Being a cyclist in Buffalo sucks. Drivers whiz by you. People honk, startling you. And you have to maneuver through the maze of the city grid to find streets suitable for riding on.

I was barely seated in the waiting room outside the Buffalo Board of Education meeting chamber last Thursday before the scheduled meeting of the board’s Executive Affairs Committee when WIVB TV newsman Rich Newberg asked me if I was a parent. This might have been a hopeful question. The only people in the room were from the media. There were no parents or “concerned citizens” (to adopt a board agenda term) to interview.