Seems there's been some confusion lately among the economic development officials I cover: It is not my job to be a booster for your projects. Sorry!
It IS my job, tho, to critically assess who & what you're giving tax breaks to.
(this, from a Genesee Co official, is about me):
used to be one of the most famous Black neighborhoods in the country. city tore it down & kicked everybody out so that they could build a hockey stadium. now it’s parking lots.
🚨BREAKING — and it's a bombshell: The City of Buffalo has paid more than $500,000 to a clerk who has not shown up for work in 7.5 years.
Jill Repman, has been on paid leave since 2016 — all while working a second job.
Via
@ghkelly1969
Glad to see
@WSJ
turn a critical eye on Buffalo's Tesla factory, a facility built with $959M in taxpayer money that hasn't fulfilled its promises.
I and other local reporters wrote this story months ago, of course, but the nat'l attention is nice.
an underrated type of person imo is the local historian. huge respect for someone who can list off all the notable residents who were ever born, or died, or were loosely associated with a town of like 8k people
BREAKING NEWS: Geico workers in the Buffalo, NY region are attempting to organize a labor union at their 2,500-worker regional office.
Geico is one the biggest employers in Western New York.
🚨NEW: For the first time, Investigative Post can report just how big of a boondoggle Buffalo’s Tesla factory has been.
After NY invested $1B for a solar factory, less than 25% of the
@Tesla
factory jobs are in solar. And Tesla’s Solar Roof is struggling:
NEW from me:
@elonmusk
said his Tesla factory in Buffalo would produce 1,000 Solar Roofs per week.
A new report shows his Buffalo factory, since 2020, has produced 2% of that goal.
It’s new evidence that Tesla coming to WNY was based on a false promise
NEW: Investigative Post has obtained explosive audio of a Western New York housing developer admitting they won't build in predominately-Black areas.
The developer uses code words, referring to Black people as "Canadians."
Via
@ghkelly1969
:
@ghkelly1969
While reporting this story, no one would answer
@ghkelly1969
's simple question: Was Ms. Repman still a city employee? Was the arbitration proceeding over? What was her employment status?
“This is gravely concerning," said one city council member.
NEW: A story about downtown Buffalo’s Harborcenter.
If you’ve never been, it’s a big building w/ a hotel, restaurants and hockey rinks.
The billionaire Pegulas got $57M in public $ to build it, in exchange for jobs.
They’ve only met their goal once:
Some ✨personal news✨ now that it's official official: I'm going to be joining the Data & Investigations team at
@njdotcom
at the end of the month! This team has done some incredible, impactful work that's won reforms for the people of NJ and I can't wait to work alongside them.
Well y'all, it's time for some news.
After 2 years in the gorgeous state of South Carolina, I'm heading back North to work as an investigative reporter for the Investigative Post in Buffalo, NY.
I'll be writing about how local gov't serves, and screws, poor & working people.
New York, under Gov. Cuomo & now
@GovKathyHochul
has worked to obscure these facts. Officials delay FOI requests, refuse interviews and spin a narrative that the factory is a resounding success - even after spending $1 BILLION in taxpayer money.
More transparency is needed.
Rather, the Tesla factory has workers making charging equipment for Tesla cars and ~500 employees sitting at desks, labeling images from the "full self driving" software. That includes looking at what cameras have captured and labeling signs, lanes, etc.
Hardly a high-tech job.
This reporting is based on my review of 1000s of pgs of court records, emails & other documents, plus interviews with workers and analysts.
I hope you'll read the full story & support
@ipostnews
so we can continue hard-hitting work like this.
Solar production at the Tesla factory - making the Solar Roof - was supposed to seed a high-tech, clean energy sector in Western NY.
That hasn’t happened.
Today, solar prod. is “a shadow of what it once was," a current employee said. And Solar Roof has never been made at scale.
🚨NEW: 7 Black workers at the Buffalo Tesla factory are alleging ongoing racist treatment they’ve received at the plant, incl.:
- Black workers are told they can’t stand in groups bc they look “like a gang”
- Black workers are held back from promotions.
