Skip Navigation

  1. City Departments
  2. City Services
  3. Our City
    1. Accomodations
    2. Architecture
    3. Arts and Culture
    4. All America City
    5. Buffalo My City
    6. Buffalo Niagara Convention Center
    7. Visit Buffalo Niagara
    8. Buffalo Sports & Outdoor Recreation
    9. Education
    10. Buffalo Ambassadors
    11. 1 more items...
  4. Online Payments
  5. My Profile
    1. New User Registration
    2. Existing User Login
    3. Schedule Payment Instructions

Home > Leadership > Mayor > Archive Press Releases > 2010 Archives > March 2010 > Mayor Brown Presents Citys 2010-11 Federal Agenda

Mayor Brown Presents Citys 2010-11 Federal Agenda

Contact: Peter K. Cutler
              851-4841

MAYOR BROWN PRESENTS CITY’S 2010-11 FEDERAL AGENDA TO WHITE HOUSE STAFF AND LEGISLATIVE LEADERS IN WASHINGTON, DC
Annual Lobbying Effort Includes Meeting with Obama Administration Officials at White House; Discussion with Google, Inc. Regarding Fiber for Communities Project

City of Buffalo's 2010-11 Federal Agenda

Mayor Byron Brown today presented a press briefing on his Administration’s annual lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, March 2nd and Wednesday March 3rd of this week. The Mayor presented the city’s 2010-2011federal agenda in a series of meetings with White House Deputy Director of Policy and Intergovernmental Affairs David Agnew in the West Wing of the White House and Senator Charles Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Congressman Brian Higgins and Congressman Chris Lee. 

“We have made great progress in stabilizing the city’s fiscal issues and resolved outstanding findings from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but our focus remains on supporting our residential neighborhoods and commercial districts, which form the core strength of Buffalo,” said Mayor Brown. “That priority is reflected in our 2010-2011 federal agenda. As with past years, this agenda reflects my determination to continue to improve the city’s overall economy and quality of life by accessing critically important federal aid for projects throughout the City of Buffalo.  The impact of the national recession has been felt from Washington through Albany and into cities like Buffalo. Rather than see critically important appropriations cut across the board, the message I delivered in Washington and have repeated in Albany is, ‘We have achieved success in several critical areas in our continuing effort to strengthen and revitalize the City of Buffalo; help us now with targeted and strategic funding that help maintain the momentum we have created.’”

The city’s federal agenda (see attached) seeks to stimulate our local economy, redevelop blighted areas, build a stronger workforce, improve our infrastructure, strengthen our law enforcement, and improve the quality-of-life of city residents.  It include funding requests for: a new downtown intermodal transportation facility designed to enhance the redevelopment of the Statler Towers; expansion of the Mayor’s Youth Employment & Training program; improvements in the African American Cultural Corridor; installation of GPS tracking system in all city-owned vehicles (current pilot project has GPS tracking devices in the city’s snow fleet vehicles); installation of eight more surveillance cameras (109 of planned 125 cameras are currently operational throughout the city); and the proposed Fillmore Avenue Streetscape Improvement Phase 2 project, which would complement the Mayor’s Better Schools/Better Neighborhoods Collaborative.

Mayor Brown participated in several meetings over the course of his two-day trip to discuss the city’s federal agenda, including a meeting with John Burchett, State Policy Counsel for Google Inc.  That meeting was held to discuss Google Inc.’s recently released Request for Information for the company’s planned Fiber for Communities Project.


“I wanted to take the opportunity of being in Washington to meet with Google, Inc. and impress upon them Buffalo’s strong interest in being selected as that company’s pilot project for their universal ultra high-speed internet access system,” said Mayor Brown. “I shared with Mr. Burchett important assets in Buffalo such as the growing Buffalo Niagara Medical campus, the growing presence of the University at Buffalo in downtown and that adjacent residential neighborhoods fit the profile the FCC is seeking in its National Broadband Plan. I’m hopeful this meeting, coupled with our eventual submission, will place Buffalo in a very favorable position in Google Inc.’s review process.”