Says Me: Buffalo Is Not a One-Political Party City

     Yes, I’d like to discuss a non-COVID 19 pandemic issue or two; in particular, they are political issues mainly affecting/relating to the City of Buffalo, of which my lovely wife Val and I are longtime residents and homeowners in the Elmwood Village/West Side.

     As many of you readers know, India Walton, nurse, community activist and leader and democratic socialist, defeated four-time incumbent Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in the recent Democratic Party primary (damn, it feels good to write that sentence). Val and I proudly voted for and donated to the campaign of India Walton, and plan to do each again. Val and I are Democratic committee people on the left side of the electoral/philosophical spectrum, me for about 15 years, Val for almost 20 years.

     What moves me today is an idea that really gets my gander up (or other antiquated expressions), that Buffalo is a one-political party city, which is about as bad as believing that Buffalo and other Erie County municipalities should have open primaries. No and no. If there was a law or imposition that only one political party could hold office in the city, I could understand such a sentiment, but that is not so. People have elected only Democrats for several years in city, county and state offices, but you only have to go back about 5 years to find Republicans representing parts of the city.

     With every single elected city official in Buffalo and every other elected official at any other level in Buffalo a Democrat, I realize the easy comment/response is that this a one-party city. But that is really an oversimplified, intellectually lazy and simply wrong statement. It isn’t fair, but more importantly, is wrong and kind of dumb to blame Democrats for being able to organize, work hard and offer the stands on issues that the vast majority of city residents favor/agree with; it’s contemptuous to Democratic voters. Instead, we have a Buffalo Republican Committee that, through marching orders from the Erie County and New York State Republican committees, have basically given up on the City of Buffalo, even with an officeholder as recent as former State Senator, now Congressman Chris Jacobs. The obvious reason for Republicans giving up and not even making reasonable efforts challenging or vying for elections in Buffalo is that the fewer competitive races in Buffalo, the lower the Democratic voter turnout may be, affecting county, state and federal elections.

     Enrollment of Democrats versus Republicans in Buffalo favors Democrats by a margin of about 7-1 to 10-1, but fighting for your beliefs and political existence would seemingly be a good idea for running candidates against incumbents in the city. Democrats also hold majorities in the New York State Assembly and State Senate, as well as occupy the Governor’s Mansion, but it wasn’t long ago that Republicans held the majority in the State Senate and held the governorship (the electrifying, magnetic George Partake) and even had a U.S. Senator in the slimy, how-did-he-avoid-prison Alphonse D’Amato. I understand that Republicans have a horrible track record of electoral success, as well as actual policy implementation, in urban areas, but when your party pretty much stands for horrible policies and is blatantly racist, maybe the best we can hope for is a GOP that exists but barely succeeds at anything in the city besides voter suppression.

     I am not stating that every office being held by one party, in Buffalo Democrats, doesn’t create some problems. Sadly, this situation has led to some political laziness and the election and re-election of someone as boring, non-innovative, incompetent and some would say even worse like Byron Brown, who served on Buffalo’s Common Council and in the New York State Senate before becoming mayor. This creates a situation where the winner of Democratic primaries in Buffalo are de facto election winners; if there is no Republican candidate, as there is none for the Buffalo mayoral race in 2021 and has previously occurred, then the election itself becomes all but a formality. Some people believe this makes it a good thing that Byron Brown, after his primary loss to India Walton, has announced he will conduct a write-in campaign for mayor. It is a real long-shot election strategy, but no one at this point expects Brown to do the smart thing, the classy thing and the right thing and concede the primary election and leave the race. But it seriously demonstrates some hypocrisy and self-aggrandizement in Brown’s part, since he has won several primaries in the past and never welcomed write-in campaigns, but no doubt expected losing candidates to bow out of the race. It is hard to believe that Brown, the former New York State Democratic Committee chair, did not expect and advocate for primary winners to be the party’s candidates and not seek disgruntled losing Democrats to continue their campaigns. But, here he is.

