At last, we've gotten a glimpse of what the leaders of one of the world's most famous cities hope to make of its long-neglected, nearly dormant downtown. And that ambitious vision is ...
The suburbs.
Nearly three years after the opening of the Seneca Niagara Casino, economic development remains an oxymoron in Niagara Falls. At least once you get away from the Seneca Nation's sprawling campus and the lands New York State hopes to add to it as quickly and cheaply as possible. In an effort to fix that, City Hall has unveiled a CD (price tag: $15,000) created to help lure national chains.
According to Ralph Aversa, executive director of the NFC Development Corp., if all goes well, the newly rebuilt Third Street and surrounding areas will soon feature such beloved venues as TGI Friday's and Jack Astor's, replete with its donkey mascot. Get it? Jack Astor's? Donkey? Ho, ho, ho. Those chains are so clever.
If City Hall's plan goes really well, the Como Restaurant's from-scratch Italian specialties will soon be competing with the sumptuously flavor-free Never-Ending Pasta Bowls issued by the Olive Garden.
Apparently, City Hall's idea is to attract people to Niagara Falls not by offering unique entertainment and hospitality venues, but by making downtown almost exactly like everyplace else.
You can only hope that the NFC is figuring out ways to give massive tax breaks to those chains. After all, if somebody who has been doing business in Niagara Falls for decades has to pay a few extra bucks in taxes so that the city can convince multi-million-dollar corporations to set up shop here and pay little, if anything, everybody wins, right?
You'd think Aversa's office would be finding ways to help local business owners remain local business owners. There's not much anyone can do about the natural advantages afforded the casino by the generous casino compact -- no sales or property taxes to pay, later closing time for its bars and no smoking ban, to name three. But it seems even a minimal effort by the occupants of City Hall to help the people who pay their salaries wouldn't be too much to ask.
Instead, those seeking assistance from the city are told to pound salt. One business owner whose establishment was located between City Hall and the falls and who went looking for help late last year was advised not to throw good money after bad. To just give up.
After all, what kind of crazy dreamer would expect to be able to make it with the mist generated by the cataracts rising in the distance, obscuring the ever-growing skyline of Niagara Falls, Ont.?
And business owners outside the downtown area might as well be located in Pennsylvania, as far as the city's economic gurus are concerned. Forget about the NFC working to help establishments that run into emergency situations secure short-term loans to get them through. Those entrepreneurs are lucky if they even get a call back telling them to get bent.
When Kathy Lewis of Kelly's Korner went to City Hall seeking assistance in keeping the LaSalle landmark open, she was told city development money was for new businesses, preferably ones located downtown. Since hers was neither, she was out of luck. It's worth noting that city inspectors still pay plenty of attention to businesses in all parts of Niagara Falls, however, and outside-the-core establishments don't get their taxes discounted to reflect the lack of service.
Given the ineptitude of the blue-ribbon "development" team assembled by Mayor Vincenzo V. Anello, though, maybe it's just as well that the city's economic gurus occupy themselves with dreams of a Hooters next to a Bennigans next to a Red Lobster.
Rather than griping, plenty of business owners are trying new ideas, doing whatever they can to keep from becoming submerged in red ink.
Club Joey's on Pine Avenue recently overhauled the menu, adding a variety of top-grade steaks and chops to its bill of fare.
"You've got to find a niche, something that makes you unique," said Club Joey's owner, John Diletti.
Toward that end, places like Kelly's Korner and Dell's Arterial Lounge on Niagara Street offer distinctive, affordable specials just about every night.
Lino and Tom Vecchies of the Shadow Martini Bar are working on adding a comedy club to the existing nightclub. Other Third Street businesses, having toughed it out through the summer-long construction process, are also looking to maximize the impact of the new streetscape created by workers from Mark Cerrone, Inc. Across the street from Shadow, Cafe Etc. opened a kitchen, with a variety of bar foods and seafood dishes available to cocktail sippers and jazz aficionados.
And Jack Hornung of the Third Street Tap Room is launching the Third Street Entertainment and Business Association, along with partner Mark Chiarenza, Steve Fournier of Cafe Etc. and Tom Vecchies.
Around the corner on Niagara Street, a couple of tourists stopped early Friday evening to ask for directions from a few patrons of Dell's Arterial Lounge who were outside enjoying the warm summer air.
"Where is there a Pizza Hut?" asked one.
"They make great pizza here," suggested one of the patrons, pointing inside the Arterial.
The tourist furrowed his brow and thought for a second.
"Where is there a Pizza Hut?" he asked again.
Overcoming that tourist mindset, particularly among foreign visitors, might be impossible. But if enough of the unique businesses already here can survive, and grow, and others sprout around them, people just might start coming to Niagara Falls to try something new, rather than settling for a nauseatingly familiar name.
Speaking of names, last week's Niagara Falls Reporter published a whole bunch of them, listing the "unindicted co-conspirators" revealed in court papers submitted by federal prosecutors in the Laborers Local 91 racketeering case.
The documents also detailed many of the various incidents of harassment, intimidation, property destruction, gang assault and firebombing that constitute the feds' case against the four defendants who have yet to plead guilty or go to trial. Those four -- Mark Congi, Paul Bellreng, Albert Celeste and Joel Cicero -- are slated to go to trial on Sept. 7, with each facing 20 years or more in prison.
One of the 31 people so named in the article was a Ronald Mantell. A few hours after the paper hit the street, a Ronald Mantell called the Reporter office, irate and eager to set the record straight.
On the phone was Ronald J. Mantell, who is a member of Local 91 but not, repeat, not the man named in the court document. The unindicted co-conspirator, he explained, is his stepbrother, Ronald D. Mantell II, better known as "Rocky."
"I give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay," Ronald J. Mantell said. "I'm clean, I'm a hard worker and I've never done anything like that in 16 years."
That underscores a couple of points.
For one thing, Ronald is a popular name in the Mantell family. And during the late Michael "Butch" Quarcini's 35-year-reign at the head of the union, his flunkies, among their other offenses, soiled the names of hundreds of honest workers so that they could enjoy no-show or no-work jobs and drive new Lincoln Continentals. And that may have been their greatest crime of all.
One sunny day a couple months back, Brett Biro was riding his motorcycle around a curve when an oncoming car forced him off the road, and off the motorcycle.
The impact when his head hit the street caused a subdural hematoma, the same brain injury that led to undefeated heavyweight boxer Joe Mesi's suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Brett returned home from the hospital several days after the accident, but still suffers headaches and short-term memory troubles.
His biggest problem, though, is that he's one of millions of Americans who don't have health insurance. His father, Bill, owns City Limits at the corner of Hyde Park Boulevard and Witmer Road, and the family is throwing a fund-raiser on Saturday, Aug. 20, to help offset the medical expenses incurred.
"The City's Finest High-Class Dump," as Bill Biro nicknamed the place, will feature hot food, cold drinks and live music, including a performance by J.B. Aaron (Brett's brother, Josh), who by all accounts staged a killer show at Lockport's Palace Theater earlier this month.
That so many people living in the wealthiest country in the history of the world can't afford health insurance is a national disgrace. But at least in this case, it's also an indirect cause for what sounds like a pretty good party.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Aug. 16 2005 |