From the Daily News:

• Warm weather means flowers... and hardhats. Construction is underway on the Batavia Towne Center at Park Road and Veterans Memorial Drive. Target is already hiring at an office on Main Street, nearby the WBTA studios. The store should be finished by July, and Lowe's should follow soon after. Other tenants will include: Bed Bath & Beyond, Petco and Michael's, an arts and crafts retail chain.

• A newborn baby abandoned at United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia last month is safe and healthy. And, while the mother has been identified, she cannot be charged. The law apparently allows a child under 5 days old to be abandoned with impunity at a hospital, fire station or police station.

• City HomeCare & Hospice will be working under the radar for a while, before kicking off a public fundraising campaign later this year. The hospice may eventually build a facility on River Street that would include some beds and administrative offices. Reporter Joanne Beck says: "Provisions can include medicine, equipment and physician, nursing, social work, bereavement and spiritual care." Not quite sure what that means. Holes in the story: Is the hospice building new or relocating from somewhere else? If everything is "tentative," nothing is known, and the hospice is not actually doing anything right now — as Beck writes — what is the story? Also, if this is the "next step," what was the first step?

• Kmart in Batavia kicked out the Genesee County Farmers Market after its 10-year residence at the store's parking lot. The now homeless market starts its summer season on June 10 and runs until October 31.

• Reservations must be made by Friday for an annual awards dinner for the Landmark Society of Genesee County. The dinner will be held May 3 at the First Presbyterian Church, 300 East Main St., Batavia, at 6:00pm. Tickets are $10. Call Catherine Roth at (585) 343-3833 or Lucine Kauffman at 757-2455 for more information.

• The Gensee Community College Foundation wants you to think of higher education this Mother's Day and make a donation to its scholarship fund. A minimum donation of $25 is required. Send your check to GCC and the college will send your mother a nice card. Call the college at (585) 345-6809 for more information.

For the complete stories, the Daily News is available on local newsstands, or you can subscribe on BataviaNews.com.

The Genesee County Animal Shelter is featuring on YouTube three cats in need of new homes.

WBTA will broadcast all 38 home games for the Batavia Muckdogs this season, the local radio station announced this morning (the station's web site doesn't offer permalinks, so eventually that announcement will scroll down and off the page ... for anybody who finds this item weeks from now).

The station will also broadcast some away games. Wayne Fuller will handle play-by-play.

Via the Buffalo News:

The third annual Spring Gala, a major fundraiser for United Memorial Medical Center, will be held starting at 6:30 p. m. Saturday in the Hampton Inn’s Ambassador Banquet and Conference Center on Commerce Drive.

This is a black-tie event sponsored by the United Memorial Foundation, St. Jerome Foundation, the Jerome League and the UMMC League.

The Buffalo News item includes no information on cost or if tickets can still be purchased or where (we presume there are tickets that cost money -- they expect to raise $50,000).

Several neat items available this Saturday in WBTA's auction.

• YMCA Camp Hough
• Casino bus trip
• Martin's Fantasy Island
• Tim Horton's coffee mugs
• A Mother's Day brunch
• Party at The Gravel Pit
• Plenty of booze and food

Having run these type of auctions before, events/places-to-go always do well, especially in the spring, so bid early and bid often (or bid high).

Too bad you can't bid online.

UPDATE: No online word on who won what items, but the next auction is June 6.

During our years as residents in San Diego, my wife and I developed a strong preference for "street tacos".

You might say, street tacos are a Tijuana delicacy. If you visit any town immediately south of the San Diego border, you can buy street tacos.

Where you do you get street tacos?  On the street, of course. In New York, you find hot dog stands on many corners.  In Tijuana, there are taco stands.  What they serve mainly are grilled steak (spiced and called carne asada), tomato, white onion and cilantro piled on two small corn tortillas -- adding anything else to a street taco is like making a martini with vodka instead of gin ... it's just not as good, not as pure (and absolutely forget chocolate or apple).

A lime on the side is nice, but not required.

Of course, throughout most of California you can find many restaurants and taco stands that serve street tacos.  In New York, not so much.

The closest thing we've found so far (after much searching in the Rochester area) is at Margarita's on Jackson.  Printed on Margarita's menu is an item called tacos de asada.  When ordered, you receive two or three (I've been there twice -- got two once, three the first time) tacos -- double corn tortillas piled with carne asada.  The tomatoes and onions are served on the side with green sauce.  To get a true street taco, you must carefully fork out the onion and tomato, leaving the green sauce behind.  There is no cilantro. :-(

That said, I'm very happy I found Margarita's.

Here's one of the great things about Batavia (among many we've found so far) -- lots of family owned, non-chain restaurants. We've been to three of them so far (Margarita's, Jackson Street Grill and Central BBQ) and they've all been a treat.

There's nothing particularly wrong with chains, of course. They have their place and serve their purpose, but nothing beats a good meal at an independent restaurant.  Here's to hoping the city leaders act responsibly to protect Batavia's family restaurants.  They are important to a community's identity and help give it it's own flavor.

Leave your restaurant recommendations in the comments. I want to try them all.

Patrick Burk finds The Batavian minutes after launch (amazing that we're already showing up in Google) and leaves the first comment.

He wants you to know about this:

Batavia Players, Inc. present: "COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN" BY Ed Graczyk

May 8 - 10 at Stuart Steiner Theater, Genesee Community College, Batavia, New York

This is a fun filled PG - 13 Romp of the aftermath of the filming of the movie "GIANT" which starred James Dean in Marfa, Texas. The story takes place in the year 1955 AND 20 years later in 1975 and reunites the Disciples of James Dean. A touching, poignant play that looks at the best and worst of friendship and love. The Batavia production stars: Valeria Antonetty Shawnie Euren Lynda Hodgins Brittaney Lang Nikole Marone Peggy Marone Joan Meyer Patti Michalak and Introducing Jake Bortle as "Joe"

Tickets are $10 General Admission and $8 Students and Senior Citizens. Tickets can be ordered by calling 585-343-9721 or they can be purchased at Roxy's Music Store or GO ART! on Main Street.

UPDATE: We don't think we're in Google yet.  No search we do reveals thebatavian.com; we're not sure how Patrick found us.

From the Daily News (Wednesday):

• Karen Gerace Rowland joined the family business, Gerace's Hair Care on Vine Street, run by her father, Joe. No mention of how long Gerace's has been around.

• Batavia Sertoma granted district awards to two of its members Tuesday. Len Walker was named Sertoman of the Year. His wife, Cheryl, received the District Secretary's Appreciation Award. Len is also the group's president. Sertomans are an international group that was founded in 1912. The Batavia chapter has been around since 1960.

• Notre Dame High Scool's Mock Trial team made it to the quarterfinals of a competition held at the Genesee County Court. It appears from the article that Notre Dame was knocked out of contention by Pembroke and Avon, but there is no mention of when the quarterfinals took place. The competition — the Daily News mentions no name — is an annual event that welcomes 16 teams from schools in Genesee, Orleans and Livingston counties.

For the complete stories, the Daily News is available on local newsstands, or you can subscribe on BataviaNews.com.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Batavian is on the air.

We're launching in beta mode -- lots of bugs to work out, and we still need to establish our business in beautiful downtown Batavia, New York.

Today has been mainly about administrative tasks -- ordering busienss cards, advertising, signage and buying some electronics.

At the moment, we're hanging out in Main Street Coffee.

We'll share more later about who we are and what we're doing, but if you happen across this site and this post, please register and leave a comment.  Tell us what you think The Batavian can and should do to best serve the residents and businesses of Batavia.

Official launch date slated for May 1.