The World According to Bob

(Editor’s note: Like an extra level of Dante’s Inferno, (see Frank Mariani today) this week’s weekly Youtube address from Mayor Robert Restaino went on forever – more than 21 minutes. The Express watched so you don’t have to. Here is a summary.)

Bitcoin mines

The city is continuing to monitor both active bitcoin mines, on Buffalo Avenue and 56th Street. The city is beginning sound monitoring on 56th Street and is in the process of scheduling an inspection with its friends on Buffalo Avenue.

The city has been monitoring and seeing if it can’t come to a solution to the problems that may be associated with those entities “so that the residents in the area can have some relief from what appears to be a number of violations.”

Movies at the Library

At the Main Library auditorium:

Tuesday, April 15

2:30 p.m. screening of “The Fossil.”

6:30 p.m. “Ghostbusters.”

Streetlight conversion continues

The change of older lights into new is saving money and will be more environmentally friendly.

“I want to start by reminding everyone since the city was required to acquire the streetlights, we will be contracting with a third party who will then be doing repairs. We have not gotten into that yet but we will be shortly.

“You may recall that when National Grid owned all the streetlights, you would contract National Grid, give them the number on the pole and they would get out there to repair it. That process will now be a part of the contract for the city.”

Spring is coming and NFR still sucks

The weather sometimes doesn’t cooperate with us but you can tell. Trees are starting to bud, in your gardens and lawns flowers are starting to crop up.

The other thing that we also know can tell spring is in the air is that the Milstein Group, Niagara Falls Redevelopment has proposed yet another fantastical idea about why their alleged project will be so helpful for everyone

“I want to remind everyone they are again starting this springtime pitch to say what great neighbors and friends to the community they are. . . . 27 years they have owned these properties in the south end. 2003 they made a promise in writing to build a $100 million hotel and retail complex on the very property that you see fenced in over there are 10th and Falls Street. Then they made the fantastical proposal to build a 25 story hotel, resort and spa at the Turtle site and here is that fantastical proposal (waves plan) and so now today again it is springtime and now they have this fantastic proposal of how much their alleged development is going to benefit the city and benefit everybody and the school and bring jobs and just benefit everybody.

“So you ask yourself, you had this that was going to benefit everybody and it never happened (flourishes NFR plan) then you had this and it never happened. (flourishes NFR plan) and now we have these spectacular economic and fiscal material that they issue out and again it just represents an economic ruse to pull the wool over the eyes of city residents. I think we are all a little bit tired of them. I think we realize over the last 27 years they have done nothing but talk about fantastical projects that they never bother to do but all this investment in our city and they have invested nothing.

“We can continue to allow them to come forward because it is springtime to come forward with some more incredible actually noncredible plans of some project that they claim are going to make everybody’s lives so much better when they have done that so many times and then never back their words up with any action.”

Pivoting to Centennial Park

“You know, the proposal that the city has made with regard to eminent domain and the taking of that property is a real proposal. I have shared with you what the event center and park can mean for the hospitality industry and the employment of those people who get laid off every late Fall and how that will help grow that industry into a year round industry.

“The remarkable thing is if we just take a look at the area 90 to 120 minutes away from Niagara Falls there are well over 12 million people in that distance most of which are in south ontario and so if we give them a reason even a quarter of them a reason to come to Niagara Falls because there is activity, excitement entertainment and excitement we are farther ahead of the game than we would be otherwise.

“That is the reason I am traveling to Albany to make sure state leaders understand the impact, the return on their investment because Niagara Falls does that. Whatever you can invest in this community you get back tremendously.

“As I have said, for the small county of Niagara we have crossed over the $1 billion threshold in tourist spending and that is predominantly from Niagara Falls. Our other venues and cities and town in the county, they contribute but the lion’s share of that $1 billion in tourist spending happens right here so I don’t think it is a reach to say investment in Niagara Falls can bring exponential return on investment. That is why I am continuing to fight for this.

“The other thing that is amazing about this super amazing fantastic proposal that has come out again this spring is that back in 2004 the city of Niagara Falls, that administration signed a deed alleged to transfer that property over to the Milstein Group.

“This area, the area in black, (holds up map). In order to transfer a park, and the 10th Street playground and park, it was a park, notwithstanding whatever any of the attorneys or public relations firms or people who talk on behalf of the Milstein Group I want to say it was a park.

“I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me to say that they played Little League there and they remember tournaments and thing there for baseball. Others talk about picnicking there and the other outdoor events at that site.

“And so, in order to make that transfer, the city would have had to have gotten permission from the state which they never did. So this super spectacular fantastic proposal that came out again from Niagara Falls Redevelopment and the Milstein Group requires they build there to benefit everybody in the community project on property that includes this parcel, a parcel that the city owns.

“They don’t even own the land that they want to build this spectacular development on and courts of NewYork State have given Niagara Falls the ability to acquire the balance. So you have this spectacular smokescreen again from people who are not from here.

“They could care less about you, and about me. Those of us, many born and raised here, many of us who have lived here our whole lives, we are very focused and that’s why this administration continues to fight because we know that the time has come for us, for our community to take responsibility for our own potential and to do that, we have to do these hard things. “We have to tell entities who aren’t from here, individuals that aren’t from here, who think they know better than us that they know what we need better than we know what we need and they present these underdeveloped proposals, they don’t tell you how they intend to occupy, they don’t tell you anything they just start throwing around numbers in hopes that they can get you glassy eyed and you will say ‘yeah OK they always know better because they always know better’.

“How many more times does this have to happen to us? How many more times do we have to have this happen to us? How many times beyond the whole urban development debacle of decades ago? How many times do we have to have it happen on the north end of Main Street? How many times to does it have to have it happen in the downtown development district?

“At sometime, I am sure you, like me, get tired and we say to ourselves, you know what we need? We need to bring entertainment and activity downtown again. That is what the event center and the park bring. It is an opportunity for a transformative economic development project that will accomplish the goal of expanding the season, allowing those that work in the hospitality industry to remain employed and with that come a whole host of personal benefits to people who are in that industry.

“You have a full time job, a full year job. You now can think about leaving that apartment that you have been renting for so long because that is all you can afford because you have a seasonal job and think about buying a home. Think about becoming a homeowner and investing in your neighborhood, a neighborhood. Those are the things that I think will make Niagara Falls strong and great not these fantastic, never-happening projects (flourishes NFR plans again) that come out with glossy pictures and tremendous statistical suggestions and you know, it is kind of fun because they want to try and play well and say ‘look it how this is going to help the schools’ they want to play and say look how great they are for the community.

“Well let me just say this about how they are great for the community: Over the time that they have owned these properties, they have reduced their tax burden by nearly $2 million. That is city tax, and then the commensurate county and school tax.

“Let’s not let them fool us into thinking that they really care and that they are going to do something. We know how this game gets played. We have been down this road before so let’s just say no. Enough is enough. I say that to the business community who they tried to get believing them. I say that to the trades unions who they try to bludgeon into agreeing with them and I say please, to every one of you residents, don’t let yourself be fooled. They are not going to do anything. They never do anything.

“The event center and park is really that action to supersize what we are already doing.

“Their time of feeding this community malarkey is over.”

Pothole filling continues

They are working on it even if they have not gotten to that one pothole you hate more than anything

Be patient, be careful. The hot asphalt plant may be opening sooner than anticipated.