What Awaits Residents in a Dyster Third Term?

The Reporter has one thing that other local media outlets appear to lack: a crystal ball. We occasionally consult our prognostication orb to provide our readers a leg up, a head start, a future view of the political lay of the land.

With that in mind we recently gazed into the crystal sphere to take measure as to what a third Dyster term would mean for Niagara Falls. We envision the following coming true if the voters reward Dyster with a third curtain call.

The Dyster-DeSantis train station will be turned over to a private consultant/building manager. The building will have no visible means of support as Dyster uses casino money to keep the doors open while going hat in hand to Senator Charles Schumer for federal transportation aid.

Sal Maglie Stadium will be contracted to a private manager/operator who is friendly to the Dyster administration. The Niagara Power baseball team was conveniently removed from the playing field to make this happen.

You will not see - you will never see - a transparent casino spending plan as Dyster continues to portray himself as the "gatekeeper of casino finds" with no justification either legally or morally for that self-proclaimed title.

The "redevelopment" of Third Street will continue as Dyster supporters continue to receive grants and loans to operate businesses on the street where redevelopment efforts never end and redevelopment never begins.

The curious Highland industrial park project will cost well above the targeted $875,000 as the Reporter works to pierce the troubling lack of project transparency.

The Ice Pavilion renovation project that has strangely grown from $5 million to $13 million will continue to expand as the city council practices their officially adopted management style: "If we never ask questions we'll never be lied to."

The Underground Railroad Interpretive Center will open, five years late. The question as to how the project's dedicated casino revenue ($350,000 annually) was used will never be asked much less answered.

Contracts for consultants and outside legal services will continue to swell all out of proportion for a city the size of Niagara Falls. Dyster's law department will continue to grow in taxpayer overhead costs right along with the burgeoning legal consultant fees.

The matter of frozen and deficient water lines will not be solved satisfactorily as a quick fix on 72nd Street proves to be hit and miss. The Water Board will disavow responsibility and liability for the city repair work.

Raises, overtime and stipends will continue to be handed out by Mayor Dyster to those inner circle employees who unquestioningly support the mayor.

Isaiah 61 will remain a bottomless well in which casino dollars are poured down. Seth Piccirillo will continue to refuse to release any information as to how the program salaries are paid and how the program truly operates.

A compliant council will give Dyster the privatization parking plan he so wildly desires. The plan will surrender the city's rights to their own streets for years to come as metered parking spreads across the city.

The blistering and insightful 2013 NYS audit of city finances - the document holding the answers to the mysteries of the city's money loss and money movement - will remain unstudied for fear of what lies within.

Jayne Park will suffer through "renovation" Phase Two as submissive and abused Cayuga Island residents say and do nothing to stop city hall.

Gus the Goose will move to Canada.

Transparency will become even rarer in Dyster's third term with Dyster openly refusing to explain himself on any number of issues. A compliant local media will conveniently ignore the crisis.

The mayor will hand the financial reins of government to the State Financial Restructuring Board. Mayor Dyster will blame the Restructuring Board for the negative fallout resulting from the board’s actions while taking credit for the positive results from the board's actions.

The "Buffalo Boys" who put Paul Dyster into office will remain on the mayor's speed dial while residents seeking solutions to their problems will be dumped into voicemail and email hell.

The mayor will continue to operate his beer business in Tonawanda while telling Niagara Falls taxpayers "we have to invest in our city's future!"