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CNN Live Today

Buffalo Has String of 'Calamities'

Aired September 23, 2002 - 12:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Attorneys for six suspected al Qaeda members in New York have until Friday to file briefs. A ruling next week may determine if they will remain in jail until their trial. The Buffalo arrests pounded a new black eye on this city that's known its share of bruises. Here is what we are talking about.
Jeff Flock reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scenes like this can be found in Buffalo...

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The winters are bad. Tim McVeigh grew up here, O.J. played here; the Bills lost the Super Bowl four straight times, and now, the government says they have got a terrorist cell.

DON ESMONDE, "BUFFALO NEWS" COLUMNIST: It's not that often that the circus comes to town, but when it does, it seems to be for all the wrong reasons.

FLOCK: Picking his way through the satellite trucks, "Buffalo News" columnist Don Esmonde says it all started right here 100 years ago, the McKinley monument.

ESMONDE: This was erected after William McKinley was assassinated here, so this is sort of our first brush with calamity.

FLOCK: Back then, Buffalo was booming. Steel mills, grain elevators lined the lake around one of the world's biggest ports. Magnificent buildings were everywhere in what was America's eighth- largest city. What is good about Buffalo now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I have a chance to think about this?

FLOCK: Now, when reporters come to town, it's either for the weather -- the blizzard of 1977, seven feet of snow from one storm last year -- or to probe Tim McVeigh's roots or O.J.'s football career, or the four-time super bowl losers.

(on camera): Has there ever been a team that made Super Bowl...

ESMONDE: Not four in a row, and there has never been a team that lost four in a row either.

FLOCK (voice-over): Even when something good happens to Buffalo, it seems to turn bad. ESMONDE: We were praying for years for a high-tech company to come to Buffalo, and we got one: Adelphia with the Rigases.

FLOCK: That would be John Rigas, led away in cuffs in July. Oh, did I mention he owns the Buffalo Sabres hockey team, too?

Now, al Qaeda.

JAY LENO, TALK SHOW HOST: I think prison is too good for these people. I say, let's leave them in Buffalo. Let them die of boredom. Yes, that is what I say. Yes.

ANTHONY MASIELLO, MAYOR, BUFFALO, NEW YORK: Jay who? I watch the other guy.

FLOCK: Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello had plenty of positive things to say about his city: architecture, new investment. As for his constituents, though...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's tough.

FLOCK: There are Buffalo wings and...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have about 30 bars. That is more bars than the flats in Cleveland. I am not saying that we have not caught up to Cleveland yet, but give us time.

FLOCK: Today Cleveland, tomorrow Newark. But before the locals string up columnist Esmonde, he makes it clear. He loves Buffalo.

ESMONDE: I think Buffalo is the best-kept secret in America, and we would like to keep it that way. So, get the heck out of here.

FLOCK (on camera): I'm going.

(voice-over): Just as soon we straighten out this al Qaeda terrorist thing.

I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, in Buffalo, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 23, 2002 - 12:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Attorneys for six suspected al Qaeda members in New York have until Friday to file briefs. A ruling next week may determine if they will remain in jail until their trial. The Buffalo arrests pounded a new black eye on this city that's known its share of bruises. Here is what we are talking about.
Jeff Flock reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scenes like this can be found in Buffalo...

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The winters are bad. Tim McVeigh grew up here, O.J. played here; the Bills lost the Super Bowl four straight times, and now, the government says they have got a terrorist cell.

DON ESMONDE, "BUFFALO NEWS" COLUMNIST: It's not that often that the circus comes to town, but when it does, it seems to be for all the wrong reasons.

FLOCK: Picking his way through the satellite trucks, "Buffalo News" columnist Don Esmonde says it all started right here 100 years ago, the McKinley monument.

ESMONDE: This was erected after William McKinley was assassinated here, so this is sort of our first brush with calamity.

FLOCK: Back then, Buffalo was booming. Steel mills, grain elevators lined the lake around one of the world's biggest ports. Magnificent buildings were everywhere in what was America's eighth- largest city. What is good about Buffalo now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I have a chance to think about this?

FLOCK: Now, when reporters come to town, it's either for the weather -- the blizzard of 1977, seven feet of snow from one storm last year -- or to probe Tim McVeigh's roots or O.J.'s football career, or the four-time super bowl losers.

(on camera): Has there ever been a team that made Super Bowl...

ESMONDE: Not four in a row, and there has never been a team that lost four in a row either.

FLOCK (voice-over): Even when something good happens to Buffalo, it seems to turn bad. ESMONDE: We were praying for years for a high-tech company to come to Buffalo, and we got one: Adelphia with the Rigases.

FLOCK: That would be John Rigas, led away in cuffs in July. Oh, did I mention he owns the Buffalo Sabres hockey team, too?

Now, al Qaeda.

JAY LENO, TALK SHOW HOST: I think prison is too good for these people. I say, let's leave them in Buffalo. Let them die of boredom. Yes, that is what I say. Yes.

ANTHONY MASIELLO, MAYOR, BUFFALO, NEW YORK: Jay who? I watch the other guy.

FLOCK: Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello had plenty of positive things to say about his city: architecture, new investment. As for his constituents, though...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's tough.

FLOCK: There are Buffalo wings and...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have about 30 bars. That is more bars than the flats in Cleveland. I am not saying that we have not caught up to Cleveland yet, but give us time.

FLOCK: Today Cleveland, tomorrow Newark. But before the locals string up columnist Esmonde, he makes it clear. He loves Buffalo.

ESMONDE: I think Buffalo is the best-kept secret in America, and we would like to keep it that way. So, get the heck out of here.

FLOCK (on camera): I'm going.

(voice-over): Just as soon we straighten out this al Qaeda terrorist thing.

I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, in Buffalo, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com