As the new year quickly approaches, I want to take a minute and wish all of you the very best in 2006! Have a safe and happy celebration tonight!!!

If you haven’t heard about one of our sub-groups, here is your chance to learn what the College/Urban Experience group is about.

Revitalize Buffalo believes that an important part of revitalizing the city is in retaining college students post-graduation. RB, in collaboration with the Western New York Service Learning Coalition, formed a College/Urban Experience sub-group. Together, members of the sub-group are working on projects to engage college students, from freshman to seniors, in the activities of the city. The sub-group’s goal is to reach out to college students, to make them ambassadors for Buffalo, and give them a pro-Buffalo experience in hopes of getting students to stay in Buffalo after they finish school.

Two of the most recent projects for the sub-group have been a speaker series at Daemen College and class projects at Buffalo State, both mentioned here on December 1st. Future initiatives for the sub-group include becoming involved in orientation at the schools and becoming more involved with other colleges and universities.

Anyone interested becoming involved with the sub-group can contact Jill Shuey at jillashuey@hotmail.com.

November’s issue of Real Simple magazine had a feature on the advantages and disadvantages of buying or renting items including appliances, sports equipment, and party supplies and such. One of their products discussed was artwork. Under the tips and resources section of the page it mentioned where art can be rented from including: “Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the Racine (Wisconsin) Art Museum, and Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery….”

As Christmas and New Year’s quickly approach, I want to wish all of you a Happy Holiday season! I’m quite thankful for the work that Revitalize Buffalo is doing in the community and look forward to even more good things to come in 2006!

Peace to all of you during this time of year…

Well, we saved Santa! Alan did a nice post on how the weekend went here and thanks for that Alan. Thanks to Marc for getting the site up so quickly and allowing us to get our needs out to the community. Thanks to the media for being so willing to help us get the word out!

And here’s to the WNY community who once again showed why this is a great place to live!

On Thursday, December 8, The Partners for a Livable Western New York presented the last in a series of sessions to educate the community on the consequences of sprawl. The session was held at the Albright Knox art gallery a very unique a comfortable setting amongst the many treasures of art and creativity communities create. When one thinks of sprawl, visions of new housing being built on former farmland often comes to mind but William Fulton the often humorous and entertaining guest speaker provided some unique views on other consequences we should all be aware of. Fulton is an urban planner for Ventura City, California and has seen first hand how sprawl can affect a community and provided examples of what we in Western New York might face if we do not actively work to create smart communities. One very shocking assessment he made was that all we can offer to new business is “old white people” and to think about what happens when this population and ourselves can no longer drive. In such a scenario the elderly population will depend on public transportation to go to the market and see their physicians. In Ventura City it costs taxpayers one dollar per incident to use public transportation when they live in a community that it is available within walking distance. For those in communities outside public transportation coverage areas, it costs taxpayers twenty-five dollars per incident. In such a scenario, Western New York should seriously think about its urban and inner ring suburbs in creating smart communities. My purpose in writing this article was that Fulton made several indirect references to the “creative class” and how it is and will be one method of how communities like Western New York can help turn things around for the better. The creative class is people who engage in complex problem solving that involves a great deal of independent judgment and requires high levels of education and/or human capitol. Successful communities are constructed from many different and diverse segments of the population working not only for their own personal goals, but goals that benefit the community as a whole. As the community of “Revitalizing Buffalonians” I would ask all to keep this in mind as we work on our projects to create the community we want to live in. One day we will all be “old people” and can and will relate to Fulton’s comment.

On a lighter note, it was very refreshing to see how many community leaders such as urban planners, current politicians, politicians elect and political candidates who ran for office this past November and didn’t win their campaigns in attendance. It is the latter group we should most acknowledge as they didn’t give up on Western New York because they did not win their campaigns, they are still here listening and working on how they can make a difference in community!

I was in the check-out line at K-Mart a few days ago, and as the cashier handed me my receipt she said, and I quote: “Merry Chri… er… I mean Happy Holiday.” Now, I’d heard her wish the customer ahead of me a Merry Christmas not even a minute earlier, so I was struck and somewhat amused by this. Of course there are any number of reasons why she switched gears halfway through Merry Christmas. For example:

1. She was pressured by her employer to use an inclusive holiday greeting, but kept forgetting.
2. She could tell just by looking at me that I’m a Godless agnostic (impressive, you have to admit).
3. She was rendered momentarily speechless by my model-esque good looks.

