STATE RESPONDS TO CRITICISM OF PARK PLAN

Niagara Falls Reporter

STATE RESPONDS TO CRITICISM OF PARK PLAN By James Hufnagel
“Fellow New Yorkers," is the salutation State Parks Commissioner Rose Harvey uses at the top of her letter introducing the new $25 million, 92-page Niagara Falls State Park Landscape Improvements Plan. Like some kind of town crier bringing glad tidings of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's new-found commitment to spend millions of our Greenway dollars upgrading and enhancing the state-owned and operated tourist destination, Harvey spares no superlatives in her lofty and effusive praise of Albany's famous attraction. "Niagara Falls State Park is a state and national treasure... Each year, more than 8 million visitors come from across the state, the nation, and the world to wonder at Niagara Falls awesome power and natural beauty", exposing them "to breathtaking vantage points next to the Niagara River and the American and Horseshoe Falls... the park is a huge asset to the western (sic) New York economy." The new plan, we are told, will "assure that the park’s public use facilities match the grandeur of the Niagara River, Falls, and Gorge." Harvey's spokesperson, State Parks Deputy Public Information Officer Dan Keefe, responded to last week's story in the Reporter lambasting the Cuomo administration for its ongoing exploitation of the park, which Harvey's plan perpetuates, as follows (additions/corrections in parentheses are mine): “The public (New York Times travel writer) has demanded that New York State revitalize Niagara Falls State Park. The infusion of $25 million of New York (Niagara) Greenway funds answers this demand by providing an immediate and transformative investment in the flagship park, which will ensure it remains a top international tourism destination and a force in the region's (Albany's) economy... The revitalization will focus (on) improving both the historic and modern amenities (bathrooms, parking lots and food pavilion) for viewing the wonder of the falls, which is (at) the heart of the park experience. The public will have the opportunity to further opportunities to weigh in on park designs during the environmental review process for specific projects." Thanks. That a professional State Parks "Public Information Officer" is capable of composing such tortured prose as "The public will have the opportunity to further opportunities to weigh in," notwithstanding the fact that the statement is patently untrue, given that not a single public meeting or public comment period was granted by the state agency during the preparation of the plan, gives you an insight into the skill level required to hold down a job in the state bureaucracy, for which you'd think it necessary to read and write English good. The Niagara Falls Landscape Improvements Plan was created in large part by Erdman Anthony Engineering Services, Inc. of Albany and Buffalo. According to the New York State Board of Elections, Erdman Anthony, its PAC and its employees' PAC have made campaign contributions totaling over $140,000 over the past five years primarily to Western New York politicians, engineering their ongoing patronage. In addition to the firm's vision, expertise, largesse for politicians and unwavering dedication and respect for the Olmsted plan for Niagara Falls State Park, Erdman Anthony's web site highlights their association with Marcellus Shale fracking activities: "Erdman Anthony is a founding member of the Marcellus Shale Partners... The Partners offer a team of 600-plus professionals and more than a century of oil and gas experience — including extensive shale gas (fracking) experience in the Marcellus Shale play." So we're in extra good hands should State Parks decide to augment their parking, dining, shopping and sightseeing revenues from the park with the drilling of natural gas wells on Goat Island. Here is a list of New York state parks for which, at some point over the past 20 years, this writer has either submitted public comments, participated in a group session or stood at a microphone as part of a formal planning process: Joseph Davis State Park, Allegany State Park, Amherst State Park, Wilson-Tuscarora State Park and Letchworth State Park. Other than the naive few who straggled into the Lehmann center back in 1997 to plead for the replacement of Glynn's Observation Tower with unobtrusive Cave of the Winds-type access, there has not been a single instance of State Parks soliciting public input regarding the management of Albany's "state and national treasure", its "flagship park". It's important to note that $16 of the $25 million in Niagara Greenway funds are to be disbursed over the next four years, with the remaining $9 million in projects, according to the plan, "initiated in future years, as funding becomes available." The annual allocation of Niagara Greenway funds is as follows: $3 million to local communities on the Niagara River corridor, $1 million to an ecological fund, $2 million extra obtained for Buffalo and Erie County due to the efforts of Congressman Brian Higgins and $3 million to State Parks. The Greenway plan wasn't approved until May of 2008 and funding of projects didn't start until then. Therefore, at $3 million a year from 2008 through 2012, State Parks has realized around $12 million by now. However, according to Niagara Greenway documents, State Parks has received less than $9 million so far, because that's all they applied for. So at this point, State Parks is ahead around $3 million in NYPA Greenway funds. Add this to the $12 million anticipated over the first four years of the plan, and State Parks should just about break even after the first wave of the "landscape improvement" projects in the Niagara Falls State Park are completed. So for all the rationalizations by Public Information Officers, all the press releases, the newspaper headlines by unquestioning dailies and the vaunted visits from Commissioner Harvey, all the bluster and bragging and bs about a $25 million gift of money from Andrew Cuomo and Albany, all it really amounts to is State Parks spending an income stream derived from the hydropower produced in our backyard, routinely metered out to them as part of a 50-year Greenway project. Incidentally, State Parks' 2010 Capital Needs Assessment document requested $84 million from the state budget for all of the same improvements to Niagara Falls State Park. But seriously, it’s laughable to think that the Cuomo administration was going to spend good state dollars to upgrade and improve their attraction when they could instead use the upstate rubes' own money and make them think they were doing them a big fat favor in the process. The biography of Parks Commissioner Rose Harvey on the State Parks web site details her accomplished career managing parkland for the benefit of both nature and the public, but now she's become just another political tool, towards the end of serving as President Cuomo's Secretary of the Interior.

