TrueBlueGED
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Posts posted by TrueBlueGED
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things that are awesome...
GETTING A REAL JOB WOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:thumbsup:
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Oh they're in town. They're working on journal articles and other "professor" stuff. My work is not important right now.
Thumb up my ass.
Wow that's even worse. At least you have some extra free time in the summer now? Small silver lining, yes, but it's silver!
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Was told two weeks ago that my thesis board could meet with me in two weeks (next week). Now I'm being told it will be another two weeks before they'll be able to meet with me.
Two Four Six Eight/
I'll never graduate at this rate.
What they're trying to tell you is don't bother until the semester starts and they have to be in town.
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Nice distortion. I'd actually like the polar opposite, or continental opposite. I want Terry to stay in Florida. Set the mission, hire good hockey people, sign the checks, sit back and evaluate. I don't want him anywhere close to "running" the team.
A little perspective here. Terry and Ted said on day one they didn't want to get into the development business, that if positive things happened on the waterfront, they'd settle for an assist — not a goal. Terry also said on Day One he wasn't interested in buying the Amerks and that he didn't want to raise ticket prices. After Benson said in this video that Terry said, before he bought the Sabres, that he wanted to do something to develop the waterfront, I kind of wonder how much I'm supposed to believe from these guys.
Show of hands. Who'd like to see Terry and company concentrate on Job One in Buffalo before moving on to this and that? Dude needs some ADD meds.
So you want him to focus on Job One (presumably winning a Cup?), criticize him for focusing on other things, yet you only want him to hire people and get out of the way? So he hired people, he's letting them do their jobs (as you wanted him to do), and then you still see fit to criticize him for doing something else? Why not just come out and say "I'll hate him and crap on everything he does until he fires people" since that's what you obviously are getting at.
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A little perspective here. Terry and Ted said on day one they didn't want to get into the development business, that if positive things happened on the waterfront, they'd settle for an assist — not a goal. Terry also said on Day One he wasn't interested in buying the Amerks and that he didn't want to raise ticket prices. After Benson said in this video that Terry said, before he bought the Sabres, that he wanted to do something to develop the waterfront, I kind of wonder how much I'm supposed to believe from these guys.
Show of hands. Who'd like to see Terry and company concentrate on Job One in Buffalo before moving on to this and that? Dude needs some ADD meds.
Yes, surely he is incapable of running the Sabres at the same time he does other things. In fact, I think he should move his residence into the F'nC and never leave, not even for dinner, as to not distract from Job One. :rolleyes:
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Wrong thread.
Yea, I actively avoid that thread for a reason ;)
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Why don't you get some of your facts straight and call me maybe.
Call me maybe?........are you slightly giving in after all this time? :wub:
I don't think she's giving in, but that damn song has been stuck in my head since reading her post :wallbash:
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What....in estimating value of real estate given comparable units nearby, and in other feature projects that are similar elsewhere......multiplied by average real estate taxes that would be recouped?
What.....in giving examples of other municipalities that have defaulted on revenue stream projects with only one use, and long term implications of either having to eat the cost of the project, or suffering long term with increased interest rates on their borrowing across the board?
What....of showing that Hockey Heaven couldn't even support an NHL team to the point that it could carry the debt load on the arena, and $20 million+ was taken from the taxpayers to forgive debt in order to get Golisano to buy the Sabres?
Paladino has laid out his entire plan, so it is much easier to see where revenue streams will come from. In the Pegula plan, taxpayers are directly subsidizing a value-added benefit to his already exisiting enterprise with NO ALTERNATIVE FUTURE USE, and gut the rvenue streams of taxes on residential and office space with the hopes and dreams that hundreds of thousands of hockey moms will bring their children in from out of the area to iceskate, and they will stay for a week and buy Gucci purses.
But let's just stick to insulting posters when we have no clue of which we speak.
1) Congrats, you actually did that.
2) You gave ONE example, and claimed to have dozens of others. Even if you were to list the dozens of others which failed, I'm pretty sure I could find dozens which have succeeded. Saying some projects have failed says nothing about the viability of that type of project, since there's always failures.
3) What needed to be done to get Golisano to buy the Sabres has no relation to the viability of a rinks project.
4) How's the office space occupancy rate in Buffalo doing? What evidence do we have that these new office spaces will automatically fill up? Oh, and no alternative future use? What about the possibility of an ECHL or OHL franchise? Something like that isn't right around the corner, but if it's a lot easier to accomplish if you have the facility.
