When advocates pushed for guarantees that neighborhoods around a new arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team would receive certain

benefits, the debate became so contentious that someone lit a match to the first proposal and

burned it in a widely covered event.

The original proposal was an "insult" that "contained a lot of hot air," said a college

professor who played a role in obtaining a Community Benefits Agreement for the Pittsburgh

project.

Emma Lucas-Darby, a professor at Carlow University, traveled to Buffalo on Thursday to meet

with local activists who are pushing for a pact that would impose conditions involving jobs,

wages and other benefits at the $294 million Canal Side project.

The session in City Hall was branded "Lessons From Pittsburgh."

Lucas-Darby said the fight to enact a CBA was intense.

"There was a lot of resistance, but we stayed the course," she said. "Our position was

[that] if you use our dollars, you have to work with us."

Among the benefits contained in the Pittsburgh agreement is a $2 million fund for community

development, money to build a full-service grocery store, development of a master plan that

aims to foster business opportunities and job-hiring goals. The dialogue even resulted in some

design changes to the new arena.

Unlike the pact being proposed by advocates in Buffalo, the Pittsburgh agreement does not

include a mandate that businesses locating in the development area pay workers a "living wage"

that is higher than the state's minimum wage.

Lucas-Darby added that the Pittsburgh pact doesn't address dozens of other objectives that

aimed to promote "social justice."

"I don't look at it as a panacea," she said of the CBA. "It's better than what we have, but

it's not nearly what we would hope to get in the future, because the work is not finished."

Council Member Michael J. LoCurto talks with Lucas-Darby about Community Benefits Agreements

Officials from the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. did not attend the special meeting

of the Council's Community Development Committee. But during previous debates, corporation

Chairman Jordan A. Levy warned that if waterfront developers complied with all the terms that

some are advocating, the project could die.

In particular, Levy said a provision that would force businesses with more than 20 workers

to pay a living wage would hinder efforts to recruit local and national retailers.

"We don't believe a CBA is in the best interest of the community," Levy told lawmakers

earlier this month.

The Council has threatened to block the sale of 12 acres of city-owned land beneath the

Skyway around Marine Drive if waterfront planners refuse to negotiate a CBA. Levy responded

that if the Council doesn't sell the land, "we simply won't develop it."

Several residents spoke in favor of a CBA at Thursday's meeting, including Arthur Robinson

Jr., president of the Seneca-Babcock Block Club.

"It's our tax dollars that are subsidizing this program. Why shouldn't we have a say in

it?" he said.

North Buffalo attorney Peter A. Reese said he has witnessed decades of development blunders

in Western New York. He said the main objections to a CBA appear to be the costs and red tape

associated with such a pact.

"What is the cost of a heroic public project that does not benefit the community, and how

corrupt is that to spend our tax dollars on things that don't benefit [residents]?" he asked.