By James Hufnagel

“Fellow New Yorkers," is the salutation State Parks Commissioner Rose Harvey uses at the top of her letter introducing the new $25 million, 92-page Niagara Falls State Park Landscape Improvements Plan.

Like some kind of town crier bringing glad tidings of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's new-found commitment to spend millions of our Greenway dollars upgrading and enhancing the state-owned and operated tourist destination, Harvey spares no superlatives in her lofty and effusive praise of Albany's famous attraction.

"Niagara Falls State Park is a state and national treasure... Each year, more than 8 million visitors come from across the state, the nation, and the world to wonder at Niagara Falls awesome power and natural beauty", exposing them "to breathtaking vantage points next to the Niagara River and the American and Horseshoe Falls... the park is a huge asset to the western (sic) New York economy." The new plan, we are told, will "assure that the park’s public use facilities match the grandeur of the Niagara River, Falls, and Gorge."

Harvey's spokesperson, State Parks Deputy Public Information Officer Dan Keefe, responded to last week's story in the Reporter lambasting the Cuomo administration for its ongoing exploitation of the park, which Harvey's plan perpetuates, as follows (additions/corrections in parentheses are mine): “The public (New York Times travel writer) has demanded that New York State revitalize Niagara Falls State Park. The infusion of $25 million of New York (Niagara) Greenway funds answers this demand by providing an immediate and transformative investment in the flagship park, which will ensure it remains a top international tourism destination and a force in the region's (Albany's) economy... The revitalization will focus (on) improving both the historic and modern amenities (bathrooms, parking lots and food pavilion) for viewing the wonder of the falls, which is (at) the heart of the park experience. The public will have the opportunity to further opportunities to weigh in on park designs during the environmental review process for specific projects." Thanks.

That a professional State Parks "Public Information Officer" is capable of composing such tortured prose as "The public will have the opportunity to further opportunities to weigh in," notwithstanding the fact that the statement is patently untrue, given that not a single public meeting or public comment period was granted by the state agency during the preparation of the plan, gives you an insight into the skill level required to hold down a job in the state bureaucracy, for which you'd think it necessary to read and write English good.

The Niagara Falls Landscape Improvements Plan was created in large part by Erdman Anthony Engineering Services, Inc. of Albany and Buffalo. According to the New York State Board of Elections, Erdman Anthony, its PAC and its employees' PAC have made campaign contributions totaling over $140,000 over the past five years primarily to Western New York politicians, engineering their ongoing patronage.

In addition to the firm's vision, expertise, largesse for politicians and unwavering dedication and respect for the Olmsted plan for Niagara Falls State Park, Erdman Anthony's web site highlights their association with Marcellus Shale fracking activities: "Erdman Anthony is a founding member of the Marcellus Shale Partners... The Partners offer a team of 600-plus professionals and more than a century of oil and gas experience — including extensive shale gas (fracking) experience in the Marcellus Shale play."

So we're in extra good hands should State Parks decide to augment their parking, dining, shopping and sightseeing revenues from the park with the drilling of natural gas wells on Goat Island.

Here is a list of New York state parks for which, at some point over the past 20 years, this writer has either submitted public comments, participated in a group session or stood at a microphone as part of a formal planning process: Joseph Davis State Park, Allegany State Park, Amherst State Park, Wilson-Tuscarora State Park and Letchworth State Park. Other than the naive few who straggled into the Lehmann center back in 1997 to plead for the replacement of Glynn's Observation Tower with unobtrusive Cave of the Winds-type access, there has not been a single instance of State Parks soliciting public input regarding the management of Albany's "state and national treasure", its "flagship park".
It's important to note that $16 of the $25 million in Niagara Greenway funds are to be disbursed over the next four years, with the remaining $9 million in projects, according to the plan, "initiated in future years, as funding becomes available."

The annual allocation of Niagara Greenway funds is as follows: $3 million to local communities on the Niagara River corridor, $1 million to an ecological fund, $2 million extra obtained for Buffalo and Erie County due to the efforts of Congressman Brian Higgins and $3 million to State Parks. The Greenway plan wasn't approved until May of 2008 and funding of projects didn't start until then. Therefore, at $3 million a year from 2008 through 2012, State Parks has realized around $12 million by now.

However, according to Niagara Greenway documents, State Parks has received less than $9 million so far, because that's all they applied for. So at this point, State Parks is ahead around $3 million in NYPA Greenway funds.

Add this to the $12 million anticipated over the first four years of the plan, and State Parks should just about break even after the first wave of the "landscape improvement" projects in the Niagara Falls State Park are completed.

So for all the rationalizations by Public Information Officers, all the press releases, the newspaper headlines by unquestioning dailies and the vaunted visits from Commissioner Harvey, all the bluster and bragging and bs about a $25 million gift of money from Andrew Cuomo and Albany, all it really amounts to is State Parks spending an income stream derived from the hydropower produced in our backyard, routinely metered out to them as part of a 50-year Greenway project.

Incidentally, State Parks' 2010 Capital Needs Assessment document requested $84 million from the state budget for all of the same improvements to Niagara Falls State Park. But seriously, it’s laughable to think that the Cuomo administration was going to spend good state dollars to upgrade and improve their attraction when they could instead use the upstate rubes' own money and make them think they were doing them a big fat favor in the process.

The biography of Parks Commissioner Rose Harvey on the State Parks web site details her accomplished career managing parkland for the benefit of both nature and the public, but now she's become just another political tool, towards the end of serving as President Cuomo's Secretary of the Interior.

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com June 26 , 2012