Freedom doesn’t come free so please don’t take it for granted.
Thank you to everyone that serves or has served our country.
And thank you to the Hertel Ave businesses for flying the stars and stripes today.
Enjoy your Independence Day, neighbors. 
The arrival of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil marks a momentous time for soccer in Buffalo, and the spotlight will shine on Hertel Avenue as the epicenter of free-flowing futbol and national pride.
The international affair — which could garner even greater local attention than when the Wambach-Morgan-Solo-fueled U.S. Women’s National Team sprinted to the World Cup Final in 2011 — began at 4 p.m. Thursday with the host nation squaring off against Croatia.
Mes Que, Buffalo’s first soccer-only bar, is at the heart of the festivities; co-owner Tony Christiano and his cousin, Left Bank proprietor Mike Christiano, have devoted the last two years to growing soccer’s popularity in Buffalo by televising virtually every meaningful European and American soccer match at 1420 Hertel Ave., earning the trust and business of fans far and wide.
Because this is Mes Que’s inaugural men’s tournament, the bar has an opportunity to set the bar high for future large-scale soccer celebrations. Fortunately for the Christianos, the bar’s mantra for the tournament is nearly identical to its mission as a bar.
“We want Mes Que to be the place where all kinds of people — those from Buffalo and those visiting Buffalo — can share the game together,” Tony Christiano said in a short phone conversation.
Hello Hertel learned some of the specific plans:
Mes Que will televise every World Cup match.Other businesses along Hertel have joined the fray, as Globe Market will air matches on its TVs, while Christiano is hopeful that Gecko’s will take part as well.
For a short time, Mes Que hoped to stream the U.S. games inside North Park Theatre, but when Christiano reached out to FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, representatives explained that such an approach would violate policy.
Mes Que has worked with local soccer supporter groups — from the Buffalo chapter of the American Outlaws to the Buffalo Soccer Council, a group of active, futbol enablers — to drum up interest and assure a raucous-yet-safe environment.
If you’re one of the folks whose soccer appetite is never satiated, the Buffalo chapter of the American Outlaws will host the Sunday Soccer Series at North Park Theatre, where soccer-focused films and documentaries will be shown inside the recently refurbished cinema.
“Victory,” “The Year My Parents Went to Brazil,” “Next Goal Wins” (the story of American Samoa) and a Bob Bradley documentary are just a few of the films that will roll on all Sundays from now through July 13 — excluding July 6, which is Independence Day Weekend.
Although the United States’ first match isn’t until 6 p.m. Monday against Ghana, prepare for soccer mania along Hertel between North Park and Norwalk. Even if you’re not a soccer fanatic, the chance to witness 32 prideful countries — as big as Brazil and as small as Uruguay — vie for the same goal can be a magical experience. And it’s just down the road.
Editorial Note: I can’t and won’t take any credit for this post. Admittedly, I know little about soccer and less about “futbol” – but in recognizing and appreciating its significance in the world of sports, I reached out to a local expert to provide this great Hertel insight.
Hard to believe that a year ago we posted our first blog – The Story Behind the Design – which explained why a pack of Camel cigarettes was rebranded into Buffalo Clarinets.
Since then we’ve posted about 40 blogs, earned a hundred or so followers and enjoyed almost 22,000 views of our site.
Buffalo Rising mentioned our blog in a few of their articles and Channel 2 even interviewed me in December for some thoughts on shopping local.
We connected with one particular neighbor, Meg Vaidya, who loved our blog almost as much as she loves Buffalo. Ok probably not that much, but enough for her to come on board and start contributing to the page.
In looking back, I think this blog did exactly what Karen and I had hoped. The blog shared stories of all the exciting things going on in North Buffalo, gave us some creative and artistic freedom, and better connected us with our community.
Hope this post doesn’t come off like were bragging about Hello Hertel. It’s quite the opposite really – just a big fat Thank you! Thank you for reading, sharing, commenting, and most importantly, for North Buffaloving.