     There is the related concept that political primaries, which decide the parties’ respective candidates, should be open to all voters, regardless of affiliation. Some say that in a city like Buffalo, where one party dominates elective offices, that this would give all voters a chance to vote on the candidates at a time their voices could be heard. Primaries are specifically held to determine which candidate represents a specific political party in the general election, so absolutely no, no one not registered to that party should be allowed to vote in the primary. Want to vote in a political party’s primary? Join the damn party. Why should anyone not holding the same beliefs as a specific party get to choose its candidates? Don’t give me the argument of there being no chance of outsiders winning primaries; India Walton just did so. Also, it is not a political party’s responsibility that the other parties run candidates or run candidates of any particular quality. Open primary? Sure they’re called general elections.

Dispatches from the Time of the Virus XIII: Keep Feeling (and Keep Getting) Vaccinations

My lovely wife Val Dunne and I received our second Pfizer COVID vaccinations April 2 at the Delavan Grider Community Center FEMA site in Buffalo. We did everything we could do over this past almost 1 1/2 years to avoid and fight this pandemic, and we've come out on the other side fine...so far. We urge EVERYONE who is eligible and has none of the few, rare medical reasons not to to get the COVID vaccinations, Save your life and others.

My lovely wife Val and I after we received our second Pfizer COVID vaccination April 2.

     We're thrilled and relieved to have made it to this point and continue to take all proper precautions; Val continues to work from home full time, and her health has improved in several ways; she has a major comorbidity which attacks her immune system, multiple sclerosis, which she fought and lived with before, during and when we get to it, after the pandemic. I never stopped going into the office to my Erie County Department of Social Services job in the Rath Building in downtown Buffalo, despite my 3 comorbidities, nor did I stop dealing with clients/the public, although it was in a reduced role. We were reduced to 50 percent in-office in March 2020, went to 60 percent by May and then 100 percent by the start of June 2020, and we started wearing masks before we went to a reduced in-office schedule.

     We are still wearing masks at work, but the rules have been eased a bit; at first, it was 100 percent at all times except when eating, drinking, etc., but now, if you are fully vaccinated (and 2 weeks past second vaccination) and at your desk basically isolated from others, you can take your mask off. You must wear masks when in contact with the public at all times and when entering or traversing pubic areas and similar situations. Personally, I continue to wear my mask at all times at work except when eating and so on, and will do so for the foreseeable future, and possibly/probably after we are told we can stop. We deal with people most often in the lower economic classes and situations at ECDSS, and sadly, these people frequently have the lowest or worst access to quality health care; they, as always, deserve to be treated with respect and quality interaction, but I plan to stay as healthy as I can and have through this pandemic and to bot spread the deadly virus, rare s that possibility is.

      The success of the vaccinations, and the success of the Biden Administration and other officials and companies in getting the production and distribution of the vaccinations greater and more successful than anticipated, while not perfect, has been amazing. I would never have believed just how effective the vaccinations would have been if you had told me this before their application. Anyone looking for me to give any credit to former President Trump for any of this process needs to fully accept Trump's responsibility for calling COVID-19 a hoax, repeatedly underplaying its urgency, pushing quack "treatments" such as hydroxychloroquine sulfate, insulting and trying to silence scientists such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, somehow suggesting bleach and lights to treat COVID-19, for not taking the pandemic seriously when he apparently contracted it and then, finally, getting vaccinated in secret with then First Lady Melania Trump.

     As per our specific vaccinations, Val had a few short-term side effects such as tiredness, soreness around the vaccine area and a bit of the blahs; I missed a couple of days of work after my first vaccination due to chills, fever, fatigue and the like, but I only felt some soreness and tiredness for the second shot and didn't miss any days from that one. My full-time immediate officemate, a normally very nice white male a few years older than me, is a conservative and Trump supporter. He did not get his vaccination until the Erie County designated times workers could take off from work without losing any time/pay to get the vaccines at vaccination events for county employees only; of course, they were timed with the end of the day so he could get the shot and go home. 

