My email regarding the Coalition for Progress

I think that we should be looking at improving WNY and NYS by fundamentally changing the way WNY and NYS do business. We ought to turn our backs on the cronyism, mismanagement, poor representation, and turf warfare of the past, and look forward to lurch WNY into the 21st century. We’re so obsessed around here about what _was_ (steel mills, industry, etc.) and no one has formed a cohesive, coherent group of politically motivated people to make some serious noise about what COULD BE. The name: Nickel City Coalition Coalition for Progress Excelsior Coalition The mission statement: To make Western New York a better place to live and work. I think this satisfactorily incorporates the desires of the people concerned about local issues, but it also should satisfy those who are passionate about national issues. After all, if we help the environment and advocate for the selection of non-radical-right wing judges, it’s good for the country and for WNY. The structure: 1. There should be an executive committee. 2. There should be action groups organized under “Action Groups - National” and “Action Groups - WNY.” There should be no more than 5-10 action groups under each heading. Each Action Group should have a coordinator, with a separate coordinator to head the lot of them under each heading. 3. Each Action Group should have its own mission statement. To the extent that the efforts are in any way duplicative of other groups, that should be acknowledged and addressed. i. What I would recommend is, for instance, that the action groups be somewhat broad-based and not single-issues. 1. For instance, there should be an action group for “Infrastructure”, which would include waterfront, peace bridge, road repair, rail expansion, anti-sprawl, etc. 2. Another should be “Political Outreach” to get people registered to vote, involve them in public hearings, to set up a questionnaire for candidates to answer, perhaps to formulate an annual voter’s guide. 3. Another should be “Albany Reform”. Another should be “Regional Government”. You get the picture. I’ll let someone else formulate what the national issue action groups should be, because I don’t really care what they’ll be, except one to look at ensuring that WNY and NYS get their fair share of tax revenue back for every dollar we pay.