Off Main Street: Ich bin ein Upstater
The offbeat side of the news
You might have heard that a certain prospective United States senator with a famous last name stopped in Buffalo this week, as part of her one-day Thruway Listening Tour.
A gaggle of reporters greeted Caroline Kennedy in Syracuse, in Rochester and again in Buffalo, where she met with Mayor Byron W. Brown.
Hizzoner gave her a buffalo lapel pin and a water-filled snow globe that has City Hall and part of Buffalo’s skyline.
One wag wondered why Kennedy had to be reminded that Buffalo has snow, but Brown spokesman Peter Cutler said it’s more of a confetti globe.
Still, that was real snow that covered roads and sidewalks when Kennedy arrived here Wednesday, as the New York Times helpfully pointed out.
“As a small group of reporters waited in the frigid air outside City Hall, a city pickup with a snowplow circled the square in front, plowing and replowing the sidewalk and curb where Ms. Kennedy was due to arrive— Buffalo’s version, perhaps, of the red carpet,” an article said.
Gee, what’s New York City’s version of the red carpet? Getting your pocket picked? Rude cabbies? Subway station smell?
We’ll just take the high road and not go there.
The price is not right
The backfire, this time, did not come from a public bus.
The NFTA at a recent public hearing tried to justify a proposed two-step fare hike from $1.50 to $2.
The folks who run our buses and Metro Rail noted in a handout how inflation drives up the cost of goods and services.
Maybe someone should have checked the grocery shelves before printing the brochure.
A chart in the handout listed the 2008 price of a dozen eggs at $2.17 and a gallon of milk at $3.50. In fact, milk sells for about $2.60 a gallon, eggs for about $1.40 a dozen.
The difference between the NFTA’s price and the actual cost underlined, for some, the disconnect between many hard-scrabble bus riders and the well-heeled NFTA executives.
“I don’t know where you do your shopping,” longtime bus rider Beverly Morris told officials at the hearing, “but I get milk for a lot less than [$3.50]. I could eat for six days on all of the eggs I could buy for $2.17.”
“It just shows,” said bus rider James Korleski, “how out of touch they are.”
Either that, or the NFTA folks shop at the wrong grocery store.
Years of excitement
As Off Main Street has noted several times over the years, Bass Pro hasn’t built anything here, but its officials are good at expressing their enthusiasm.
Since 2004, Bass Pro officials have said they are “excited,” “very excited,” “more excited than ever” and “extremely excited” about building a store here.
Now, in an interview timed to the release of the latest master plan for the waterfront site, Bass Pro President James Hagale didn’t change his tune.
“We’re excited and committed,” Hagale said in Sunday’s News.
Actually, James, you may be excited, but we’re the ones who should be committed.
Pay scales of justice
A bit of humor about judicial pay checks broke the somber mood during a recent criminal proceeding before U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott.
A defendant in the case, represented by Buffalo attorney Joel L. Daniels, asked Scott what the difference was between a federal district judge and a magistrate judge.
“About $65,000,” Daniels cracked. “Actually, it’s about eight [thousand],” a smiling Scott replied.
For the record, the administrative office of U.S. Courts in Washington reports that federal district judges — who handle most of the major cases — earn $169,300 a year. Magistrate judges get $155,756, or $13,544 less.
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