batavia

 Brighton's defenders made things difficult for the Batavia boys soccer team Thursday.

The Blue Devils had a few chances to score, but fell behind early and wound up getting shutout 2-0 in the Monroe County League game.

The Barons attacked early and had a shot to score 13 minutes in when a shot hit the crossbar atop the net. They took the 1-0 advantage just moments later when Sean Rose got one past Batavia keeper Jordan Brown.

Brighton kept the pressure high early in the first half, with Batavia's defense making some key stops, including a penalty kick attempted just after the goal was scored.

The Blue Devils had their best chance to score in the final six minutes of the opening half.

With about 5 1/2 minutes remaining, Batavia had a corner kick.

Brighton goalie Jake Bonar stopped two difficult shot attempts and a third went sailing over the net.

The Barons had a corner with less than a minute left before the break, but never got a shot off.

The momentum that Batavia had built near the end of the first half vanished fast at the start of the second half as Michael Patchen scored off a pass by Joe Shapiro at the 42 minute mark

Batavia had a few chances to score, but not many quality opportunities because of the Brighton defenders. Bonar had 11 saves for the Barons, who are 2-3 in the league and 3-7 overall.

Brown made nine saves for Batavia, which drops to 0-4 in the league and 4-6 overall.

UPDATED WITH VIDEO

Six new members will be inducted to the Batavia Blue Devil Hall of Fame on Saturday, October 18 at Terry Hills Restaurant and Banquet Facility.

Nancy Viola worked in athletics and served as Athletic Director from 1981-1998, where 14 Batavia teams won Section 5 championships, including a New York State football title in 1981.

Viola was a chairperson for Section 5 girls basketball from 1975-1997 and NYS girls basketball from 1978-1982.

She earned the 1985 Jean Giambrone Rochester Press Radio Award, was inducted into the Section 5 basketball HOF in 2001 and is a member of the Rochester Red Wing Walk of Fame.

Jonathan Walton was a 1974 graduate after playing four years of varsity basketball and three years of both football and baseball, 

Earned all-county honors in both basketball and baseball. He earned second-team all-county honors when he helped the Batavia basketball team go 19-2 during his junior year.

Walton played baseball and basketball at Buffalo State College and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1974.

1964 graduate Douglas King played four years of football, bowling and baseball at Batavia and earned the Judd-Guinlock MVP award as a co-captain during his senior year.

King led the 1964 bowling team with a 194 scoring average.

Compiled an 11-3-2 record on the mound as a senior, tossing a no hitter, four one-hitters and four shutouts.

He was named the best male athlete at BHS in 1964 and was awarded the Mary Delbridge Citizenship award.

King was scouted by the Pittsburgh Pirates, N.Y. Yankees and San Francisco Giants.

Thomas Vincellos is a 1961 graduate and ran four years of cross country and track, and wrestled one season.

He was the Section 5 cross country champion as a senior and led Batavia to four straight Genesee-Wyoming team titles, setting the course record twice.

Vincellos was the best athlete of senior class and earned the Babe Ruth Sportsmanship award in 1961. He was also a three-time recipient of the Dominic Valle Cross Country MVP award.

1943 graduate Don Johnson played football and ran track for four years while playing baseball and basketball for three each.

He was awarded the 1943 Cope-Dowd Award for excellence in Track & Field and was named to the 1943 Section 5 basketball tournament all-star team.

Johnson earned a letter in four sports in his junior and senior years.

Ralph "Buddy" Houseknecht is a 1968 graduate and played three years of baseball and two years of football and basketball.

He won the Judd-Guinlock MVP award as captain of the football team as a senior. Was also a captain on the baseball team.

Houseknecht was named best BHS athlete in 1968 and received a scholarship to Edinboro State College in Pennsylvania where he played football.

Has been a long-time Batavia High School and Blue Devil Athletics supporter as member of Batavia Rotary Club and as President of Pepsi-Cola Batavia Inc.

The 7th Annual Induction Ceremony has a social hour beginning at 5 p.m., followed by a 6 p.m. dinner.

Tickets are available at the Athletic Directors office at Batavia High School. For more information you can call 585-343-2480 ex. 2003

A third straight home loss to start the season would have meant the Batavia football team was going to be looking at a nearly impossible climb to get into the Section 5 Class B Tournament.

But the running of Anthony D'Aurizio and Rob Williams made sure that that climb is going to be a little less difficult as the Blue Devils offense outgunned visiting Waterloo 41-28 at VanDetta Stadium Friday night.

