It has been announced that President Barack Obama will be visiting Buffalo next Thursday as part of his “Main Street Tour.” Of course, we at Buffalo ReUse are more than eager to host the President for a short visit. We have sent out letters to everyone and anyone we can think of, but if you have some kind of insider connection or pull, or you’re actually Obama’s third cousin twice removed, please consider helping us make this dream a reality!!

Buffalo ReUse is eager to share vision and accomplishments for green job creation, social entrepreneurship, and community regeneration with the President.  Since our inception in 2007, we have worked tirelessly to create Buffalo ReUse because of our unyielding desire to improve the City of Buffalo, our passion and hope for livable communities, and our belief in the unique capacity of young adults in forging solutions to rebuild our communities for the future. We have leveraged the unique assets of our region to address the most pressing needs of our neighborhoods, and while our region is unique, we believe that our ideas can be implemented in many communities all throughout the country.

If you have friends in high places, please help us use this unprecedented opportunity to share our entrepreneurial ideas that can play a critical role in regenerating neighborhoods and creating more green and local jobs in the years to come.

Last night I watched Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. I have seen most of his films and I always think there are a ton of though-provoking points that somehow get glossed over or ignored by the movie reviewers and pundits. I heard almost nothing about this movie when it came out, except the usual critics dismissing Moore as a crackpot.  Moore even used a recent incident in Buffalo to drive home one of his examples of capitalism’s failures that resulted in tragedy. But Moore made me aware of something that I never learned in school. You may be saying, “Big surprise, you missed something in school–textbooks are notorious for sanitizing or omitting or altering facts in history” True, but I took all my History and Civics classes seriously and even took AP Government and AP US History and no one ever mentioned anything to me about the 2nd Bill of Rights. Most of us remember the tenets of our first Bill of Rights, namely, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” but this other suggested set were completely new to me.
Since my involvement in the nonprofit world, I have come to know about them through networking with other nonprofit groups and learning the ways in which our missions overlap, especially in the areas of social justice (CEJ & PUSH & PPG), but no one has ever specifically mentioned them in context of a Bill of Rights.

I remember very little about FDR. I remember that he was our longest running president, he died in office and he created jobs for artists and others in a time where no jobs existed, he got through the Great Depression.  In that historical context, FDR drafting another set of rights–an Economic Bill of Rights made perfect sense.  Here they are:

• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.

Wow.  These seem so simple, why do they sound so revolutionary?  Don’t these seem like rights we already believe we are entitled to? and this was six decades ago.  If our government did actually work toward securing these basic rights for citizens–how different would our nation be?  Roosevelt drafted these to ensure equality in our individual pursuits of happiness–because people who are desperately trying to survive–are not truly free.

Last night I visited Josh Smith in the studio to talk on his show “The Way Up”. With me was Marcus Wise, owner of the new and awesome 464 Gallery. We had a great time chatting about Buffalo ReUse and 464 Gallery, and thanks to Josh for being such a great host!

To listen to the interview, click here! The name of the show is “Art & Something”. Also, make sure to check out Josh’s show every month, as well as the other local radio shows on Think Twice Radio.

APPROBATE US. Artvoice is opening the poll  for their BEST OF BUFFALO AWARDS–you can vote!
The last couple years we have been nominated for Best Activist Group/nonprof, but we’ve never WON. The competition in Buffalo is very steep in that category, for sure. Makes me wonder if there’s something ELSE we can be nominated for so we’ll be a shoe-in. Maybe Best Landfill Diverters? Best used material store? Best Volunteer Site/hosts?  Best place to Scope Hottie-Volunteers?  I dunno.

How about BEST PLACE TO GET DIRTY?!
We want it; we want it real bad (uh ugnh).

Turns out the producers of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition were SO impressed with the City of Good Neighbors that they would like to make a return to Buffalo! This would be the FIRST TIME they have come to a city twice (can I get a “Let’s go Buffalo!” chant?). Says Casting Supervisor Morgan Fahey: “We are looking for the deserving people and inspiring families that America can really root for.”

