Dear President Obama,

Welcome to Buffalo, two days early. We're glad you're coming, but we want to offer you a fair warning: It can be hard to get people to come to Buffalo, but once they do, it's even

harder to get them to leave. This is a great American place. So stay a while. Land prices are cheap.

That's one of the advantages ... actually, one of the only advantages ... of a weak economy, and ours has been weak for decades, tracking the decline of steel and other manufacturing. We're not complaining; we've got some good things going here right now, and more is coming. We can see the outlines of better days starting to take shape, and our sense of history and heritage is growing. But we need some help.

The fact is, there are some things only the government can do and we need Washington's attention. We need you to help set the table here ... to make sure that, after a half-century of decline, our new economy takes root and blossoms. That will help us, it will help Albany (don't get us started) and it will help you in Washington.

Here are some areas where your assistance could make a big difference in how our future unfolds:

The Peace Bridge: This is Buffalo's connection to Canada and, more important for us,

Canada's connection to Buffalo. If you look around on Thursday, you may see a lot of Ontario license plates. There's even more on the weekends.

A good number of those people are coming here to spend their money. The Canadian dollar is strong right now, and that makes us a great place for them to shop. And there's more. When the Buffalo Sabres aren't busy being blown out of the playoffs, a number of Canadians come here for hockey. Canada also sends us Buffalo Bills fans, theater-goers, symphony-lovers and more. We've got the goods, but our economic hopes depend in large part on the ability of Canadians to cross the Niagara River easily and reliably.

You may have heard that we've been trying for the past 20 years or so to build a new bridge. It's crucial, but it's been tied up for so long it seems it will never get done. Things are moving along slowly, but now there's a new potential obstacle, one that could set this project back another decade.

Rep. Brian Higgins (a huge Springsteen fan ... you guys should talk) tells us that the Office of Management and Budget is making noises about wanting to own the new Customs plaza instead of leasing it. We understand there may be reasons for that but, Mr. President, this project is too important and has been in the planning for too long to change the rules now. This project should be grandfathered in under the old rules. Otherwise, it will be years more until this project gets done, and our economy will suffer.

We're still smarting from the border-documentation rules that curtailed what had been a

very open border here. The federal government played a large part in that, including

torpedoing hopes of a shared-border customs and immigration inspection accord that would have made bridge plaza design so much easier. Could we get a little help with what's left of this process?

The Medical Corridor: We know you know about our developing new economy in health care. Just last week, you sent Buffalo a $16 million grant for electronic medical records; it was the largest of the 15 grants announced that day. Thank you for that.

Cutting edge and growing daily, our health care sector is one of the main pillars of our

new economy. It's an exciting time and we would welcome Washington's help in ensuring that it becomes a sturdy, long-lived addition to Buffalo's makeup.

But here's something else you can do that will help the entire nation while simultaneously bolstering this city's economy: Increase funding to the National Cancer Institute. You may not know that Buffalo is where cancer research began in this country. It continues at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Money devoted to the National Cancer Institute will find its way to research centers in Buffalo and elsewhere, while moving the country toward better treatment ... and prevention ... for these diseases.

Infrastructure: We know highway funding is often considered pork, but this pork would be not only tasty but life-sustaining, here. Our waterfront has been largely out of reach to the residents of Western New York since the region was first industrialized. Reserved for other uses, hard to get to and sometimes contaminated, the geographic feature that should be our main strength is, instead, out of reach.

We're starting to change that. Land is being detoxified. Sites are developing for new

public uses. And new roads are being built to allow public access and, at the same time,

encourage development. That's where you come in. We're building a new parkway that will help open the waterfront, but as part of that effort, we also need to build a new bridge and then, we hope, to take down the big, expensive one called the Skyway. If he hasn't already, Higgins can fill you in.

There's more, of course (isn't there always?). We'd love you to make Buffalo a regional

home office for a federal agency ... Customs and Immigration or even all of Homeland Security, for example. This is a prime crossing area, after all, and did we mention that land is cheap here? And, by the way, thanks for the new passport office. And take some time to admire the new federal courthouse under construction, an award-winning design that will be an interesting addition to Buffalo's collection of world-class architecture.

We do need you to pay attention to a couple of other federal needs in this area ... we'd love to see a faster track to total cleanup of the nuclear mess at West Valley, and enhancement of the air base at Niagara Falls would be a plus for this region and its economy, too. The Coast Guard is important here, as well, and could use some help with base relocation plans that would free more of Lighthouse Point for some key waterfront parkland that's also on the drawing boards. And we have hopes for high-speed rail that could link the East Coast and your hometown, Chicago.

In the meantime, we hope you have a terrific visit and that you'll come back again. There's a great chicken wing festival in a couple of months, and summer here is like heaven.

Oh, and one last thing, if you don't mind: See what you can do about Osama bin Laden. He needs to be gone.