So big were the problems with Tesla's Solar Roof - which was supposed to be the linchpin to this new clean energy sector - that Tesla contributed to Panasonic leaving Buffalo in 2020, moving 400 solar production jobs to Malaysia.
#BisexualMenExist
including this one, as he peers incredulously in Pittsburgh, lounges in Ikea chairs, poses on golden bridges and cheeses w/ his girlfriend. Hi! It’s me! I exist!
Meanwhile, the land around the factory is largely vacant, save for a Tim Hortons. The spin-off development promised by New York hasn't happened. The state agency overseeing the Tesla factory owns 100+ acres nearby that's vacant.
Using the lead crisis in Flint, MI as an excuse, Buffalo quietly quit adding fluoride to its water supply in 2015, and hasn’t resumed.
The city didn’t announce the change & parents are now worried about their kids’ teeth.
Good find by
@Charlie_Reports
:
PA rules the Pittsburgh Amazon bid is a public record. This is HUGE news. I have appeals for similar documents due in early Feb., so this is good news. HOWEVER,
@billpeduto
said last week that he'd go to court to keep the Amazon bid secret, so this fight is far from over.
BREAKING: PA Open Records Office rules
#Pittsburgh
Amazon HQ2 bid is public record.
#WTAE
appealed city, Allegheny County decision to keep proposal secret.
this is incredible news.
making autopsies public record means it will now be easier for journalists and the public to hold cops and jailers accountable when people die in their custody- something that happens far too often.
congratulations to brittany for winning this fight!
This is alarming. The Philly Inquirer appears to have deleted a published story that was highly critical of a major development in the Chinatown neighborhood.
Quoting a human rights group, the story noted that the development could continue the displacement of residents.
International human rights experts are paying attention to
#76Place
because this playbook of displacement-for-profit threatens not just Chinatown, but communities across Philadelphia.
Next, here's my piece from January about how Tesla has failed to produce & sell its Solar Roof, the product that was supposed to bring good jobs to Buffalo and make that taxpayer investment of $959M worthwhile:
jokes aside, journalism is a trade. it requires certain skills and training but it shouldn’t require a college degree, let alone a degree from an elite college. so-called experts wring their hands about the future of this field but never ask: what if anyone could just…do this?
In this heart-wrenching story,
@PhillyInquirer
and
@ProPublica
detail how ICE officers in Pennsylvania are racially profiling Latinx people, arresting them and deporting them. This anecdote is particularly terrifying:
Incredible. Not only are taxpayers footing 61% of the cost of the new Buffalo Bills stadium, AND NY state will OWN the finished stadium, the construction firms hired to build it will NOT be subject to public, competitive bidding processes.
shortly after this story published, the doctor in question was suspended.
funny how quickly due diligence happens when journalists start asking questions...
excellent reporting by my friends at
@PINJNews
:
Here it is:
Wilson Bernales, one of two medical doctors currently employed at the Allegheny County Jail, has had his medical license suspended, revoked or denied in at least eight different states.
Happy New Year Buffalo!
This is your first reminder of the year to send me all your good tips, leaks, heads-ups and gossip about developers, tax subsidy handouts & sketchy economic development deals.
It’s 2023. Leak to a local reporter today: jdshoemaker
@investigativepost
@org
hooting and hollering at the fact former pittsburgh mayor bill peduto is spending his post-mayorship scolding the current mayor on twitter and getting into fights at bars
SCOOP via
@ghkelly1969
:
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown's son — Byron Brown II — started a $67,000/year job as the media liaison for the city's sewer authority back in April.
When we asked the authority to confirm, they said we had to file a FOI request.
It bears repeating: The City of Buffalo’s *command center* for weather emergencies - like the Christmas weekend blizzard that left 30 residents dead - is this garage that has massive holes in the roof:
The Common Council wants answers about the city's blizzard preparedness. Why? Well, this is the Broadway Garage — Buffalo's command center during a weather emergency, according to the city snow plan — in late October. Read more at
@ipostnews
:
holy cow.
the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff is on strike.
