The group of citizens suing the federal government over the wink-and-a-nod approval given to plopping a casino in downtown Buffalo, to be run by the Seneca Nation to the questionable benefit of the community surrounding it, is doing so for the same reason supervisory boards now oversee the governing of both the city and Erie County.
Because elected officials have once again proven they can't, or won't, do the jobs for which they were hired.
On his last day in office, responding to the then-threatened lawsuit in the Buffalo News, outgoing Mayor Tony Masiello embarrassed himself one last time by repeating the mantra that epitomized his failure of an administration -- something is better than nothing, especially if my friends make money from it.
Byron Brown, Masiello's successor, also seems convinced that a mini-reservation on the waterfront will do more good than harm, demonstrating the baseless optimism that abounds when most local politicos -- save Assemblyman Sam Hoyt and incoming Erie County Legislator Maria Whyte, who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit -- talk about casinos.
Whether anyone but the Seneca Nation, the construction companies set to build the proposed Buffalo Creek Casino, and Carl Paladino, the longtime pro-casino puppeteer who sold the land, stands to make a penny from a downtown gambling emporium remains iffy, at best.
The people -- including property owners, attorneys and plain old taxpayers -- who oppose the casino argue that the sliver of revenue Buffalo will realize won't offset the jobs lost as existing businesses close when more and more local dollars disappear into the Seneca Gaming Corp.'s bank account.
Unlike Seneca Niagara, viewed as a destination for casinogoers from far beyond Western New York, Buffalo Creek is planned as a magnet for gamblers in Buffalo and the immediately surrounding area. No hotel is slated for the site, no fancy theater to feature performances by faded stars.
Seneca Gaming Corp. officials apparently don't worry about a glut of gambling options in the region, even though Buffalo Creek would be the fifth -- or sixth, if you count the relatively small casino in the Seneca Niagara Hotel as an entity separate from the main floor in the old convention center.
The proliferation of casinos in Niagara Falls on both sides of the river at least presents the possibility that the region could become a bi-national mini-Vegas, with dueling casinos combining with the cataracts and gorge to create the critical mass craved by the tourism industry.
Nobody kids himself into thinking there's such an upside in Buffalo. Buffalo Creek's slot-machine chairs and gaming tables will fill with folks from Cheektowaga, not the Carolinas. With the tax base almost incapable of shrinking any further, though, city officials crave the pittance they'd receive from a casino, as well as the opportunity to glom praise for something that at least seems successful.
For an example of such credit-taking where none is due, notice how often Niagara Falls Mayor Vincenzo V. Anello and other City Hall types love talking about Seneca Niagara as if they or any other non-Seneca in the vicinity had anything to do with it.
That might be the biggest problem with the spread of legalized gambling, particularly the loophole-filled way it's done in New York -- it allows the people entrusted by taxpayers to make things better an easy way out, a smokescreen to prevent the public from seeing that, for all the ringing bells and neon, nothing fundamentally changes about the system that pushed Western New York to and over the economic cliff.
"For a long time, officials have looked to silver bullets in Buffalo and Niagara Falls," said Richard Lippes, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the suit against the Buffalo casino. "Silver bullets don't work -- hard work and steady progress are what work."
Many affiliated with Citizens Against Casino Gambling in Erie County and the other groups bringing suit, particularly a network of area churches, base their opposition on moral grounds, citing the increases in problem gambling and personal bankruptcies that come with casinos. As sincere as that position may be, it hasn't carried any legal weight anywhere gambling has taken root.
Unlike previous suits, though, this one has both sound representation and ample funding, courtesy of the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation. That organization helped bankroll the successful challenges to the Peace Bridge "twin span" plan and the state's scheme to prevent any life from coming to the waterfront with a painfully bland marina.
Many of the same people involved in those ultimately successful fights against political idiocy have banded together once again. Seneca Nation President Barry Snyder has also spoken dismissively of the lawsuit and Paladino predictably played the "obstructionist" card. To date, the editorial page of the Buffalo News hasn't relinquished its characteristically sycophantic position, which translates as "relax and try to enjoy it."
History indicates that stopping a Buffalo casino will be difficult, if not impossible. The people poised for a fight, though, don't seem intimidated by the odds.
Kenmore Development, which bought two large complexes, now known as Niagara I and II Apartments, near Niagara Falls International Airport, in March, announced the purchase of the 22nd Street Apartments from Arjay Inc. last week.
Kenmore Development paid $500,000 for the 93 two-bedroom brick townhouses located between Tennessee and Centre avenues, and plans to spend a like amount renovating what will be renamed Niagara III, according to Scott Hunt, the company's marketing manager.
"We feel that Niagara Falls will be on the upswing and we want to be a part of it," Hunt said.
With the purchase, Kenmore Development owns more than 200 units in Niagara Falls and more than 1,100 in Western New York.
Fortunately, the obscene profits garnered by companies selling gasoline and natural gas during the past six months should help ease NOCO's pain.
The company was cited for 18 violations after an employee complained that workers were ordered to remove a furnace contaminated with asbestos without adequate protection. OSHA levied the fine after NOCO failed to respond to the citation within 15 days.
"It should be noted that NOCO is not in the asbestos removal business," read a prepared statement published in the Buffalo News.
The statement did not indicate why, then, workers were told to do it anyway.
NOCO is owned by the Newman family, which has members well positioned in the Buffalo Niagara Partnership and just about every other business organization in the region. After being forced out as company CEO, Bobby Newman was hand-picked by family friend and Partnership head Andrew Rudnick to take over the Niagara USA Chamber in 2002.
After a disastrous reign that saw membership of the new organization plummet, Newman left his post in 2004.
There are some things, though, that no one really needs to know.
The method by which Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy's 18-year-old son killed himself three days before Christmas, for one.
The words the doomed miners in West Virginia scrawled to their loved ones in their final moments before succumbing, for another.
I guess there might be a reason other than ghoulishness for publishing such information. I just can't imagine what it is.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Jan. 10 2006 |