A relatively small group of commentators turned out virtually Monday to talk about Mayor Byron Brown's budget proposal, now before Buffalo's Common Council.
Public transit advocates spoke out about the need for the Erie County Legislature to put money being considered for road and bridge work this year, towards a public transit system they say is crumbling.
For public transit in Buffalo, there are two key items for improvement: an end to the pandemic so people will ride again and a lot more outside money, probably from Washington. Both were discussed at a public meeting Thursday evening.
With less than a week to go to the state budget deadline, interest groups have converged on Albany, lobbying to get their measures included in the budget plan - and in some cases, to keep items out.
New York City's subway system handles about 5.7 million riders every weekday, more than 10 times the combined daily ridership of all other public transportation systems in the rest of New York State. But upstate systems face many of the same challenges - plus an added hurdle: getting more state funding at a time when the downstate transit woes get all the attention.