The Sabres' proposal has almost twice the retail space, a fitness center (which I'd put money is successful in spite of whatever else happens), and more hotel rooms. It also gives the prospect of future events, future minor franchises/junior teams, and gives suburbanites a reason to actually go into the city when things are held there. You're basically looking at rinks vs. office space, and fitness facility and 60 extra hotel rooms vs. 40 luxury apartments. Opting for the Paladino proposal is your typical Buffalo "well, it has a lower chance of being a complete failure" minimalistic line of thinking, as opposed to having a vision and aggressively pursuing something bigger. Yea, it may fail...but you don't turn Buffalo around by constantly hitting singles, sometimes you have to go for a home run and risk striking out.
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is it set to "better days"?
:lol:
If I had to listen to that song loop for an hour, it would turn me against the proposal!
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http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/24280948
The actual Sabres proposal presentation. Warning: It's about an hour long. I haven't watched it yet, but plan to sometime today.
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You can give money to Pegula...but let's call it what it is......A practice rink and enhancements to his money making operation under the guise of "Yeah! Hockey Rink for the people!"
Show me numbers......show me how this is going to benefit the community and the taxpayers. Why do you need 2,000 seats for some kiddies coming down for a 2 day tourney?
I've shown you estimated numbers and reasons why Paladino's proposal makes more sense......show me with concrete examples how Pegula deserves extra money from tax payers leaving him with no incentive to sell residential units that are tied to retail space? If Paladino fails.....he is F'd. If Pegula fails.....he has free ice rinks, parking spaces, and ramps to add to his Sabres revenue stream.
The taxpayers already ate Tens of millions when debt was forgiven and Golisano bought the team. And that was for an actual Hockey Heaven NHL Team Arena. Now we are dealing with add-ons and pie in the sky hopes that thousands will nring their children downtown to iceskate each day.
There are plenty of other ways for Pegula to get involved downtown without adding a burden to taxpayers in such a great amount. I am not opposed to him getting the site, in fact if he gets it there is a better chance of completion. I want to see HARDCORE projections......and there is no way I would give him more money than the other project.
If the Sabres were smart, they would concentrate on a smaller project in Amherst. Partner with UB, get a practice rink minutes away from where most of the Sabres live, add hotel and conference space and do it on free land, saving the state, county, and city money and adding an asset that could grow the school in term of sports and recognition. Then everyone wins in this.
You've shown pulled out of your ass numbers, not estimated numbers. There's a difference. The public simply isn't privy to the real financial estimates of the revenue generation of both of these proposals.
And of course there's self-interest involved, only a fool would think there isn't. But I don't think self-interest and public-interest are mutually exclusive concepts--the proposal can benefit both Pegula and the area.
As much as I like your Amherst idea, it doesn't do anything to help the city itself. In fact maybe it does the opposite since it gives people yet another reason to just stay in the suburbs. And that's the crux of it for me, the Paladino proposal does nothing to bring in people from the suburbs. Maybe some big-wigs who can afford the condos move in, but that's it. It doesn't bring in people from outside the area for tournaments or other events, it doesn't give people in the suburbs a reason to spend a day in the city, or anything like that.
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I know Pegula doesn't own teh webster block, but he also isn't currently leasing it from the City either. So in negotiations the Bills are asking that part of the lease agreement includes renovations, they still don't own the stadium themselves, so your saying that Ralph should have to pay to upgrade something he isn't the owner of? Would you pay your own money for repairs and upgrades to an apartment or condo you are renting/leasing or would you tell the owner that they should be paying to upgrade things?
No, I don't think Wilson should pay for upgrades to a facility he doesn't own, but at the same time I don't think it should necessarily be included in the lease agreement either. Are the upgrades necessary? If they increase profitability, who gets that money? The Bills or the taxpayers who paid for the damn thing? But I don't think that's what Drane was getting at anyway. My reading of his comment was he's opposed to subsidizing a billionaire, and the county absolutely subsidizes the Bills. If I'm wrong on that I'm sure he'll be happy to correct me.
Oh, and I still think building more office space is a terrible idea and a complete waste of investment.
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Ralph doesn't own his stadium, the county/government owns it and its part of their lease agreement.
If TP had nothing to do with the project and say for example, it was Quinns proposal to build the TP Proposal against Paladino, would everyone here still be in favour of it?
