Steve Masic knows how hard it is to do business in Niagara Falls. As the owner of Player's, a bar and restaurant at the corner of Niagara and Fourth streets here, he has seen the block where his family has done business for the past 35 years deteriorate to the point where three of the five commercial buildings there have been abandoned and are in varying stages of collapse.
The state's draconian anti-smoking law and the construction of the Seneca Niagara Casino directly across the street have been major blows, but Masic said he is mostly frustrated by the lack of response he's been getting from City Hall. The owner of the popular Niagara Street nightspot says that Mayor Paul Dyster, City Attorney Tom O'Donnell and Senior Planner Tom DeSantis have combined to stop a long-stalled expansion of his business, despite the fact that he's already invested $87,000 of his own money in the project.
"We were hoping things would get back on track after the election," Masic told the Niagara Falls Reporter. "Now it's a different administration, but the same old Niagara Falls. It's a joke."
Repeated attempts to contact Dyster by both Masic and his sister, Kathleen Knotts, have been unsuccessful, although the mayor did have his secretary, Donna Winstanley, return one call.
"She told us the mayor didn't think he could support what we're trying to do," Knotts said. "I don't think he even knows what we're trying to do. It seems as though you have to owe the city a million dollars in back taxes like some of these big developers before this mayor will even speak to you."
Likewise, she added, O'Donnell and DeSantis -- "the two Toms," she calls them -- seem more interested in shifting responsibility from the law department to the planning department and back again than they do in the kind of grassroots economic development many believe will result in a turnaround in the city's economy.
Both men are relics of every delinquent city administration going back to the days of Michael O'Laughlin, and each has left his mark on the city of Niagara Falls. For his part, O'Donnell has had spectacularly bad luck when it comes to trying cases in court, under corporation counsels as diverse as Damon DeCastro, Ron Anton and current city court Judge Robert Merino.
As far as DeSantis' qualifications as a city planner are concerned, he has managed to suck at the government teat for so long that most of the original projects he planned have since been torn down, and he is now presumably busy planning a new generation of eyesores with which to grace our fair city.
Be that as it may, all Masic and Knotts are looking for is an even break. They point out that, aside from the Arterial Lounge at the other end of the block, every single one of the businesses that used to be located there are now long gone. The landmark Press Box restaurant was closed by the state after more than 50 years in business, while a Chinese restaurant, at least two coffee shops and a soul food restaurant have come and gone with little notice.
In the city-owned alley behind the block, garbage and other debris piles up, along with bricks that regularly fall from three of the five buildings there. Those three are, in essence, abandoned and, last year, the back brick wall of one of them collapsed completely.
Numerous objections were raised to Masic and Knotts' original plan, which would have provided for a second story on the Player's building, a rooftop garden and a smoking lounge that would meet state requirements and allow patrons who smoke the same rights they would enjoy in one of the clubs at the Seneca Niagara Casino, on Seneca Nation land, right across the street.
Knotts noted that one of the Planning Commission members said she opposed the project because it would encourage people to smoke, a habit she disapproved of.
After numerous delays, Masic downsized his proposed expansion last October, instead opting to enclose a space on the Fourth Street side of his building with glass. The area is currently used as a sidewalk cafe, and the enclosure would not extend past where tables, chairs and a line of trees planted by Masic when he redid the sidewalk at his own expense are now.
But earlier this month, when city officials presented the Planning Commission with a copy of the old plans for them to vote on, Masic and Knotts were stunned. City Councilman Sam Fruscione, who is familiar with the project and has been working to help Masic, quickly tabled any action.
The mayor won't return our calls, the law department won't return our attorney's calls, we really don't have anywhere else to turn," Knotts said. "From what we've experienced, Paul Dyster's worse than Vince Anello."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | May 27 2008 |