Rep. Higgins to Introduce McMurray at Endorsed Candidate Event

The Sierra Club Niagara Group is holding an Endorsed Challengers Meet & Greet Rally which will be FREE and open to the general public. This is an opportunity to hear each candidate briefly describe his/her platform and their views on a variety of environmental topics.

As a highlight of the event, Congress Member Brian M. Higgins has been confirmed to introduce candidate Nate McMurray, who is running for U.S. Congressional District 27.

Friday, October 12, 5pm-7pm, UAW Region 9 Hall, 35 George Karl Blvd, #100 (just off Wehrle Drive, near Transit), Williamsville, NY  [Map]

Besides meeting the candidates, attendees will have an opportunity to donate money and/or volunteer for those campaigns which they choose to support. FREE food and beverages will be available.

Turnout in New York’s September 13^th primary was almost triple that of the 2014 primary for governor.  Interest in this year’s elections is sky high with both the U.S. House of Representatives and the NY State Senate in play.  Excitement is building and a big crowd is expected for this event.

Candidates who will be featured at the Meet & Greet Rally are listed below.

Name                                      Race

Nate McMurray                       (US Congress, District 27)

Joan Elizabeth Seamans       (NY Senate, District 61)

Carima El-Behairy                   (NY Senate, District 60)

Karen McMahon                     (NY Assembly, District 146)

Patrick Burke                          (NY Assembly, District 142)

Michelle Roman                      (Mayor of Lockport)

Luke Wochensky                    (NY Assembly, District 147)


Watch this Video shared by Bill Nowak:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1107460882712472/

(After opening the link, click the Speaker symbol to hear the sound)

Public Meeting: Connecting Buffalo-Niagara and Toronto with Commuter Rail

CITIZENS FOR REGIONAL TRANSIT Quarterly Meeting

 
Connecting Buffalo-Niagara and the Larger Bi-National Region with Commuter Rail:
What's Feasible? Where to Start?

Free and Open to All
 

Tuesday, May 1, 2018
5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Doors open at 5:00 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church [Map]
1 Symphony Circle, Buffalo, NY
 

The Citizens for Regional Transit quarterly meeting will feature Congressman Brian Higgins with panelists Pat Whalen, Director of the Niagara Falls Global Tourism Institute, and Bruce Becker, Vice President of the National Association of Rail Passengers.
 
When looking at a satellite image of the region between Toronto and Buffalo-Niagara, it becomes clear that it’s a contiguously urbanized area; we are part of a binational mega-region. This linear arrangement of urban centers has a population of nine million people and a combined GDP of $450 billion.

However, this mega-region is lacking one important feature: transit connectivity. With only one Amtrak train per day (in each direction), travel between U.S. cities and Toronto is largely limited to car. This creates recurring traffic congestion – especially at the international bridges and near Toronto. This impeded mobility also restricts economic opportunities.

 

The good news is that there have already been several steps toward making transit connectivity a reality, such as the opening of the new Niagara Falls, New York Amtrak Station; the planning of the new Buffalo downtown station; and the future extension of commuter rail from Toronto to Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Join Citizens for Regional Transit on Tuesday, May 1 to learn more about plans, challenges, and possibilities for the future of rail connections between Buffalo and Niagara Falls as a first step in linking Western New York to Toronto.

Brian Higgins puts the Brakes on Transport of High-Level Nuclear Waste across the Peace Bridge

House Passes Bill With Higgins’ Amendment Requiring 

Risk Assessment of Proposed Nuclear Waste Transport 

Across Peace Bridge

Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) announced approval of HR 2200, the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2015.  The bill includes an amendment, introduced by Higgins, which requires the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis to examine and share information about the risks associated with a plan to transport highly enriched liquid uranium across the Peace Bridge.

The Department of Energy has a plan to transport liquid nuclear waste from Ontario’s Chalk River Research reactor over the Peace Bridge, through Western New York and other states en route to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River site beginning next year.

Last July Congressman Higgins called on the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct an environmental review of the plan.  He argued, in contrast to spent nuclear fuel, the shipment of liquid nuclear waste is far more complicated, more radioactive, and therefore a breach or contamination would be significantly more dangerous.  Despite the fact that the route was approved nearly two decades ago, the DOE maintained a new Environmental Impact Statement was not necessary.

The bill approved by the House now compels a risk assessment before the plan proceeds.

“The route was approved nearly twenty years ago, and it reflects a pre-9/11 mindset with respect to the threat and consequences of terrorism,” said Congressman Higgins. “This legislation, as amended, would ensure that the Department of Energy has the information it needs to reconsider the wisdom of transporting dangerous nuclear material through high risk areas like Buffalo.”

Urban Revival in the Rust Belt

SolarCity, a clean energy provider.

By Susan Milligan  | U.S. News

The old Republic Steel site in Buffalo, New York, long stood abandoned, a painful reminder to the region's residents of how enduringly damaging the decline of the steel industry had been. Now, the site is being developed by the solar panel company SolarCity, bringing potentially thousands of jobs to this snowbelt city. At Canalside, a still-developing project to take the city's historic old canal and make it a hot spot for live musical performances, dining and skating in the winter, locals blend with construction workers who are taking a lunch break while working to build HarborCenter, a mixed-use hockey-themed complex that will include a Marriott hotel, restaurants, downtown parking and two ice rinks.

Long-suffering Buffalo, along with other Rust Belt cities hit with the double whammy of the New Economy and the Great Recession, is coming back. And local politicians and urban experts say these cities are in a historic renaissance that belies the late-20th-century presumption that industrial America was finished. Urban expert Alan Mallach calls them "Legacy Cities" – cities whose workers helped build this country that are now struggling their way back decades after the New Economy took hold.

"This is the American heartland. This is where 'what made our country great' all began," says Mallach, senior fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. "You look at these cities today, and they are struggling, but at the same time they have incredible assets and have incredible resources for this country."

Experts say affordable housing, a slew of new investments in growing fields and stable workforces have put places like Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh back on the map for both new college grads and Rust Belt natives who left to find work but feel a tug back to the homefront.

"What has happened in the last seven years in Buffalo is that it has regained the confidence it lost after many decades of economic decline," says Rep. Brian Higgins, a South Buffalo Democrat who for many years has fought to develop the city's waterfront from an industrial dumping site into a festive and bustling gathering place.

When things are looking gloomy, "people retreat unto themselves, they become very territorial and don't embrace the larger vision," making it harder to accept fundamental changes in the economy, adds Higgins, who also taught a course on the western New York economy at SUNY Buffalo State.

"What's changed is that people are seeing tangible proof" that things are on the upswing, he says.

Read More about how Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Cleveland are moving back on track at U.S. News.