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Harold Jeffs dreams of better days for his long-shuttered Main Street bar.
The Mad Traveller returned Thursday with another hit job on Niagara Falls and he even called out Joe Genco and the Niagara Express for being a glass-half-full kind of guy.
Dave Seminara has now published 6 Falls videos on his Youtube channel lamenting how Niagara Falls never seems to get better. He wants to see progress for our city. So do I.
He visited in July to celebrate the discovery of radioactive waste in the Town of Niagara, talk to the affected people and hit us with a big dose of “See. I told you so.”
Where he went wrong this time is in lumping me with Mayor Restaino, whose name he mispronounced as “Reh STAIN Oh" with an emphasis on Stain, a sophomoric ethnic slur from a guy with Italian roots in the Falls is not something I saw coming.
Somehow my optimism for the future of Niagara Falls equates to supporting the Mayor's dream of Centennial Park, a $250 million fantasy event center which the Niagara Express has a stated policy of not covering more than needed. The Express chooses to focus on things that are actually going to happen, like the city market and the Main Street business district or $250 million being spent within a half-mile radius of the waterfall over the next 5 years.
Downtown is blighted in part because of Niagara Falls Redevelopment, which purchased 145 acres for a song and has been sitting on it for three decades. Their debacle happened before Restaino and will continue after he’s gone. Those boarded up buildings with the identical red-and-white no trespassing signs all mark NFR.
Seminara also visited the American Falls when prospect point was still fenced off and blocked by a big crane prior to the opening of Cataract Stairs and Viewing Platform.
He seemed to think the city has something to do with the project and that it should have been done more quickly and cost less than $12 million. I think the city should have had something to do with the project but it did not. I also think it should have cost less but it did not.
Seminara also called out my friend Mark Scheer as a credible journalist. Mark is, but he also has the same problem as Seminara. He’s a glass half empty kind of guy. He wakes up in the morning, sucks on a lemon and wonders why it is so sour.
Seminara visited Main Street and looked at the crapped out buildings as more evidence of how Niagara Falls sucks because he’s looked at it for more than a year and it still sucks and he remembers when Main Street was a place.
That’s the thing. I have no memory of Niagara Falls Main Street being a place. Seminara does. So does Restaino. When you saw the place thriving, seeing it trashed hurts. When you see it trashed there is a sense of loss.
The thing is, I came here 5 years ago. I never saw it thriving. Ditto Morgan Genovese. The trauma sharpens the sword with which Seminara cuts us because he’s still feeling that sense of loss.
Seminara, or Scheer, didn’t roll down Main Street last week. He didn’t see any of the work going on there, the new windows in Club Fusion, the masonry repair, the roofs being fixed.
There is a lot wrong with our community. There likely always will be. Seminara and Scheer can focus on that. I will focus on our victories.
The Cataract Stairs are open. I visit Main Street daily and see work happening. I was frustrated by the building process with the Cataract Stairs. I loathe Niagara Falls Redevelopment.
I want to see things better. I would even like to see us have a charismatic, likable mayor. I could spend days and weeks writing about the coulda-woulda-shoulda of Niagara Falls. Instead, I remain focused on the good things happening, not to deny the challenges but because success breeds success and the way to build big victories is by finding small ones. Here's a link to Seminara's piece.