Butler Eagle, the company that prints alt-weekly Pittsburgh City Paper, tried to break the strike by printing the PG.
Now the CP editor has resigned, called for a new co. to buy the paper & for employees to unionize:
🚨🚨🚨 The editor of Pittsburgh City Paper has quit, citing a dispute with her publisher about covering the fact that the company printed copies of the P-G amid a strike. “If you publish anything about this, you’re done," she says she was told. So she quit.
Daniel Pastorek was cited for public drunkenness. He didn't show up for a magistrate hearing. Then he died in jail.
It took three years, and a lawsuit, for Allegheny County to admit it never performed an autopsy. In other words, the county didn't care to know why he died.
After a nearly three-year legal journey, records provided by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner reveal an autopsy was not performed for Daniel Pastorek, a man who died in the jail in November 2020.
I missed the ceremony because my apartment flooded (thanks Pittsburgh rain) but I’m pleased to say I’ve won my first Golden Quill (w/
@jabenzing
and
@MattStroud
)!
Finally, it's worth recalling
@JimHeaney
's signature Buffalo Billion piece from 2014 which ultimately resulted in the developer who built the Tesla factory – and some Cuomo aides — spending time in federal prison for corruption.
Insanity.
A veteran NPR reporter breaks his back, literally, and goes on disability for three months.
He finds out he was fired when his health insurance company tells him his coverage is ending. WBFO never even contacted him to tell him he lost his job.
A journalist’s job is to not take what the government says at face value. We are reporters, not megaphones. We are to critically assess all available evidence and report only what we know to be true.
In the words of I.F. Stone: “All governments lie.”
@Forrestthe3rd
I would argue we were mislead. I am going to report on what heads of governments say. That is what new orgs do. It doesn’t mean it’s true but it’s news they said it & had to retract it. In that same report I noted Hamas denied the acts but no one on here is complaining about that
After a Buffalo cop hit a bystander with his car and permanently disabled her, the city must pay $43 million to help pay for the woman's lifelong medical care.
How will the strapped-for-cash city pay that amount? It's borrowing the money.
Via
@ghkelly1969
Last summer,
@ipostnews
exposed a problem: Buffalo is cutting down its trees, and only re-planting a fraction of them.
On East Side, the city is cutting down 4 trees for every 1 it re-plants.
The mayor is now doubling down on the problem:
please, i am begging everyone, stop glorifying reporters. you should not be in this job to get famous or to have a tv show/movie made about you. this job is a public service and one we must handle with great care.
.
@GStephanopoulos
shares a sneak peek of the new
@Hulu
docuseries “Power Trip,” which tracks a group of young reporters as they hit the road to follow candidates running for office.
Let me get this straight. Asylum seekers come to WNY. One of them commits a crime. Local media makes it a big deal - far bigger than if a local committed the same crime. One station chooses to stand down.
And now the BN is criticizing them for it?
This young person just read a poem that Antwon Rose wrote, then asks for a moment of silence. Antwon wrote about growing up confused and afraid, and how he didn’t want to just be a statistic.
@MissCoelan
Precisely. I lived in Philly’s Chinatown neighborhood for a moment a few years ago- same story there for I-676. The neighborhood destruction is still glaring today.
great piece on the havoc a Bitcoin mining firm is wreaking - on both neighbors & the environment - in Western New York. And of course, state & local agencies have lined up to hand out subsidies for these jobs of the future.”
Via
@caitlindewey
Good piece from
@greenhousenyt
about “old school union-busting” tactics being used at Starbucks, Amazon, Tesla and other companies where workers are organizing:
NEWS: A plastics company that wants $312k in tax breaks was accused today of circulating a summary of an academic study proven to a fake.
In other words, the company provided a local gov't board with fake, AI-generated information as it sought subsidies.
This is the way I’ve voted in basically every election since I became a journalist: Blank ballot. Only because of the current climate do I feel like sharing publicly.
