Disingenuous Hypocrisy Running Rampant?
In January Inside Buffalo was notified about many problems concerning messes around town and the clean-up necessary to improve the unsightly, deplorable conditions around the Town of Buffalo.
In February Inside Buffalo asked one of our contributing authors to tackle the issue and on the 27th we posted an article he/she wrote about APATHY Found Here.
We then followed up with an article about how the word "Apathetic" can quickly turn to "Pathetic" when it comes to the defenders of the Town and the Town Manager and the shenanigans going on in Buffalo. Found Here. The article referenced addressed blight conditions, junk, and piles of debris all over town.
Inside staff took some photos and posted them to our website on March 6. We specifically mentioned a pile of tree limbs which had been piled there since January, when we were first notified that the Town was ignoring the stack of junk.
We also notified the Town Manager about the piles of junk, tree limbs, and crap all over Town.
Here is what was written and the picture as a reference:
We are taking this moment to notify the Town of another large pile of tree limbs and debris on SE 5th at Broad St. Inside Buffalo was informed that the pile has been there for going on 4 weeks. We’ll see how long the pile remains there.
Again – that pile was there since January! Today we received another message from a citizen who cares about Buffalo advising us that the pile is STILL THERE!
5 MONTHS LATER AND THE PILE REMAINS!
This sends a great message to people who are not from Buffalo who visit this website regularly. It also sends a fantastic message to the people of Buffalo themselves.
Here is the article to which we are referring: CLICK HERE
There were those posting on the Buffalo Blog, while the articles about blight, trash, garbage, junk and debris were actively being read back in February and March, apologizing for Joe McVicker, Buffalo’s Town Manager, and expressing their support. They were demanding that we give him a break. They were telling us to ease up on him - that he was doing the best he could. Inside responded with the article referenced above.
These are, it appears, the same group of bloggers who made these comments:
The following is copied and pasted exactly as it appeared on the Buffalo Blog located at: onsidebuffalo.blogspot.com
Jo Ellen said...
I had to laugh out loud when I read about the Buffalo Blighted Property Review Committee (BBPRC) on your sister site. I mean, seriously, the "BBPRC" will review subject properties in Buffalo, award First and Second Declarations of Blight, then forward to the Buffalo Code Enforcement division for proper and legal remedies to be pursued?!?!?!
I have a novel idea, why not push away from your keyboards long enough to put on a pair of gloves and volunteer to join some of the citizens of Buffalo on a Saturday afternoon for a real clean-up committee. In my opinion, there are better ways to volunteer your time and effort besides posting editorials and pictures of individual properties and picking on those individuals with humiliation being the #1 goal.
I have been vocal on this blogsite about trying to get everyone to pull together and help one another with the goal of having a town-wide clean-up day. I drove all the streets in my home town also and was really quite surprised that some of the areas that needed attention for many years have already been cleaned up. Sure, there are still some that need attention, but I also noticed that several of these properties are owned by elderly or handicapped individuals (and, granted, some are not). Several other property owners own cars only and don't have a pickup to haul anything off. Quite possibly these individuals would like to get rid of the limbs and junk, but have no way to accomplish that.
I would like to see a scheduled clean-up workday on a Saturday in April. I would volunteer to be there with my shovel, gloves and pickup. I'm sure that if the townspeople scheduled a town-wide clean-up, the city would work with us on opening the gates for disposal of the refuse. As I have said before, just an hour or two of time from half of the citizens that are currently attending the Town Board Meetings and all of the posters/writers on the onsidebuffalo and insidebuffalo websites, a lot could be accomplished! I would much rather approach the situation with a positive approach than see it approached with humiliation and degradation.
So, how about it onsidebuffalo...and insidebuffalo...would you be willing to become a part of the solution and pitch in to help with a clean-up day? I am willing to put in a little honest work in order to do this, are you willing to do the same? Heck, I will even work right beside you two if that's what it will take to get you to pitch the keyboards and cameras and help pick up the "blight"!
