Archive for April 15th, 2007
Criticism aimed at Donn Esmonde’s column is popping up in the blogosphere here, here and other places. Esmonde’s criticism is valid, a plan produced with public input is being unilaterally ignored. Bass Pro is to be the beneficiary of a $25 million store as a gift paid for with our tax dollars. In return, Bass Pro will pay no rent, no real estate taxes and a measly $300,000 annual common area maintenance charge. That amounts to about $2.50 per square foot per month. Try leasing similar new build retail space anywhere else and I’m sure you would encounter rates exceeding $20 per square foot.
Another article in the News points out that Bass Pro will kill the potential for activity in the waterfront area.
The problem is that the Bass Pro building and parking ramp will deaden the area, rather than enliven it. Retail stores close typically at 9 p.m. Their storefronts and sides, particularly with bigbox entities — where ground level street-edge floor areas are too valuable for the company to lease out to restaurants and such that cater to street pedestrian traffic — turn lifeless and discourage pedestrian circulation and interest.
Parking structures, visible from and adjacent to the street, are even more detrimental. Not only are people disinterested in reaching restaurants, entertainment venues and other evening offerings overshadowed by such realities, investors shy away from opening public-dependent businesses in their vicinities. Evening entertainment — which begins to live and breathe at 9 — has little chance at thriving.
Restaurants and entertainment venues make much more sense. Crawdaddy’s, in its heyday, drew many people to the area until the people living nearby started complaining about the music. People eating at a restaurant are more likely to stroll around and enjoy the area than people purchasing outdoor gear and driving home with their purchases.
The Bass Pro being proposed, although smaller than the original plans, is big enough to create a huge dead space once the shopping day is over. The proximity to the HSBC arena suggests that destinations people can enjoy after a hockey game or concert would draw much more pedestrian traffic to the Canal District.
It is time for Buffalo to trade costly silver bullets for a dose of reality and commonsense.
Bill Online Easily, Fast & Free with PayPal. No Software Needed. Sign Up Now!
Please read this and respond to the FDA using the link in the quoted text. This is another government attempt to regulate what we, as individuals, can ingest and/or use with our bodies. The beneficiaries are the well connected interests of the “mainstream” health care industry.
When it comes to health freedom, this is the FDA’s end game. A new FDA “guidance” document, published on the FDA’s website, reveals plans to reclassify virtually all vitamins, supplements, herbs and even vegetable juices as FDA-regulated drugs. Massage oils and massage rocks will be classified as “medical devices” and require FDA approval. The document is called Docket No. 2006D-0480. Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA is accepting public comments on the docket until April 30th. They tried to sneak this under the radar, but word got out and now the natural health community is up in arms over this rule. If you wish to protect your access to nutritional supplements, herbs, essential oils, homeopathic medicine or any other “complementary” or “alternative” modality, it is crucial that you take action to post your comments with the FDA right now and write your representatives in Washington to put a stop to this outrageous effort to destroy natural medicine. (And be sure to really write them. Just sending an email has virtually no impact compared to writing a physical letter in your own words.)
Click here for the direct link to the FDA’s comment posting page for this docket.
Continue Reading “Alert: FDA Attempting to Regulate Supplements, Herbs and Juices as "Drugs"” »