     There is so much more to write about, but I'll save it for next time, and yes, I know, it's been about 10 months since last entry; I won't let that happen again.

Dispatches from the Time of the Virus XII: New Masks and Worries (Thank and Apologies to Ian Dury)

     I received two new cloth face masks in the mail a couple of days ago; that gives me 7 cloth face masks, as well as a stash of paper/filter face masks. My lovely wife Valerie Dunne also has about that many cloth face masks, and we expected to buy more. 

New masks, bought from the University of Wisconsin.

     It’s simple; we believe, and have been presented with more than enough evidence, that the best way to survive this COVID-19 pandemic is to protect ourselves and others the best way scientifically possible, by properly wearing face masks, practicing social distancing and taking other precautions. These are also some of the easiest, most elementary actions one can take to help decrease the spread and transmission of COVID-19.

      Buffalo, Erie County and New York State have stricter face mask rules than many states, and it should be no surprise that after the rough start when the coronavirus first hit New York City and the state, we have done a better job than most of the country at following face mask and social distancing rules and have more than flattened the curve of COVID-19. The reality of the national daily cases of coronavirus increasing to records of about 65,000 now, after the scary, deadly higher deaths reported from NYC and NY State, shows that states such as Arizona, Florida, Texas and even California, which did a reportedly good job at first fighting the pandemic, are not taking face masks and social distancing serious during their “reopening.”

     Nothing will flat-out stop COVID-19 in its tracks in a short period of time, and no one should be surprised if the daily cases reported continue to ruse through the holiday season. Medical professionals continue to report and fear the continued increase, and they and frontline medical personnel urge people to realize that not only are we in Buffalo and Western New York rushing reopening (with the tacit support, and sometimes urging, of way too many media outlets), but that we are not even done with the first wave of COVID-19.

     I don’t mean to sound like a downer, but even though Erie County and New York State are doing better than so much of the country, we can still do better. Sorry, but we need to slow down the reopening; too many people and businesses are not even close to being good or even improved on face mask wearing and social distancing. Just shop at any grocery store or other large store, eat at a restaurant our even go to the Rath Building, where I work, and you’ll see numerous violations as well as other issues. Just because we did well enough to slow down the curve and adhere to rules at the start doesn’t mean that we have won and are through with the coronavirus or precautions. Some people seem to think that we are past the worst and have beaten COVID-19, when we have barely begun to stop the increase of the spread. It sucks that so many people are being affected financially but you need to be alive to operate your business and customers need to be alive to spend their money there.

     Val and I will continue to get takeout food from restaurants, but there is absolutely no way at the present that we will eat at a restaurant, indoors or outdoors. We also will not be going to any concert venues, particularly indoor venues. We don’t even feel safe enough to be around people in the settings, and definitely don’t trust most people to practice social distancing, proper face mask wearing or take other precautions. We fear that COVID-19 will come back strong in Buffalo/Erie County, and while we hope we are wrong, talking actions to keep ourselves as safe as we can will continue to be taken.

     Call me repetitious, call me scared, call me cautious; as long as you can call me alive and relatively well, I’m fine with a

ll of that.

Dispatches from the Time of the Virus XI: Dignity of Work, Meet the Eternal Desire to Stay the Hell Alive a Bit Longer

     The first week Erie County, my place of employment, was back to “full” operations had some good and some bad, and a lot of it seemed to be an enlargement of what has gone on since February or so when the COVID-19/coronavirus first hit Buffalo/Western New York so hard.

     

Tools of the trade, kind of.

     I work in the Rath Building for the Erie County Department of Social Services; I’ve previously mentioned that my job is in what is basically the ECDSS accounting department, in the cashier’s office (I am the casher). It is also known as The Cage, because we have very limited access (3 people, including me, have keys to the office), it has a very old and secure safe for obvious reasons, and are kind of locked in by a very heavy, electronically locked door because we handle financial transactions daily with clients, as well as provide transportation to homeless people and clients seeking transportation to jobs, job interviews and substance abuse treatment, when approved by social workers. We have two windows with solid hard, thick plastic where we conduct transactions with both clients and other workers, and the large windows facing Franklin Street cannot be opened, at least not from the inside. Normally, 4 of use work in this “office” full-time, but since a person went to another department at the end of January, we have worked with 3 people; a planned replacement was postposed and apparently canceled after the COVID-19 crisis hit.

