Roberto said that adding $80 billion more dollars to the federal debt in order to save the jobs of government workers is not the path to recovery and will not create sorely needed private sector jobs, especially in Western New York.

[...]

“The 2009 Stimulus Act has been a proven failure,” Roberto said. “The Stimulus failed to create private sector employment, and it has actually done little for areas even with high government employment rates like Western New York.”

“Why are we now going to add more of a burden to taxpayers in order to pay for a proven policy failure?” Roberto added.

“I find it disheartening that in the midst of one of the worst recessions in our history that the President is proposing more spending in order to bailout bloated state governments and is not doing the things necessary to stimulate growth in the nation’s private sector.” Roberto said.

Will Brian Higgins vote against another “stimulus”? Ha, that’ll be the day. It is really said that Higgins has become such a left-wing partisan that he’ll vote for failed policies. I mean, come on, if the first stimulus worked and had done what Obama claimed it would do we wouldn’t need another one would we?  Is party unity really more important than a real recovery? Ultimately it is up to the voters of the 27th congressional district to not be swayed by his constant self-promotion. He touts small bits of waterfront development as the fruit of his looms, while businesses leave the city, leaving buildings empty, and these precious new projects unvisited. Sure, the Aud was finally taken down, but where’s the new Bass Pro? Higgins has spent his entire public career pushing for the unsafe Skyway to be replaced and taken down. Still there.

Come on Higgins, be bold. Do the right thing for a change. Building up Buffalo will be a lot easier if the economy was doing better. We can’t rely on census workers inflating the dismal unemployment numbers for long.

A quick perusal of online stories about Obama’s split-second trip to our miserable, dying city finds that the non-Buffalo media (and blogs) really dug the fact that Obama got buffalo wings in Buffalo.

USA Today: Obama orders some Buffalo wings
NY Daily News: President Obama gets saucy reception at Buffalo chicken wings shop
Associated Press: Obama eats Buffalo wings in Buffalo
Obama in Buffalo: Wings for Lunch

You get the point…

But, that’s okay. That was probably more significant than the b.s. he was trying to get everyone else to swallow about the economy. If you believe Obama, he singlehandedly rescued the economy, and 9.9% unemployment is what he calls “beyond a shadow of a doubt … headed in the right direction.” All while ignoring the failure of his stimulus and touting job growth numbers inflated by the temporary hiring of census workers.

It kind of reminds me how when Bush was President, and the unemployment rate kept going down (towards 4 percent) and Democrats acted like it was the Great Depression. Now that Obama has our economy lingering around 10 percent and they act like things are fantastic.

Eat your damn buffalo wings Obama. At least when you are stuffing your face with local cuisine you can’t talk.

So, if Obama was gonna make a worthwhile visit to Buffalo, where ought he go visit? I have a few ideas:

• The Unfinished Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino - It stands as a monument to how the Senecas have been screwed by our local government, which seems determined to oppose anything that can help the economy and create jobs – just like Obama.
• The Top of the Skyway - Since Brian Higgins will certainly be tagging along, the top of the Skyway would be a good place to visit as a symbols of Higgins’ broken promises to rid the city of this old, unsafe eyesore.
• The New Peace Bridge - Which doesn’t exist yet and we all know why.
• The Statler Towers – Another example of so much potential going to waste in the city.
• WNYMedia’s Offices - Even a short visit to Buffalo would give Obama the opportunity to sit in one of WNYMedia’s hourly screenings of “the horse f***ing video.” I am sure they wouldn’t even charge him for popcorn.
• My Office - So I can give Obama a piece of my mind.
• The Anchor Bar - While I admittedly haven’t sampled all the best places to get buffalo wings in the city, of the places I have this is my favorite.
• Any Indian Reservation gas station - Gas prices keep going up, and WNY’s gas prices are still higher than the national average.  What has anyone, even Brian Higgins, really done about it?

When I think of other good spots for Obama to visit I will add them here.

President Barack Obama plans to visit Buffalo next Thursday as the next stop on his “Main Street tour” of American communities, sources said this morning.

Details of the president’s visit are still being worked out, but he is expected to discuss the economy in a speech in the Buffalo area. Sources said he is expected to meet with workers, small business owners and local leaders about ways to bolster job growth.

So, he’s coming to talk about the economy… Well, that makes sense he’d come to our miserable, dying city to talk about the economy. Seeing as how very little ever seems to get done right here, Obama will feel right at home. We got the heavy influence of unions, corrupt Democrat leaders, stifled economic growth and development. We got the vacant Statler Towers that stand as a symbol of so much potential going to waste.

