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The fact that only about 40 percent of registered voters bothered showing up for last Tuesday's election -- in Niagara Falls the figure was closer to 25 percent -- should be a wake-up call to area politicians.
Forget wake-up call. It should be an alarm.
There is a certain sick feeling one gets after casting a vote for a candidate one has met at a street fair or other event and then watching as that person starts behaving like a total moron or, more often, disappears into the woodwork entirely upon taking office.
"I'll see you again next election," they might as well come out and say.
The majority party in Niagara County has become "We Don't Care," and it is made up of the registered voters who don't vote combined with those who aren't even registered. In Niagara Falls, members of this new and decidedly unofficial party include Council members John Accardo, Barbara Geracitano, Tony Quaranto and Joe D'Angelo, all of whom decided the prospect of a re-election bid simply wasn't worth the trouble.
While veteran pols like Clyde Burmaster talk of providing "proven leadership" and neophytes like Candra Thomason play the "it's time for a change" card, the reality is that they are leading no one to nowhere and that nothing's going to change.
Or, rather, if things do change and Niagara is led from the quagmire it has found itself in for decades, it will have little to do with the bodies taking up space in the Legislature or the City Council chambers.
The real change will come at the hands of a group of downtown Niagara Falls businessmen and visionaries, men who don't ask for government handouts and mostly just want to be left alone.
The catalyst will be the Seneca Indian casino, set to open no later than this time next year, but Frank Amendola, John Prozeralik, Richard Hastings, H.J. Smith, Sean Weber and Bill Glasgow have been laying the groundwork for the revitalization of the city's South End for a long time now.
The South End -- the area immediately adjacent to the state park and the falls -- is the key not only to the city's revitalization, but that of the county as well.
Our friend Vince Anello's overwhelming victory in the race for City Council once again highlights the complete breakdown of the Niagara Falls Democratic Committee, as well as the total irrelevance of daily newspaper endorsements.
Anello was actively opposed by city Democratic Chairman Leo Alcuri, the Niagara Gazette editorial board and the newspaper's editor, Terry Shaw, who singled him out for special treatment. The Buffalo News simply ignored the council race in its endorsements.
But Anello couldn't have cared less. His constituency was never housed in the oak-paneled boardrooms and, rather than pander to the heavy-handed tactics of the city committee, he chose to go out and start his own grassroots organization. The strategy worked splendidly, and he out-polled the loser in the race, Gary Krull, by a margin of nearly 2-1.
Citing the casino and the likelihood that the Niagara Falls International Airport may at last be wrested from the hands of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, Anello said he is optimistic about the city's future.
"That's why I wanted to be there at this particular time," he said. "It's going to be great to be a part of it, and I think I can help."
The defeat of the new county charter once again highlights the deep divisions existing between Niagara County's three cities and the 17 towns and villages that surround them.
Ours is the largest county in New York State to rely on a crew of untrained, often ill-educated and always part-time Legislators to run what, after all, is a $200 million corporation.
The results are often predictable. Residents of the cities subsidize to a great extent the increased levels of service those in the towns receive from the county. County highway maintenance and road patrols by the sheriff's department are two examples.
Also predictable is the fact that the politicians representing the towns want to keep things that way, so that when they run for re-election they can brag about the low level of taxes their residents pay compared to city folks.