The World According to Bob

(Editor's note: Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino issues a weekly Youtube proclamation about city affairs. The Express transcribes it so you don't have to watch (unless you want to).

I hope everyone enjoyed Juneteenth. The longest day of the year is past us. Summer weather is coming.

Food Truck Thursday

11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. multiple food trucks and Custode and Parisi entertaining.

Library movies

Wednesday, 2 p.m. “The Fire inside” will be screened at the Main Street library

Youth services on the Website

Under the resident tab click on youth services, all kinds of summer activities listed from the Y, community agencies, the Boys and Girls Club and more.

About the press conference

The site selection is appropriate. In the first 5 years projects a $50 million economic impact and 50,000 more hotel rooms rented annually.

“What I think you see from the economic impact study is what anecdotally all of us knew. The timing is right. You see hotels being built downtown. We are aware of the amateur and youth sports industry and how it is growing. The feasibility study will talk about how it is exploding everywhere and facilities in other parts of the country have popped up to take advantage of it.

“The location in the country that has the least amount of facilities for that? Northeast. Right where we are. So you take that data, you mix into it the fact that our location also gives us access to an incredible population in Southern Ontario.

“And then the fact that we are Niagara Falls, and Niagara Falls, even though I know many of our residents often don’t take enough pride in the fact that we are a brand name, known worldwide, but the fact is, the folks on the outside looking in, they are drawn here because it is Niagara Falls. So you take all of those ingredients, which have been distilled into the feasibility study and you think to yourself, this is almost a no-brainer.

“The question will be, and the question that was asked yesterday is ‘how do you finance a center that is projected to cost somewhere in the $200 million range?' and those are the most appropriate questions in this phase because the first phase was the concept and getting the appropriate site. The next phase is, instead of us just talking about this in a theoretical way, let’s take a look at this. Does something like this drive the economic impact that we think it does.

“You know, you have got some naysayers out there that say ‘you know, reports are that arenas aren’t profitable’. Well that may be in locations where some of them rest and it also may where you are talking about larger venues, stadiums. You know, the flap that is going on right now in Cleveland or the argument that was even made with regard to the City of Buffalo, Orchard Park with regard to where will we put the new Bills stadium. I would agree that when you are going to build a venue that is going to have tens of thousands of people in capacity and then you ask yourself ‘OK, what do we do with this thing after the season, in this case, after the football season and how do you deal with filling it?’

So you might have a couple concerts and these days, performances that fill those size venues are far and few between, but when you take a look at the size of the facility that we are building, or proposing to build, as one of our consultants said, they defy you to find a place in America where a facility this size, particularly when you add the other ingredients of this is Niagara Falls, our proximity to our Canadian neighbors and some will say ‘well we’ve got this bad relationship now between the two national governments.’ You know, the national governments will say and do the things that they do but the reality is, commerce still continues along these border communities.

“It would be inappropriate, in fact untrue to suggest that no Canadians are coming here for commerce. They are. They absolutely are. Now, do numbers reflect that hotel stays relative to our Canadian friends are lower? Absolutely. You know, there are some things that mitigate against that. Economies sometimes create those problems.

“But in the end, when we are talking about youth and amateur sports, families will travel for that purpose and when you build the kind of facility that we are talking about building, and you couple the fact that it will have the ability to host those youth and amateur sports, and the fact that we have already gotten a commitment to build the arena and once the arena is built, that the Ontario Hockey League is prepared to provide a franchise. Now you have to remember, that’s not like an open-ended invitation that lasts forever and ever. Sometimes you have to strike while the iron is hot and I would say that the iron here is as hot as it has ever been.

“You have new hotels, as I said, coming into play in our community, other hotels that are expanding our space, so something has to be percolating in the business community, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing that. So those investors would not be doing those sort of things if they didn’t feel comfortable about the growth opportunity here so I guess what I would say is it’s alway easy to be a naysayer ‘oh jeez, we shouldn’t do that’ or ‘oh my god, that’s too much money and what are we going to do?’ You know, the next phase is to figure out how do you fund the development of this? And we will be digging into that, the most efficient ways, the most effective way, to do that we will be having conversation with our partners at every level of government and with private entities. We will give you more as we learn more but we are excited.

“We will give you more as we learn more but we are excited about the feasibility study’s outcome. We think that it validates what I think all of us knew anecdotally that the right size venue, with partnerships including the Seneca Nation of Indians through the Seneca Niagara Gaming Corporation, with the right partnerships, this venue has a real positive impact on our local economy. I want to help the team that put everything together, not only with the feasibility study Sports Advisors but also our team working on yesterday’s press conference in making sure that the media understood all of the facts and circumstances of the impact that this venue will have on our community.

Summer weather is coming

Remember, if you have elderly people in your homes or neighborhoods check on them. If they have air conditioning, make sure it is working. Temperatures that can creep into the 90s can be a bit oppressive for our seniors and for others who might be dealing with disabilities.

“Instead of acts of random kindness let’s provide acts of routine kindness. Let’s make it a routine to be kind to one another, those who are in need. Let’s really take stock of those who are in need.

“You know, ‘Honeymoon Capital of the World’, honeymoons are great. Let’s be those positive influences, to our families, to our neighbors, to our friends.”

Good job, Jake

If you are going to be out and about this weekend, school is out, my friend Jake is here with me because he doesn’t have anything to do anymore, he’s out of school and he is getting ready to go on to the next phase and, by the way, congratulations to him and to all of our graduates. This is the next phase of your life so grab it with both hands, don’t be afraid, I said this all the time, I said that to the members, to the children in our family as they were growing up, it is OK as you are moving on to not know exactly what you want to do. 

Now, that being said, what is probably the best course is that if you don’t know what you want to do, make sure you are doing something. If you are not quite ready to go to college, then at least make sure you are working, you know, get a sense of, keep that sense of responsibility you had going through school where you are getting up for a purpose, that may not be the career you want to have but as you are doing that you may start thinking about college and don’t lose track of the fact we have a great college right in our community, SUNY Niagara. If an institution like Niagara University is not in your future SUNY Niagara might be a great place to start, affordable, great classes, transferable credits. Please make sure you stay hydrated.

One more plug

The feasibility study is on the government Website. (It is linked below as well.)

Take a look at it. Niagara Falls is entitled to have a first class investment like that. You and I are entitled to that. We as a community have a great return on investment for those who invest here whether it is the hotel owners, the park or even the money the power authority makes. Niagara Falls is a great investments.

Join the text alert system

As we go through our road repair season, sign up for text alerts at (716) 325-5723 by texting the word “resident”. You will also learn about Food truck Thursdays and the baseball team. (And watermain breaks).