Tales from Third and Ferry

We went for a quick bite Friday night at Wine on Third. We love their pizza. Pasta is good too. So is the flaming cheese appetizer. Shawn Weber and family do a fine job.

Last week tour guests asked where they could walk for good pizza. I sent them there and told them to seek out Brandy, the server with tattoos and glasses, "say Joe sent you and sit on the patio." They did just that.

When we saw Brandy Friday we shared a laugh because she remembered the guests but didn’t know who sent them.

“Oh that was you?” she laughed. "Mystery solved."

Every table on the patio was full Friday. There were patrons on the patio at the Craft across the street. The Niagara Mohawk building and Imperial Garage still sit vacant, awaiting Montante Development to complete its promised Radio Social project.

Earlier this year, Chris Campos who is in charge of such developments said the project was still a go but faces obstacles: Interest rates are up so money is expensive. Political instability in Washington and Albany make consumers and investors hesitant. Construction costs are inflated because of material prices and a labor shortage. Developing in the Falls faces all those challenges as well as a difficult city government and the prospect that commercial and residential rents are higher in Buffalo and Rochester. 

On the street as we ate, I counted cars at stoplight. 22 of 30 ran the light. We also saw the character on an electric unicycle with his lights and speaker playing George Harrison’s “Apple Scruff” as he passed. Excellent choice.

No one came or went from the Gazette building but Ellicott Development is supposedly working on consolidating the newsroom on the first floor so it can rent out the rest of the mostly vacant building as the paper continues its slow, inevitable death spiral. Ellicott has also put QR codes on its lots, hoping people will pay to park.

Finally a word about parking downtown. For years, as a tour guide, I told guests not to bother to feed the meters downtown because our government didn’t have anyone to write tickets. That has changed. Parking without paying the meter for most of the tourism district but not Third Street is likely to bring a $50 ticket because hey, we love our visitors but as a city government want them to invest in our city whether they want to or not.

I used to think Shawn Weber’s hangdog attitude about development in the city was a bad tack. My mind is changing.

With no work visible on the Montante or Ellicott Projects, no sign of Hammer and Crown Brewing opening soon, Power City Eatery closing soon and Goldbar and Archives only open a few nights a week because they don’t generate the traffic it takes to offer more hours he might have a point.

Hey, at least we have the Daredevil Museum, two new restaurants serving Indian food and Misty Guild around the corner.