Gov. Andrew Cuomo rode into Niagara Falls this week full of promises about using state funds from his Buffalo Billion Squared Initiative in his proposed 2017 budget to reclaim underused and vacant property near the state park, an investment he says that will pay dividends for the city. While itRead More

A Roman Catholic priest who is proposing to locate what he terms a “not-for-profit restaurant,” run by volunteers, serving low cost meals to low income residents and free meals to veterans, is running into stiff resistance from Mayor Dyster and a self-appointed business group that calls itself Pine Avenue RedevelopmentRead More

by Dan Davis They stopped talking to me so maybe they would answer to you. This year’s budget included a request for $500,899 in Casino funds for Community Development. This amount was to come from a $10.9 million “Transfer from Tribal Revenue.” At the same time, an additional $500,899 wasRead More

The Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center’s marquee event, the Premier, was a star-studded success last Saturday night at the Seneca Niagara Casino, attracting close to 1,000 people who clearly had a wonderful time contributing and mingling with some of the area’s biggest names as well as many guests from theRead More

“Could only happen in Niagara Falls!” That’s what people were saying this week after Councilman Charles Walker – who is still dealing with four misdemeanor charges brought by the state attorney general for allegedly failing to file campaign finance reports – was elected to either his third or fourth two-yearRead More

By Johnny Destino “(I)t is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?” – Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest When I accepted the position of Purchasing Agent with the city ofRead More

      Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster won a third term in 2015, but barely.       Dyster, who had been harshly criticized by former Council President Glenn Choolokian on his handling of city finances and the secretive Hamister hotel project among other development broken promises, defeated Choolokian by aRead More

      “The citizens of Niagara Falls would be hard-pressed to find a better candidate for a seat on the City Court bench than Alan Roscetti,” says longtime pharmacist Robert Kendzia when asked about the young man’s plans to run for an expected open seat next year on CityRead More

By Robert Ventry; If the Festival of Lights were still held it would be in its 35th year. The first annual Festival of Lights was launched in 1981 as economic stimulant for the local economy. The event was used to draw visitors into the city during the winter, which manyRead More

2016, the year that began with Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster taking the oath of office for a historic third term, was in many ways a watershed year for the city. Numerous websites including MyLife.com, NeighborhoodScout.com and City-Data.com continued to assert that Niagara Falls was the “Most Dangerous City in New York” and one ofRead More

As part of an ongoing effort to acquaint our readers with some of the more unsavory aspects of the business and personal dealings of Buffalo billionaire Jeremy Jacobs and his family-held multinational corporation Delaware North, which has the exclusive rights to operate food and beverage concessions in Niagara Falls StateRead More

For last minute Christmas shopping, consider the new book by Niagara Falls author and historian Michelle Ann Kratts, “Niagara Falls in World War II”. Niagara Falls, both a natural wonder and a tourist destination, played a prominent role on the homefront during the Second World War. Many men and womenRead More

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, through his associates at State Parks and the New York Power Authority, sometime over the past week perpetrated an act of such petty vindictiveness and blatant contempt for Niagara Falls that we thought it appropriate to come up with a special name for his attitude towards us.Read More

A man for all seasons. Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster sent out a press release to the local media (except the Reporter) to announce that there were “warming centers” for homeless people – which while taking credit in the press, he had, as far as we could determine, little toRead More

Last March, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that a section of the north Robert Moses Parkway paralleling Whirlpool Street in the city will be removed, at a cost of $42 million. Perhaps the most interesting line of his press release was the following: “The project will remove an underutilized two-mile segmentRead More

Yesterday at 10 am, a mere 24 hours after the politicians and local media welcomed the first Amtrak train to the new Niagara Falls International Train Station, Intermodal Transportation Center and Customhouse Interpretive Center (“NFITSITCCIC”), we dropped in to snap some photos. The morning after, so to speak. First impressionRead More

The One Niagara Welcome Center is located at 360 Rainbow Blvd. within  earshot of mighty Niagara Falls and stands nine-stories tall, a can’t miss landmark that serves, according to its website, as a tourism and sightseeing haven offering bus tours, guided exploration, historical presentations, dining and souvenirs. The bustling touristRead More

Last week we offered readers the news that we had something more to say about the Hamister Hotel deal in downtown Niagara Falls. Normally we would not care about a small, limited service hotel now being built except for the fact that it has been subsidized by taxpayers and appearsRead More

Recent developments with Delaware North, multinational food service, gaming and sports conglomerate, don’t bode well for the future of the city of Niagara Falls. Earlier this month Christopher Jacobs won election to the New York State Senate. Nephew of Jacobs family patriarch and multibillionaire Jeremy Jacobs, Sr., Chris’ election allRead More

The trashing of the city of Niagara Falls in the mainstream media continues unabated – it’s practically becoming a national pastime – and now a leading and reputable financial industry information clearinghouse, Bankrate, has joined the crowd – rating Niagara Falls as the worst place in the nation for retirement.Read More