I struggled through Mayor Brown's poor plan last night. Buffalo News columnist Donn Esmonde's redux appeared this morning - Brown Brings a Peashooter to Poverty War.
There is no plan.The 77-page “Buffalo Poverty Reduction Blueprint” is so devoid of ideas, so lacking in imagination, that its totality of initiatives can be summed up in a sentence: Create a task force.Perhaps never in history has one document assembled such a quantity of eyeball- glazing, business-as-usual bureaucratic catchphrases: Promote small business. Strengthen the family. Encourage youth development. Improve school readiness.
It is as if whoever wrote this thing got paid by the platitude.
We do not need a position paper. We need a plan of attack.
In the bigger picture, a document such as this begs the question of why this man wants to be mayor.
If this is the best Brown can do, on so huge of an issue, he should step aside for someone who has some ideas. It is as if the house is on fire, and the guy in charge shows up with a bucket of water.
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7 comments:
The only viable answer for Buffalo is to begin the shrinking city initiative. Select a section, or simply a single street, of the city that has the worst of the worst in urban blight and systematically remove all housing stock, sidewalks, roads and infrastructure and return the entire section or street back into green space – not shovel ready but actual green space.
Removing whole sections of urban blight is the only answer because the insane, hodge-podge selection of demolitions with no rhyme or reason only creates a neighborhood resembling a toothless grim on a deranged mental patient.
Since this topic has been beaten to death, like a dead horse and like all topics that involve the City of Buffalo, I suggest someone of authority allow someone (like me) to initiate the program.
Unfortunately, only total impeachment of the mayor and the common council will ever kick-start such a program that may actual save the City of buffalo from it’s own mis-management!
Lack of employment opportunities and poverty walk hand-in-hand so it is a no brainer to assume more jobs means less poverty.
However, no matter how much work is available there will always be individuals who simply will not work – especially in New York State where we pay generation after generation not to work by providing them with welfare.
Why work when you can collect like the rest of their family?
Most normal people go where the work is which is why Buffalo has lost half of its population – duh!
Why did you people vote this Bozo into office? He has no amazing ideas and has run the city even further into decline.Impeach him and start fresh with someone with vision.If you allow him to stay in office don't bother complaining about the poor job he does. You are the ones that can change it so if you sit around with your mouths shut till he does something else stupid than you get what you deserve.Brown and everyone under him must go. The real estate dept. makes it impossible for anyone that even wants to purchase and assist in change. Workfare should be going on not welfare. Pick up cans and garbage on the street earn your handouts.When people are asked where you want to move to how many answer Buffalo? Nobody. Everyone is trying to get out because no one excep the freeloaders have a reason to stay. Each day the mayor remains is more reason to move away.While other major cities in decline find someone with great turnaround ideas to make changes Brown does as little as possible offering nothing and the city falls further in decline.
Byron is a joke! No vision. Rarely steps out of his office in city towers, photo ops only. I voted for him but that was a mistake. He has zero leadership skills.
If he runs again he will get steamrolled. Even the East Side voters are sick of his clear lack of focus and leadership. He has done nothing for the eastside.
No need to discuss the "plan". The real question this raises is where is the competition for Brown in the mayoral race this year? When the incumbent mayor takes years to offer such a pitiful plan on THE issue in the city he governs, shouldn't he be pretty vulnerable?
No disrespect to Kearns, but another Buffalo politician who is probably juiced in with as many characters and power players as Brown is not a real alternative.
David should run for mayor! I'd vote for him. He clearly cares about his city and has ideas to spark changes. That is the type of person who needs to be in the mayors seat. Someone unrelated needs to come in and clean house and start fresh.Drastic changes and new fresh ideas and faces is the only thing that will make change possible.Brown is useless and Kearns would be more of the same. Get a clue voters.
I was employed for seven-years at a company where the engineering department manager was so incredibly bad as both a manager and engineer that when he was finally replaced, it was with an individual who wasn’t much better in either category.
When one of the union guys asked me, with a smirk on his face, “how is the new boss” I replied: “replacing the old boss with no one would have been an improvement”.
The engineering staff knew what needed to be done throughout the plant simply because we were part of the day to day operations and we communicated with the production people.
I use this example to suggest that replacing Mayor Brown with no one may be a viable solution.
Why not allow a select number of the more-intelligent common council members run the city?
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