The World According to Bob

(Editor’s note: Each week, Niagara Falls Mayor Bob Restaino grants an audience to the plebiscites of Niagara Falls via Youtube and, most of the time, the Express transcribes so you don’t have to watch.)

Tales from the Capitol

I just returned from Albany. First I want to thank New York State Senate Finance Committee chair Liz Kreuger and Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow for including Niagara Falls in an opportunity to share the importance to Niagara Falls of the event center project. I have to say, I think it was Senator Krueger who, during testimony from New York City Mayor Mamdani where she said that the committee is concerned about all of the cities in the state. I think that is evidenced by the fact they heard about our project and included us in this panel. It reflects the fact this project is important enough for them to learn more and understand more. I had some great conversations with legislators in both the Senate and Assembly who are very much interested in learning more about the project. Some whom I have spoken to in the past about it wanted to know a little more about the progress. It was a very productive few days for Niagara Falls in Albany.

I want to thank the Senate and Assemblymembers who paid attention to our project and hope that we will be having some additional discussions in the coming weeks to continue to advance the importance of the project.

About the weather and potholes

The weather has changed a little bit. Over the course of the next few days the weather is going to change a bit. I think one day it is going to be a whole balmy 40 degrees but change is coming. We will hopefully soon be out of all this. I know it has been a rough several weeks with cold and snow. I think things are changing, beginning to turn. I think that even though this brings us closer to pothole season, the cold will be going away.

Other cities struggle too

With regard to that, you know the funny thing is when I was in Albany, sitting there with the other mayors, it was remarkable that these are mayors from larger cities across New York State but yet the problems are the same. They talked about difficulties in having enough drivers for snow plows. They talked about the dilemmas caused by the weather and the yearly explosion of potholes in their cities. So while it is little consolation, it certainly is interesting to see that as you might expect, the city of Niagara Falls isn’t the only one struggling with these conditions and these issues.

I found that to be remarkable, and again, the larger cities have more roads. We have 211 or 215 miles of roads here. The larger cities have more than us and I think struggle with the same things.

We have I think city hall was closed yesterday for a holiday celebrated under the collective bargaining agreement. President’s Day, if you have business to attend to, please remember city hall will be closed.

Hope for Main Street

We continue to work toward getting more information about some of our developments on Main Street. We are excited at the possibility of getting a firm offer on the Rapids Theatre. I think that will also anchor down more of the development in that area so as that begins to become more solid in terms of information we will be sharing that with you as well.

Be kind daily

So this coming weekend I wish everyone a happy Valentine’s Day. If nothing else, do something kind for someone, whether it is a senior citizen, a family member, a friend, spouse, significant other, partner, just remember that while Valentine’s Day is one day of the year it is always nice to be nice to people. Let’s change the mood and atmosphere of our city by remembering that being kind isn’t a difficult thing to do and remember you can do it every day. Until I see you next week, have a great weekend.