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Bass
Priorities
 Brian
“Tool” Higgins exerted some political muscle by getting Gov.
George Pataki to go along with the creation of an authority
to oversee redevelopment of Buffalo’s waterfront. Now that
this has been accomplished, what is their top priority? Sinking
60 million dollars plus into a Bass Pro superstore in the
old War Memorial Auditorium.
Usual suspects involved in this project include friend of
Artvoice Larry Quinn, former Ambassador to Malta for the Bush
administration Tony Gioia, and casino attorney Mike Powers.
Casino
attorney? Well, Mike Powers represented certain downtown interests
(read: parking lot magnate Carl Paladino) in their courageous
and ultimately successful bid to force the Seneca Nation of
Indians to open a third WNY casino in downtown Buffalo. If
you go to www.basspro.com, you’ll find that they just happen
to have experience in the retail/casino development field
in Las Vegas. Not that they’d want to be a part of something
like that in the old Aud. It’s just interesting, that’s all.
Anyway,
getting the Bass Pro deal done is job number one for our latest
panel of experts. A couple of summers ago, friends of Bass
Pro tried to ram it through in the middle of a summer session
of the New York Legislature. It’s a time of year when public
opposition to controversial expenditures of government money
is at a low ebb thanks to the kind of weather which allows
people to actually get out enjoy things such as Buffalo’s
waterfront.
Did
you know that with no casino attached to it, the Bass Pro
is projected to draw four million people a year? Don’t know
where that figure came from but it was dutifully reprinted
by The Buffalo News, so it must be true.
If
all goes well you could be getting your video crack fix while
pickin’ up some bait and tackle by next Christmas. But be
advised: with all the raw sewage seeping into the lake from
the notoriously incompetent Buffalo Sewer Authority, you’ll
want to be careful with the ice fishing.
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