Ok, I think we can safely rule out number three. And to be honest, this just isn’t an issue for me. I couldn’t care less whether she wished me a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, or even the standard Have a Nice Day. Heck, these days when shopping I’m grateful just to get a mumbled Thank You and the correct change. But a lot of people seem to care a great deal about which two words should conclude retail transactions, and while I’m a great believer in the power of words to communicate, inform, hurt, unify, inspire, destroy, or comfort, I have a hard time understanding what all the fuss is about. Don’t we already have enough fences dividing us into seperate groups without building more?

Have a Nice Day. Merry Christmas. And Happy Holidays. Sincerely.

Many of you know about the annual Santa’s Park that takes place at Chestnut Ridge Park in Orchard Park. Unfortunately because of the county budget cuts, it was cancelled for this year.

We’re going to save it! We are planning to have it next weekend (17th-18th). The county has graciously agreed to allow us to use the park and rent the facility.

We need your help!!!

We need an organization with an insurance policy that will add us as a rider to their policy for this event. We need to have food (cocoa and cookies) donated! We need at least 1 (2 would be better) pick up trucks and carts to transport the kids back and forth between the parking lot and Santa’s hut. We also need volunteers! We need lots of volunteers!!!

If you know of any way you can help us, please call Amy @ #316-4264 or send an e-mail to amy@revitalizebuffalo.org!!!

Buffalo…it’s up to us to save this event for this kids!!!

Check out Santa Land for more information!

If, on a blustery-cold Monday evening, you happened to find yourself downtown, say on the corner of Pearl and Tupper for example, and you went inside and followed the “Revitalize Buffalo Meeting” signs down a few stairs, then right, then down more stairs and a ramp, past the miniature golf course (!) and the pool entrance, following, following, you might start to feel like a laboratory mouse in a maze, searching in vain for that delicious piece of cheese. But then, just when you were convinced that this was all Amy’s idea of a practical joke, you’d round a final corner and see a doorway, with blazing lights and the warm sound of conversation coming from beyond. Welcome to Revitalize Buffalo’s December meeting. Here’s your cheese.

If you haven’t been to an RB meeting lately, you might be surprised at some of the differences in the way the group operates these days. Less than a year ago, RB meetings held at Spot Coffee were well attended, but often chaotic and unfocused. People came to these meetings for a variety of reasons: to see what we had to offer, to vent their fears and frustrations about Buffalo, to get involved, to offer ideas, to connect and network. Some people liked what they saw and came back. Others, we never saw again.

Now, a year later, things are different. The basic format of the meetings is the same: reports on the various committees and projects followed by an open discussion and informal networking. But there’s a new focus and sense of purpose that was missing early on, and the “we wills” are being replaced - slowly but steadily - by “we dids.”

I have to be honest. The chaotic energy of those early meetings - which often lasted several hours - had a great allure for me. It was difficult to listen to many dozens of people express their hopes and fears and plans for Buffalo’s future and not come away inspired and energized. But as I sat there Monday evening listening to reports on various group projects (some just starting out, others already showing tangible results) I thought to myself “it’s even more difficult to argue with success.”

On one of my many trips to Disney World, where my sister works, I came across this sign in the Animal Kingdom. I have an older picture of myself by it, I think I was about 15, and I thought it was the coolest thing, considering I was in the middle of Florida and found this sign warning visitors to watch out for the animal, or I thought - my hometown.

When I visited my sister earlier this year we went to the Animal Kingdom to play and explore. They had a Cast Adventure where you had to go all around the park and collect different stamps from the Cast members while visiting certain exhibits and rides and such (being a big kid is fun sometimes). So of course I wanted to find the Beware of Buffalo rock and it was no where in sight. I thought it was close to the entrance, some of the pathways looked familiar, but we couldn’t spot it anywhere. We searched all over. I even asked a Cast Member (an employee in Disney lingo) where it was and he told us they removed it. I was sad.

Well……my sister had some friends visiting a few months ago and they went to the Animal Kingdom for the day. I’m back in NY and check my voicemail in the middle of work to hear a message from my sister saying: “Guess what we found on the Safari trails?” Woo hoo - the Buffalo rock!

So here is the most recent picture, it’s a medium sized rock with the words painted on. I want one in my own garden, maybe I’ll make one in the spring. I think it’s pretty cool.