 And what can he tell small business owners when he’s here? His policies are going to result in them having to fire workers or prevent them from expanding. He can’t even point to anything he’s done as a glimmer of hope as his economic policies have failed miserably. How’s that stimulus working Obama? It’s good thing we had that, otherwise unemployment would have gone over 8 percent.

Oh wait, it did… and it’s still above 8 percent. Woops.

Well, have fun in Buffalo next week Obama…  Enjoy this miserable, dying city that has no hope of improving while you are in office.

Or maybe not.  The public/private consortium of health bullies that is the Erie-Niagara Tobacco-Free Coalition is goading landlords into banning smoking on their properties.  I’d advise you to put that in your pipe and smoke it- while you can.

Specifically, the Smoke-Free Home effort demonstrates the faction’s concern with what you do when you’re in your residence with the door shut and blinds closed.  For one, they’ve made it so those renting housing must tell you if lighting up is allowed:

The City of Buffalo, working with the Erie-Niagara Tobacco-Free Coalition passed a Landlord Disclosure Law, as part of the Rental Dwelling Unit Registration (Chapter 264, Section 264-11). This is the first law of this type to be passed not only in New York State, but also on the east coast.

The old system, where concerned tenants asked about the smoking policy, apparently relied too much on people being responsible.  The law represents an effort to take care of you without caring about whether you want to take it.

The government is rather actively involved.  Same coalition’s membership list includes a mixture of private and public joyless busybodies.  As for the latter, there are three groups listed with .gov addresses.

On top of that, there are others like something called Reality Check, whose site feels like an attempt by marketers to be with it and engage in hip lingo with the young people.  Oh yeah, and it’s a “youth-led movement within the New York State Department of Health Tobacco Control Program,” which one can learn upon uncovering a group history link buried on the site map.

Together, the groups want to be friends with landlords, even if it takes a bit of wheel-greasing.  As the Smoke-Free Home site notes, the building owners in question can

Take advantage of going smoke-free – we can help you:

-Save money

-Receive up to $500 towards marketing your property

-Increase the value of your property

-Improve the health of your tenants

Specifically, they offer to reimburse some of the cost for advertising a tobacco fume-free unit.  It gives no indication to how much, if any, public funding is used; an inquiring e-mail had not yet been answered at the time I clicked “Publish.”  Regardless, having a government-connected entity at best merely associated with an effort to financially promote particular businessmen sounds… about right, sadly.

They also have a listing of apartments available where lighting and puffing are prohibited.  The link is unavailable here because I didn’t include it.  For the conglomerate, the alternative is nearly too horrid to ponder.  On the site, they treat smoke like it’s an unstoppable zombie plague from a Roger Corman-produced Off Beat Cinema offering.  Look out for The Creeping Smoke!

Smoke drifting from lit tobacco products and/or exhaled by smokers seeps into the living spaces of other tenants and common areas of residential buildings. Secondhand smoke (SHS) travels through lighting fixtures, cracks in walls, around plumbing, under doors and shared heating/ventilation.

Weatherstripping won’t save us, although we’re ultimately safe due to the imaginary nature of the specter.  But that won’t stop the group from hyping fears about the emanations from a lit cigarette traveling through a room, under a door, through a hallway, under another door, and into another room.

They’re also not particularly concerned with your trifling desire to live how you want.  To wit, the site also contains a section of odious tips for tenants, which includes this remarkable statement regarding their legal view of little lit tobacco sticks:

Smoking is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution. You have a right to ask landlords/management companies to protect you from unwanted SHS and to expect reasonable action.

It’s true the right to tobacco indulgence is not spelled out in either in the original text nor in any particular Amendment, although that’s a rather preposterous way to approach individual rights.  What else do you like to do that isn’t explicitly written down in the Constitution?  Meanwhile, it’s not like the government is encouraging lawsuits.  Oh, wait- yeah they are:

Tenants are beginning to bring lawsuits regarding secondhand smoke, and some are winning.

Why not sue if the stereo’s too loud?  Maybe the courts are the best place to turn if a neighbor’s haughty cat flashes you a dirty look, too.  After all, coercing private entities to conform to their will is their way.

