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It was the best of times -- for Albany.
It was an age of foolishness, an epoch of incredulity, a season of darkness -- for Niagara Falls.
Tourists coming here, seeing a ruined city, ask, "What went wrong?"
You would think Niagara Falls had the advantage -- the cataracts, the hydropower, a famous name.
Its troubles are, perhaps, not entirely the fault of the people. If they are no better than those in other places, they are no worse.
It might be "fame echoing from a distance, rumbling like falling waters, menacingly, through all this space of time."
Certainly, more know the name of Niagara Falls than that of its master, Albany. Coupled with the most celebrated natural landscape, synonymous with power, the most-heralded waterfalls in the world, is a small town, failing to live up to its too-big name: 50,000 people, down from 100,000 people 50 years ago.
"The Power City"? "The Honeymoon Capital"? Its residents ask, in deepening shadow, "What went wrong?"
It was the worst of times for Niagara Falls.
In Albany, however, some think they served this city well, that the fault lies in the people, the local officials, the developers, the unions -- blame someone, anyone. You cannot control the mincing vanities and empty-headed giddiness of Albany politicians.
The reason, for good or evil, for the decline of Niagara Falls is that Albany took the profit from its waterfalls -- the wonder that millions visit every year, and along with it the profit from its electrical power, generated from the descent of roaring river.
We went from paying among the lowest electrical rates in the United States, when we controlled our hydropower -- until 1956 -- to the third-highest electrical rates in America since Albany took over in 1957. Whoever heard of a place that had a super-abundance of any product -- be it power, water, apples, anything -- where the people living closest paid more than everyone else?
More recently, as further proof of Albany's destructive governance, consider the Seneca giveaway. To ensure a winter of despair, even in summer, Albany gave, to gain a soupcon of revenue, a tiny, foreign nation called Seneca the keys to the hunting grounds. The terms of their insane casino compact gave Seneca instant wealth and, surer than death, no taxes to pay despite having the right (besides a gambling monopoly) to open any other business -- giant hotels, elegant restaurants, retail stores -- directly competing in the middle of downtown Niagara Falls, all tax-free, against the long-suffering, longtime taxpaying American business people here who struggle to pay the "killing three": among the highest property, state income and sales taxes in the nation.
The keys to unlock kingdom's gates were given to tax-free Seneca, and in doing so Albany gave Niagara Falls the keys direct the other way.
Foolishly, some maudlin souls say "we" stole the falls from the then-poor Seneca, so we owe it to them to make them, like Albany's power brokers, our rich masters, but they know nothing of history. Seneca actually stole Niagara Falls from the peaceful Neutrals' tribe by exterminating them in the mid-18th century. A mere 50 years later, early Americans threw Seneca off, like they did the British. We might just as logically give the British tax-free advantages over Americans. Come to think of it, maybe we did: Through Albany's convoluted, perverted destruction of everything that is ours, we now buy expensive electrical power from National Grid -- owned, unbelievably, by the British -- while today the profit from our local, inexpensive Niagara hydroelectricity goes to Albany and New York City.
But what of tourism?
There is a great crowd coming one day into our lives, and Albany alone shall profit: This is the mantra. All through the cold and restless interval of 122 years, they whispered to the people of Niagara Falls -- taxes are not Albany's remedy for all things. It can manage profit centers for itself. Following Olmsted's plan, Albany helped create the Niagara Falls State Park in 1886. A "garden in which the fruits of life hung ripening, waters of hope that sparkled in everyone's sight," and profit promised for all! A moment and it was gone -- except for Albany, which made it an enormous profit center, depriving the city of "spin-off" every other area enjoys from tourist-drawing natural landscapes.
The most visited state park in the nation -- adjacent to a ghost town, across the river from a boom town. And Albany chants hypocritically, "This is an Olmsted park," while violating Olmsted's ideals: to keep the park 100 percent green and 100 percent commercial-free. Before and after leaving the all-green park, Olmsted planned that tourists would spend their money in the city.
But what happened?
The residents of the Falls sometimes sat alone of an evening, outside the park, listening, until they made the roar of the falls out to be the echoes of all the footsteps that are coming by and by into their lives. Last year, the footsteps were left by the feet of 8 million. Albany made sure it possessed them all.
When 8 million convene in 100 days of summer, on less than 100 acres, naturally they wish to eat and buy souvenirs. Should they leave the park to do that and go into the city? Why? asked Albany. There should be stores and restaurants here within the park for our profit-keeping.
The biggest incursion is gigantic parking lots which paved over Olmsted's "green." Their planning is brilliant -- the routing of people along the Robert Moses State Parkway so they see not the city, and into the state parking lot, paying $10 for the privilege. Spend $10 for the Cave of the Winds, $12 for the Maid of the Mist, buy souvenirs and gifts at stores in the park, eat a meal or two at restaurants in the park, and then, after an average four-hour stay, without seeing an advertisement in the park for any activity in the city (except for the Seneca casino), millions of tourists leave believing there is nothing else to do in Niagara Falls on the American side. They leave on state-owned roads out of town or cross the bridge to Canada. Every tourist dollar spent in the park alone!
Sayeth Albany to Niagara Falls, "Tell Wind and Fire where to stop, but don't tell me; we got your taxes, and control your biggest assets, two local assets that would otherwise make you rich, unbelievably rich. Assets that, in the past, when you controlled them, had made you rich: your hydropower and your tourism!"
It is the meanest of times in Niagara Falls.
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS AD ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE NIAGARA FALLS REPORTER