As a Buffalo First! board member, I understand the importance of supporting local businesses while working to improve my community, which is why I host bi-monthly block party events on the 500 block of Main St downtown. On Friday May 11th from 4-9PM, the 500 Block’s third ‘Rock the Block’ event will be taking over Main St with wine tasting, multiple musical performances, art displays, cars on display from the Pierce Arrow Museum, food trucks, shopping and more, ending with a live jazz performance at in Atrium Bar at the Hyatt Hotel. The block party is free, kid-friendly & open to the public, so put it on your must-do list for the weekend!

The business owners on the 500 block (myself included) are working together to revive the up-and-coming block and were tasked with each thinking of fun activities for our venues to bring people to the street so that they may experience some of the recent positive changes, such as new galleries and businesses. For this event, I wanted to combine two things I love: MAIN(ST)UDIOS Art Gallery located at 515 Main Street and Buffalo First!, so I decided to host a handmade Mother’s Day marketplace at the gallery as a fundraiser for BF! The marketplace will take over the entire first floor with approximately 20 vendors all selling beautiful items with Mother’s Day in mind, including flowers, soaps, jewelry, clothing, handmade cards, original works of art & more. The event will also feature a painting & jewelry making station to hand make your own lovely gifts (don’t worry, it will not involve glitter glue or macaroni noodles!) All vendor fees will be donated directly to BF! as well the sale of certain items; the entire event is a fundraiser for Buffalo First! as part of their “Dig Deep” campaign, so come by & show your support for local business while buying unique gifts, handmade right here in Buffalo!

OTHER BLOCK PARTY EVENTS :
> > > 4-8PM < < <

o WNY Book/Arts Center, 468 Washington Street
- Gallery show: Serigraphy: The Art of Screenprinting
- Live music

o E-café, 487 Main Street
- Wine tasting by City Merchant
- Music by Colleen Williams & Bobby Jones

o 501 Main
- Delish!
- Wine by Mario
- Music by Tokyo & the Boy
- Art/Photo displays

o Jerry’s Downtown Photo, 521 Main
- Gallery Show : Photographs of Historic Buffalo
- Finger foods

o Fine Art Panorama, 523 Main
- Wine tasting
- Live Music

o Cars on display from The Pierce Arrow Museum

> > > 8-10PM < < <

o The Hyatt Regency
- Live music & drink specials

More information on MAIN(ST)UDIOS’ Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/515MAIN

By:  Michael O’Brien

On Nov 4, the 1%, meeting at the G20 Summit, declared that all 20 of the world’s most economically powerful nations were completely beholden to 29 specific non-democratic, profit driven corporate megabanks, (including Bank of America, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, among others) that the G20 deemed “Systematically important financial institutions”, in other words “too big to fail”.   The declaration was essentially a reassurance to wealthy investors that, no matter how harmful the costs to the public or the planet, the people of these 20 nations, and by extension the world, would be forced to bail these for profit megabanks out. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_big_to_fail#Financial_Stability_Board_list).

On Nov. 5, the 99% in Buffalo, via a loose knit coalition including Buffalo First!, Occupy Buffalo and individual concerned citizens, joined forces with a growing international people’s movement to voice a different response to the  global systematic influence of these mega banks.   Outside braches of HSBC and Bank of America, we held a rally to encourage people to move their money to local credit unions on National Bank Transfer Day. The Free Buffalo Campaign had begun.

Soon afterward the General Assembly gathered at the Occupy Buffalo encampment agreed through consensus process to endorse the concept and promote education around the idea of a Free Buffalo Campaign.   The main thrust of the Free Buffalo Campaign is build from the ground up a new, locally focused economy in Buffalo, NY, USA that is completely free at all levels (individual through institutional) from the influence of global corporate banks.  Specifically, we seek freedom from the 29 “too big to exist” banks listed at the G20 Summit in London on November 4, 2011 as “Systematically important financial institutions”.

We hope that a Free Buffalo will stand as a shining beacon of hope for the citizens of other cities, communities and rural areas around the world, as we demonstrate that a small, but determined, community of people can and will thrive economically while enhancing human health, happiness and ecological sustainability when they free themselves completely from the 29 “too big to exist” banks.  We hope to demonstrate to our leaders in the G20 nations, that the belief in the systematic importance of these financial institutions is a false one, and that in fact the full potential of human happiness, ecological health and economic activity is only harmed by the excessive control of these institutions.