I gave birth to this kid four months ago.
Cute, right?
Well he wasn’t more than a day or two old, before Charlie and I started SERIOUSLY talking about where we would send him to school. Sure, we were getting a little ahead of ourselves given that he has to first master some basic life skills like eating and sleeping and cheering for the Bills before the bus pulls up and whisks him off to kindergarten. But still, now that we have a real-life tiny human in front of us, all of a sudden we feel like we have to start the conversation.
Many o’ times we’ve uttered the words “well there’s NO WAY we can send him to public schools, not in Buffalo”. The options were always Catholic schools, charter schools (whatever those are) or banking on the fact that we were raising the next Albert Einstein and we’d be enrolling him in the early achiever program at Harvard.
A pleasant Facebook conversation with a Hello Hertel reader I’ve never met now has me thinking otherwise.
This fellow North BuffaLOVER wrote me a quick note to say how much she enjoyed reading our blog. We exchanged a number of pleasantries and yada yada yada (thanks George Costanza for one of the greatest segues ever), turns out we have a mutual friend (classic Buffalo) AND turns out she’s a teacher at School 81 on Tacoma Ave.
I have driven by that school a million times and in the last four months have been wondering if that is one of the good ones you hear young parents living in the city talk about. According to her, it is. My eyes lit up.
She said the principal at 81 runs a “tight ship” and their students go on to Nichols and City Honors. She acknowledged that Buffalo Public Schools do have their challenges (putting it nicely) but said that walking into School 81 is unlike any other. Who is this Principal Tight Ship and what is he all about?
See this article from the Buffalo News on School 81’s Principal, Robert Clemens.
If you’re a young parent in North Buffalo, I truly hope you clicked that link. After reading that, I have a renewed sense of hope that a Buffalo public school, School 81 in our own backyard, could be a viable option for our child’s education someday.
A renewed sense of hope from a complete stranger, now Facebook friend, thanks to this very blog.
Now I just need Principal Clemens to stick around for another 13 years…ya know, in case that Harvard thing doesn’t work out.
Happy New Year friends and neighbors!
As I was enjoying my first cup of (Spot) coffee in 2014 this bright and crisp morning, I got to thinking about what many of us have been thinking, talking, and posting about: how great 2013 was and how we’ll dominate in 2014.
Karen and I were blessed with a baby boy (“Sweet Baby” Ray) a few weeks ago, so our primary resolution for 2014 is to figure out the whole parenting thing. Something tells me that will be our 2015 resolution as well, but we’re up for the challenge.
But apart from that, continuing to spread the positivity for Buffalo and pitching in to make our community better tops our list of things to do this year.
If you’re like many of the folks that I talk with, you’re wildly proud to be a Buffalonian, you’re stoked about all the things going on and you’re dying to be a bigger part of it all.
But “how?” you might say.
We were asking ourselves that same question this time last year when we decided we were going to start this blog. It’s nothing fancy but seems to be aiding in raising awareness and love for our North Buffalo ‘hood. In fact, the success of Hello Hertel has surpassed our wildest expectations, with over 15,000 views so far! For us, its a fun and easy way to contribute.
The answer for you is just as simple. Anything you choose to do that shares the BuffaLOVE will work. Shop local. Eat local. Don’t move to the suburbs. Embrace the progress. Ditch the “old Buffalo” mindset. Attend a community meeting. Stop and talk with your neighbors. Join a board or committee. Volunteer.
All feasible. All impactful.
I see some folks are already taking action. Take a look at NorthBuffalo.org – a grassroots organization spearheaded by Ryan Sajdak that looks to pull it all together. Getting involved with this might be a no-brainer. Looks like there’s a meeting on Friday night…hint hint.
The Washington Post said that BuffaLOVE is “in” for 2014. Yep. Everybody’s sharing it. It’s your turn!
Hello Hertel 