The association doesn’t trust anyone to handle negotiations themselves.  Landlords have every right to deem their properties smoke-free, just as tenants have every right to look for such policies if they desire.  If this is what owners and leasers mutually want, smoke-free buildings will naturally come into existence.  Governmental groups needn’t involve themselves, although it’s too late for that.

Instead, facets of the area’s administration have involved themselves in a Roswell Park-based initiative.  They’re severely concerned with oozing smoke they believe has diabolically itinerant properties, including the ability to wreak havoc in private buildings.

Yes, they should find something better to do considering the myriad problems facing the area.  Either way, good intentions are no excuse for minor-league coercion performed in the name of dubious health concerns.

The only thing worse than getting hassled by fellow citizens is when they gain partial governmental support.  All of the laws, financing, and efforts could have been made redundant if they allowed anyone bothered by a building with smoking going on inside to look elsewhere or talk to the landlord.  The anti-smoking assemblage has once again made your individual business their own.  At least they’re consistent.

Specifically, their site notes that Hallwalls gets “major support” from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, both of which my extensive research indicates are governmental agencies.  In essence, the public is paying for someone else’s idea of “art,” which should trouble all involved.

Artists’ output is by definition subjectively appealing.  What some find interesting or fun is junk to others.  You’re free to dislike the poker-playing dogs and velvet Elvises if you’d like, snob, but that’s the point: it’s a personal decision that should lead to a voluntary purchase.

But guess who doesn’t care?  The web gnomes at Hallwalls are too busy being self-righteous to worry themselves about how you would spend your money.  A passage from their history section illustrates how they equate restriction of expression with having to earn livings on their own:

After a spurt of growth in the late 1980s, public arts funding at all levels of government was cut drastically, accompanied by attacks on artists’ free speech. Hallwalls—like all organizations nationwide—was forced to cut back, both its overall budget and its staff size, while simultaneously embracing a new additional role as a fearless advocate for artistic freedom as well as innovation.

That’s nice, although the paragraph could have used some humorlessly tedious bitching about the vileness of Republicans.  Other than that, the author is rather demanding about his or her sense of entitlement to state and federal money without state and federal restrictions.  The only thing worse than a panhandler is a mugger.

What the paragraph producer doesn’t get is that the cuts took place for good reason: it’s not the public’s job to finance any particular expression.  Freedom of speech is worlds different from the freedom to have your speech subsidized.

The group’s forays into partisanship aren’t helping, either.  Take a recent event where Hallwalls screened Stop Loss, a thoroughly antiwar film that also tanked at the box office.  But they had their heart set upon pushing an agenda, as indicated by the beginning of their event description:

This first in a series of events sharing the stories of war resisters and their struggles for justice

…And so forth.  It’s always nice when groups that get your money tell you how to think.  Such brazen disregard for drawing an audience is unacceptable yet sadly understandable given the circumstances.

Ignoring commercial potential is to be expected from a group that’s set up shop in Babeville, Ani DiFranco’s clubhouse.  That company’s site also brags about the public currency it received, which is for some reason is a common theme among people with fierce aversion to authority:

Babeville is in fact two buildings: the sanctuary, which faces Delaware Avenue, and the parish house, which faces Tupper. Viewed from outside, they appear to be a single entity—which is not a bad metaphor for the way that Babeville brings together past and future, art and commerce, private and public funding.

What a rebel!  Oddly, the purportedly autonomous DiFranco wouldn’t get a loan to cover the entire cost of setting up her own business.  Antiestablishment types should be opposed to receiving government checks, but they seemingly only hate The Man until the electric bill arrives.  Meanwhile, they’ll undoubtedly suggest that Carl Paladino is a hypocrite for taking available tax credits.  Perhaps insisting on direct grants would have been preferable.

They also want the state and nation to continue propping up artists who want to inflict their work upon the community, even though many consider much of what’s produced to be a study in weirdness.  Of course, you’re free to like anything made by any creative type, as fondness for art and music is as personal as any other human experience.  That said, if you like Ms. DiFranco’s music, you’re wrong.  To be fair, she at least cornered the market on staccato feminist anthems.

But it’s still up to you whether you listen, as is your fondness for the art group in question.  It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with Hallwalls, as they should be free to sponsor and produce whatever they’d like.  And many people undoubtedly appreciate having such arty outposts in the city even if they don’t patronize them.  But they should get to opt out: the sole issue is with the mandatory backing by workers in the state and country.

