PostBuffalo
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A vehicle rolled over on the Kensington Expressway around 3 p.m. Sunday, causing minor traffic delays.
The incident occurred near Best Street in Buffalo and no injuries have yet been reported.
News 4 is working to learn more about the crash and will provide updates as they become available.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Some young entrepreneurs got to show off their business ideas at D’Youville University Saturday.
Students participated in a six week long program that ended with them all creating their own corporations for food businesses. Some students served authentic Puerto Rican cuisine, while others used their family recipes that originated generations ago. There was a meet-and-greet for the public to taste-test the soon-to-be neighborhood restaurants.
Things get real next year when the food businesses featured will open to the public.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — With temperatures below 32 degrees in WNY Sunday night, a Code Blue 32 is again in effect in Buffalo and Southern Erie County, and shelters will be open.
Code Blue locations include:
412 Niagara St., Buffalo, N.Y. 14201 (Holy Cross) from 6 p.m. – 7 a.m. The location is not accessible, as clients must be able to use stairs.586 Genesee St., Buffalo, N.Y. 14204 (Formerly a women’s shelter but is open to all for Code Blues). The location will be open 24/7 and is accessible. 7207 Hunters Creek Rd. Lot 15, Holland, N.Y. 14080 (The Rural Outreach Center) from 7 p.m. – 7 a.m.
The Rural Outreach Center and 586 Genesee St. will be open during the day Monday as daytime warming centers. The ROC will be open until 7 p.m. Monday and, as stated above, 586 Genesee St. is a 24/7 location during Code Blues.
Code Blue Clients will be able to get bus tickets to a shelter at the NFTA METRO Transportation Center from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Sunday. They will not be allowed to wait at the NFTA outside of those hours. Those who require transportation to the Rural Outreach Center shelter should call (716) 222-4020, or (716) 240-2220 ext. 106.
To receive Code Blue updates for Buffalo or Southern Erie County, text CodeBlueBuffalo or CodeBlueSouthernErie to 898-211. Outside of Erie County, contact local law enforcement or 211 for information.
Adam Duke is a digital producer who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of his work here.
by Legislator April Baskin
Imagine if the Buffalo Bills hadn’t been removed from playing their exciting games on the corner of Jefferson and Best Streets, the previous War Memorial Stadium, what type of community investment would we have seen if the Bills had stayed in that location? The benefits to the community would be much different than what we currently have in present day. The deal for a new stadium for our beloved Buffalo Bills has been the talk of the town over the last week. There have been many opinions expressed on this deal from the cost of the stadium, to its location, and most importantly, how much public money will be included in the deal. I want to expand on one of the most exciting aspects of the deal, the Community Benefits Agreement (“CBA”). The CBA will be negotiated on behalf of the residents of Buffalo and Erie County in relation to the proposed new Bills stadium deal.
A CBA is a way for the communities impacted by large scale economic development projects to be provided specific amenities and/or mitigations to the community or neighborhood in return for the large public investment the development project is receiving. These agreements have become the standard norm nationwide on new stadium builds. The last stadium deal in Erie County was negotiated back in 2013. Mark Poloncarz was County Executive and Hon. Betty Jean Grant served as Chair of the Legislature back then, and the final deal ended with a unanimous vote for a lease extension, keeping the Bills in Buffalo until 2023 with a $130 million commitment from Erie County in stadium upgrades. This time around, a requirement for a CBA is in the new proposed 2023 lease. Erie County Executive Poloncarz has successfully negotiated the county’s share of the deal to include a 30-year commitment of the Bills remaining in Buffalo, a locked county financial investment of $250 million dollars into new stadium construction ( this amounts to 18% of the total estimated stadium construction cost), transfer of the ownership of the stadium to the state of New York; removal of the county’s cost burden of game day expenses, stadium upkeep and lawsuits, and most importantly – requiring a separately negotiated CBA (with specific language noting the beneficiaries being underserved communities) as part of the memorandum of understanding between Erie County, New York State, and the Buffalo Bills.
Many residents of Buffalo stepped up with an overwhelming conviction advocating for the new stadium to be located in the City of Buffalo when the County Legislature held our public hearings last December. A similar public hearing was hosted by Buffalo Common Council members, and some Common Council members saw the economic value of a downtown football stadium and advocated passionately for city location on behalf of their constituents. The Common Council’s public hearing was met with the same public outcry as many wanted a Buffalo-based stadium. These sentiments were echoed by notable community organizations, such as the “Bills in Buffalo” coalition, and 20-year downtown Buffalo stadium advocate and local sports analyst Pat “The Mighty O’Ba” Freeman.
