According to some people in this area, it's our fault Bass Pro didn't decide to come here necause they weren't used to all the "negativity" of our region. I guess it had nothing to do with the $35 million dollar taxpayer subsidy they were looking for.
In 2001, Mayor Masiello tried to sell Bass Pro as a regional store that would attract shoppers from all ends of the earth. From the Buffalo News:
"They only open one store in a given region, and if they select Buffalo, we would have the only Bass Pro Shop in the Northeast," Masiello said in 2001. Since then, Bass Pro has opened stores in Auburn and near Toronto. Bass Pro also has shops in Harrisburg, Pa., Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio.
A visionary, he was not. Some people are trying to label opponents of the Bass Pro project as obstructionists but I disagree with this. It was a bad deal from the start. The jobs created by Bass Pro would have been lower paying jobs, anyway. I heard Brian Higgins on the radio yesterday saying we need to improve the infrastructure by the canal and businesses will express interest. I agree with this. Allowing Bass Pro to continue their charade was becoming an embarrassment. Buffalo doesn't need big chains to develop it's waterfront:
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