dreamtownusa.com

Last night on the evening news was a story about the lousy weather this spring all around the country. Didn’t mention Dreamtown … we’ve had a lovely spring. How about you?

I regularly fly between Dreamtown and New York on JetBlue. I can’t tell you how many times a pilot or flight attendant has felt the need to make some crack about Buffalo’s weather prior to departure from JFK. But they’ve never, ever made a remark heading to New York when the weather is worse there. And yes, it happens often.

But my last flight was a first. The pilot felt the need to make a crack about Buffalo’s weather being nice, adding the comment, “That doesn’t sound right, does it?” This after another day of crappy weather in New York, and on a flight that was four hours late.

So I had to send them a nasty-gram. They sent an appropriate response, but really, it’s kind of sad. You’d think a pilot would know better. Or maybe he just never noticed all the nice days and only remembered the snowy ones. But it’s time to pay attention! Oh, and it was really nice again today, and will be even nicer tomorrow. See what I mean?

In fact, there was an opinion piece in today’s News about the annual convention of the American Solar Energy Society being held here in May. The piece lists a number of the area’s notable green energy projects, and also mentions:

One of Buffalo’s best-kept secrets is the fact that we have more sunny days from May through September than any other city in the Northeast—a factor that helped, along with combined efforts by organizers and the Buffalo Niagara Convention& Visitors Bureau, to bring the intercollegiate “Solar Splash” solar/electric boat competition to Delaware Park’s Hoyt Lake five years in a row.

Read it and learn, JetBlue pilot!

American Style magazine’s readers have ranked Dreamtown as the #1 mid-size city arts destination. I especially like the phrase “rising giants like Buffalo, N.Y.”

Sweet.

Well, it was a cold winter but I don’t think our snowblower got used after January. And spring has definitely sprung: the flowers were popping up early last week.

So as Mother Nature reinvents the landscape once again, the NY Times has an article about cities reinventing themselves, saying “the time is now” to make the investment in resurrecting cities, and gives four examples. Dreamtown is #4:

Perhaps the most intriguing test case for reimagining our failing cities is in Buffalo …

It’s never nice being classified as a “failing city” but it’s always nice having potential recognized. I’ll take it.

So what do you think when you read this headline in the Buffalo News: “Buffalo airport feeling effects of East Coast storm“? Well, don’t think that. It’s not because of weather here. It’s cold, but there’s very little snow.

Just so you know.

Sorry I missed this one, but thanks to a dreamtownusa.com reader for pointing out that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has compiled its “Dozen Distinctive Destinations” list and guess who’s on it?

Buffalo is a gold mine of late 19th/early 20th century urban design.

So it starts, and it’s long overdue but fits nicely with the momentum Dreamtown is currently enjoying. Keep it coming!

The New York Times has compiled a list of the “44 Places to Go in 2009” and guess who’s on the list? Aw, you peeked. Yes, Dreamtown made the list for its newly opened Birchfield Penney Art Center.

On the downside, they felt compelled to refer to us as the “chilly rustbelt city of Buffalo.” Yes, it’s chilly in the winter. But, as the previous post points out, summers are great. And I’ll bet they wouldn’t refer to the “stinks like rotting garbage streets of New York” or the “chilly fog-bound city of San Francisco” even though both are accurate at certain times of the year. Why is that?

But thanks, New York Times. We’ll take it. Even if you only have us at #37. Your readers (based on their ratings) know better!

After a break for the holidays (yay! we had a white Christmas!), it’s time for more dreamy news.

Dreamtown wins the 2008 Sunshine Derby! Not only did we outshine other upstate cities, we even topped Orlando, Florida. Sweet.

Oh, and just a refresher: Dreamtown also has some of the nicest summer weather in the northeast. How can you New Yorkers stand all that rain?

Happy 2009!

Last night, the annual World’s Largest Disco hustled into Dreamtown with “celebrity” guests Bobby, Peter, Greg, and Cindy from “The Brady Bunch.” No matter what you think about disco, this party has gained national renown and it’s all for a good cause: raising money for Camp Good Days.

Attendance is limited to 7000 people and tickets were sold out way back in August. Will you be there the Saturday after Thanksgiving next?

This year, the UB (University at Buffalo) Bulls football team will be invited to a Bowl game for the first time in 50 years. What a difference 50 years makes. Last time, they turned it down.

In 1958, they were invited to play at the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Florida.

But not long after the Bulls agreed to play, Tangerine Bowl officials informed Buffalo that the local school district, which operated the host stadium in Orlando, Fla., banned integrated games.

The players were left to decide whether to play without Evans and Mike Wilson — the two African-Americans on the team.

They quickly decided to decline. With an African-American President-elect, we can be pretty sure it won’t happen this time.