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Joining about 15,000 other people last week at Thursday in the Square in Buffalo triggered a thought and a question.
First, an urgent message for Pat DiNizio (singer/guitarist for the Smithereens, Thursday's headliners at the weekly fiesta in Lafayette Square Park) and all other aging, balding men who try to hide the ravages of time and nature by wearing skull caps or berets: Please cut it out. You're not fooling anyone.
While enjoying a cold beverage and looking out over a crowd diverse in both age and background, you start to wonder. Why isn't there anything remotely like this in Niagara Falls?
Over the last decade, Thursday in the Square has grown steadily into the biggest outdoor party in Western New York. What was once almost exclusively a Happy Hour bash for office workers in downtown Buffalo now draws tens of thousands from all over the area. Bars and restaurants in the nearby Chippewa District have turned "After the Square" into a third weekend evening, luring those who aren't ready to go home when the band packs up and the taps go dry.
It's more than just a big party. People meet up with friends, or renew old acquaintances. The event creates a sense of community all but absent in Niagara Falls.
Of course, Buffalo has a much larger built-in audience. But a weekly, or even monthly, series of concerts in downtown Niagara Falls could have a tremendous impact even with a fraction of the crowds that gather in Lafayette Square.
Since you can already hear the objections sure to emanate from City Hall, let's take them one at a time.
And Buffalo isn't? Buffalo Place, a not-for-profit business group, started Thursday in the Square with gum and string. Sales of beer, wine and food -- along with corporate sponsorships -- pay for the bands and security. As the shows became more popular, Buffalo Place had more money to lure bigger-name acts, which in turn drew larger crowds that drank more beer and ate more sausages.
True, Buffalo Place had to add an area for motorcycles to park, and most shows draw several hundred bikers. Those are the same people who attend regular cruise nights in North Tonawanda and Lockport, turning those into events (which also feature live, free outdoor music) enjoyed by both attendees and local business owners.
Maybe it's the summer weather, or that the three or four hours the concerts last isn't enough time to get punch-throwing drunk, but at the dozens of Thursdays in the Square I've attended over the years, I've seen exactly zero fights. Or trouble of any other kind, for that matter.
One of the beauties of the Thursday in the Square schedule is its diversity, which ranges from late '80s power-pop groups like the Smithereens to whatever-happened-to icons like Pat Benatar to zydeco to country. A Niagara Falls series could widen the spectrum to include hometown boy Michael Civisca and tap into the area's loyal blues following.
And for a huge chunk of the crowd, the band at Thursday in the Square is little more than a soundtrack for people-watching and socializing.
Well, you could pay a consultant almost $40,000 to study the question for three months. Or you could just close down any street near the state park for a few hours.
The one gripe most often heard about Thursday in the Square is that it has become too big for the venue, often creating an impenetrable mass of people in the square itself. To alleviate the problem, the city last year allowed Buffalo Place to close off a few blocks of Washington Street, a heavily traveled downtown arterial. It seems to be working just fine.
A downtown concert series, if executed properly (always a gargantuan "if" in these parts), could draw thousands to a part of the city that inexcusably cries out for tumbleweeds.
It would offer entertainment for the locals, as well as giving people from around the area who passionately avoid downtown, or any other part of Niagara Falls, a reason to give it another try.
And, unlike just about any other project in Niagara Falls, it wouldn't depend on tourists, though it would give them another reason to hang around for a few more hours, then maybe go out for dinner and even rent the occasional hotel room.
All at very little cost, or risk.
It almost makes too much sense. Even though it works just about everywhere else.
In the boys-will-be-boys department, another member of Laborers Local 91 was arrested earlier this month after an allegation of job-site violence.
But this time, it wasn't a contractor, non-union worker or member of another union getting slugged, but one of Local 91's own stewards.
William P. Lostracco, 47, was arrested by the New York State Police and charged with second-degree harassment on July 3. The charges stemmed from an incident at a construction project at Newfane High School in late June.
According to state police, Lostracco and a union steward got into an argument that escalated into a fight, with the steward filing a complaint.
The trooper who conducted the investigation and made the arrest said that, contrary to speculation, the dispute didn't stem from the trusteeship installed by Laborers International Union of North America after 14 Local 91 officers and members were indicted on federal racketeering charges in May. The local's new leadership in turn promoted several members to steward status, heightening internal tensions within the beleaguered local.
"This didn't have anything to do with the union shenanigans," the trooper said.
Lostracco is scheduled to appear in Newfane Town Court on July 30.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | July 23 2002 |