In a recent speech, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown called the people who spoke out against a Bass Pro Shop "obstructionists." One of those obstructionists speaks out about the city's economic development processes, which he calls
Mark Goldman, a local business owner, writes in this op-ed: "As an obstructionist, I believe that when these same insiders, for reasons unknown to most of us, are given tens of millions of dollars of the public's money to spend without the public's consent, they, too, must be stopped.
As an obstructionist, I believe that when that same group makes plans to turn our city's splendid waterfront into a big-box retail mall surrounded by surface parking lots, it should be stopped.
As an obstructionist, I believe when the entrepreneurial instincts and desires of our people are stifled and undermined by the lavishing of tens of millions of public dollars on failing retail chains, that must be stopped. As an obstructionist, I believe that all these old and failed ways of planning for our waterfront must be swept aside."
Read the full story: Mark Goldman: A Buffalo 'obstructionist' proclaims his manifesto
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