Money taken from the general populace shouldn’t back a nonessential function during boom times, and the dole should certainly dry up during an era of continuous economic teetering.  Cutting funding would force Hallwalls to work harder to attract donations and an audience willing to compensate them for what they generate.  And that’s as it should be, just as with every other business.

It might mean higher admission fees for next year’s Artists & Models, which is fine and desirable, too: ticket buyers would merely be paying market rates.  Only attendees having fun ought to be charged, just as you shouldn’t have to pay for a piece you wouldn’t hang in your den.

It’s no better to use public cash to fashion supposedly edgy installations than it is to buy Thomas Kinkade calendars for everyone.  If he is indeed the Painter of Light, then it’s best to wallow in the darkness.

I hate to even give attention to someone who most people hoped would enjoy even less post-scandal success than his loathsomely untalented call girl.  But public disgust wasn’t enough to stop him from climbing out of the sewer in order to discuss his potential aspirations.

To be specific, a recent New York Post story about an interview the classy trick conducted with Fortune reveals that he is itching to, sigh, again win election in the Empire State:

For the first time, Eliot Spitzer is acknowledging in an interview with Fortune what The Post first reported last year – that he is itching for a way back into politics and, even at this late date, hasn’t totally closed the door on a race this year.

I’ve never appreciated David Paterson so much before.  Of course, the incumbent can only seem appealing by comparison to a somehow more disagreeable leader, such as, oh, his predecessor.  While Paterson can be thankful for his atrocious opening act, the rest of the state can be fearful of possibly seeing Spitzer’s name on a ballot:

The excerpt adds, “Spitzer muses with friends and advisers about political targets. He views New York’s U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand as a lightweight.

Well, get in line, although I’d prefer Tracy Flick if forced to take sides.  Still, that’s like choosing between fighting on the pirate ship or jumping overboard and dealing with scuba ninjas.  Spitzer might attempt to remain instate if he doesn’t aim for the Senate, which is bad news for those at least hoping he would leave New York more frequently:

In the office of New York state comptroller, he sees a chance to become a national force, wielding the billions held in public pension funds to force corporate reform in a way that even lawsuits and regulation cannot. (‘It is the great underutilized position in government right now,’ says Spitzer.)”

Yep, the one thing we need at present is a politician who wants to order around businesses.  Maybe he can team with fellow prostitute enthusiast Barney Frank to once again bring ruin to the economy via governmental pushiness; of course, they’ll hold a joint press conference afterward where they blame the ensuing financial collapse on Wall Street.

By pretending that this most irritating of recessions was provoked by corporate greed, corporate fat cats, and the like instead of the feds actively hawking subprime mortgages, Spitzer demonstrates that he hasn’t learned a thing during his time between jobs.

As for his time in Albany, the constant, boring crusade against typical left-wing antagonists demonstrated why he was unpleasant far before his taste for pricey hookers came to the public’s attention.

Will that public even think of voting for him?  Given the present distaste for national-level politicians representing Spitzer’s party, Democrats can’t be excited about supporting a committed ultra-liberal weighed down with baggage. 

That astoundingly scummy personal behavior still peaks through.  Spitzer treats the woman who tried to melt his brains with heat ray vision as she stood beside him on Resignation Day in the same condescending manner as he does the public:

Sources have told The Post that Spitzer months ago discussed with his wife, Silda, the possibility of running this year, and she was not up for the idea so soon after the national scandal that proved very difficult on their family.

Spitzer himself seems to acknowledge that in the interview, regardless of how difficult it may be, telling [interviewer Peter] Elkind, “Right now, I can tell you I have a family that is in one piece … That’s a measure of success after what we went through.”

There’s one crucial word in his quote: what’s this “We” nonsense?  There was a single driving force behind what your household “went through,” Mister Ex-Governor: it was all you.  The bystanders he refers to as family were dragged through a sordid crisis through absolutely zero fault of their own, and it all took place in public thanks to his career choice.

But nothing is ever Spitzer’s fault.  His gratuitous self-righteousness was reflected by his overbearing political style while residing in the state capital: portraying corporations as villainously greedy hordes, planning to give illegal aliens driver’s licenses,  and trying to push gay marriage on the state were simply the most prominent reflections of his willingness to further his radical agenda by swinging political power like a club.

Meanwhile, he wants you to trust him despite his utter inability to control himself.  Forcing his activist views upon the public is his life’s pursuit.  That whole act-the-way-he-did-and-resign bit was apparently merely meant to serve as a bad example to the corporations he wants to again intimidate.

