South End entrepreneur Frank Amendola almost had them last Friday. Late in the afternoon, for around 20 minutes, a restraining order issued by state Supreme Court Justice Richard Kloch on Amendola's behalf stopped Mayor Irene Elia's insane plan to install 440 parking meters in front of virtually every business and home in the city's South End.
But the victory was brief. Kloch reversed his decision, allowing the city to proceed with its plan, pending a June 12 court hearing on the matter.
"This is a million-dollar mistake," Amendola said of the city's plan. "If they're trying to drive business out of town, they're certainly going about it the right way."
Amendola owns the Niagara Office Building at 345 Third St. and the Niagara Club on Buffalo Avenue. Under the city's plan, the Niagara Office Building will be surrounded by meters and the Niagara Club parking lot will also be metered.
Original plans called for the installation of 135 meters in the area around the Seneca Niagara Casino on Fourth Street. But even though the South End parking problem was virtually eliminated when the Senecas built a new lot in Lackey Plaza, Elia saw the meters as a potential revenue source for the city.
Furthermore, the $1-an-hour rate will be in effect 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"They got greedy," Amendola said. "They went from trying to protect the businesses to trying to extort the businesses."
Frank Smith, co-owner of Third Street Liquors, agrees.
"How can they come in one area and put meters in front of people's homes and businesses and not put them anywhere else in the city?" he said. "If they're going to do it here, they should do it on Pine Avenue, up in DeVeaux and in front of Mayor Elia's house."
Amendola said he has already had calls from people planning events at the Niagara Club who are concerned about the lack of free parking.
"The mayor is killing the Niagara Club," he said.
Before filing his lawsuit, Amendola said he tried to reason with Elia.
"We went in there and explained the problem, and she sat there and said she was business-friendly," he said. "It was like talking to a wall."
For James Copia, who owns a dozen houses and apartment buildings on Rainbow Boulevard and Buffalo Avenue, the plan is a disaster. Like many homes in the South End, a number of Copia's properties do not have off-street parking.
"Does this affect the value? Hell yes, it affects the value," he said. "Between the tax increase, the reassessment and the sewer bill hike, it just doesn't make any sense to stay here anymore."
Copia, who has owned property in the South End for four decades, last week listed his holdings with a realtor.
At least one unknown protester took matters into his own hands last week and cut down parking meter posts placed along Fourth Street between Niagara Street and Ferry Avenue. Discussions with many South End residents and businessmen indicate that such civil disobedience will only escalate as the meters go into effect.
Amendola said City Council members Vince Anello and Fran Iusi have gone out of their way to address his concerns, and said he hopes the plan can be stopped.
"The (Elia) administration refuses to do anything about this, and I can only hope that Vince and Fran can talk some sense," he said. "If they don't, this will be a death blow to business in the South End."
Contacted over the weekend, Anello -- who voted in favor of the meter plan -- said his vote was cast after he received misleading information from the administration.
"What's going to happen now is what should have happened in the first place, and what the Council was led to believe did happen," Anello said. "The business people and the residents of the South End are going to be consulted."
Justice Kloch will hear arguments from Amendola and the City on June 12 concerning the lack of an environmental impact statement, the fact that the meter contract was not awarded to the lowest bidder, and concerns that targeting certain city businesses and residents is discriminatory.
Clearly, though, Amendola is not a happy camper.
"I'm demoralized over this," he said. "This is so wrong, so unnecessary, that it's literally making me sick."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | June 3 2003 |