HAMILTON: Law of unintentional consequences

By Ken Hamilton
Niagara Gazette

April 10, 2008 10:44 pm

— Someone asked me what I thought about the job that Paul Dyster, Niagara Falls’ newly-elected mayor, is doing. In an attempt to say something nice, I simply said, “I have noticed that since he took office in January, the weather has been getting progressively better.”
Sorry, Al Gore, but of course the weather is inconsequential to any elected politician, but there are unintended consequences to every decision.
On this past Tuesday, some 40 stalwart Niagarans took a bus ride to Albany to lobby state politicians and bureaucrats to give greater attention to our city. I must say, two unexpected and rather immaterial consequences happened:
n After cornering Dyster on the bus, and we two windbags taking the time to chew on each other’s ears for a while, my image of him did improve somewhat — at least enough to take down the mental “Do Not Disturb” sign and have the metaphorical maid change the sheets on the bed to extend our 100-day mayoral honeymoon another month.
n I am very close to writing something good about Sen. Antoine Thompson. I am adamantly against many of his social policies and a lot of his fiscal policies. But, while I think that since his election to Albany (he has conducted his affairs more like a super city councilman than as a state senator) the young man did do a decent job putting this event together, and I expect results equal to his good efforts as a result.
As not to steal any of Norma Higgs’ thunder (avoiding an unintended consequence of us traveling together), I won’t write too deeply about many details of the lobbying trip. But, I am sure that there were some things that occurred that did not pique Norma’s curiosity in the same way that they piqued mine. Dyster brought up one of the topics and Legislator Renae Kimble brought up another.
While in Albany, Kimble noted that full utilization of the Niagara Falls International Airport would be a powerful economic driver for jobs within the region. She cited that freight and aircraft maintenance could provide thousands of jobs at the facility.
Meanwhile, Dyster stated that Sen. Charles Schumer and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter announced that monies previously allocated for the pre-Civil War customs house renovation project, in conjunction with moving the Amtrak station a mile down the railroad tracks, had been released by the feds. The renovation of the customs house is a good project. Moving the Amtrak station continues to be an illogical one, and in direct contradiction to the airport project.
Why, in 2008, would we want to spend $35 million on a train station, for the use of the financially-ailing Amtrak system, to impress the knapsack-toting, four-per-day-average train riding visitors that come to the city to see the state park and the casino, and only $14 million on an undersized airport terminal that, at best, can process only one jumbo jet filled with Asian visitors, their pockets bulging with the American dollars that we gave to them through technical and financial services outsourcing, or by shopping at Wal-Mart, Home Depot and other places that are choked full of Asian products? The train project started before the plane project, netting out less dollars to the real economic generator, and unintended consequences.
Upstate economic czar Gunderson was all ears at the meeting and telegraphed a sincere concern for the city, especially for the development of solar energy technology at Niagara Falls through Canrom Photovoltaics, Inc. That’s a good thing. But, where the law of unintentional consequences comes directly into play was when he responded to Kimble’s assertion that aircraft maintenance could create thousands of area jobs by stating that such functions are more easily and best accomplished at, get this, closed Air Force bases, and, “[Upstate] New York has plenty of those,” Gunderson said. Kimble, thousands of other residents and I, joined the fray to Save Our Base, with the unintended consequence of reducing the chance of the airport being used for maintenance.
As there are consequences with every failure, so there are consequences with every success. We need leaders, politicians and voters that can see past today, past tomorrow, and far off into the future. Where we are today is the culmination of unintended consequences.
By the way, the 16-hour trip left me talked out and tired, and I drifted off to sleep someplace before the Rochester exit of the Thruway. Like a homing pigeon, there is always a way to tell when we are getting close to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. As Winn Gilmore, the developer of the proposed office building that is to be built in proximity to the Main Street public safety facility complained to Albany officials, our infrastructure is in dire need of improvement. As we passed the Depew exit of the Thruway, the rattling of the bus passing over the rutted road roused me from rest, and in a sad, strange way, it welcomed me home.
Ken Hamilton is a Niagara Falls resident. Contact him at kenhamilton930@aol.com.

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