This is the first article in a series outlining the Free Buffalo Campaign.  This series will present one vision of how The Free Buffalo Campaign might evolve by outlining three phases: 1. The Constructive Program, 2. Severing of the Chains, and 3. Practicing Freedom.   The Constructive Program, a term first introduced by Gandhi when describing the development of Swaraj (or Home Rule), will outline exactly how the good people of Buffalo, NY and the surrounding rural communities, can build for themselves a sustainable economy that meets the needs of all people in our community and protects the Earth we depend upon.   Phase two, the Severing of the Chains, addresses strategies and techniques for limiting and eventually eliminating the influence of big banks on our local economy.  The final phase, Practicing Freedom, describes how Buffalo can prosper as an example to the world of the “New Economy” and shows one vision of another world that is very possible.

On Monday, April 2, 2012, New York State Assemblyman Sean Ryan will hold a town hall meeting to discuss the need to reform the current Industrial Development Agency (IDA) system in Erie County. Ryan has been active in discussing the need to fix problems with Erie County’s IDA system that lead to business poaching, and tax breaks being given away that end up being paid for by all Erie County municipalities. Ryan is currently putting together ideas on how to reform the IDA system and will hear from all viewpoints regarding ways to improveIDA’s in Erie County and bring accountability and transparency to the current system.

“It has become increasingly apparent that something needs to be done to fix our IDA system in Erie County,” said Assemblyman Ryan. “Whether you support reforms or not, this town hall will provide a great opportunity for everyone to speak their minds regarding IDA’s, and how they think the current system is working. I am going to provide my thoughts as well on the problems I see, and discuss some ways to reform the way our six IDA’s operate in Erie County.”

All members of the public are invited and encouraged to attend. For more information please contact Assemblyman Ryan’s Buffalo office at 716.885.9630.

DATE: April 2, 2012

TIME: 5:30pm – 7:30pm

LOCATION: D’Youville Academic Center (Room 216)

My name is Heather Gring, and I am what we call a Buffalo “transplant.” I moved to Buffalo in 2004 to attend college at Buffalo State, and I quickly fell in love with this city. I remember how friendly and welcoming people were (and still are!); everyone I saw on the street smiled or said hello. It’s infectuous, and I hope you get to experience the City of Good Neighbors for yourself in 2013. I think Buffalo would be a fantastic city to host the 2013 BALLE Annual Conference. As the economic state becomes more and more tenuous in the US, asserting the values of local, living economies becomes even more necessary. Corporations, “silver bullet” projects will not invest in our communities and our quality of life; only we can do that for ourselves. In many ways, the economic and political challenges Buffalo faces are very similar to what many communities across the country are dealing with. If we cannot apply the values of local, living economies to economically struggling (though loving and supportive) communities, what true impact can this movement have for the US?

When I first moved here, I was instantly taken with the 19th century architecture and the quirky local businesses that characterized the city. I see a strong correlation between Buffalo’s historic architecture and our local and independent economy. At the dawn of the 20th century, Buffalo was one of the wealthiest cities in the country, but by the 1950′s that had changed forever. In many ways, Buffalo has been written off by the corporate and economic “powers that be,” and this has been our saving grace, which the city has only recently come to realize. Because chain retailers like the GAP didn’t think the city of Buffalo was worth investing in, local businesses have been able to flourish  without having to deal with unfair competition from corporate retailers next door. Similarly, it never became economically viable to tear down (all of) our historic buildings to build parking lots or new skyscrapers, and now Buffalo is recognizing what a diamond in-the-rough it has on its hands! Buffalo remains one of the few places in the US where one can see such a wealth of 19th century architecture (Just look up the H.H. Richardson Towers). Just last year in 2011, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual conference was held in Buffalo and was a wildly successful event that brought enthusiastic Preservationists to Buffalo from all over the country.

When Fredrick Law Olmstead came to Buffalo to construct our park system in the 19th century, he had a very different plan than he created for Central Park. In Buffalo, the park system was a network; his goal was that anyone could walk out of their house and be a few blocks away from a park. I think its symbolic, the network of beautiful public spaces which characterized this city. It’s an incredible feeling, knowing that there are large and small parks scattered all around the city, and you can bike to most of them in under half an hour! Buffalonians both expect and desire a fulfilling quality of life, and building stronger self-determined communities is part of how we continue to achieve this.