Upon meeting with advocates and public hearings, I too became a voice in the chorus of local residents demanding a downtown location for the proposed new stadium, but knew that wherever those who were making the location decision that ultimately decided where the new stadium would be, we the people of Buffalo and Erie County would need to get tangible benefits from this deal. When I say we I mean: we; the underserved, we; the historically marginalized, we; the working class, we; the mothers, fathers, and educators of children who deserve safe neighborhoods and a promising future. We; the descendants of redlining, victims of gentrification, and nationwide government led systems organized to keep specific demographics poor, uneducated, incarcerated and mentally ill need to benefit from this deal.
After my preview of the Bills’ stadium feasibility study presented the downtown location would possibly displace Old First Ward residents, close down traffic on the I-190 for years and ultimately increase the building costs by a billion dollars, I understood those making the location decisions could lean in a different direction.
I said to myself regardless of where those making the decision on location decide to place the stadium, the people of Buffalo and Erie County must see a gain within their personal communities from this generational investment in our region.
Rather than just talking about a CBA, I made the decision to turn the concept into a proposal and designed the “Invest Well Erie.” The title is a spinoff of Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz’s 2019 rollout of “Live Well Erie” which is his data driven initiative including a collaborative approach to human services that provides county residents with access to resources that can improve their quality of life. My spin-off “Invest Well Erie” further dissected the County Executive’s concept by stating – In order to truly achieve the vision of Live Well Erie, Erie County must make bold financial investments into youth engagement, the economic advancement of marginalized communities and countywide beautification. In order to position Erie County as an attractive community for growth and investment, we must explore every opportunity to eliminate poverty, as poverty costs hundreds of millions annually to manage, which weakens our profile in the global marketplace. I believe that for every public dollar that Erie County spends, another dollar must be invested into the upward mobility of our neighborhoods. This can and should begin with a strong CBA attached to the new stadium lease.
(The Hill) – Governors and legislators in several states are racing to throw hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks, rebates and straight up cash at some of the richest people in the nation, hoping to secure commitments from NFL franchises in search of massive new stadiums.
Three states are considering or offering incentive packages to keep teams that already play inside their borders, while officials in two neighboring states are putting together their own bids to steal away nearby teams. Together, the deals amount to some of the most expensive packages states have ever offered to private businesses.
On Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said she and legislative leaders had agreed on a $220 billion budget framework that would include $850 million in state and local taxpayer money to fund most of a new $1.4 billion stadium for her hometown team, the Buffalo Bills.
Virginia lawmakers are debating $350 million in bonds for a proposed economic development project that would be located either in Prince William or Loudoun counties to host the Washington Commanders, who currently play across the Potomac River in Landover, Md.
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Maryland lawmakers have proposed $400 million in economic development along the Blue Line corridor near the Commanders’ current stadium, though none of that money would be used to fund the team’s wishes for a new home.
In the Kansas City metropolitan area, both Kansas and Missouri lawmakers are in the initial phases of outlining incentive packages to woo the Chiefs. The team has a lease for Arrowhead Stadium, on the Missouri side of the border, until 2031. But chief executive Clark Hunt said last week they have invested $500,000 in studying whether to renovate, build a new stadium in Missouri or move across the border to Kansas.
The owners of all three teams are regular fixtures on lists of America’s ultra-wealthy. Terry and Kim Pegula, who own the Bills and the Buffalo Sabres, are worth a combined $5.8 billion, according to Forbes. The Hunt family that owns the Chiefs counts a net worth of $15.5 billion. Dan Snyder, who recently purchased a $48 million estate that was once part of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, is worth a reported $4 billion.
Legislators who back the massive incentive packages aimed at billionaire owners say the investments pay off in economic activity and civic pride.
“The Buffalo Bills are a part of the fabric of our community in Western New York. Losing our team to another part of the country would be devastating to the psyche of our community and the fabric of who we are, not to mention the economy that has been on the rebound and has been building momentum,” said New York state Sen. Tim Kennedy (D), who represents Buffalo. He pointed to stadiums that host the Yankees, Mets and Knicks, all of which received taxpayer funding. “The last thing we need is for an NFL team to pull up shop.”
Economists tell a very different tale. Stadiums for any professional sports team lie dormant more often than they host games, and studies of economic impact unanimously show the stadiums do not deliver what the teams promise they will.
