the Pennsylvania DEP order, Iak said, “It’s premature for us to make a comment. I can tell you that we’re both working with the same interest at heart, and it’s in very good spirit right now.”

He would not respond to any particular charges included in the order. “I’m not saying I don’t want to respond. I’m not in a position to respond until they give you the final word on what’s going on, and I think you’ll have a different opinion at that point in time.”

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania DEP said that “the scope and magnitude” of U.S. Energy’s violations “is not commonplace, and that’s why we took the action that we did.”

Come spend your Saturday night (July 25th) with a riveting mix of animated shorts from around the world. Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo’s very own artist-run non-profit that supports the local media arts, will host its 6th annual Animation Festival featuring both low and high-tech presentations from local and international artists. Highlights at this family-friendly outdoor screening will feature globally recognized works by filmmakers hailing from such far corners of earth as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom all for your entertainment. The event will showcase methods utilizing everything from the vintage to the cutting edge tricks you thought only existed in your dreams. Viewers can expect creative pixilation, animated cats, a dancing Godzilla (see below), and the award winning short “I Met the Walrus,” featuring and inspired by original audio from an infamous John Lennon interview. Bringing your own picnic equipment is strongly encouraged to maximize viewing pleasure and stargazing opportunities.

—lindsey berman

8:30pm (dusk). Days Park at Wadsworth & Allen. Contact www.squeaky.org or 884-7172. FREE