I’m not trying to gloss over the rough economic situation in Buffalo; if anything, I see it as one of our greatest opportunities to grow positively. Olmstead’s park system does not exist as he created it in anymore; thanks to urban renewal, some parkways have been turned into expressways which have essentially cut off a third of the city. This coupled with shrinking populations has created a situation where there is more housing than people to fill it, and many once-thriving neighborhoods are now struggling to hang on. But it is in Buffalo’s most destitute communities that we are seeing really amazing initiatives. Communities on the East side are responding to the lack of fresh produce by growing it themselves; multiple urban farms have been established in the past five years. The East side has historically been a very strong immigrant community. In the first half of the 20th century, the East side was home to the third largest Polish community in the country. As a testement of their values, the Broadway Market, a permanent year-round market still hosts local vendors who sell everything from meat and produce to painted Polish wooden eggs and African clothing.

The West side of Buffalo has retained more of the historic aesthetics than the East side, but these communities have struggled too, and in many ways they have succeeded to be self-determined as well. I love talking about the Massachusetts Avenue Project, another initiative which began because communities did not have access to healthy, affordable fresh foods. In addition to their amazing salsa and chili starter made by teenagers who produce, package, and market the product themselves, a few years ago MAP started a closed-system aquaponics tilapia fish farm in the city. I was there on the day when one of the educational directors of the Monterey Bay Aquarium came to see the project (also run by neighborhood teens) and was blown away, remarking that nothing like this was happening anywhere else in the country. And to see it happening in Buffalo, “of all places”! The closed-system aquaponica tilapia farm has now expanded to two tanks, which grow THOUSANDS of fish as well as watercress and other nutrient-loving plants! Zero waste! Buffalo is also home to a large refugee community from places like Somalia and Burma, who are welcomed and integrated into the city. Organizations like Jericho Road and Journey’s End have helped refugees in the assimilation process, and Grassroots Gardens give new refugees plots of land on which they can grow produce and literally plant seeds in the community. These communities continue to enrich Buffalo as a whole, and the West Side Bazaar on Grant St is great proof of that–a permanent storefront opportunity where diverse communities can sell their crafts and become entrepreneurs themselves!

What many people see blight, I see potential. Property is beyond affordable in Buffalo, which has lead many creative people to take financial risks in pursuit of their dreams which would never be possible in more expensive cities. I’m sure Buffalo First! wrote about Five Points Bakery, but I’ll never forget a conversation I had with Kevin one day at the Elmwood Farmer’s Market. He and his wife Melissa have four beautiful daughters, a house, and a bakery across the street. For over a year, they were not able to bring in income while they were working on construction of their all-local bakery. In any other city, they probably wouldn’t have been able to sustain themselves during that period, but here they were able to make their dream a reality. Five Points Bakery is located in a neighborhoot that has been struggling for a while now, but with Five Points, and Urban Roots, the local gardening co-op next door, the neighborhood is beginning to redefine itself as a vibrant part of the community. Five Points sources all of their grain locally, and provides the community with fresh, hearty bread, local meats and dairy and even all-local burritos! If the only reason the 2013 BALLE Conference came to Buffalo was to taste Five Points’ whole-wheat cinnamon rolls, it would be worth it. Trust me.

I have only had time to describe a few of the wonderful initiatives going on in Buffalo which are leading us toward increased self-determination, but I really hope you will have the opportunity to explore this, and so much more about my beloved city. Bringing the BALLE Conference to Buffalo will only help strengthen and reinforce our commitment and skills to create a stronger local, LIVING economy!*

Warm regards,

Heather Gring

* Not that Buffalo First! isn’t already doing a great job of encouraging a stronger, more aware locally-focused community, but you knew that already.

Dear Andrew and the BALLE team,

I am writing in support of Buffalo First’s bid to have Buffalo, NY act as the host city for the BALLE 2013 conference.   I am a young physician from New York City that moved to Buffalo, NY 2 years ago.  My wife and I have been so impressed by Buffalo’s truly vibrant local, living economy and community, we have decided to make this city our permanent home, purchase a house, raise our new son here and start two small independent businesses here.  (My wife is the founder of Sproutin’ Yoga, a small business that hosts children’s yoga and education courses in partnership with local yoga centers and other interesting places such as the Buffalo Zoo, and I am working closely with two other physicians and a local community organizations to open community health worker owned cooperative primary care medical practice for low income Buffalo residents) .

The first day we visited Buffalo, we walked down Elmwood Ave and simply felt the “aliveness” of this city.  There are barely any multinational, corporate shops or restaurants on this vibrant “Main Street” in Downtown Buffalo-  I counted one Starbucks and it is frequently always empty while the independently and locally owned and busy Dolci cafe scopes out homemade Gelato in interesting flavors like red bean and chamomile.    The people here are friendly and passionate about the local economy, pride in our city, social justice, and protecting the environment.