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“Economists don’t always agree on everything, but this is one where we’re pretty well aligned,” said Paul Oyer, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and author of the book An Economist Goes to the Game. “They don’t generally bring other benefits to the area like they always talk about. There tends to be a lot of promises and none of those benefits come other than to the stadium. It’s not like they’re producing a large set of full-time, high-quality jobs.”
The new stadium for the Bills is likely to play a role as Hochul seeks a full term in office this November. Hochul’s two main challengers, Reps. Lee Zeldin (R) and Tom Suozzi (D), were critical of the deal struck with taxpayer money.
“On behalf of New York taxpayers, Kathy Hochul should have taken a stronger negotiating position and driven a harder bargain to successfully keep the Bills in Buffalo without their loyal fans and the rest of the state’s taxpayers having to pay a $850 million public cost,” Zeldin said in a statement.
In Virginia, the push to woo the Commanders has used stadium deals in Atlanta and Phoenix as models. Legislators have proposed floating bonds to build an economic development area that would include a stadium and other facilities to attract visitors, like The Battery in Atlanta, an entertainment district that hosts the Braves.
The bills under consideration, sponsored by state Sen. Richard Saslaw (D), the majority leader, and Delegate Barry Knight (R), who heads the House Appropriations Committee, would allow the team to recapture some of the sales tax generated by a new stadium to help defray the estimated $1 billion construction cost, similar to a measure Arizona lawmakers approved to build a new stadium for the NFL’s Cardinals in Glendale.
Lawmakers in both Virginia and Maryland are acutely aware of Snyder’s own recent move from Maryland to Virginia. Some Maryland lawmakers say they are unwilling to commit to money for Snyder’s team, which dropped its racist name in 2020 and adopted the Commanders moniker earlier this year.
“Initially, they were a really good partner to the community. Then over the years they essentially went MIA,” said state Delegate Jazz Lewis (D), whose district includes the stadium, pointing to investments the late former owner Jack Kent Cooke made in a major sports complex in Prince George’s County. “Candidly, there are a number of folks who would be fine to see them go.”
Lewis said his $400 million proposal would build an entertainment district similar to the one under discussion in Virginia, though none of the money could be used to fund a stadium. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said Thursday he backs the proposal, which would make investments in the area even if the team leaves.
“This is money that could entice them to stay because they know we are making investments around them,” Lewis said of the Commanders. He said that the General Assembly is also considering money to improve M&T Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens, and Camden Yards, home of the Orioles — two teams, he noted, that have not threatened to leave the state.
“If [the Commanders] leave, we can use the money to help level the stadium if that were to happen,” Lewis said. “I was very concerned that like RFK [Stadium in Washington] my constituents would have this towering structure that would depress home values for years to come.”
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The fight over the Chiefs has reignited the so-called border war in the Kansas City metro area. For years, lawmakers on the Kansas side and the Missouri side offered millions in subsidies and tax breaks to businesses that would cross state lines, moving as little as a few blocks to shift jobs into one state or the other, at significant cost to taxpayers.
A truce established between the two cities three years ago is now at risk of unraveling. After Hunt’s comments last week, made at the annual meeting of NFL owners, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) said his state would not let the Chiefs leave without a fight.
“After my conversation with [Chiefs President] Mark Donovan, I assured him that Missouri will compete with any state trying to move the Chiefs from Missouri,” Parson said in a statement. “My administration and I have a great working relationship with the Chiefs organization, and this will not change.”
The fights over NFL teams come at a time when state budgets are suddenly flush with cash, infused by federal government aid to handle the coronavirus pandemic and the associated economic downturn and recovery as well as unexpectedly strong tax receipts.
But those good times will not last forever, and economists warn stadium deals rarely, if ever, deliver their promised returns. Oyer said a state would be wise to spend excess cash to pay down pension debts and obligations, something that pays defined financial benefits in the longer run.
“Football stadiums are especially egregious because they’re used so few days a year,” Oyer said in an interview. “These stadiums cost billions of dollars, but the people who get the benefits from it are a) already billionaires and b) managing businesses that are already bringing in billions of dollars.”
The 2022 Gateways Music Festival in association with Eastman School of Music, which features professional classical musicians of African descent, from throughout the United States and abroad, will open in Rochester April 18.
Musical performances, a film and related lecture and a Gateways Orchestra concert will highlight the first three days .
