Mayor Robert Restaino called out critics of his Centennial Park project during his video update from inside city hall last week.
He asked council members and media members like me who think it’s a bad idea to come up with a better one.
“Those of you who want to oppose this, do you have an idea to grow an industry with 10,000 workers that work seasonally?” Restaino asked. “Do you have an answer for the $3 billion that’s going to be spent in Niagara Falls, Canada, so that we can stay competitive? What is your plan?”
So glad you asked, mayor.
I would do just about anything other than build this arena.
Regular followers of my reporting and column writing already know why.
I’m concerned the city might find the $210 million needed to build it only to find, years later, the revenues aren’t keeping pace with the expenses. I worry, long-term, the events center will be empty most days, adding to the city’s already lengthy list of buildings, large and small, that are empty most days.
But forget the dubious nature of the mayor’s arena project for a minute.
He asked what the city should do instead, so here goes:
If I had $214,257,000 — the total when you add in the estimated construction, the $4 million paid by the city to get the land from Niagara Falls Redevelopment and the $157,000 in legal costs stemming from the city’s protracted eminent domain dispute with the company — I would do the one thing the vast majority of residents and visitors want done.
I’d do a better job of cleaning the place up.
The city’s current impact/clean team has three workers, all being paid $17 an hour with no benefits.
They do what they can, but there’s a seemingly never-ending list of properties in need of cutting and trimming and tending.
I’d send in the reinforcements immediately.
I’d also boost the pay for members of the city’s clean-up team and add dozens of positions at decent pay to ensure this is as key a part of the city’s workforce as the police or fire departments.
Step two in this part of my plan would involve addressing another one of the residents’ biggest problems — trees.
It’s been years since the city had a full staff in the forestry department, which is one of the reasons why so many of those calls about dead or dying trees have gone unanswered, in some cases for years.
This is not acceptable.
Pay people and hire people to work in forestry.
Trim the overgrown living trees.
Remove the dead ones.
Make forestry furiously active again!
In here, of course, we have to add the roads and the sidewalks.
This is another no-brainer.
The roads around here — like all the zombie properties — are the stuff of legend, for all the wrong reasons.
I’d pump money into setting up a new plan to get more roads done more often.
Like the cleanup team, I’d galvanize the current pothole patrol — maybe double or triple or even quadruple the staff to get it up to snuff.
I’d do the same on the road paving end, with a plan to cover streets in various neighborhoods so that no one area of the city gets a new road while neighboring sections wait for years or get none.
With all of this stuff, I’d hire a videographer and a social media expert to document the seriousness of all the tragic conditions across the city.
Instead of a weekly update where I talk mostly to myself, I’d have a show on the city’s YouTube page highlighting the hard work being done by our contingent of new city workers as they clean up the lots and pave the roads.
I’d ask residents to stop by to show their support.
I’d then put the story — the story about the evolving Niagara Falls, New York cleanup — on all available social media platforms for the world to see.
I’d put it on the tourism brochures, tell the world that has seen all of those horrible-looking videos from the Falls zombie neighborhoods that we got the message and we’re working on cleaning it all up.
I’d throw in there that, despite all of its many warts, the city is still home to a magnificent view of the Falls and the Niagara Gorge and a whole lot more.
Next up, I’d lobby for help in addressing the city’s overarching issue — the lingering health and public safety and appearance impacts of the toxic legacy of Niagara Falls, Love Canal included.
Too many parts of the city are questionable due to nasty leftovers from the city’s heyday as a producer of chemicals and industrial products.
With renewed concerns popping up seemingly daily now, I’d lobby the state and federal government to fund a large-scale cleanup effort under the guise of it being “economic development’ based on all the contractors and workers that would be needed to clean up all of the lingering environmental messes.
Done right, this is the sort of success story that can be broadcast to the rest of the world.
Once the place is cleaner, I’d consider following any sort of economic revitalization plan that involves providing affordable fun and a friendly atmosphere with a focus on children and families.
Think about it: How many people are going to be interested in hanging around our new arena when the rest of the city looks so awful so often?