Coming from New York City, the thing I love most about Buffalo is that is truly the anti-Wall St city.  As New York State’s second largest city it stands as a beacon of light on the opposite end of the Empire State from Wall St, showing what a community can look like when corporations abandon a place (both the positive and the negative).   I said in an interview for our local community news blog “The Good Neighborhood”(http://www.thegoodneighborhood.com/), that “Buffalo is what happens to a place when all the corporations leave.  First there is devastation and waste land, but then just like the community gardens we grow in the city’s many empty lots, but then people rise up and flowers grow through the cracks.”

The global Wall St economy has not been good for the people of this great city (our factories have closed, the population is shrinking, poverty and population are unacceptably high), but the local people, just by their sheer force of will, sense of community purpose and passion for this city, its people and the planet have been building the New Economy from the ground up, showing the world how to take our lives back after the Wall St economy has left its devastation and then left.

Here is a short list of some of the truly inspirational organizations and social entrepreneurs that make Buffalo the ideal host for the 2013 BALLE conference:

PUSH Buffalo (Aaron Bartley and Eric Walker)  - http://www.pushbuffalo.org/ :  A local housing advocacy non-profit that has hired local, formally incarcerated young men and trained them to become green contractors rehabbing 10 Winter St, a former abandoned property that is now the greenest private residence in New York State and a “net-zero” home, right on the West Side of Buffalo.  PUSH is now looking to create an entire Green Development Zone in the West Side.

ReUSE Action and Buffalo ReUSE (founded by Michael garner, featured in NYTimes list of most innovative social entrepreneurs) - http://reuseaction.com/. Does green demolition and resells/ reuses pieces of old homes rather than putting them into the dump yard… our home’s kitchen island is a repurposed slab of marble from a now defunct corporate Bank Plaza that was torn down in downtown Buffalo, that we got a Buffalo reUSe.

The Massachusetts Avenue Project (Jeese Meeder and Diane Picard)-  http://mass-ave.org/.  Giant greenhouse with thousands of sustainably raised tapilia in urban Buffalo.   In 2010, MAP was honored by Ed Cassano, Director of Conservation at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, naming MAP’s aquaponics system and urban farm “the future of sustainable food.”

The Lexington Coop- http://lexington.coop/

Urban Roots Garden Coop- http://www.urbanroots.org/

Elmwood-Bidwell farmer’s Market - http://www.elmwoodmarket.org/

Hundreds of locally owned businesses, coffee chops, art galleries, yoga studios, you name it.

Also, the Occupy Buffalo movement was one of the longest standing Occupy encampments, complete with a geodesic dome and traditional native American TeePee (donated by local native elders), and is still very active despite the shutting down of the encampment last month.

Finally, Buffalo First and the Executive director, Sarah Bishop, are an incredible resource and organization.  They do everything from helping host workshops on New York State’s new B-corporation law and how to become a B-corpoation, to the invaluable local coupon book,  to hosting “Teaching By Example” workshops where local business owners and entrepreneurs teach what they know to other budding social entrepreneurs and business owners, to helping organize buffalo Bank Transfer Day where thousands of Buffalo earned dollars were moved out of multinational corporate banks and into local Buffalo credit unions, and much more.

Please host the 2013 BALLE Conference in Buffalo, NY.  The world needs to know about the incredible things happening here.

Sincerely,

Michael O’Brien, MD

***Founder of WnyORSHOP (Western New York Sustainable Health Outcomes Project)

By: Mark Goldman & Peter Dow

In an effort to create a great place at Canal Side we are proposing that on the foot print currently designated as The Market, there be built an “exchange” which, modeled on the world’s great public places, will contain a vibrant and dynamic mix of commercial, cultural and creative activities. The structure that will house the Exchange, will have a 30,000 sq foot print and  will be open and flexible. If built up to three stories (which is our goal) the structure  will contain 10,000 sq. feet of open public space on the first floor and 20,000 feet per floor for commercial, cultural and creative uses. The ability to create many small, say 1000 sq ft spaces, in this one structure, affords us the opportunity to create a truly synergistic building, a place where dozens of commercial, cultural and creative uses will be housed under one roof, The power of this mix will be explosive and with the more activities being  the merrier, the Exchange will thrive. To better understand what we are talking about, see the movie HUGO and pay special attention to the train station. That is our model!

In our first round of meetings we are inviting  local restaurant owners to participate in a visioning session in which we imagine together what role we can play in creating a workable food and beverage program for what promises to be a unique and exciting place at Canal Side.

Date of the meeting: Monday March  26^th at 5:30 pm.