The scoring output shows the ability of the offense, which put up 33 points in a difficult 34-33 overtime loss against Pal-Mac.

Williams rushed for 203 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries while D'Aurizio had 180 yards and two scores on 21 attempts.

After Rich Chilson kicked off the scoring for the Indians with a 15-yard run just 1 1/2 minutes into the game, Batavia got cooking.

D'Aurizio ripped off a 42-yard run that set up a 1-yard quarterback keeper for a touchdown by Joe Canzoneri. The Troy Ireland extra point gave Batavia a 7-6 advantage.

Kevin Sessler punched one in from two yards out and after the two-point conversion failed, the Indians led 12-7 to end the opening quarter.

D'Aurizio scored from 2 yards out and had a conversion run to put Batavia up 15-12 before Sessler capped off the first half scoring with a two-yard run for Waterloo, with the extra point making it 19-15 Indians at intermission.

Batavia owned the third quarter.

After receiving the opening kickoff, D'Aurizio had a 12-yard run, Williams ripped one off for 21 yards and D'Aurzio capped off the drive with a score from 10 yards out.

Ireland pounded the ensuing kickoff and Waterloo didn't get much of a return. That was compounded by a block in the back penalty, which meant the following drive started at the 5-yard line.

Waterloo didn't move the ball and had to punt. 6-foot-1 Joe Schlossel blocked that punt and Batavia took over at the Indian 2-yard line.

Williams scored on the next play, giving the Blue Devils a 28-19 lead.

After Batavia's defense caused another three-and-out, Waterloo had to punt and Williams put the nail in the coffin when he ripped off a stunning 75-yard touchdown run. Ireland's kick made the score 35-19.

The Indians did drive and Chilson scored on a 10-yard run to get the score within 10 points early in the fourth quarter.

Waterloo then recovered the onside kick.

Jordan Cook nailed a 29-yard field goal and it was a one score game with about 4 minutes left to play.

Batavia struggled to move the ball and was in a fourth-and-2 situation with 3:21 left

Coach Dan Geiger decided to punt the ball away - despite the urging of several players to go for it with the ball at their own 38. But Canzoneri drilled a perfect punt, which was downed at the Waterloo 13-yard line.

The Indians never moved the ball and turned it over on downs, allowing Williams to cap off the game's scoring with a 13-yard TD run.

Waterloo had very little time to attempt to get back into the game, but Devonte Rolle intercepted a Cook pass to ice the game.

D'Aurizio led the defense with 11 tackles, with Ireland making 10 stops and Adam Hausfelder getting nine. Vinny Pedro had seven tackles and blocked an extra point for Batavia (1-2).

Waterloo falls to 0-3.

UPDATED WITH VIDEO

 I just wanted to leave a reminder that I will be at the Waterloo at Batavia game tonight, so please check back shortly after the end of the game for complete coverage as well as results from other area games.

I just thought I should give a big thanks to everyone who has supported my work with the Muckdogs this season! I'm glad to hear/see that so many of you appreciated the stories and blogs and my work in Batavia while there. I am quite jealous I didn't get to be there as we took the title! My parents were at the game and were giving me the play-by-play. They said it was amazing...wish I was there!

I first have to thank Howard and Philip for getting me involved with TheBatavian and letting me borrow the computer to do video while I was in Batavia...that will be great for my resume! Shirley, Dave, Travis, Casey, Naomi, Dan, Will, fellow interns, etc: I am honored to have been part of such a great team!  Big thanks, too, to all the fans I've met and got to know this season. It was so nice to meet all of you and chat at games!

I'm very busy here at Kent State already. For our student-run TV station, TV2, I assistant produce, anchor the news on Thursdays at 6:30 and take part in our sports show SportsCorner. I also produce a news package every week for the station/class. For our online news site I write a sports blog and I work for Kent State Athletic Communications, which includes working all the football, basketball, baseball games, etc (this will be my 3rd year working with Kent State baseball...obviously you know where my heart lies sports-wise :-) )...I think that's everything....most of my news stories will be posted on my youtube site (http://www.youtube.com/user/AFMissMollie) and all our newscasts, shows and blogs are at KentNewsNet.com...so check it out and keep in touch! I'd love to hear from you all! You can also e-mail me at mradzin1@kent.edu.

Thanks again to everyone! I hope to hear from you soon!