#PoliticalCelibacy
NEW: Investigative Post obtained explosive deposition transcripts from a lawsuit involving Buffalo police that show police had quotas to arrest & fine the city's Black residents, and that officers frequently called residents the N word. Via
@ghkelly1969
:
NEW from
@ghkelly1969
&
@ipostnews
:
2020 could have been a huge year for police reform in Buffalo: Protesters and public officials both wanted reforms. And the city was negotiating a new police contract.
Nothing has changed. Instead, the police got $$$:
this is a solid analysis of Fetterman's career so far, including a good discussion of how he used his time as Mayor of Braddock to play spokesperson and was unsuccessful at achieving material victories, including preventing the UPMC hospital from closing.
Instead, Tesla is using the factory as a catch-all for various company functions to avoid big $ & political penalties. Its Autopilot division is here now, for example, a group of workers that is now unionizing.
Tesla, of course, has engaged in alleged union-busting firings.
An update to this story:
Not long after
@ghkelly1969
’s story broke, Buffalo ordered Jill Repman back to work (after a 7.5-year paid absence during which she held another full-time job).
She immediately went on vacation.
🚨BREAKING — and it's a bombshell: The City of Buffalo has paid more than $500,000 to a clerk who has not shown up for work in 7.5 years.
Jill Repman, has been on paid leave since 2016 — all while working a second job.
Via
@ghkelly1969
This new report highlights that Tesla’s original justification for inheriting a $1B factory was, for lack of a better word, a sham.
Who do you know that has a Solar Roof? Only 3,000 are in operation in the US today.
My story re: requests for Pittsburgh's Amazon proposal. I filed info requests with the city, county and state trying to get a copy. All 6 of my requests were rejected today. Pittsburgh is dealing with Amazon in utter secrecy.
@billpeduto
@ACE_Fitzgerald
The Erie County Sheriff wants a new helicopter. But since spring 2021, deputies haven’t used the helicopter to rescue anyone. It’s been used for training, community events and other purposes.
I got scooped by the Mayor's office. I'd been working on a story about what the plans were for this money for about a month now and they just...emailed it out.
ANYWAY - the city plans to spend $2M on upgrades to child care centers, one step in the journey towards universal pre-k
The Pitt News had been on the damn ball covering unionization efforts on Pitt’s campus. First they broke the news that Pitt spent a quarter M on a union-busting law firm and now this series digging into who should be in the bargaining units and who shouldn’t be. Incredible work
After a series of company buy-outs, the billion dollar factory Gov. Cuomo built for Tesla (a deal which sent his deputies to federal prison btw) was supposed to bring a “green energy revolution” to WNY.
This new report illustrates that’s not what’s happening.
believe it or not, the beautiful, gorgeous, hilarious, uber-talented
@ecreights
has put up with me as boyfriend for a whole 5 years ❤️ i’ve loved every second of it, and am immensely grateful for your love ❤️ i love you 💕
i’ve officially been a buffalonian for a full year. i feel like i’ve gotten up to some good trouble and i hope you all feel similarly. thanks for following along and reading
@ipostnews
. more to come!
I won my appeals. The state has ordered Allegheny County and Gov. Tom Wolf to release Amazon documents. They each have 30 days to do so, but the County is appealing in Commonwealth Court and Wolf's office hasn't chosen its next move yet. My story:
Having researched part of Pittsburgh/Allegheny County land history, this sign is a long time coming.
Like the land history of the area’s indigenous and Black residents, the land history of Pittsburgh’s Asian residents has been ignored/erased for too long.
And who is Michael Joseph?
In addition to running Clover, he's a major political player and has donated big sums to Democrats. He
He also chairs the board of Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
Union membership in Western NY is up significantly compared to the rest of the state and the rest of the nation. Latest numbers show the region bucking years-long downward trends:
in this & other videos this person is articulating the harms of certain parts of urban development in Buffalo like only a few others in this city are. he’s concise & asking the right questions: Why has the city been designed this way? What if this land could be used differently?
Despite being called "click bait" and "unprofessional" by some local officials, PublicSource and I have been recognized for the uncompromising, investigative journalism we show up to do every day. I'm proud to work alongside these folks.