Location: The Back Room at the Allen St. Hardware Café, 245 Allen

This conference boasts leaders from every sector of the New Economy, including, entrepreneurs and investors, academics, elected officials, philanthropists, economic development professionals, activists, and BALLE network staff and representatives.

To showcase the magnitude of the movement, BALLE rotates its host city year to year, enabling cities from coast to coast to strut their sustainable stuff.  Next year, BALLE heads back to the east coast, and there’s nowhere else we’d rather they be.

That’s where you come in…

Part 1 of our proposal is due this Friday, March 16.  We’d like YOU to help us tell BALLE the story of Buffalo!

We know that each of you has your own compelling story to tell, photograph to take, video to send, initiative to discuss – one that can break down the stereotypes surrounding our beloved city, and re-introduce it on a national stage as a bastion of smart growth principles, progressive thinking, grassroots efforts, and a thriving independent business community.

Take a few minutes. Be creative. Use videos, photographs, statistics, quotes, poetry, video, whatever it takes to tell your story – which when gathered together, comprises our collective story. Together, let’s let BALLE know that Buffalo has plenty to teach the rest of the world about creating real local prosperity.

So, what are you waiting for? Send your submission via Facebook to “Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)” (tag Buffalo First! in your submission), Twitter to @BALLE (hashtag your submission #Buffalo2013), or via e-mail (andrew@livingeconomies.org). You have from now until April 1st to help make the case for why this place matters. You’ve done it once, it’s a given that we can do it again.

Thank you for your participation, and help spread the word!

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Buffalo First! is one of over 80 networks woven into the fabric of the BALLE community – representing over 100 independent businesses, 25 nonprofit organizations, and scores of residents throughout Buffalo and Western New York.

Buffalo First! believes in the power of local business to transform the Buffalo and Western New York region and economy. We are primarily focused on supporting social entrepreneurship, educating consumers on the benefits of buying local, encouraging diversity by supporting women and minority-owned businesses, advocating for better policies for mission-driven businesses, and fighting for real prosperity based on good jobs for our community members.

Article X of the Power NY Act will have a stronger Environmental Justice component taking into consideration factors that the old legislation did not, like:

• Increased funding for local communities to hire legal and technical consultants that will enable them to participate effectively in power plant siting decisions;

• Requiring proposed power plants to avoid or minimize any cumulative impacts on air quality in the vicinity of the proposed power plant; and,

• Requiring proposed power plants that would result in or contribute to disproportionate impacts in an affected community to avoid, offset or mitigate these impacts within that community.

The session at Assumption Church will allow citizens to learn from the DEC what the legislation includes and to have their questions answered before comments are accepted. True to their new push for Environmental Justice, the DEC is taking into consideration that normal citizens do not have access to information regarding legislation, and that a place for them to ask questions is not always provided. Western New York residents who are concerned with new and existing power generating facilities should feel free to attend one or both sessions.

Feel free to call the Clean Air Coalition with any questions at 852.3813.

Give For Greatness is a 501(c)3 non-profit that provides funding to more than 60 arts and cultural organizations across Western New York. Originally founded by Artvoice newspaper in the Spring of 2011, G4G believes that a rich cultural community is one of the crucial elements that define great cities. To date, G4G has raised more than $100,000 and will continue to support the region’s arts and cultural institutions during our 2012 Give Season.

This year we are establishing a “You Give You Get” donor rewards program in which we will be offering rewards such as coupons or goods for local retailers as an added incentive for individuals donating to our campaign. This is a very successful model used in Give Campaigns in other parts of the country that we are emulating. We are reaching out to local businesses and organizations in particular because G4G firmly believes that small businesses and the arts are inextricably linked and can be mutually beneficial to one another.

By making an in-kind donation of goods, services, or gift certificates to be used as incentives for cash donors, you will be making an investment that both brings new customers into your business and supports our community. This campaign depends on the support of our local businesses, therefore in return businesses that donate to G4G’s donor rewards program will be featured in our upcoming Give Guide publication. These donations can be in any amount, you could offer 50, 100 or 200 coupons or samples for example, or also offer smaller quantities of donated goods that we can give to donors who contribute more. The first 200 people to give $25 for example would receive a coupon to your business that would bring them and hopefully friends to patronize your establishment. Or you could offer something like a wine tasting as a grand prize, or anything in between.

We hope that you, too, will join our efforts to preserve and support these organizations that contribute to the vibrant communities that make our city great.

If you are interested in donating coupons, gift certificates, or raffle items, please fill out the attached form and return to info@giveforgreatness.org or by mail to 810 Main Street, Buffalo NY 14202. All donations are tax deductible.

Also, feel free to visit our webpage to explore other ways your business can get involved.