When I first met Joe Zinni, he was a tall, skinny basketball player for Batavia High School, that was obviously not a top scoring option.

He knew his role on the court and basically wound up being an assistant coach on the floor for BHS coach Buddy Brasky.

He's turned that attitude into a coaching career.

Zinni will be an assistant women's basketball coach at Saginaw Valley State University this winter and will be responsible for recruiting, tape exchange, scouting, academic progress, strength and will have responsibilities during practices and games.

"I'm very excited for this opportunity, especially at such a young age," Zinni told me Thursday night. "I've worked under great people who have helped me get to where I am. My goal of making it to the Division I level is now realistic, so I will be working harder than ever to try and get there shortly."

Zinni was a forward at BHS, but will be working primarily with the guards at Saginaw Valley.

He landed this coaching job primarily because of his work with Genesee Community College last season.

The Cougars went 24-6 and wound up finishing as one of the top eight schools in the NJCAA Division II Nationals.

After graduation from Batavia, he spent 2002-2007 as an assistant coach at both the junior and varsity levels at his home school, working with the forwards.

Zinni assisted the 2005 Section 5 Class A championship winning team that made the state tournament for the first time ever.

He has worked as an AAU and RAP coach and was an assistant coach for the Western Regional boys basketball team at the Empire State Games the past two years.

Zinni is a 2006 graduate of Buffalo State College and also has an A.S. degree from GCC.

Here at the Batavian, we wish him the best of luck and know he is going to represent Batavia well as a big-time women's basketball coach.

The 22nd Annual Labor Day 5k Run and Walk by the Batavia Area Jaycees was held on a great sunny day.  Proceeds will benefit the Genesee County Aids Task Force.

Here is the link to the results:

http://geneseeny.entrexp.com/documentview.asp?docID=608

Thanks to everyone help sponsored and made the event run as well as it did!

www.geneseeny.com/bataviajaycees

Don't forget, on Monday, September 1, 2008 is the Batavia Area Jaycees 22nd Annual Labor Day 5K Run & Walk.  Proceeds will go to a local community organization: Genesee County AIDS Task Force.

Registration begins at 8am at MacArthur Park with the Race begining at 10am.

Day of the race registration is $15 for runners, $10 for runners.

For more details click on the 5k section at www.geneseeny.com/bataviajaycees or call 585-343-5775.

As the Muckdogs chase their first title since 1963 ( pre Muckdogs) We need noisy fans at Dwyer Stadium.4 home games left, Sun,Thurs,Fri,Sat Let's cheer our boys on as they go for the title. Of course, I'm biased but a championship would be great in 08

For Immediate Release:
Rich.Vleck@ASCSracing.com

 J.J. Mazur and Pat Powers Snag Genesee Wins Before Rain
 Rich Vleck, BATAVIA, NY, (August 9, 2008)- The Genesee Speedway expected rain on Saturday, justnot as early as it arrived.
A pair of showers hit the Genesee Speedway on Saturday Evening, the first set the start back twohours, the next one threw it out the rest of the night.
The completion of the Castle Powered Late Model Feature from a week earlier and the ProfessionalDriver Institute Mini Stock Features were the only events that would be completed on Totem PoleSmoke Shop and Gas Night.After the first shower hit the track just before the posted starting time, the decision was madeto run a features only format, scratching the heats for the evening.  The drivers were given anopportunity to run hot laps to help work the track in.
The first feature out was the Late Model event.  Last week, it took 30 minutes to run six laps. 

This week the final 14 circuits would take a mere five minutes.
J.J. Mazur, who took the lead just before the postponement of the feature, took off on the restartand checked out on the pack for his second win of the season.
“After that first win, we couldn’t get ourselves out of a hole,” said Mazur.  “We were in the topand the middle groove most of the race, but really you could put it anywhere.”
The Batavia youngster had was able to drive away from his buddy Ron Mogavero, who was able to cardhis best finish of the season, holding off a fast Jason Boyle for second.
Justin Chaddock was fast on the cushion but would struggle to make forward progress, as he wouldfinish in fourth.  Dave DuBois would round out the top-five to strengthen his point lead.

