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(In a rare show of common sense, the Niagara Gazette Saturday published the below editorial about the proposed Centennial Park. It is reproduced here so you don't have to deal with their paywall.)
Ask anyone around town and they can run off a lengthy list of projects meant to change the narrative for downtown Niagara Falls.
While it’s a city blessed with one of the world’s greatest natural wonders, these days we’re burdened by poverty, blight and decades of failed investments. Now, with Mayor Robert Restaino’s Centennial Park proposal — a $200 million multi-use arena and events campus — there’s a glimmer of hope. But it’s a hope that must be met with realism, scrutiny, and above all, accountability.
Let’s start with what’s undeniable: the Centennial Park concept is bold. A modern arena, two ice rinks, a public plaza, and parking — this is not just a vanity project, it’s a long-overdue shot at giving the people of Niagara Falls a tangible benefit to living here while also serving as something that could draw in dollars rather than drain them.
The feasibility study — funded by the state and National Grid — projects a $52.7 million economic impact in the first five years and 50,000 added hotel room nights annually. These are impressive numbers. And endorsements from Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes and tourism leaders are welcome signs that this city is being taken seriously in Albany.
But here’s the problem: Projections aren’t funding sources. Dreams don’t pour concrete. And despite the fanfare at Thursday’s press conference, we still don’t have answers to the most essential questions: Who’s paying for this? What’s the long-term operational cost? And how does this avoid becoming another white elephant in a city that can no longer afford them?
Critics like Councilman Donta Myles are right to push back. When you propose a $200 million project in a city where the average household income is under $35,000, according to the US Census Bureau, you better have your financial ducks in a row. Yet, even today, those answers remain fuzzy at best. The study barely discusses financing. Are eminent domain lawsuits finished? A state buy-in seems to be more about hope than a guarantee at this point.
There’s also the question of community benefit. Will city youth be welcomed to Centennial Park with appropriate programming?
And let’s also be honest about politics. Peoples-Stokes’ support is welcome, but her presence in Niagara Falls City Hall for the first time ever since election to the state Assembly in the early 2000s —coinciding with a lobbying push by a firm employing her chief of staff’s spouse — raises uncomfortable but fair questions about motivation.
Support should be based on merit, not relationships.
Still, despite all the valid skepticism, we hope for a successful project, any successful project. Why? Because the people of Niagara Falls deserve more than another “no.” We deserve a win. We deserve safe places for our youth to play. We deserve winter tourism. We deserve investment, not just oversight. We’ve spent decades watching money flow through our city, thanks to the Power Authority and New York State Parks, with little lasting benefit to the neighborhoods that surround them.
Centennial Park, if done right, could change that. It could be the spark that lights up John B. Daly Boulevard and serve as another piece of the puzzle that finally unlocks this city’s potential.
But we all must demand transparency, realistic budgeting and clear benefits to the community — not just the hospitality industry.
It’s not wrong to dream big — but if we’ve learned anything around here, it’s that dreams only work when they’re rooted in the hard ground of reality.