     I suppose the lower number of workers due to COVID-19 staffing in the Rath Building (normally in the thousands) has been good in ways. Those of us who worked at our offices, our stations, all throughout the COVID-19 crisis so far, have formed a camaraderie because we have gone through the same issues, precautions, scares, altered work spaces, environments and rules. We’ve gone through a mid-year budget reduction plan that cut some positions, left many of us worried for either our jobs or those of coworkers and friends as well as the effects on efficiency and productivity, we’ve gone from being issued paper face masks and a few bottles of hand sanitizer to being issued cloth masks, sanitizer on every desk and having work spaces sprayed several times a day by county employees. We went from having extra face masks on hand for clients who appeared sick or made us feel unsafe in any health regard to having the building require them for all employees and visitors. You can also toss in the standard municipal employee loathing too many citizens still have and direct at us.

    While some workers began to trickle back to the Rath Building in what seems to be the start of June, along withe the increase of hours worked by many employees who never stopped working, the vast majority of workers who either worked form home, were moved elsewhere or were still on very limited hours returned to the Rath Building Monday, June 29. A large number (possibly majority) of people who work in the Rath Building appear to start their shifts at 9 AM; I and much of my department start at 8:30 AM, so we get to avoid some of the normal rush. With the elevators limited to no more than 4 people riding at the same time, the earlier you get to work, the less people there are to use the elevators. I work on the 4th Floor and sometimes use the elevators, sometimes walk up the stairs, and I had no problems during the pseudo shutdown getting a ride. It didn’t appear to be too much of a problem this past week, except in Wednesday, when I had to verbally tell someone to get off the elevator because they were exceeding the capacity. There are 6 main elevators in the Rath Building, and usually 2-3 arrive and open their downs in a 30-second period of time in the morning, so there should be no problems. But…at about 8:20 AM Wednesday, July 1, a man tried to get on the elevator when four of us were already on it (several large signs saying elevator capacity is 4 are posted on the lobby at the elevators). Both I and another man on the elevator told the man he was above the capacity limit. the man got off when he looked at me and saw no smile; after the man got off the elevator, the other man who said it said to the other three of us on the elevator, “I was really half joking,” to which I replied, “I wasn’t. My health means too much to me.” The elevator was silent until I got off on my floor.

     

     Besides seeing people I haven’t seen in a while, there seem to have been few changes. Our workload barely seems to have decreased despite more people being on more of the time, and we are seeing more members of the public/clients at our windows for transportation as well as making payments, along with more workers conducting normal business such as dropping off checks to be distributed to clients, processed and deposited by us, signing for cheeks and dropping off applications for payments. And yes, our supervisor continues to be just a wee bit of a micromanager, which can even be good at times, such as when she wrapped individual plastic ware and napkin settings for and distributed the pita wedge sandwiches, fruit salad and chips for our birthday luncheon for the workers celebrating July birthdays. Or at least I think it was good; I made a point of getting my own piece of cake later, and did not eat any of the other food (not a fan of them).

     Otherwise, the week started with more violations of there face mask rules (must be worn by all workers except when eating, drinking or in your own office alone) before improving as the week proceeded. With the cashier’s office being one communal room without even cubicles, we had to make sure all of our seats at our desks were at least 6 feet apart and moved them to make sure they were more than that distance from each other. We always wear masks except for eating and drinking, and one reason we make sure of this is that there are 2 work telephones between the 3 (and sometimes 4) of us working there. With some the newly returning workers having trouble with the concept of mandatory at first, as well as some with issues over covering noses, I was one of probably many to constantly remind people to wear masks and wear them properly, and reported frequent/flagrant violation to supervisors. I don’t care if some people believe I’m being petty, annoying, a combination of these or just me on steroids; I plan to continue to survive this pandemic and help as many other coworkers survive it. I even noticed a supervisor not in my direct section (not my supervisor, in other words) who not only wore her mask off her nose several times, but was observed by me sitting directly next to an employee with her mask completely down around her lower neck as she trained or instructed her on something. We’re talking at least 10 minutes the first time and a second session later. I just don’t fucking get it; if she has a medical exemption, rare as they are, then I understand; otherwise, no.

