Why does Kristen Grandinetti even bother to live in Niagara Falls?
The cat hating, Facebook addicted, formerly Catholic city councilwoman – whose bed and breakfast operation on Memorial Parkway was found to be in violation of city codes – held a major fundraiser last week, but it wasn’t in Niagara Falls.
Instead of supporting a local business, she instead chose to host the July 13 event at Buffalo’s Coco Bar and Bistro, located at888 Main St. in the fashionable Allentown district, where you can get a $14 hamburger or a Caesar salad that costs the same.
The councilwoman once told a constituent on Facebook, “If you don’t like where you are, MOVE, you are not a tree!” on a public Facebook forum.
But it’s Ms. Grandinetti herself who appears to dislike the Cataract City.
Following her dumbfounding 2013 reelection victory, she announced her resignation from the Roman Catholic Church. Just five days after her win, Ms. Grandinetti posted a photograph of the Episcopalian Church of the Good Shepherd in Buffalo.
“My new spiritual home,” Ms. Grandinetti wrote beneath the photo. “Though it saddened me to leave the Catholic Church after more than 50 years, I am now a member of a church who loves and welcomes all. I am a proud Episcopalian. This is the Church of the Good Shepherd. And love it…female priest…double love it…she is married!”
The Church of the Good Shepherd does indeed have a female rector, Cathy Dempsy-Sims. And she is indeed married, to a woman named Lucinda Dempsey-Sims, known as “Pete” to her friends.
Councilwoman Grandinetti outraged decent, cat loving Falls taxpayers with proposed legislation that threatened fines and even jail time for city residents whose humanitarianism motivated them to feed strays, or cat owners whose cats were what she called a “nuisance.” She got zero support from her city Council colleagues but – after the story went viral on the internet – she did manage to get more than a few people wishing her death.
Her Facebook posts have been a constant source of trouble, both at City Hall and with her employers at the Niagara Falls City School District. In the run-up to the 2015 election here, Mayor Paul Dyster – who was seeking a third term – begged her to stop posting, which she managed to do for about three months.
Ms. Grandinetti took to Facebook to called her employer, the Niagara Falls City School District, “borderline criminal” for its handling of sex education.
Ms. Grandinetti teaches kindergarten classes at the school district.
“I am tired of my students having to pay the price for our ignorance,” she wrote. “It is borderline criminal.”
Exactly what price the 4-and-5-year-olds she teaches are actually paying, Ms. Grandinetti doesn’t say. But whatever price it is, it apparently has something to do with something called comprehensive sex ed.
She later apologized for her remarks.
Facebook addiction affects the brain in a similar way to taking cocaine, new research suggests.
Facebook addiction may show up in brain scans of those who can’t stay off the site, affecting the grey matter in a similar way that cocaine does, academics have found.
“The impulsive system can be thought of as a car’s accelerator, while the inhibitory system can be likened to a brake,” explained Professor Ofir Turel of California State University.
“In addictions, there is very strong acceleration associated with the impulsive system often coupled with a malfunctioning inhibitory system.”
Researchers found that Facebook triggers activated the amygdala, which helps establish the significance of events and emotions, and the striatum, which is involved in the processing and anticipation of rewards.
In other words, it can be as much an escape from the grim reality of life in Niagara Falls as having a fundraiser or joining a church in Buffalo. Numerous citizens have complained about Councilwoman Grandinetti being glued to her iPhone during City Council meetings and paying no attention whatsoever to what was going on around her.
But, like her boss Mayor Dyster himself, Ms. Grandinetti needs the money of the Buffalo interests to stand a snowball’s chance in hell of getting reelected.
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