Bob Anderson's Election Day victory marks the beginning of a historic period in Niagara Falls. For the first time, the city's African-American community will have representation in elected government here roughly proportionate to its population level.
And it's about time.
Ethnic diversity and the ability of people of different backgrounds to get along was a key part of the city's success during the industrial era. Bill Bradberry has written eloquently of the migration of Southern blacks to Niagara Falls during the 1940s and '50s, a migration spurred largely by economics, but also by the fact that the city was seen as a tolerant place by people who knew all too well the intolerance of Southern whites during the Jim Crow era.
Anderson will join Councilman Charles Walker, who will be appointed Council chairman in January. Since his election in 1998, the soft-spoken Walker has shown himself to be one of the most level-headed and thoughtful individuals to serve on Council in recent memory.
The black vote was crucial to mayor-elect Vince Anello's victory over Paul Dyster, Sam Granieri and Glenn Choolokian in the Democratic Primary, and to his stunning defeat of Mayor Irene Elia last Tuesday.
That, combined with the counsel of Walker and Anderson, should ensure that some of the city's most troubled neighborhoods finally get the attention they deserve.
The big buzz is over at the cop shop, and it's about whom Anello might appoint as his new chief of police. Current chief Chris Carlin is a good man, but not a good chief, and his ouster will likely be one of the Anello administration's first priorities.
Smart money's on Ernie Palmer, who served as chief under Mayor James Galie. The problems are that he's building a house in Youngstown -- where he's also chief of police -- and that he supported Sam Granieri during the Democratic Primary Vince won.
John Soltys is another name often mentioned. This chief of detectives has a record of meritorious service as long as your arm and has shown himself to be adept at playing the political game here in the Falls.
But Anello's vowed to take the wishes of the rank-and-file cops into heavy consideration during his deliberations, and if my sources are any good at all, that guy is Frank Granto, a captain and a 34-year veteran of the force.
Granto seems to be respected by everyone over on Hyde Park Boulevard, from the first-year rookie to the seasoned veteran.
His idea of law enforcement is to lay off the citizens who throw a cigarette butt out the car window or forget to buckle up and to concentrate on the crooks who are killing people, robbing people and dealing drugs, often in plain sight.
He's got more citations for bravery than he can even remember, and knows the city and its people like the back of his hand.
Given the radical cutbacks in police department manpower over the past four years, and the subsequent increase in serious crime, we find Granto's approach to law enforcement quite sound. Niagara Falls couldn't do better.
Got a call from Andrew Shapiro-Zysk, chairman of the Lewiston Democratic Committee. Apparently he'd gotten a call from state Assemblywoman Francine Del Monte concerning a column item last week that said some top Lewiston Democrats were less than thrilled by her efforts on behalf of the local party.
Del Monte was not pleased.
Shapiro-Zysk said the item was completely false and demanded a retraction. He's not going to get it. In fact, he needs to get out more and talk to his committee members, no fewer than three of whom provided background on what I wrote. Political newcomer Elaine Pienta lost by less than 150 votes to 30-year incumbent Lee Simonson in the 12th District county Legislature race, and many in Lewiston believe she could have pulled off the upset of the year with even the tiniest bit of Del Monte's help.
The Reporter was the only paper in Western New York to endorse Del Monte during her last two runs, but her tendency to pay more attention to what her sycophants in Albany and Manhattan think than she does to the needs of her constituency in Lewiston and Niagara Falls has become disturbing.
Pienta makes for an attractive candidate and has already been mentioned as a possible opponent for Del Monte in next year's Democratic Primary.
Mayor Irene Elia gave us way too much credit last week as the reason for her political demise. On a cable-access show the night before the election and again on Channel 7 News following her bitter defeat, she said her No. 1 problem was a vitriolic local tabloid called the Niagara Falls Reporter.
It's a lot easier than blaming yourself, I guess.
After all, we're not the ones who slimed the Library Board, the Zoning Board of Review or the Charter Commission -- all groups of unpaid, dedicated volunteers appointed to look after the best interests of the city. And we're not the ones who sought to raise property taxes by 27 percent and then followed up with a reassessment that upped taxes for some businesses by as much as 50 percent.
We didn't antagonize the city's unions by slashing jobs and hiring an Albany law firm in an attempt to weasel out of negotiated contracts.
And we're certainly not the ones who embarked on one of the most vile political campaigns in the city's history -- replete with anonymous mailings and phony phone calls -- in a feeble attempt to hold onto a job we weren't suited for in the first place.
How times change.
Just two years ago, when Vince Anello ran for City Council, the Niagara Gazette editorial page advised readers to vote for anybody but him.
Last week, the Gazette joined the Reporter and the Buffalo News in endorsing him for mayor.
The change largely reflects the jettisoning over the past year of former publisher Steve Braver and former editor Terry Shaw, a couple of white-bread, country-club types who had no business in Niagara Falls in the first place.
We're still going to have to live with Braver for a while, as he's chairman of Bobby Newman's Niagara USA Chamber. The predatory organization that serves to divert jobs and businesses from Niagara County to Erie County has witnessed a precipitous decline in membership over the past 18 months, a trend we can only hope will continue.
As for Shaw, he's been banished to North Tonawanda, where his laughably podunk Tonawanda News is an insult to those Tonawandans who pick it up out of habit every day. At least we don't have to read those columns about his damn dog anymore.
Aside from Elia, the biggest loser last week was Candra Thomason, who will now represent a minority of one on the City Council.
She pretty much burned her bridges a couple of weeks before the election, accusing Anello of harassment in a desperate, last-ditch effort to help her mentor, Elia.
Thomason didn't show up for last Thursday's Council meeting on restoring funding the mayor cut from the library budget, and the oddsmakers on Niagara Street are predicting she'll resign once Anello and the new Council take office in January.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | November 11 2003 |