That Aud Smell

Jeremy White's getting involved in the Sabres-for-sale Twitter chatter seems significant.

Have you been by, around Seneca One? Jesus Christmas. What an abomination it is from an urban development standpoint. How the funk did Jemal get the local planning board to approve those 15' high fortress walls? Amazing what having a "MFN" status can do for a guy. His treatment of the streetscape in that area never, ever should have been approved. It does additional violence to one of downtown's most valuable historical areas. I predict failure for whatever sterile-ass environment he's trying to manufacture behind those walls. Gross. That's one. I have others. But I'll keep that powder dry. EDIT: I will acknowledge that his work to secure the Statler has been far superior to what Croce was doing (which was essentially nothing). There no longer appears to be a risk of that building's masonry falling into the streets below.

The relevancy of Croce is that the City of Buffalo government has an unproductive, crony capitalist (at best) relationship with certain local developers. The Brown administration loved (loved, loved) them some Croce -- they even named a street outside the Statler after him! What exactly did Croce do to advance the cause of an economic recovery for greater Buffalo? I submit to you: Not a got damn thing. Some flashy, splashy projects got done -- with the help of public money, quasi public money, and private financing. Construction jobs? Okay, sure. There are those. Hooray for the trades. Maybe that's where your allegiance derives. But the role of these developers is wildly, even irresponsibly, overstated when it comes to the supposed "renaissance" of Buffalo. We're still the second or third poorest city in the country. These jabronis are shuffling proverbial chairs around the deck of the Titanic, making a healthy buck, and calling it progress. I call bullspit. So that's why I raised Croce. Jemal just slid into that role as chief among Mayor Brown's most-favoured-developers. But it's a sham. A fake. A hoax.

Could not agree more. Besides, he hasn't played in Buffalo in years.

Be sure to lift with your legs when you carry that much water. Placing faith or belief in a developer is a fool's game. (Something-something about fools and money.) Not so long ago, Jemal festooned key DMV-area government bureaucrats with gifts, and flooded their bosses' coffers with donations. And business for Jemal was good! Very good! Buildings got built! Loans got paid! Progress! MONORAIL! Jemal & Co. wound up so enmeshed with the political class in the DMV that they were criminally tried for wire fraud, bribery, and the like. Jemal managed to wriggle out of the most serious charges. But the stink of that episode lingers for those with eyes that will see, ears that will hear, and ... actually, forget those other 2 senses, the stink lingers for those with a nose that can smell. Some years later, Jemal is inexplicably up here in sleepy Buffalo, NY -- quickly becoming City government's darling, filling the (sizable*) void left by civic paragon** Marc Croce. The comparison to Madoff was hyperbole. I'm not suggesting Jemal is operating an actual Ponzi scheme. But it's fair to say that regional leaders (and our region) would end up being about as well-served by placing faith or trust in Jemal as an investor would have been doing the same with Madoff. *Ha. You see, this is a joke I have made. ** And another.

Let me know how ticket sales go and how viewer ratings are.

I suppose that a debate on what developers actually *do* for a city like Buffalo is beyond the scope of this thread. Colour me skeptical about and distrustful of them, especially when they arrive from out of town. The fact that I alluded to a potential Jemal plan to *privatize City Hall for profit*, and the reaction seemed to be [Chip from Napoleon Dynamite voice] “yeah, that seems like it could be pretty cool” is … well, I’m not sure what to say. He beautified the big tower and got some tenants in it. He’s buying up properties left and right. He’s talking a big game about some of our most neglected jewels. Shoot, maybe he’ll even run fer Mayor! MONORAIL! There’s essentially a playbook for this sort of thing. Madoff did fine for a long while too. If Jemal proves a net positive for Buffalo, I will eat my hat.

@JohnC:Spare me, please. This is essentially a pump and dump scheme, and he’ll hope to get out with a tidy profit before the developer welfare incentives evaporate and he’s consequently illiquid. The guy has been saying the quiet parts out loud. I’m hoping Jemal punks out before he can persuade Byron Brown to allow condos to be placed in City Hall.

Yeah - my antipathy for the economic policy aspect of this is being silo’d for now. I mean: I hate it. I hate the NFL, I hate the owners, on some fundamental level. And yet: Bread and circuses.

Great timing. It sounds like an announcement on the new stadium is days away at this point.

The idea of Jemal putting a group together to buy the Sabres is simultaneously laughable and terrifying. That guy is of a piece with the Simpsons’ “monorail!” charlatan.

This is a good take and these are fair points. I didn't get to watch the game yesterday, but ran the math on SV%. I feel like we've been seeing sub .900 efforts for a while now. A difference maker in the cage would help a lot, but there must be, as you say, other issues afoot. With that said, it occurs to me: Some of the porous team defence here likely owes to Granato's refusal to play "low incident, small ice" hockey. The details of this are beyond my capabilities (or free time constraints), but I would bet dollars to donuts that if you were to compare the D-zone structure (or even neutral zone spacing) of, say, a Bylsma Sabres team or even a Housley Sabres team, you'd see Sabres teams that are much more compact (even packed in) and essentially playing not to surrender chances (or at least high quality chances), and, in so doing, were surrendering the ability to transition quickly for a chance the other way.

I got to watch a whole game for the first time in an age. I’d been scratching my head over the love for Samuelsson. But last night, he showed why he should have a future in the NHL. It was smart, physical play in the D zone (long stick too), and then a whole lot of calm, simple transition passes (head always up on that big frame). He even made a couple of smart (pinch) plays in STL’s zone. Excellent game for him, imo.

4 GA on 22 SOG. That’s something.

Bad result. Excellent effort.

***** Mittlestadt.

Tuch is such a direct player - love it.

Deservedly so

And they’ve been the better team while having to play the corpse of Cody Eakin as the 4th line centre.

This has been a good hockey game, and the Sabres have been the better team, imo.

Did Thompson double shift with the 4th line wingers?

This is the first time I’ve liked Samuelsson’s game.

An infuriating but unsurprising stat from the OP. When I watch Eakin play, I sometimes marvel at how feckless he is.