Published: October 02, 2008 06:38 pm      

GUEST VIEW: There’s just no comparing Cataract cities

As I watched the WGRZ Channel 2 segment on Sept. 20 “Tale of Two Cities” I couldn’t help to keep asking myself why aren’t they really digging in and asking the hard questions. The question never came up that the state and city continuously say that Niagara Falls has 10 million annual visitors. It’s incredible that is said and Niagara Falls, Ontario, states they get 14 million annual visitors. ... yet they have a billion dollar tourist industry and the New York side does not. Come on — it just doesn’t add up.

WGRZ is on the right path asking these questions of why the American side has so much blight in its downtown, while the Canadians keep building. No one interviewed really gave any answers that would lead the viewer to believe that on the American side there is a plan or a clue of what to do to get development moving.

Mr. Whitman from Disney stated that the New York side needed that one big deal ... well Niagara Falls has been looking for that one big deal for more than 30 years, in the ’70s a mega mall, then came Ed Cogan and Howard Milstien, control of 140 acres, AquaFalls, there might have been others, long gone and forgotten.

Niagara Falls, Ontario, didn’t just drop that one big deal; they built their tourism from small shops and local restaurants and bars. When things were getting very bad on the Canadian side of the border the government stepped in and made a bold move to approve casino gambling. But they didn’t stop there, they changed zoning, reached out to developers, for goodness sake one of America’s icons has a major shop on the Canadian side not the American side (Hershey’s Chocolate), Niagara Falls, Ontario, also has the WWE, Planet Hollywood, Ripley’s, Boston Pizza and arcade, Wolf’s Lodge, all American companies and products who decided to locate in one of the most recognized tourist towns in the world, but unfortunately these American companies saw more opportunity going to a foreign country even though just 200 feet across the bridge they could have located on the American side and still had the benefit of being part of a global tourist attraction, the falls. Why did they choose Canada over the U.S.?

Why hasn’t anyone in our administration ever asked this question, reached out to these or similar companies to locate here, wondered why American companies such as Hersey’s Chocolate would chose Canada over the U.S. Could it be the Canadian’s wiliness to work with developers, maybe Hersey’s Chocolate wouldn’t been able to perch a giant Hersey’s Kiss on top of their building, matter of fact I believe if they approached the City of Niagara Falls with a plan to locate downtown but they would require the permission to decorate their façade with giant replicas of Hershey Kisses and chocolate bars they would have been told NO, you can not put that American Icon that will attract shoppers on the top of your building, our zoning doesn’t allow it.

It’s a shame not only to look across the bridge and see a similar size city as ours thriving, but to also lose American companies and attractions to them.

Ned Perlman was right on when he said our city leaders of the past (if you could even call them that) had good intentions and certainly wanted to be the people to turn this city around, however they lacked the skill sets to actually pull it off. Because they didn’t have those skills they were unable to recognize the people within the city that have continually kept this city in the dark.

Although Diane Sawyer said some nice things about the water falls itself, the natural attraction that draws so many people, do you recall the shot of Niagara Falls at night from the Canadian side, well you don’t see anything, no lights, no action, no life! It’s my hope and I’m sure every other citizen of Niagara Falls, hope that this group of people now running the city will take those past disappointments and use them as lessons to make bold moves as the Canadians did when they approved gaming and not use those past disappointments to do nothing because doing nothing is safe bet.

Our new leaders need to say enough is enough and make a difference by first adopting the city master plan. The master plan that was drafted in 2004, and still has not been voted on. That’s right four years to get the plan to a vote, and you wonder why we have no development. To get this city on the right track we need to throw the zoning regulations that are stopping development into the trash and make decisions on plans as they are presented and how they fit the master plan, the city needs to address the state on the park downtown and push to get revenue from it, or take it back altogether, the city and state need to make their incentive programs simpler which will give developers more reason to invest here.

In your piece not one person interviewed said anything that would lead you to believe they have a plan, except Mayor Paul Dyster who I believe is taking the right steps to get the mess organized and hopefully the rest of the politicians that have a stake in Niagara Falls will step up to the plate and work with him.

Let me ask the question again ... how is it that Niagara Falls, Ontario, has 14,000,000 annual visitors and a Billion dollar tourist industry and Niagara Falls, N.Y., has 10,000,000 annual visitors and a ??? dollar tourist industry.

It just doesn’t add up!

Dan Vecchies is a Niagara Falls businessman.