Double Punched!

A quick one, two this week and it's only Tuesday.

Devastating news for Buffalo's East side and parts of Cheektowaga. Big wake-up call if I've ever seen one. First the announcement from Bishop Kmiec's headquarter's at 79 Oakland Place that 14 schools across the Diocese will be closing this June. I'll get around for pictures, too much snow today.

Here's that story -

Bishop Edward U. Kmiec is expected to announce the closings this morning at a news conference in the Catholic Center. The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo will close 14 elementary schools in June - its most dramatic and controversial effort to staunch enrollment declines and ensure the long-term viability of Catholic education in Western New York. read the rest

BuffaloRising covered part of that story. I remember here, when Turner/Carroll HS was shut down...

Then we hear that vacancy, like a virus is spreading, seemingly out of control, from Buffalo's blighted and bombed out East side to Cheektowaga and parts of Amherst.

Here's that story...

Town officials pulled up to the once-charming farmer's cottage. They barely had time to get out of their car before a neighbor opened her window and called out to them in a hopeful tone: "Are you going to tear it down?" Vacant houses long have been tagged as a city problem. But this scene was in the Town of Cheektowaga. And there are signs that other first-ring suburbs face the beginnings of a problem that has plagued the city for decades. read the rest

And then there's the news from Charlotte, NC that I posted earlier tonite...rather depressing.

January 22 is thought to have been the most depressing day of the year. Find out here. For me, too. Good friend diagnosed with leukemia, another told me he'd accepted a teaching position in Las Vegas and is moving next week.

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