Esmonde: Hard to find sympathy for Toyota's pain
The Auto Show is in town. A stream of people wearing winter coats walked Wednesday among the metal machines and checked sticker prices. Some of them pulled open a car door, sat in a driver’s seat and imagined the open road. (Updated: 02/12/10 8:43 PM )
Donn Esmonde: State is blind to Sypnier’s threat to kids
I am happy to report that, according to state officials, 100-year-old pedophile Ted Sypnier has reformed. (Updated: 02/10/10 8:14 AM )
Esmonde: Optimism revives city’s winter fest
It bugged him for years, just sort of stuck there in the back of his mind like a bad memory. That is how it is when you are Newell Nussbaumer—the unofficial ambassador of Buffalo, a one-man megaphone of all things good in the City of Good Neighbors, a flesh-and-blood clarion call for The Bright Side, a man so optimistic he makes Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm look like a chronic whiner. (Updated: 02/07/10 9:48 AM )
Donn Esmonde: Paladino A-1 as attack dog on Albany
Igot a huge kick out of the news that Carl Paladino, Buffalo’s wild-man developer, is thinking about running for governor. Local tea party types are trying to talk him into it. (Updated: 02/05/10 8:37 AM )
Donn Esmonde: Grieving father of Flight 3407 victim stands tall
It was a special day, and Jim Neill dressed for the occasion. He wore a crisply cut navy blue suit and white shirt and dark brown shoes, polished to a gleam. He is 69, a lean and handsome man with snow-white hair and a lady-killer smile. Every time there was a break in the hearing, he walked out of the hotel conference room to chat with reporters in the hallway, paying special attention to the women, with a polite, old-school courtliness. (Updated: 02/03/10 7:37 AM )
Donn Esmonde: Gambling on success of Bass Pro
This thing is even more of a crapshoot than I thought. The latest version of the $294 million, downtown waterfront retail/entertainment Canal Side project was unveiled Tuesday at a public hearing. (Updated: 01/31/10 8:44 AM )
Donn Esmonde: City Hall is no friend to business folk
You have to excuse him. David Simpson has been in town for only a few years. There is no way he could have known. (Updated: 01/29/10 7:33 AM )
Donn Esmonde: DA puts case in right light: a hate crime
She sat Tuesday morning in the center row of the small downtown courtroom, a young woman with dark hair and a white bandage covering her right eye. Aside from her father and a friend, she was alone. (Updated: 01/27/10 9:06 AM )
Donn Esmonde: UB owes us a law school discussion
It is nice to see University at Buffalo officials return to their senses. They briefly slammed the door last week in the face of Rep. Brian Higgins’ call for UB to consider relocating the law school to the now-vacant Statler Towers. If for no reason other than public relations, and I am not convinced it is anything more than that, UB backpedaled days later and agreed to “[leave] open the concept of relocation [of] the Law School to downtown Buffalo.” (Updated: 01/24/10 8:35 AM )
Donn Esmonde: Child-care cuts inflict needless pain
I think Chris Collins ought to meet Nichelle Jones. While we are at it, maybe we could get Gov. David Paterson in on it, too. And, along with the governor, our state legislators. And some Washington politicians. (Updated: 01/22/10 11:38 AM )
Donn Esmonde: Blame mess at Lafayette on Williams
James Williams has only himself to blame. Lafayette High School is like Dodge City without a sheriff. Judging from a recent teacher survey, the West Side school sounds more like a Wild West outpost. Principal Fatima Morrell was slammed by the overwhelming majority of teachers as unpredictable, soft on discipline, dismissive and dictatorial with teachers, and the catalyst for limbo-low morale. (Updated: 01/20/10 7:59 AM )
Donn Esmonde: Put UB’s law school in the Statler
This thing makes so much sense, even we ought to see it. I do not have to remind anyone of Buffalo’s long, inglorious history of blunders. Here is a chance to change our ways. Or an opportunity to screw up again. (Updated: 01/17/10 2:49 PM )
Donn Esmonde: Collins’ act bombing on bigger stage
Ihave to hand it to Chris Collins. Our county executive is talking himself out of the gubernatorial race before officially announcing he is in it. (Updated: 01/15/10 7:59 AM )
Donn Esmonde: Grachos gives a great lesson in leadership
Once in a while, we get inspired leadership around here. Once in a while, we get somebody who knows what he is doing, sees beyond the backyard fence and does not plead “Too Much Information” when a problem comes down the pike. (Updated: 01/13/10 8:35 AM )
A lesson we never seem to learn
Bob Franke almost could not bear to look. We drove Wednesday past the row of vacant houses, one after the other, on Grant Street on the city’s West Side. The buildings stand as empty odes to what might have been. (Updated: 01/10/10 6:41 AM )