And Pegula doesn't own the Webster block, the city does. The upgrades that were part of the Bills lease agreement were already finished. They want another ~$200 million for more upgrades to go along with a new lease agreement.
Yes, I would still be for it. Quinn sucked at running the Sabres, but he was very effective at getting other things done. Another part of my support for the Sabres' proposal is I have faith it will actually be done, whereas I have less faith that Paladino's will be completed--he has other properties he doesn't do a whole lot with.
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So you want the taxpayers to front more money to a guy worth $5 billion to build his team a practice rink?
UB has land out the wazzoo up in Amherst. You can build a rink there for pennies and have all your Amherst/Williamsville/N.Buff Soccer/Hockey moms right around the corner if you need more precious ice time. Dozens of public funded sports facilities fail....with the same gradiose hopes as this one. Minnesota just built a rink for $26 million and they are ready to default a little more than a year later. In the past I have seen rinks and complexes get restructured at pennies on the dollar and the municipalities taking a hit in credit rating when they don't step up and make bondholders whole. If they don't float bonds....it's tens of millions out of taxpayers' pockets......if they do issue them and something goes bad, not only are you on the hook for tens of millions, but imagine your borrowing costs go up 1/2% on everything you issue because of a failure. That could cost the city/county $5 million a year going forward.
At least in Paladino's proposal, you have $30-$50MM worth of condos you can tax at $1.5 million a year. You still have the retail and the hotel as revenue options. He isn't asking for extra money to build a bridge to the arena and extra parking spaces for a direct revenue source to an existing means of income. His group would be on the hook to get deals done.
Like I said upthread......I wouldn't be surprised to learn Pegula gets this thing no matter what and Paladino is just waiting for the right reason to "go away".
The bolded statement really sums it up for me. You're fundamentally against giving money to Pegula.
Serious question: are you OK with the taxpayers fronting $200 million to billionaire Ralph Wilson for stadium upgrades?
Edit: To expand upon this a little, subsidizing people/businesses to build something is just how the system works. Would you be against giving tax breaks to a company to build a new regional headquarters in the area if it created a few hundred jobs, just because the company technically doesn't need the tax breaks? Realistically it's just how things get done.
Oh, and pretty sure you over-estimated Pegula's net worth by about $2 billion. http://www.forbes.com/profile/terrence-pegula/
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That cost is basically free if you just stop maintaining it for a few years.......
Well, there's still the cleanup in the aftermath...unless you think a pile of rubble is more attractive than the skyway...which may be a reasonable position :lol:
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Shame some of these reuse proposals weren't approved and ready to go a few years ago, might have been able to nab some "stimulus" money to help fund them.
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That's the thing....the links don't work so I can't see projected tax income or ROI on any projects.....but by the sounds of it, Paladino's is much better for the city. You want people in those spaces 24/7 who will eat and shop in the city. You want the tax rolls of people spending 300K-1MM on condos. You want to put the retail space on the hook by having residential units.....because the untits get killed in value if the retail fails and vice-versa.
I don't want to pay tens of millions to subsidize a billionaire so some kids can enjoy their hobby and open skate. Plenty of other places to put a rink, but not many landmarks where you can fetch that kind of money on condos in the area. I wouldn't pay to rent a loft downtown....and I wouldn't pay a 50% premium to be on a waterfront, freezing my ass off 8 months a year, but if I already worked there, I would think about buying a condo with food and shops below me and 41 Sabres games a 100 foot walk away from me while a few blocks from the theatre district...instead of driving in from Amherst/etc. like many do.
The city/county/state is already caput. I can get you bonds for 5 cents on the dollar of other ice rinks that have failed.
Either way.....it's the blind leading the "I didn't see nuthin'" leading the Hockey Heaven brigade. It would be nice if some outside forces could see value here.
Do you work for city hall, by chance? Because this is exactly the type of logic I expect those fools to use.
Do you just dislike Pegula?
As far as your valuation goes, I just think you're being short-sighted. It's about attracting people to the area, having something unique and a reason for people to go more often. Maybe having rinks in the city allow the development of more WNY talent. Maybe it's a stepping stone to some new programs. Maybe it helps UB get a D! team if it ever decides to go that route. The whole idea is to help bring in money from outside the city, from outside the Buffalo area with events, not just recycle money from people who already live here.
You say there's plenty of other places to put rinks, I say there's plenty of other places to put condos. There's a ton of office space already, and more could easily be developed. If the Paladino proposal gets it, it's just another example of Buffalo leadership thinking small and short-term, rather than big and long-term.
