If there's anyone left who still thinks Niagara Falls State Park is a net plus for the local economy, and that State Parks doesn't do everything it can to divert eight million visitors a year out of the city and into its tourist trap, this week's story should serve as one more wake-up call.

The humble fish fry is a Western New York institution, an historic remnant of the Church's restriction on the eating of meat on Fridays. It was a weekly ritual for the working-class Catholics of Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

Today, not only Catholics but everyone else carries on the tradition, gathering at neighborhood diners and restaurants, corner taverns and volunteer fire halls, to partake of a slab of deep-fried haddock, French fries, coleslaw and a pickle. Like beef on weck and chicken wings, the fish fry is a Western New York signature meal. Delicious, filling, and inexpensive, it’s a tasty treat to help celebrate the end of the work week or a cheap date with your sweetheart or a welcome harbinger of the upcoming weekend. It's all of those things, and now you can get a fish fry in the Niagara Falls State Park, as advertised on their Facebook page.

When it comes to finding examples of government deception and shallowness, Facebook is the well that never runs dry. There's only one thing more banal than a politician kissing babies at a parade, and that's reading about it on Facebook. The Facebook site for Niagara Falls State Park USA boasts an impressive total of 8,557 "friends" from all over the world, keeping them in touch with posts like "Maid of the Mist opens tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and "Ah..... Spring at Niagara Falls State Park," captioning a photo of a tulip bed.

As if hijacking the local tourism traffic with parking lots, trolleys, food stands, souvenir shops and thrill rides in the park wasn't enough, on June 28 the unsurpassed greed of State Parks and its contractor, multinational fast-food corporation Delaware North, came full circle with the following Facebook post:

"If you are planning a trip to Niagara Falls State Park, definitely plan a meal at Top of the Falls! If you have never had a proper WNY fish fry, they have one of the best! If you are a WNY'er, check out our fish 7 days a week!"

So if you're growing tired of fish fries at family-owned establishments like Gadawski's, the Polish Nook, the Como , Casa Antica, Casa Nova, Apple Granny or the Water Street Landing, be sure to "plan a meal" and join the tourists for a fish fry at Top of the Falls Restaurant in the State Park.

A Buffalo News story titled "Enchantment behind the Gates," recently profiled the sprawling East Aurora estate of Jeremy and Margaret Jacobs, billionaire owners of Delaware North. Delaware North runs Top of the Falls Restaurant along with the Prospect Point snack bar and other food booths within the Niagara Falls State Park .

The Jacobs are proud of their mansion and grounds which, ironically, were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the same American landscape architect who forbid food vendors within the Niagara Falls State Park, designating them to be located in and benefit the neighboring village and to keep the natural setting of the park unencumbered by human commerce.

"If it were a commercial undertaking into which the State was entering, in competition with the people of the village of Niagara, it cannot be questioned that the restaurant could be made profitable (in the park),” he wrote.

The Jacobs purchased their estate from Goodyear, the tire magnate. They live in Olmsted-inspired splendor in the rolling hills of the South Towns while the city of Niagara Falls is per capita one of the poorest cities in the state, because, in part, tourists dine at Delaware North food concessions in the park instead of at local businesses.

It's only a fish fry, you may say. The problem is, the Delaware North/State Park fish fry is emblematic of all that Albany has taken from the city. It's an apt symbol of the diversion of our tourism livelihood and our heritage.

State Parks and Delaware North invite the world to dine at Top of the Falls 7 days a week, while they eat our lunch.