     With so many states seeing record number of COVID-19 cases, some like California after allegedly getting things under control, I will not relax one bit or trust anyone more than they have proven they should be trusted in fighting and avoiding coronavirus infection. Christ, more than 130,000 Americans have died from it already, and we aren’t even out of its first wave, much less anywhere into the second wave. As much as I wish we could open up more of Buffalo, Erie County and New York State, the best way to fight this is to wear face masks, avoid crowds by social distancing and take precautions. I wish not one business was affected by this, but until we have flattened this virus and its reach, we have to do more and stay vigilant, not let down our guard. My lovely wife Val is working from home, and fortunately, her multiple sclerosis and its accompanying screwing with her immune system hasn’t hurt her worse than normal. Let’s keep it that way. 

Dispatches from the Time of the Virus X: Return of a Not So Minor Threat, Reopening (?) New York/Erie County

     It seems I have to catch up on a few things and quickly mention others, so let’s start:

Your author in an Ivan Gonzalez creation

     As you may know, my good friend for more than 30 years, Ivan Gonzalez, came down with and was really fighting COVID-19 hard. Ivan has returned home, is feeling much better as he continues his recovery, and you can read about his fight and initial release from the hospital in the Buffalo News. It is a goddamn pleasure to read his social media posts again, and even better to see he, his wife Colleen Flaherty Gonzalez and sons at their house or walking past ours in the neighborhood.

     In a DM to me shortly after his return home and in a social media post earlier today, Thursday, June 25, Ivan clearly and sharply advocated for both concern of the health of the medical professionals who saved his life and continue to work to save and treat others, and to keep more people alive and healthy in general, for people to keep wearing face masks, practice social distancing and take any other precautions. It is damn annoying that Gonzalez had to state this again and that they still seem quaint; wear fucking face masks, socially distance yourself from others and be safe.

     If you want to help Gonzalez continue his recovery, support a local artist (Ivan, of course) and get something cool to wear, he has t-shirts representing areas of the City of Buffalo for sale. The link to Gonzalez’s online store is https://buffalocitylimits.square.site, and you can see one of the shirts, a holiday gift from my lovely wife and photographer Val Dunne, in the selfie accompanying this entry. They’re very cool, and Gonzalez deserves to be able to retire to a life of art, husbandry of sorts and parenthood, as well as forming his own Minor Threat.

     I agree wholeheartedly with Gonzalez’s efforts to advance face mask wearing and other activities to keep people healthy, and I remain worried that the “reopening” of Buffalo, Erie County and New York State are moving too fast. It so absolutely sucks that too many businesses, so many of them small businesses, cannot either open up at all or fully, but sadly, I do not have confidence in people following face mask, social distancing and other activities to keep people as safe as possible. That so many people still whine and mewl about wearing masks, as if placing one on your face over your mouth and nose takes such a herculean effort or is a violation of Constitutional rights, is abhorrent. That too many people believe in the already proven wrong/lies of conspiracy theories that masks can kill you due to carbon dioxide issues and are breeding grounds for illnesses and killer germs, is unspeakably bad. There are an extremely limited number of illnesses/physical conditions that allow for face mask exemptions, and it certainly appears that medical professionals have been able to wear masks for years and years without killing themselves. 

     While too many people here in Buffalo/WNY are not following or believing in masks, social distancing, etc., enough of them are and we took these precautions early and seriously that New York State has fallen to be one of the lower states for COVID-19 incidence and deaths. Sadly, but also not overly surprising, states such as Florida, Arizona, Texas and even California, which allegedly reopened to varying degrees of caution, have all spiked and are now seeing scary records of coronbovilius incidence. There is no reason to let up on the COVID-19 response gas pedal, so simply, let’s not.