The festival will then shift to New York City for similar events concluding with the orchestra’s performance in Carnegie Hall on April 24.
A program featuring old classics and new works performed by five pianists will kick off the Rochester events at 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 18 in Hatch Recital Hall, Eastman School of Music, 433 E. Main Street. It is a ticketed event.
Blackcomposer Florence Price will be the focus of a film screening and lectureTuesday, April 19 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Hatch Hall.
Following the showing of the film, “The Caged Bird: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price,” Dr. Cory Hunter, the festival’s Paul J. Burgett Lecture speaker, will give an interactive presentation entitled “Black Idioms in the Music of Florence B. Price.” Hunter is assistant professor of music at the University of Rochester and assistant professor of musicology at the Eastman School of Music.The Price program is free of charge but registration for tickets is required.
The Rochester section of the 2022 Gateways Music Festival will conclude at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 20 with a concert by the 100-member Gateways Orchestra, Anthony Parnther , conductor, in Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs St. It is a ticketed event.
The concert will mark Parnther’s debut as Gateways’ new conductor. He succeeds Michael Morgan, long-time Gateways conductor and music director, who died last August following complications from a kidney transplant.
The orchestra concert selections will be “Sinfonia No.” by George Walker, the first black winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music; “Symphony No. 3 in C Minor” by Florence Price; “Fantasia on ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James V. Cockerham, a black composer, and “Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Opus 56,” by Johannes Brahms.
For tickets and more information, visit the Gateways website at: www.gatewaysmusicfestival.
Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center’s P3 Center for Teens, Moms & Kids will host a day of awareness and advocacy in recognition of Black Maternal Health Week on Wednesday, April 13.
The event, which will take place from 10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. at the Niagara Falls Train Station (825 Depot Avenue W), is f.u.nded through the NYS Maternal and Infant Community Health Collaborative.
Event speakers will include Mikayla Howard from the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center, Samika Sullivan from the Niagara Falls Housing Authority, Ina “Imeisha” Robinson, MPH from Safe States Alliance, Roshia McCoy, NP at NFMMC, and Dr. Davina Moss-King from Positive Direction and Associates, Inc.
To register for this event or for more information on becoming a Community Action Board member, please call 716-278-4274.
Crystal Barton
It was reported in Tuesday’s Buffalo News that former McKinley High School principal Crystal Barton has been given the option of returning to her job as a principal of McKinley High under terms of an agreement she reached with the Board of Education. She has been on paid administrative leave for the last five years. She reportedly received over $600,000 while the BPS tried to fire her. She asked the district to reinstate her in 2018 but the district kept her on paid leave pending bogus charges. For decades Mrs. Barton, highly respected as a principal, had a reputation for running one of the city’s best schools under her tenure.
In March the Buffalo Common Council voted to create a New Police Advisory Board. The board will host 11 members and be composed of at least one member with the following backgrounds in mental health, criminal justice, law and restorative justice. The members will be voted on by the Common Council and any added members will go through a confirmation process through the common council.
Applications will be open through April 13 Via Buffalo Common Council facebook page, emailing councilstaff@buffalo.gov or physical submission to the City Clerks office. You must be a Buffalo resident 18 years and over to apply. You can find a video of the meeting on Buffalo Common Council facebook page or reposted on the challenger news page.
Hon. Shirley Troutman
Hon. Shirley Troutman was officially sworn in as a member of the New York Court State of Appeals in Albany. Troutman is the second Black female ever and the first woman from Western New York to join the court. She started the job in February. Justice Troutman, a graduate of Bennett High School, has served as an Assistant District Attorney’s office, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Trial Court Judge, Acting Supreme Court Justice, and elected to the Supreme Court in 2009.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A local nonprofit that tries to turn empty lots into homes has just announced plans to host a design challenge and fundraiser later this year.
UPward Design for Life is working on furnishing a home for one lucky family in need. Three local companies will compete to decide who will refurbish the house. The companies that will compete are AP Professionals of Western New York, Ingram Micro, and Mid-City Office Furniture.
The competition gets underway in September. To learn more about UPward Design for Life, click here.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Another spring market opened up Saturday in Buffalo, at the Loaded Lumber creative studio on South Park Avenue.
Not only do visitors have the chance to explore market, but they can also get photos with the Easter Bunny. The market’s message is to shop local.
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The spring market will continue Sunday, from 10 a.m. To 6 p.m., and will be open next Friday and Saturday as well.