Some Helpful Hints For The Place I Live

I seem to blog quite a bit about the fact that it is not warm here yet or about the fact that I do not like Western New York.

My blogs are many times full of rambling non-sense due to the fact that I write as soon as something hits me. Let me explain my thoughts a little better.

As for the sun, it needs to just warm up already. It's April for crying out loud. I want it to be seventy and sunny. I want to be sitting on a patio or a porch drinking a cold beer. I want this gross cold snow to be gone.

Now on to Buffalo, NY: I've said I don't like it here. I've said I want to move as far away as possible. I've cheered when people decided to shuffle out of Buffalo. But why?

"You can't just hate a place, chaz. You have to have a better reason than just 'because.'"

Yes, that is true. I have some very good reasons. But first let me give a retraction: I do not hate Buffalo. I really don't. I actually love Buffalo. I love the people that I know here. I love the night-life (bars open until 4am, HELLO!). I love the potential that Buffalo has.
But there rests the crux of the problem. I am disappointed in you, Buffalo. You have so much potential! Why are you throwing it all away? Why are you offering huge pieces of prime real estate for free to companies that have nothing invested in you? There are businesses here that have started from a very small location and have slowly grown to great things and have become one of the main-stays of Buffalo. Why are you allowing a small handful of people jack the rent up on the few very popular streets you have? Higher rent just means fewer local businesses on Elmwood Avenue (to give one example). I'm disappointed in you, Buffalo. 

And to the people in Buffalo who are trying to do something: I applaud what you are trying to do. I hope you succeed. But if you continue to be exclusive instead of inclusive, you will fail like so many before you. It's one thing to allow people into your little group, but are you allowing their ideas in as well? Just because they are not in your little clique of friends does not mean they do not have great ideas. It does not mean they are incapable of helping you. It does not mean you cannot work together to make Buffalo great.  I have seen too many people get frustrated with Buffalo for just this reason.

So, as I mentioned, I do not hate Buffalo. I was over-reacting when I said that.

I ain't mad at ya, B-lo.