One reason they gave for dismissing Freschi-Lin was cost, but then their construction bids came in millions of dollars above what they'd promised. The Authority claimed that any inquiry into the grounds for its decision would extend the completion of the new bridge and hurt the public. The News endorsed that logic too. If anything is clear, then no one has to tell us about it. What the News editorial said was clear wasn't the least bit clear, and neither was it the least bit true.
Buffalo is a one newspaper town.
Were the Courier-Express still alive we would have seen a lively journalistic debate about the merits of the various proposals and the Authority's refusal to consider them seriously. But we have no second daily paper, so there was no debate. The News is not interested in the bridge question any more and we won't be running any more editorial comments on it. The only journalistic challenge to the Authority has come from Artvoice, a weekly alternative paper . The Convention Center chokes downtown streets, a huge office building squats over lower Main Street, and the trolley system strangles downtown business.