The World According to Bob

Each week Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino posts updates for his minions via Youtube and the Express summarizes so you don’t have to watch. This week, he talked about boring stuff like leaf collection and Halloween with no mention of the city budget or the city council.

The leaf pickup rumor is false: city crews will still collect leaves on the published reference-guide schedule in November into December, and bagging up to three bags on your regular trash day is an addition to that, not a replacement. The message was framed as a direct correction of misinformation that had been confusing residents.

Leaf Pickup

• The reference guide for leaf pickup is posted on the city websites and has also gone out via text alerts and social media so residents can see when crews reach their area.
• In the meantime, residents can rake and bag leaves and put three bags out with the trash on their normal trash collection day, and the trash collection vendor will retrieve them.
• Nothing has changed and there is no replacement of city leaf pickup; the two channels are "both and," with city crews continuing on the posted schedule.
• Timing stretches from November into December and can circle back depending on weather, since leaf fall is outside the city's control.

City Operations & Alerts

• Paving work continues, with crews doing additional work throughout the city in both the mid city and LaSalle areas; residents should watch for alerts.
• To join the text alert system, text the word "resident" to 716-325-5572, go through a couple of prompts, and updates will follow.
• The city is finalizing information with Customs and Border Protection for them to become new tenants in the train station; they asked for larger space and the city is in a position to accommodate them.
• Construction at the train station is expected to build out the facility they want, bringing additional traffic into the building in the coming year.

Halloween Recap

• Last Friday's public skate drew an estimated several hundred people for the Halloween costume skate; the city thanked the public for coming out and the vendor for making the facility available.
• Halloween afternoon itself was busy in the Restaino’s neighborhood.

Road Safety

• The closing ask is for everyone to obey the rules of the road, since that is the only thing anyone can control.
• Roads need to be safer for bicyclists, pedestrians, senior citizens, the disabled population, and drivers alike.
• Signal turns in advance and obey traffic control devices — simple habits the speaker says seem to have been forgotten.
• Rules of the road apply to bicycles, e-bikes, scooters and other motorized devices too: ride on the right side of the road and allow space when sharing it with motor vehicles, especially as a bicyclist.
• Temperatures are turning more fall-like but it is still dry and warm enough that people are out on the roads in a variety of vehicles, so caution still applies this weekend.

Open Questions

• Final details with Customs and Border Protection for the train station tenancy are not yet settled.
• The leaf pickup schedule's exact dates per neighborhood are not specified here; the posted reference guide is the authority.