 The PDI Trucking School Mini Stock Feature was off to a fast start, with Mike Sweeney movingaround Pat Powers on the second lap and strengthening his advantage.  After a lap 7 caution forpoint leader Brandon Aradine though, Powers would make a pass on the restart and would lead untilthe final caution on the night, which would fall for rain.  The checkered flag would also bedisplayed at that point.
It was the first win this year for Powers, of Dale, the seventh different driver to score a victoryin the highly competitive division.
Mike Sweeney would place in second, with youngster Dylan Cecee third.  Dan Norton and SamanthaBurch would complete the top-five.As the caution and checkered fell in the mini stock feature, a massive thunderstorm would move inand cancel the remainder of the cards.  With less than half of the program completed, ticket and

pit stubs will be honored next weekend.  For more information, visit www.GeneseeSpeedway.com.

Genesee Speedway Results: 8/9/2008-
Totem Pole Smoke Shop & Gas Night
 Castle Powered Late Model Feature Completion from 8/2 (20 Laps)- JJ MAZUR, Ron Mogavero, Jason

Boyle, Tim Kaufman, Justin Chaddock, Dave DuBois, Pete Waldron, Aaron Johnson, Billy Burd, Rich

Hale, Jon Rivers, Doug Jones, Jim Johnson, Terry Pangrazio, Bob Babbitt, Jason Bridge, Brian

Farnsworth, Mike Childrose, Scooter Pangrazio.
 
Lap Leaders- Mogavero 1-5, Mazur 6-20.

 
Professional Driver Institute Mini Stock Feature (15 Laps)- PAT POWERS, Mike Sweeney, Dylan Cecee,

Dan Norton, Samantha Burch, Randy Barclay, Ed Neal, Alan Kemp, Duane Pingrey, Jason Hull, Mark

Forsha, Byron Dewitt, Brandon Aradine, Tom Amico, Rick Johnson.

 Lap Leaders- Powers 1, Sweeney 2-7, Powers 8-15.

This is a video I took of the liberty street fire at the end of the whole thing, I worked that day so I would have had more video but could not.

I've lived in my share of cities and towns across the country, from Miami to New York City to Albuquerque to Santa Cruz, California.

Everywhere I've lived, the locals tend to have a certain brand of self-deprecating humor, whether it's bad jokes about the tourists, the weather, or the throngs of undergraduates clogging up the streets.

But I have been impressed with the degree that Westen New Yorkers take the art form.

Consider the "You know you're from Batavia when..." group on Facebook.  (You'll need to be logged in to Facebook to see the full thread.)

Here are a few highlights:

• You have gone sledding at Centennial Park at some point in your life.
• You realize no Chinese buffet is like the ones in Batavia.
• You walk into Martins and know at least 10 people working there at any given time.
• Your football team is known for losing homecoming all the time.

It gets a little rougher from there...

Add your own entries in the comments below.

I've been thinking of my old home town in Southern California this morning, and Batavia.

If it seems odd that I would be thinking of two towns 3,000 miles apart, thank Bill Kauffman.

Yesterday, I sumbled upon a pair of essays Kauffman wrote in 1991 about Batavia. Here's Part I, and here's the Conclusion of "Back to Batavia."

For Kauffman, Batavia has gone to ruin -- grand old buildings destroyed, venerable local stores shuttered and chains, corporations and big media pulling residents away from a pace of life that was seemingly more connected, more rooted.

Everywhere In Batavia I found small independent businesses in retreat. The Tops grocery chain has opened a super store on West Main, and all those little corner grocers, where at three o'clock the kids liberated from school, bought pretzel sticks and Bazooka Joes and Red Hot Dollars, all those Lamberts and Wandryks and Says and Borrellis are gone, gone, gone. Mr. Quartley just died, and the Platens are hanging on, barely. And now Tops has a pizza oven, and a Domino's just opened in the K Mart Plaza, so Pontillo's and Arena's and Ficarella's and Starvin' Marvin, you'd better dig in and fight. Or maybe it would just be easier to sell out, pack the wife and kids into a U-Haul, and slink down to Florida—to a trailer-park reservation with all the other white Indians.

Kauffman calls himself a localist.  I knew very little of Kauffman before we launched The Batavian, but in an odd way -- a way I'm sure he would find very odd indeed -- he might be our godfather, or at least a good touchstone of what we need to be about.

One of Kauffman's complaints is that modern New Yorkers know little of their regional literature, so rather than assume that Batavians know who Kauffman is, let me supply some background. 

Kauffman was born in Batavia in 1959 (which makes us roughly the same age). He is a writer of books and essays, mostly on politics, social and cultural issues from a conservative/libertarian bent (which makes us roughly aligned, though there seem to be many specifics on which we diverge).  His most famous book seems to be Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette, which is about Batavia. His most recent book is Ain't My America.

