As seen in the March/April Issue of Buffalo Magazine:

View From the Second Floor:

MAYOR ANTHONY M. MASIELLO

As Mayor of our City, I'm pleased to see the various initiatives coming out of Albany concerning the creation of jobs and economic development in Buffalo and Western New York. Both the Legislature and Governor's proposals to create economic growth in upstate New York by targeting tax relief and programs towards the high tech industry and universities, bode well for the continued resurgence of our city. Many of the initiatives that are established or proposed tie in to my economic development agenda for Buffalo.

Recently, I had the pleasure to meet with Dr. Russell Bessette. Dr. Bessette is the first director of the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR). A Buffalonian, Dr. Bessette's newly formed office is charged with working with universities and research institutions to bridge the gap with the business community. This "concept to commercialization" stage enables ideas and research that take place in laboratories become an economic engine in the market place.

With the assets the City of Buffalo possesses such as the University at Buffalo, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Kaleida Health Systems and Hauptman-Woodward Institute, all strategically located in the city's growing Buffalo Medical Corridor, we have the infrastructure in place to be the model for Dr. Bessette's new office. Being from our city, he is acutely aware of the resources Buffalo has and how we can utilize them to our economic advantage.

My economic development team at the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corporation (BERC) is working closely with a private developer to build a "signature building" at the corner of Main and High Streets - the gateway to the corridor. I have charged the BERC to bring together the interest of all the stakeholders in the corridor and to work closely with NYSTAR to make this state of the art research facility a reality.

The BERC has been identifying trends in the hi-tech industry so we can translate them to economic development opportunities for our city. Already, we are experiencing success with our burgeoning Buffalo Byte Belt initiative in downtown and we are positioning ourselves to build upon it. In eighteen months, eight companies have either expanded or opened in Buffalo, creating 2,000 jobs.

Because of our geographic location, fiber optic cable was laid years ago that stretches down from Canada that literally runs down Main Street towards the mid-western United States. This existing infrastructure makes it the right atmosphere for technology-related companies to conduct e-commerce in and from downtown's Byte Belt.

The Jobs 2000 or "J2K," as it has been dubbed, which created Dr. Bessette's office, also provides the necessary capital for new and expanding businesses through the New York State Venture Capital Program.

Governor Pataki's proposed High Tech Enterprise Zones and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's proposed Empire Zones are initiatives to eliminate or reduce taxes in order to spur technology based economic development in targeted areas. Enactment of these zones in some form combined with the reduction of the Gross Receipts Tax (GRT), and low cost power programs like the Power for Jobs programs will help Buffalo continue to turn the corner.

These initiatives, combined with the BERC emphasis on creating job growth via technology oriented projects, such as the Inner Harbor Adelphia project, the Buffalo Byte Belt, and the Buffalo Medical Corridor, gives Buffalo the potential to be a key destination for technology-based companies. Obviously, professionals in the field of site selection already realize this. Recently, Buffalo was named on a list of top metropolitan areas to do or expand a business. As the Mayor of our city, this confirmed what I have preached since I have been in office.

The city and state's initiatives geared towards high technology combined with the marketing effort underway through the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, make it a perfect time for us to capitalize on our strengths to bring technology-oriented companies to Buffalo, while simultaneously buttressing our existing businesses.

In the book City of Light by Buffalo native Lauren Belfer, Ms. Belfer writes about the role of electricity in the "new" economy at the turn of the century and how this particular technology defined Buffalo. Almost one hundred years ago, Buffalo was the world's stage at the 1901 Pan-Am Exposition because of its ability to generate electrical power via the Niagara River. It was technology, resources, and infrastructure that made Buffalo great then and because we possess these same ingredients now - they will help make Buffalo great in the 21st Century.