Spitzer’s desire to boss around other people while exempting himself from any ethical codes is the purest form of overcompensation, particularly as a representative of a political movement that spends its free time searching for examples of Republican hypocrisy.  He’s the worst kind of political creep, and he wants your vote.  I’m already irritated by the revival of Client Number Nine jokes.

Carl P. Paladino won’t officially enter the Republican campaign for governor until April 5, but he’s already ignited controversy in New York City after comparing the newly passed health care legislation to the terrorist attacks of 2001.

“Every decent person should be disgusted” by Paladino’s assertion that the new law will kill more Americans than were lost in the terrorist attacks, said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-Manhattan. Nadler, who represents the World Trade Center area where almost 3,000 people were killed, called Paladino’s remarks “a new low.”

“He has insulted the memory of the nearly 3,000 Americans who were murdered on that day, and the thousands more first responders and survivors who have been sickened as a result of the environmental disaster which followed,” Nadler said.

That prompted the Buffalo attorney and developer to fire back at Nadler in a tone he often saves for Buffalo politicians and school officials he has targeted for years.

“Your statement drips with the pomposity and arrogance we have come to expect from our rotten ruling class, so busy clawing for campaign contributions they can’t find the time to understand the bill,” Paladino said in a letter to Nadler. “I am not impressed that you kissed enough [rear ends] to chair a committee of politicians in the Congress, and the fact that you are chairman of a House Judiciary Subcommittee hardly means you are an authority on the constitutionality of the “Obamacare’ law.”

The fracas began Tuesday when Paladino made his “Obamacare” claim to a New York City radio station.

“I fear the results of Obamacare will be so horrific that it will kill more Americans through deteriorating health care than were lost on 9/11,” Paladino explained in a later press release. “Nothing can lessen the terrible events of that day, but in terms of raw numbers, more will suffer and die through Obamacare.”

The terrorist attacks were an attack on our way of life, and this health care reform bill that Obama signed into law is an attack on our way of life.. Obamacare, if we don’t repeal it, it will destroy our health care system, and bankrupt our country, all the while taking away our freedoms. And yes, the deterioration of our health care  system will cost us lives. It’s happening in other countries that have nationalized health care. The truth hurts sometimes, and often times it’s not politically correct to be so blunt, but who cares?  The Democratic Party just deliberately ignored the will of the people, so why should we play nice? Hats off to Carl Paladino for telling it like it is.

For one, he did bring plenty of attention to the area as he exited the office, although it may not quite have been the kind the Chamber of Commerce prefers.  Also, he at least didn’t spend his abbreviated term engaging in the deplorably shady legerdemain being attempted by his used-dentures-opposing former House colleague from a nearby district.

But we’ll end up remembering the bad things he did for some reason.  While it’s marvelous that he’s no longer representing Western New Yorkers in Washington, the downside is that he might return home.  If you see him and he offers a hug, politely refuse.

As for his personal goals, what will he do now for work?  Maybe I could help in the spirit of bipartisanship and compassion.  Specifically, I’ve scanned the want ads to help the former public servant find a post-congressional created and/or saved job suited to his interests and skills.  And I found one if he’s willing to make his way a little bit away from his congressional jurisdiction to Buffalo.  He might do so anyway on account of the city’s nightlife and such.

It’s naturally from Craigslist, everyone’s favorite site for finding employment listings and/or opportunities to acquire social diseases.  From his perspective, it’d be perfect, as long as he’s fine with acquiring the title “Men’s Locker Room Attendant.”

If you think slinging towels at a health club might be a step down for someone who just left the House of Representatives, you don’t follow politics in general or Massa’s career arc in particular.  And, while eight dollars per hour might not be enough to rent another townhouse, the fringe benefits for someone of his proclivities would be tremendous.  That said, they’d also be tremendously deviant, revolting, and illegal.

Come to think of it, he’d thankfully never get hired.  Of course, he wouldn’t pass a background check, especially if the potential employer has read a newspaper, watched cable news, or accessed the internet in the past few days.  The company in question will instead undoubtedly find a responsible, hard-working, non-sleazy applicant to fill the position as opposed to an utter creep.

But that won’t deter Massa from hanging out on Craigslist, as he’ll find numerous uses for the communal site.  For one, watch out for his posts in Missed Connections, especially if you’re male and notice a creepy, middle-aged man scoping you out in public.  And skip his smug, obnoxious, boring Rants and Raves based on his past video tirades. Maybe he’ll use the venue to change his story yet once more.