Kauffman believes in small town America, and in Batavia.  I've spent my entire journalism career working for small town newspapers.  Community journalism is all I know and all I care about.

I've never said this about myself before, but I guess I'm a localist, too; albeit, one lacking the true small town roots of a Bill Kauffman.

As we've said before in The Batavian, community journalism long ago lost its small town soul.

Kauffman's own analysis isn't far from our own:

The daily newspaper has passed from the Griswolds and the McWains—fine old Republicans, how gentle that Main Street Harding hauteur seems now—to a chain. The chain sent a team of journalism school, degreed outsiders to Batavia, where they patiently instruct us in contemporary etiquette. (Let's get some foreign titles in the video store! What Batavia needs is a nice Mexican restaurant!) The editorial writers are all looking to move up and out, so the paper's leaders feature plenty of "Outlaw Pit Bulls" and "Dwarf-Tossing a National Disgrace" and "A Plan for World Peace" and nary a "Save a County Courthouse."

Yes, The Batavian is owned by a corporation that runs chain newspapers, but the goal of this project is to give back to community journalism its soul.  While neither Philip nor I currently live in Batavia (for myself, I wouldn't mind seeing that change some day, but it doesn't seem at all a realistic possibiility now), the future staff writers of The Batavian will be residents (and we hope native Batavians). 

See, I know what it's like to watch a small town lose itself in its quest for glory and riches.

That old home town I was thinking of this morning was El Cajon, a suburb now of San Diego, but once a two-hour stage coach ride from the big city, so it developed its own identity. 

We didn't move to El Cajon until I was 14, but I knew the town well because most of our extended family lived there.

My dad moved us to El Cajon so he could start a business.  He put me in the same high school he had attended.  Eventually, I would get my first daily newspaper job in El Cajon, and I would start my first entrepreneurial enterprise in El Cajon (an online community news site in 1995, which is in some ways the precursor of The Batavian.).

By the time I launched that online site, the El Cajon of my youth, the quaint small town of the 1960s through early 1980s that I knew, was gone.

The old buildings on Main and Magnolia, gone.  Empty shops dotted what was left of Main Street.

All in the name of urban renewal.

Batavia went through that, too.

Kauffman:

Batavia responded to the demise of Route 5 with an act of parricide unequaled this side of Rumania, where the demonic Ceausescu once waged war on pre-Communist architecture. The city fathers rushed headlong into urban renewal, whereby the federal government paid Batavia to knock down its past: the mansions of the founders, the sandstone churches, the brick shops, all of it (even Dean Richmond's manor, which had become an orphanage financed by Miss Edna, the city's legendary madam with a heart of gold, may she rest in peace.)

Batavia tore out—literally—its five-block heart and filled the cavity with a ghastly mall, a dull gray sprawling oasis in a desert of parking spaces. The mall was a colossal failure, but it succeeded in destroying the last vestiges of our home-run economy. J. C. Penney and Wendy's were in; the Dipson Theater and the Dagwood Restaurant were out. As our chamber of commerce might put it in one of their doggedly goofy brochures, Batavia had entered the global economy.

The mayor who stole El Cajon from me was Joan Shoemaker, who envisioned turning El Cajon -- a smoggy valley populated by factory workers and cowboys -- into the La Jolla of East County, with boutiques, quaint book stores (not that disheveled and dusty 50,000 Books I shopped in throughout high school and college years -- inset picture of now closed bookstore) and "white tablecloth restaurants" (a phrase that will be acid in my ears until I'm an old man).

It's been two years since I visited El Cajon.  Except to see my grandmother, I have no desire to go back.

The city has slipped completely into poverty and waste and ruin.  Joan Shoemaker's vision of an "East County La Jolla" has vanished behind trash on the streets and graffiti on the walls of her strip malls.  A city that once was home to modest people earning a modest living raising their families in quiet and security has been overrun by Section 8 housing and Dollar Tree stores.

Batavia is nothing like that.

And here is where Kauffman and I diverge.  There is still much about Batavia that is local.

Downtown is full of good, locally owned restaurants and stores. While pedestrian traffic is often light, it is not non-existent and plenty of people still seem to frequent the city's core.

Yes, City Center is pretty much a monstrosity, but there is still something left of old Batavia on Main Street. (I wonder if any of the former city leadership who led the charge to destroy all those grand old buildings are still around, and if they would own up to the failure of the project?) (And I should mention, the BID has done a great job with downtown, and expect to see that group yet make something useful out of City Center).