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Opinion:
Sabres win hands down. They're investing twice as much. Their ice rinks will create jobs and bring in tourism dollars. Their space is soo much more public-use oriented (more retail space, ice rink space, fitness center) than the other plan, which is really important in that location. It enhances the notion of hockey heaven by building a new regional destination and the services to support it. It looks like Pegula is building for the people (ice rinks, retail space) and Paladino is building for wealthy private use (office and luxury apartment space).
I think it's more useful to the city to create something new and publicly accessible in that space, be it ice rinks or a different attraction, instead of constructing new office space or apartment space when there's plenty of other nearby buildings that can be renovated into great office space and apartment space (for cheaper!).
I completely agree with your assessment....which is why I remain as pessimistic as ever, and expect Paladino to get the bid. I have zero faith in this city's leadership to actually do something which requires vision for the future.
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"The Hobbit" has now been confirmed as three movies. </geekgasm>
Bah. I loved Tolkien's books, but this smells like a money grab to me.
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Actually, the Skyway is bad enough, but then you have the Marine Drive Apartments - those are ugly buildings and they block the view of the Inner Harbor at least as much as, if not more than the Skyway does. In a perfect world, both of these would be gone. Knowing Buffalo, we'll be seeing them for years to come.
Both Webster Block proposals look good - if I had to choose, I'd go with the twin ice rinks. Knowing that available ice time around Buffalo is always in short supply, putting these in would guarantee increased activity at the foot of Main Street. But whichever one is chosen, PLEASE actually build the thing! We've had too many years of having our hopes raised, only to be dashed upon the rocks of local politics.
I agree that both projects look good, but I'd go for the Sabres proposal for a few reasons.
1) It's actually a unique destination and a reason to go into the city. As somebody who has lived in the suburbs for my entire life, I rarely have a reason to go into the city. Give me one, and I will! More office space and apartments that I can't afford aren't going to get me there.
2) Does the city really need more office space? Seriously, especially with HSBC moving out, I can't imagine a reason why we need to pour tens of millions into new office space when the city can't fill the space it currently has.
3) If the Sabres get the bid, I have faith it will actually get done. Maybe it's blind faith in Pegula, but I think he's demonstrated that when he gets involved, things get done. Paladino sometimes gets things done, but he also has other properties with which he's done the equivalent of nothing.
In sum I think the Sabres' proposal gives people a reason to go into the city who otherwise wouldn't, and it's just a really cool concept, whereas the Paladino proposal strikes me as more of the same, only newer. What does this mean? The visionaries in city hall will crunch the numbers, see the Paladino proposal is cheaper, and go with it :wallbash:
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There were 5 cop cars in the parking lot as I got to work this morning. I knew I'd have an email waiting for me that explained the whole thing. It turns out that they arrested some guy who was breaking into cars and also came into the building and stole packages from the mail area. The best part is that this moron was doing all of this at the same time as people were showing up for work. This is hilariously stupid. I can't believe someone would be dumb enough to break into cars while all the other cars are pulling into the garage.
Haha. I love stupid criminal stories. Awhile back I read about a guy who just got out on parole, but left some personal effects behind. So what does he do? He steals a car to go get them. Brilliant!
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Her current haircut sucks though. I saw her in some of her promotional stuff for TDKR and she's got ridiculously short hair going right now. I've never been a fan of that. I'm assuming she has it for her next role in Les Miserables.
Yea, there's very few women who can pull off short hair IMO (Halle Berry, for example) and it's certainly not doing Anne any favors...but I'd get over it pretty quick.
I love her in one photo and hate her in the next. What's her problem? :)
:lol:
I was just going to say that! She's one of those shapeshifters. In one photo she is beyond beautiful, in the next she looks like a killer clown.
I too noticed this...and this too is something I'd get over mighty quick if given the opportunity ;)
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She really is the perfect blend of the unattainable and approach-ability
Of course she's also age inappropriate, so I gift her to you.
You are welcome.
I will name our children after you.
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I went to see the Anne Hathaway movie last night. She stars in a comic book movie. I don't recall the rest. She was good.
Anne Hathaway :wub:
Things that are AWESOME...
in The Aud Club
Posted
At the risk of sending this off on a "good ol' days tangent".....NHL Network is currently replaying game 1 of the 06 playoff series against the Flyers. It's about halfway through right now, so anybody at home (or in an exceedingly awesome workplace) can catch the second half.