The Buffalo Chronicle
Common Council
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Buffalo should publish a plow report card after every storm
Buffalo’s new snow plan promises a plow on every residential street within 24 hours after a storm ends. The Common Council should require the city to publish, district by district, whether it…
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Buffalo picks a former police precinct in the Old First Ward for its new animal shelter
Mayor Sean Ryan says the city will turn the former police station at 294 Louisiana St. into a modern animal shelter, replacing the cramped Oak Street building.
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Ryan’s arts task force wants a city culture department and an end to grants with “no transparent, equitable process”
Mayor Sean Ryan’s CREATE Task Force recommends a $150,000 Department of Arts and Culture, a competitive process for city arts grants and a cultural plan anchored to the 2032 bicentennial. The Common…
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Erie County picks a South Park school for a permanent Code Blue shelter and tells City Hall it doesn’t need permission
Erie County wants to lease the former Buffalo Creek Academy on South Park Avenue as a permanent emergency shelter, says it is immune from city zoning, and faces objections from Majority Leader…
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Legacy Development asks the Common Council to overrule preservationists on a 150-year-old North Oak Street building
Main Gateway L.P. says rehabilitating 328 North Oak St. would lose about $803,000 and is appealing a 4-3 Preservation Board vote that fell short of the six needed for a hardship exception.…
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Halton-Pope moves to write Buffalo’s limits on ICE cooperation into city law
A Common Council resolution would direct Corporation Counsel to codify Mayor Sean Ryan’s January executive order barring city resources from federal civil immigration enforcement, with quarterly reports to the Council.
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Nietzsche’s, the Allen Street stage that launched Ani DiFranco, is up for city landmark status
The Common Council receives a proposal Tuesday to designate 248 Allen St., home to Nietzsche’s since 1982 and to bars and live music since Prohibition, as a local landmark.
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Buffalo voters should approve Proposal 8 and make City Hall prove its budget math before it spends
Buffalo’s $103 million structural deficit grew out of budgets built on one-time money and lowball cost estimates. Proposal 8 would give the comptroller an early review and the Council a way to…
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Buffalo’s long ballot: 11 charter changes, from a human rights commission to who controls the budget
With no city offices on the ballot, Buffalo voters will decide 11 proposed charter changes on Nov. 3. Here’s what each would do, from police advice and human rights to budget power…
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Change Buffalo PAC urges governor to help put control board back in charge of city finances
Change Buffalo PAC wants the governor to press the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority to reimpose a control period. Under state law, only the board can make that call, and Mayor Sean Ryan,…
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Fix Buffalo’s leaking firehouses, but make the $20 million control board loan show its math first
The repairs can’t wait, but the borrowing plan shouldn’t pass on faith. Before its Oct. 27 vote, the Common Council should demand a written cost comparison, a project list and an answer…
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Buffalo’s police overtime keeps climbing, and the city’s own auditors say staffing alone doesn’t explain it
Buffalo police overtime topped $17 million last year and has grown by more than a third in five years. The union blames a 100-officer shortage, but the comptroller’s numbers show overtime rising…
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BMHA’s director goes month to month Nov. 1, with two board seats empty and tenants pressing on safety
Gillian Brown’s contract as head of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority expires Oct. 31, and two of the mayor’s five board seats sit empty. Tenant commissioners are pressing on inspections and safety…
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Buffalo wants its control board to borrow $20 million for emergency repairs. Its comptroller wants the math first
Buffalo is asking its state control board to borrow up to $20.06 million for emergency repairs, the first such request since 2007. Comptroller Barbara Miller Williams wants the costs, savings and repayment…
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Growing support for an Elmwood Village council district
Some city residents are saying that the city’s healthiest and most robust neighborhood — Allentown and the Elmwood Village — deserves it’s own Common Council district. And they don’t want to wait…