And, for heaven’s sake, don’t answer any housing ad he posts.   Avoid any temptation of signing up to be his roomie: it’s not worth the cost regardless of how relatively cheap rent is.  In the meantime, Western New York males have a legitimate excuse for not working out, namely that they’re concerned Massa might join the same gym.  That’s true even if he doesn’t apply for the aforementioned vocation opportunity.

No matter his respective work, housing, and physical training situations, Massa’s icky transgressions serve as the latest example of how we’re living through transitionally momentous times.  By acting in an unbelievably repulsive manner, the disgraced less-than-one-term representative inadvertently helped to frame history.  Licentious sleazes from both parties have provided an endless string of benchmarks for our lives.

We’ve seen the shameful politician sexcapade euphemism du jour shift from “Pizza in the Oval Office” to “Wide stance” to “Instant messaging the page” to “Hiking the Appalachian trail” to today’s “Tickle fight.”  Oh, the times, they are a-changin’.

The Hotel Lafayette will be closed and boarded up on April 1, The Buffalo News has learned.

And a developer who hopes to renovate the landmark said delays in Albany could derail his plan to turn the structure into apartments and a hotel.

This present-day wound cuts deep into the past.  As highlighted during a recent presentation at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, the august hotel was designed in 1904 by Louise Bethune, the American Institute of Architects’ first woman member.  But the structure’s one-time incomparable reputation may be relegated permanently to the olden days.  That’s despite one businessman’s efforts to ensure the building doesn’t become a memory:

Developer Rocco Termini delivered the jolting announcement today at a special meeting of the city’s Planning Board. He said delays in Albany involving needed reforms of a state historic tax credit law could doom his $35 million plan to turn the Hotel Lafayette into a boutique hotel, apartments, small restaurants and banquet facilities.

Termini blamed “bean-counters” in the state’s budget and finance offices for delays.

In short, a developer willingly attempted to bring commerce downtown, and Albany couldn’t be bothered to help him.  After all, why do the capital’s bureaucrats care?  They’re like 300 miles away and don’t have to deal with a post-apocalyptic cityscape out on the state’s western frontier.  They indifferently leave Erie County’s residents to sod off and cope with collective destitution, complimented by how we’re left with precious few places to shop and live downtown.

Locals are dealing with a rotten policy that subsidizes some at the expense of all.  Doling out credits to particular businesses is a particularly futile method for generating economic growth.  We can’t blame Termini for trying to get the benefits available: if the government is handing out candy that you helped pay for, it’s silly to deny yourself the sugar rush.

The problem lies with the process itself.  Then inherently crooked fixture should make anyone who wants to enliven Buffalo wonder if other rusting urban hulls are inhibited by similarly maddening ruses.  We should attempt to track down correspondents in Cleveland and Detroit for corroboration.

Subsidizing chosen businesses with incentives and bribes is sadly in vogue among numerous federal-level politicians.  But such conniving is nothing new in some states.  Particularly, New York has essentially been living under the Obama administration’s policies for far longer than the past year and change.  I hate to include spoilers, but Empire State residents already know the ending: imagine Angela’s Ashes wrapping up somewhere in the middle.  Just exaggerating, maybe.

If each state effectively conducts its own economic experiment, then New York is an exploding meth lab.  We should be letting businesses engage in commerce without channeling money through Albany in the hopes of getting blessed with a future tax credit.  Instead, we cope with a cloddish middleman who has mysteriously been granted the right to determine the cash’s recipient.

At best, the state government picks favorites as competing businesses suffer, much like with the feds and the inept car companies they’ve chosen to promote.  At worst, they don’t bother to give out the money at all, as seen in the negligence aimed at a fading building named for a most distinguished municipal visitor.

Either way, the reshuffling is funded by bleeding the private economy dry.  That’s in lieu of letting those who want to buy stuff or hire space interact with those who have goods to sell or empty flats to lease, respectively.  It’s not like that system would work infinitely better while costing the government nothing.

But it’s anti-business business as usual in New York.  As a result, a historically significant, architecturally notable, perfectly located building that was ready for a rebirth is instead going to be converted into a hotel for ghosts.  We can’t get even get a drink to drown our sorrows at a favorite spot: the Lafayette Tap Room closed along with the Hotel.  Albany owes us a drink, and a revitalized city center, too.