Activist accuses Greenway of wasteful spending

(Editor' note: The Niagara River Greenway Commission is one of the few ways the New York Power Authority's massive power project benefits the region. The project is named for Robert Moses, a horrible human being. The Greenway commission is expected to invest it's dollars in enhancing the natural environment with things like shoreline enhancements and invasive species removal. Instead, it seems bent on mission creep, perverting its mission for things like mini golf and pickle ball. It is as bad as State Parks lauding the vision of a reservation as dreamed by Frederick Law Omsted while focusing on making everything more car friendly. Here's what Jim Hufnagel had to say at a meeting of the commission.)

By Jim Hufnagel

Special to the Express

I would like to speak in opposition... to Niagara River Greenway funding... for pickleball.

Funding for pickleball courts is a wildly inappropriate use of Greenway money. It's a gross misallocation of these resources. Pickleball has nothing to do whatsoever with either the original Greenway plan or its mission. Pickleball courts in Lewiston would amount to just another vanity project by local politicians seeking to curry favor with constituents without committing their own taxpayer dollars. "Hey look, it's not costing us a dime, it's being paid for by the Greenway."

Local politicians have for too long regarded the Greenway as a source of ready cash to fund their pet projects. Whether it's playgrounds or so-called "public art" in Niagara Falls, theater marquees in North Tonawanda and Lockport, a parking lot at the Sanborn Farmer museum, dog parks in two different towns, harbor dredging and sidewalks in Wilson, a reptile house in Buffalo, a near million dollars worth of Geissler statues, and last but not least, a putt putt golf course in the town of Niagara (Oh, and I got a letter to the editor in the Buffalo News about that one) the list goes on... and now pickleball, a fad that will probably go out with the hula hoop.

I read in the newspaper that the pickleball courts are to be built on the spoils pile, and I'm suspecting that it's the same location as the refuge for ground nesting birds established by the Niagara Frontier Wildlife Habitat Council some years ago, an initiative which, incidentally, involved grant funding from several sources including the Power Authority. Something for the Commission to possibly look into before making its decision. How objectionable for actual green space in the Greenway to be replaced by blacktop or astroturf or whatever they make these pickleball courts out of.

So how on earth is pickleball related to the Greenway mission? Does it help establish a lake-to-lake trail system? No. Does it protect and restore the Niagara River's environment? No. Does it enhance the local ecotourism industry, or tourism in general, and local economic development? No. Does it give the idle rich retirees of Lewiston something to do to fill their empty hours? Suppose So.

I have read that pickleball courts produce a considerable and constant noise... has an environmental impact study been performed to determine if the noise generated by these pickleball courts won't permeate lower gorge trails, especially on windless days?

And let's take in the view from 30,000 feet. The city of Niagara Falls suffers from some of the highest rates of unemployment, crime and poverty of any city in New York State. The streets are an ongoing embarrassment. Are pickleball courts really the best use of Power Project relicensing money?

Now I realize that regardless of your determination of consistency with respect to this proposed pickleball project, if you rule thumbs down, you will simply be reversed by the Host Communities Standing Committee. That is unfortunate. Some years ago, the Partnership for the Public Good, affiliated with the UB Law School, studied the Niagara Greenway and came up with a list of reforms, one of which addressed this anomaly that has resulted in so much wasteful spending and ill-advised projects like putt putt and pickleball. I suggest yet again that this study be taken off the shelf, dusted off and implemented. Thank you for the opportunity to address you this afternoon.