The World According to Bob

(Editor's Note: As time permits, the Express transcribes the weekly epistle of Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino so his minions can embrace his wisdom without the trouble of watching Youtube.)

I want to share with you some of the things that are going on and some of the things that will be coming up in the future. First, today being the first day of spring brings to mind the neighborhood cleanup.

If you see someone dumping, take a photo

Just yesterday our Department of Public Works went to one address and ended up taking 8 truckloads of trash from an area that people think is an appropriate place to dump trash. I am going to ask every resident that if you see someone improperly dumping anything in a vacant area, if you have your camera (phone), do your city a favor. Take a picture of it and send it to us at city hall.

Cleaning the city is everyone’s responsibility. You clean your lot, others not dumping in vacant lots, we have areas, we have landfills that allow them to bring items for disposal. Other than a sense of disregard or laziness, there really is no reason for people to simply go to a vacant spot and dump garbage. It makes things difficult for the people who live in those neighborhoods. It creates other difficult issues. And to be quite frank, it shows a serious disregard for my city and your city. I am going to ask: If you see this, take a photo of it. Send us the photo. Perhaps we will be able to identify the person who is illegally dumping. The only way to stop this is to start holding people accountable so we appreciate your help.

It’s the first day of Spring. And I hope, I don’t know if I can say this loudly, that we aren’t going to have any more snow. It is time to clean up.

Whether rentals or a home you own, take the time. A few hours of clean up on a weekend can not only improve your property but the neighborhood you are in.

Hotel Niagara work begins

In this coming week, we are hoping to be able to spotlight some of the development that is going on at the Hotel Niagara. We have talked about the Hotel Niagara for a long time. Activity has started there. They have begun doing some work on the roof area and also some work on the inside so we are looking to get an opportunity to get inside and take a look at what is going on so we can get a chance to take a look at the progress at that very historic hotel that we all remember and hopefully in some short period will be open and ready for us to enjoy again.

St. Pat's and St. Joe's are gone again

We had a great St. Patrick’s Day/St. Joseph’s Day all this past week, celebrations and opportunities to be together provided some enjoyment this past week.

Congratulations to Black Achievers

Congratulations to all of those individuals who were honored by the Black Achievers group who were honored this past week including our own Courtney Lamar, the deputy director of human resources.

These are individuals who are doing exceptional work and in certain circumstances, great service to our community so congratulations to all of them.

Support 'All Shook Up' today at the high school

We also have some things going on this weekend. One of the things going on is we have a musical going on at our high school at the performing arts center. The musical is “All Shook Up”. It is a story about Elvis Presley. If you are interested, our high school kids are putting on this performance. There are shows today at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. today at the performing arts center. General admission is $15. Seniors are $10. Students are $5.

Let’s give support to our high school students. I wish them all the best.

Main Street efforts continue 

Our efforts continue on Main Street. I know I have been talking to you about the Rapids Theater. Again, we have submissions for acquisition of the Rapids Theater. We anticipate by this time next month, the committee will have vetted the applications and will have had an opportunity to discuss the plans with the groups that are proposing and then make a recommendation with regard to the two applications that have been submitted so more on that as it begins to develop.

More planning meetings planned for Main Street

Again, we also had also had the first of what will be a series of community discussions regarding the revitalization of downtown this year, an initiative that is happening in the Main Street corridor.

The first one was well attended. We are expected to have another one. I believe it will be scheduled out in the LaSalle area for residents so they can see what is being planned an also to provide comment on what they would like to see because this is really a community-based project. Let’s all remember that you know, Main Street belongs to everyone. There is room for everyone to be down there. We are looking at a couple great developments that are already in the pipeline and others to come so be on the lookout for when it will be scheduled as we get more information from our consultant group we will share that with you.

Reiterating the importance of cleaning up

So again, let me reiterate that cleaning the neighborhood is really everyone’s responsibility so attend to your own property. Let us know if you see somebody in an area who is dumping, take a photo, send it to us and we will see if we can track that person down and hold them accountable.

It is your responsibility and my responsibility. Let’s work together to get that done.

If you are out and about this week remember as the weather warms, we are going to have more vehicles on the street and not just just the 4-wheeled variety but maybe the 2-wheeled variety so be careful. I am going to ask those on scooters, on bicycles, electric or otherwise, the reason why there are bike lanes on many of the streets is so that you have a safe place to operate. In addition, please remember that the proper operation of a bicycle or any of the other vehicles, scooters that are out there, is to ride with traffic. That is why you are in that lane. It takes a lot of pressure off of the cars that are in the street with you. Please remember, safety is enhanced if you are wearing a helmet and abiding by the traffic safety rules, stopsigns, all of those things.

Let’s start spring and roll into summer being safe on the streets. So if you are out and about, please be careful and don’t forget, get out to go see “All Shook Up” at the Performing Arts Center at the High School