     I have not read or heard any comprehensive news reports on how the coronavirus crisis affected voting on Primary Day, June 23 (coincidentally, Val and my 18th wedding anniversary). Anecdotally, it appears many more people voted by absentee ballot in the districts I live in, represent and walk through, work and conduct business in; Val and I mailed in absentee ballots this electoral cycle.

     The County of Erie officially returns to 100 percent public operations (with no doubt a couple of exceptions) Monday, June 29. As most readers here know, I work for the Erie County Department of Social Services, and have been reporting to the Rath Building and working throughout the COViD-19 crisis, involving office/financial responsibilities, clients and other public contact and with other departments/employees. I am a bit skeptical that we are 100 percent prepared to return to complete functions, particularly things such as the transportation of employees and clients. The NFTA is still working on limited capacity and with alleged limitations to necessary workers and the practice of social distancing in buses and metro cars. I won’t kid you, I’ve been happy that there hasn’t been the more than 1,000 workers in the Rath Building every day; those of us who have worked throughout the COVID-19 crisis have formed bonds, a certain camaraderie and are used to following strict rules of wearing face masks at all times and social distancing, as well as cleaning work areas. This doesn’t mean that things will go to hell and that workers and the public won’t follow best practices to fight the coronavirus, but let’s say I’m less confident when I see how bad some states have done. I realize that Buffalo, Erie County and New York State have done better than many areas, but there are definitely idiots and conspiracy theorists, as well as a certain uneducated population, who I don’t trust to do the right thing. Let’s hope I’m wrong and that we do all we can to beat or at least limit the spread of COVID-19.New York State Reopening, Spikes and a County Returns toi Work

Dispatches from the Time of the Virus IX: Everything Counts in Large Amounts...Especially Toilet Paper

     Remember when one of the worst parts of the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis was a lack of toilet paper available in many stores? Talk about your simpler, more innocent days, as the pandemic’s toll approaches 110,000 deaths in the USA and too many people still don’t take it seriously or believe in one of the many conspiracy theories about it. But I want to keep one entry of “Dispatches from the Time of the Virus” a little lighter, so here is the story of toilet paper and good things coming in large packages.

It's a beauty, isn't it?

     Sometime in April, I was planning on buying some toilet paper during my weekly grocery shopping at Wegmans on Amherst Street in Buffalo. While toilet paper shortages had begun to be reported, in Buffalo and Western New York, it was mostly a shortage of two-ply toilet paper and in packages of 4, 6 and more rolls. My lovely wife Val and I live and own our home in Buffalo’ Elmwood Village/West Side neighborhood; the house was built in 1900, and it still has a good amount of its original plumbing, so we are a serious single-play household. When you combine that with my anal nature of never wanting to be low nothing’s like toilet paper, we always have several rolls own the house, and I probably get itchy when we get below six rolls on hand.

     Wegmans and most grocery and department stores I have checked established policies early on of allowing only one package of toilet paper per purchase; with single-ply toilet paper sold only in single rolls (or so I thought), as I found out on previous occasions at Wegmans, I had to buy one roll a week and hope our usage didn’t surpass that. There were even a couple weeks when Wegmans had no single-ply rolls for sale. I was hoping for four or six packs of one-ply to be sold, but never saw them. So, this week in April, I went down the aisle where the toilet paper was stocked, and saw they had a display of single roll, single-ply, and grabbed one.

