Erie

The Denise O'Donnell campaign has another announcement of upstate support, touting "landslide" votes from the county committees in Columbia and Putnam, which join the Broome, Rensselaer, Chautauqua and Erie organizations in backing her candidacy.

It's always a nice idea, in theory: the candidate of upstate New York, the perennially ignored constituency, rides a wave of northerly support while the rest of the field splits the city and suburbs into little pieces.

We'll have to see about the surprises that await us at the convention in Buffalo, but I suspect the problem for her will be the usual one, that too few of the state's Democrats live in places like Chautauqua County for those endorsements to matter.

It's a simplistic analysis, admittedly, but for now, the math doesn't seem to work out no matter how you add it up.

She'll just have to hope for the rapid onset of Cuomo-fatigue in the Democrat-rich areas around the city.

Full announcement after the jump.  read more »

Taking a break from our coverage of the Fairway opening yesterday, we walked over to the Ikea site that sits on the Erie Basin. While officially inaccessible, smart adventurers know how to gain access to the site--which is where we found this creepy tableau that's suggestive of horrors too eh, horrible to mention. These children's bicycles were found, as is, feet from a former homeless encampment adjacent to the Ikea site.

 read more »

Yeah, it's clever of Ikea to use a Dire Straits song for its animated walk-through of their planned Red Hook store (the Erie Basin and the long struggle to get this store approved are but two referents we can think of immediately), but "Walk of Life"? Song blows, yo. Nonetheless, this video (click on connection speed at top of page) shows a livable compromise between Ikea's big boxiness and public access to the waterfront. The cranes in Ikea yellow and blue does seem like a sellout--can't they be kept decrepit and maritime?

(Via Amy's New York Notebook.)  read more »

-Matthew Grace

Jack Davis, the throwback anti-trade industrialist who almost beat Tom Reynolds Upstate two years ago, is back in.

Here's his letter:

Hello Friends,

Many of you have encouraged me to pick up my slingshot and fight the Goliath Reynolds. I have tested the waters (polled) and discovered the possibility of defeating Reynolds looks great. All we have to do is get our message out on lost jobs, expensive health care, the Iraq War and terrorism.

I will formally announce my candidacy for Congress in the 26 th District on March 30th in press conferences in Erie, Livingston and Monroe counties. You are invited.

March 30th, 2006

-9 AM: Protocol Restaurant, 6766 Transit Rd., Amherst, NY -12 noon: Big Tree Inn, 46 Main St., Geneseo, NY -4 PM: The Dutch Mill, 2901 Dewey Ave., Greece, NY

With your help we will bury Goliath in November and celebrate in Washington in January.

Let's rumble.

Sincerely,

Jack Davis