Let's get back to the small town concept of neighbor helping neighbor. That's what small towns are about!
Wed Mar 18, 12:38:00 AM
OK Blog comment person:
There was a Town Wide Clean Up day and
although both Inside Buffalo and Onside Buffalo
representatives were there cleaning up
WHERE THE HECK WERE YOU?
We pushed away from our keyboards long enough but although we were challenged by YOU – YOU failed to live up to the challenge which YOU presented! Typical.
What happened to your core belief you were preaching: “small town concept of neighbor helping neighbor. That's what small towns are about!”?
First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
I read that somewhere and thought of it as apropos. {chuckle}
Then this was written on the blog…
Jo Ellen said...
Hey, M.S, you can join me on clean-up day if you wish. I offered to work right beside onsidebuffalo and insidebuffalo with an honest days work on clean-up day. I don't believe onsidebuffalo has committed to assist yet. And from earlier posts, I'm pretty sure that insidebuffalo is going to avoid the honest days work. Not sure, but I think it's probably a pretty good guess! LOL :) Mon Mar 23, 11:47:00 PM
How wrong you were!
A bit of "Crow" for lunch perhaps?
We didn’t see you there! Why didn't we see you there? Because you weren't there! There was a group working around the fairgrounds and there was the Harper group on Main St (Hoy) - but none of the blog commenters were anywhere to be found.
Both InsideBuffalo.net and OnsideBuffalo.blogspot.com people were working! Cleaning Up!
Greg Harper, his wife Susan, who is an elected Town Trustee, and their children were all out there for something like 7 hours! I’d say that Onside responded to your challenge. They used their own tools, their own gasoline, lawn and power equipment and cleaned up Hoy St from the bridge to past the Video store.
Inside Buffalo was out there too! Pulling weeds, helping with the junk clean up, walking Hoy St from the bridge to the Video Store collecting & filling up bags of garbage and trash from alongside the highway.
NOT ONE PERSON from the TOWN OF BUFFALO except for the trustee aforementioned, showed up to put in, as the blog commenter stated: “an honest days work”. The Town Manager did show up, ( by the way he was late) at the meeting point which was published in the Harper County Journal, to announce to the throng, make that the few who came out to work, that he had a funeral to attend hours later and couldn’t be there to work the Town-Wide Clean Up Day, but he certainly didn't show up to put in an honest days work now did he?
INSIDEBUFFALO WOULD LIKE TO KNOW... WHERE WAS THE BIG AD IN THE JOURNAL THANKING THOSE WHO SHOWED UP FOR THE TOWN WIDE CLEAN UP DAY? - You know - like is always published by some do-gooder in the town when a good deed is done by volunteers around Buffalo in an attempt to make the town look so gloriously appreciative?
Maybe we missed the ad 'eh?
Again – Typical!
As one resident put it so succinctly, “After all, this is Buffalo”
Yes, that it is.
The commenter on the blog said
“I would much rather approach the situation with a positive approach than see it approached with humiliation and degradation.”
We tried it your way. We remained silent for 2 months about the blighted properties, junk, piles of tree limbs and other forms of crap all around this town and NOTHING HAPPENED – That's not exactly correct - something did happen - things are worse!
It’s time for the Town Trustees of Buffalo to work a little on improving their bravery.
Time for a little GUTS! Time to let the town manager of Buffalo know-
IT IS TIME TO GET THINGS
CLEANED UP AROUND HERE
IT IS TIME TO GET THE
K.F.O.R. CHANNEL 4 -
DUNG HOUSE CLEANED UP!
IT IS TIME TO GET BLIGHT
IDENTIFIED AND REMOVED
IT IS TIME TO GET PILES OF LIMBS
& TREE BRANCHES REMOVED
FROM TOWN STREETS
IT IS TIME FOR OUR TOWN
TRUSTEES & TOWN MANAGER
TO STEP UP & RESOLVE
THESE ISSUES – NOW!