     Suddenly, I heard angels, looked up and to my left, and there, on the shelf, was…a display of about 15 packages of 20 rolls each of single-ply toilet paper. It was the best I had felt after seeing something unexpected since my sister-in-law Tricia pointed out my wedding ring at the bottom of the deep send of a swimming pool at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas the day after Val and I got married there in 2002. I may have actually thrown the single roll of toilet paper back on the shelf before I grabbed the package calling me and got in the checkout line. I knew that it would be its own package in the shopping cart and the car on the drive home, but I forgot that the previously largest package of toilet paper ever in our house was six rolls. Even though we have a cupboard with shelves above the toilet in our half-bath on the bottom floor of our house, I soon found out that there was no way this package would fit on any of the shelves, even after I rearranged things. So, the sizable package was placed next to our bullet garbage can in the kitchen, where it remains, until we use just a bit

Dispatches from the Time of the Virus VIII: I've Got a New Mask, Ooh Wee Ooh, Not Something Too Demanding

     So, I bought/ordered a new mask last week and it was delivered Tuesday; you can see me wearing it in the accompanying photograph here. Pretty cool, isn’t it? This gives me three cloth masks, this one and two white ones issued by Erie County that all employees actually working received in April. I also have a small stash of one-use surgical masks.

     I plan to buy at least one more cloth mask. Why the multiple masks? Because I do not believe for a moment that we are out of the woods from the dangers and effects of the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis, and I most certainly do not trust too many people who want to open up Buffalo, Erie
County and Western New York fast, way too fast in my opinion, before we have really gotten the virus under control and reduced the deaths and hospitalizations to a better, as in lower, level.

     I’m pretty sure no one is happy that people are out of work, operate businesses, unable to work, fully participate in their educations, family and social lives, and sadly, some may be trapped with abusers. But due to the sometimes vehement disagreement with New York State’s Pause, advocated by Governor Andrew Cuomo in the face of wrong-minded, fact-free and often vile opposition, along with the too frequent and often intentional not following of mask wearing, social distancing and gathering rules, I don’t trust that enough people in Buffalo and Western New York will act lawfully or in healthful manners for me to be safe. Good lord, phase I of the reopening of Buffalo and WNY just started a few days ago, and some people are trying to rush phases 2-4 as well as jump activities scheduled in certain phases ahead. We don’t even know how well this area and its residents will do in phase 1 and we want to just plunge ahead? It’s been in effect a few days, people; slow the fuck down and let’s see through facts and actual events what happens. It should be no surprise to realize that at least one local television station and radio station are working the rush to reopen trap; you can probably figure out who this is.

     I’ve been working through the COVID-19 crisis as well as doing the family grocery shopping and pharmacy visits, and walking Harold, our dog, and I have been taking in everyday incidents, good and bad. I’ve seen people adhering to the mask wearing and social distancing rules. Kudos to Trader Joe’s for doing a good job here, as well as Elmwood Pet Supplies and Rite Aid, and a host of restaurants. But yes, sometimes people don’t follow rules, in these areas and at work, both which I previously mentioned. I forgot to note another recent work situation: I have to visit the office of an elected Erie County official (not the county executive) in the Rath Building on regular business. That has changed during the COVID-19 crisis, and the business on the visits is now handled via email. But when we received a check that had to be hand delivered, I took it up to the office. The receptionist, who was on the telephone, not only did not have a mask over her face, it was not even around her neck, but laid on the desk. I stood back about 15 feet while she was on the telephone, and when she was done, she noted she had left her mask on the desk without putting it on’ I placed the check on top of the Manila folder I carried it in and reached it over to her as far as my arms would reach, then quickly left.

     Since the above was written, early Saturday night, May 23, Val, Harold and I visited Front Park on Buffalo’s West Side near the Peace Bridge, wearing masks. It’s a site we regularly visit which is never crowded, most people follow the mask rules and there is enough room that social distancing is easy. While the walking part around the track near the Columbus Parkway neighborhood and some other parts was not busy, there was a large number of cars parked near the cannons facing the I-190 holding what appeared to be a prearranged party. I counted 27 cars parked in this area, playing music with people standing in a few groups, and 5-7 more cars joined them. “So much for social distancing,” Val said, as we changed our route from that part of the park and headed back to our car.

      I may stop ending these entries with conclusions, because it is redundant to note we have to avoid stupid, mean spirited and startlingly uneducated people and hope that a modicum of respect and caring for others returns to help fight this coronavirus.