Hopeless. Just hopeless.
I’ve spent time in cities all over America and without a doubt Buffalo takes the cake when it comes to its refusal to evolve. In a lot of ways I admire that. Buffalonians appreciate their history and traditions. Sadly this transfers over to some not-so-good things such as the absolute stranglehold the unions hold over its alleged superiors. If Buffalo was a somewhat-thriving city I could see the unions trying to milk out some more benifits and bucks but this is ridiculous.
Union workers in the public sector in this city don’t realize how good they have it. The infinite supply of benifits and pensions is off the charts when you look at the economy of the city, county and state (excluding NYC). So for three years now the control board has froze their wages and until now they have done a good job of making the sacrifice. Thats over now. Private sector employees make less on average than these guys who are threatening and whining about their situation.
Until Buffalo hits absolute rock bottom (a scary thought since I thought we did a few times already) the unions here will never change and always push for more goodies. Its the same reason why so many manufacturing jobs left this city. They refused to believe the businesses that said they were hemorraging money so we all payed the price.
Not to say unions are the only ones to blame. This current wage freeze problem has a lot to do with Albany. New York state gives ridiculous rewards to state employees even long after they are gone.
Someone, sometime, somewhere has to realize Buffalo is dying faster than ever. With every step forward we take two back. And all our progress is from people who will invest in this city DESPITE all the concequences that come with it (NewEra). Albany has to see the light and make the changes, the unions have to realize the control board is not a bunch of wealthy snots who look down upon them. We are in a time of crisis-which means we all need to cooperate or else we’ll never change. Then again, that would be very Buffalo-like of us.
I know there is tons of investment happening right now that was started with the Masiello Adm…Ciminelli contruction trailers are scheduled to park infront of my house for the next year and begin the reconstruction of a public school that will be the home of Performing Arts HS.
I’d like to know the mix public v. private investment.
I’m not really sure what “the bottom” looks like. I too thought we were there in the past, and it gets worse.
Great blog…I’ll check back more often…
| Posted 3 years, 4 months ago