As somebody who comes from 3,000 miles away, a transplant to Western New York who thinks the region is just great and plans to spend many decades living here, I've got to say that I see no reason Batavia can't have a very local present and future.  We hope The Batavian can help encourage a vibrant localism.

And I've got to say, I'm glad I've learned about Bill Kauffman. He is my first open window into literary and historic New York.  In California, I had a grand collection of regional books, and I had explored the state thoroughly.  When I left California with an idea that I would never return, I donated those books to Matt Welch, then an editor with the Los Angeles Times and now editor of Reason Magazine (where Kauffman used to write).  Those books sit on some shelf in the Times building, I'm told. I trust they're in good hands.  Now it's time for me to learn more about, and embrace, my adopted state.

For a visual look back at old Batavia, here is a collection of pictures and one of postcards.

Second Annual Family Fishing Fiesta

June 28^th, Time: 9 AM -1 PM at Dewitt Recreational Area, Cedar Street Batavia..

Music by Bart and Kevin – Performance time TBA,

Build a kite with Pieces Art Gallery.

No Fishing License required.

FREE Event. Lions Club will be selling hotdogs and hamburgers.

 Sponsored by Batavia Lions Club with assistance from the Oakfield Lions Club.

From the Daily News (Tuesday):

• Reporter Tom Rivers works in the field — literally — as part of a series of articles on farm labor that kicked off today. His first stop: Triple G Farms in Barre. It doesn't take long for Rivers to realize he can't quite keep up with the crew of Mexican laborers. "I couldn't help but rub my back, shake my arms and legs loose, grit my teeth, and pray for rain, especially after a five-hour stint Wednesday." A fine article, worth checking out.

• Seventy school representatives from across the country have been touring Batavia's city schools over the past few days as part of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) Technology Tour.

• A story on page three covers the city cleanup effort initiated by Helping Hands this past Saturday. Charlie Mallow covered the event for The Batavian three days ago. Go here for his post.

• The Genesee County Agricultural Society is looking for ways to boost attendance to the county fair — July 15-19 this year. Some of the ideas: move midway rides closer to the center of the fair and include more in the ticket price (so that $5 can get you access Tuesday and Wednesday, for example). What would get you to the fair?

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

I've still had no luck catching the city manager or police lieutenant — both very busy men, it would seem. Must be tough business running a city and keeping it safe. I wouldn't doubt it. Fortunately, City Councilman Bob Bialkowski got back to me. We had a chat this morning about his thoughts on what's going on in the city these days.

Bob's a former crop-dusting pilot, "semi-retired" now, he says. That means he has "only one" airplane, from which he does aerial photography — his current business. He's been flying since he was a kid.

On his Web site bio, Bob mentions "community improvement" under his special interests. So I thought I'd ask him about that. So I ask him, quite simply: what needs to be improved, and how do we improve it?

"We've got some pockets of decline," he says. "We have to change some of our zoning laws, change code enforcement. We need to try to improve these areas."

That means public education on how to properly dispose of yard waste, for example. Get the word out to people, whether it's through the newspaper, through our site, in pamphlets included with the water bill — people need to be more aware, says Bob.

He says that "entire neighborhoods are a problem — trash all over, abandoned cars in the back yard." Head over to the southside of the city, to Jackson Street, over near Watson and Thorpe streets, State Street, and you'll see what he's talking about.

"But you can pick any street," he says.

Meanwhile, he goes on, the city has a tough time keeping up with all the violators. The code enforcement staff is minimal. Absentee landlords know how to work the system to "avoid" making the necessary improvements for "four or five months" at a stretch. Add to that the increasing crime rate — Bialkowski says the city department is 300 calls above their total for this time last year, which set records itself — and you've got a situation that could get out of control fast.

Nor is that all. Bob also takes issue with the taxes. They're too high, he says.

"Every year, more property in the city gets taken off the tax roll because of non-profits and tax exempts," he says. "And they use city services. They put their trash out by the street for pickup, but they don't pay for it."

In many ways, that's a valid claim, says City Assessor Michael Cleveland, who estimates the tax exempt properties in the city to total about 30 percent, without looking at the tax rolls. You have to understand, however, that Batavia is a county seat, he says. As the hub of Genesee County it's going to get the churches, the county offices, the organizations, all those who are tax exempt.

Could that just be the price of convenience then?