To be eligible, a family must own their own single family home and be able to show producers how a makeover will make a huge difference in their lives. Families can apply – or you can nominate a member of your community – by sending a short description of the family story to castingwesternnewyork {at} gmail(.)com. Each nomination must include the names and ages of every member of the household along with a description of the major challenges withing the home. All nominations must also include a contact phone number.

More info can be found at the Extreme Makeover website, which you can visit by clicking here.

The deadline for nominations is February 26th, 2010 so don’t delay!!! Let’s really show America what WNY is made of.

From David Bennink, our teacher, mentor and biggest supporter:

To Buffalo Reuse -

This is a note to let you know how thankful we are for what you accomplished on the Extreme Home Makeover television show. When I say ‘we’, I mean all of us in the reusable building materials industry who can recognize the benefits to our industry of high-profile success stories such as your Powell project.

I was amazed to see how much time was dedicated to the subjects of building deconstruction, construction waste management, and building material reuse. Watching intently, I noted at least 6-10 instances where our industry had a role in the show. My trip to Buffalo to help take the house down had two purposes, to make Buffalo Reuse look good and the industry as a whole look like a viable option and we accomplished both on this show.
Read the rest of this entry »

A big thanks to all who came out last night to watch the show together and to support Buffalo ReUse, PUSH Buffalo, Re-Tree WNY and WNY Americorps

Photos here!

Only six FIVE days until Buffalo gets together to watch the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition TV show that made such a huge impact on our city last November. Details here.

We’re EXTREMELY proud of the part we played when we joined the huge volunteer team of contractors, suppliers, businesses and thousands of individual citizens. Our green demolition of the Powell’s old home helped David Homes achieve an Emerald Level LEED certification for the entire project (first ever in NY State!). Here are some of the things we were able to accomplish in our green demo:

• Did it in only 15 hours
• Achieved a 97% rate of diversion (by weight). This makes an EXTREME impact on what would usually go the landfill and be “thrown away”
• Preserved parts of the old house for use in the new house
• Made wood, interior furnishings, stone and other parts of the old house available for reuse in the new house, throughout the neighborhood and from our store
• Showed the world the economic viability of green demolition and the future of green jobs in Buffalo

Come to the premiere January 24! Get your free tickets at the Shea’s box office.

A big thanks to Shea’s Buffalo for being the venue, Join us, JANUARY 24th, 2010!
You were there when the Hero Family was announced, You were there when Buffalo ReUse performed the Green Demolition, You were there when volunteers from PUSH and Re-Tree WNY built the community gardens, You were there when Americorps and others descended on the block and over 70 houses in the neighborhood got a facelift, You were there when David Homes built the brand new house!…Now you can be there as all of Buffalo celebrates the national spotlight! On behalf of PUSH Buffalo, Buffalo ReUse, Re-Tree WNY, and WNY Americorps, as well as The Powell Family–we hope you will join us all.

Doors open at 7pm Folks can meet The Powell Family, mingle, and learn about the ways they can volunteer and contribute to future neighborhood improvements. Channel 7 (WKBW) will feature a documentary of behind-the-scenes footage of the 106 hours of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition while the cast, volunteers, and neighborhood worked around the clock. Finally, from 8-10pm ABC will broadcast the Special Buffalo Episode and we’ll all watch together as the story unfolds.

We hope that everyone will come and celebrate the national spotlight on Buffalo and the neighborhood revitalization igniting across The Queen City!

TICKETS:  Tickets will be available on Friday, January 15th. All tickets will be distributed in advance of the evening’s events.  Tickets to be obtained from Shea’s Box Office. Tickets are complimentary, limit of 2 per person. No tickets at the door, unless they are still available.

The Shea’s Box Office is located at 650 Main Street and is open  M-F 10 a – 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 am– 2 pm   Event Parking is available on Pearl Street, Washington St. etc.

**This event is on FACEBOOK. Please, invite all your friends!!

Our continued and generous supporters at the The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo are creating a new website and they would like your input. The website will connect Western New Yorkers interested in environmental news and activities to the many environmental organizations doing great work in our region.  Sounds awesome to us!

Complete the survey (it takes just a couple minutes) by January 15, 2010, and you will be entered to win an iPod nano or $100! To be eligible to win a survey prize, you must live in Western New York. Click here to access the survey.

Green on, WNYers!