Canadian officials pressed on Maid of the Mist issue
From the Buffalo News:
New York’s senators urged Canadian officials Thursday to protect the jobs, docking areas and brand name of the Maid of the Mist Co., regardless of whether another tour company is awarded launching rights around Niagara Falls.
In a letter to Canada’s Niagara Parks Commission chairwoman, Janice Thomson, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said that the 150 jobs created by the American Maid of the Mist operation should be preserved and that the Maid of the Mist brand name be maintained.
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Wallend to meet with tourism minister
This happened on Friday, but I neglected to post the articles leading up to it. It is always interested to see how things are presented before in the news, and then afterwards. I’ll have a posting later with the articles after they met.
- Niagara Falls Review – Wallenda to meet tourism minister Friday
- Niagara This Week – Wallenda to meet with tourism minister
- Buffalo News – Wallenda making second pitch for Canadians’ permission
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Maid of the Mist future in jeopardy
From the Buffalo News:
Though Maid of the Mist boats have been shuffling tourists to the base of Niagara Falls for 126 consecutive years, their future on the American and Canadian sides of the cataracts remains uncertain.
In six weeks, the tourism company will find out if it can continue those tours, or whether the Canadian government will award a 25-year lease to another company, possibly with different ideas for the real estate around the cataracts.
“We’re still in the review process,” interim Niagara Parks Commission Chairwoman Janice Thomson said today.
The government had hoped to make a decision by the end of 2011, but needs five or six more weeks, Thomson said.
Some of the comments after the article are worth looking at…
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- Maid of the Mist’s future uncertain From Buffalo Business First: The 2011 season for the Maid...
- Next tour boat operator could be named by year’s end: NPC From the Niagara Falls Review: The winner of the much-publicized...
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Seven plans offered for Falls site
From the Buffalo News:
The city whose reputation as a honeymoon capital is often overshadowed by its reputation for urban decay is poised to get its first major downtown development — outside of the Seneca Niagara Casino — in some 30 years.
City and state officials have confirmed that seven developers submitted proposals for a 38,000-square-foot site at 310 Rainbow Blvd.
While details of the specific plans were not released, officials said they would like to see a mixed-use building rise on the site to fill the unmet downtown demand for retail, food, beverage, residential and hotel space around the falls.
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Future brightening for Falls State Park
From the Buffalo News:
Months after it was criticized as “shabby” and underfunded, Niagara Falls State Park and other regional state parks are getting new attention from the state.
The relief comes in the form of equipment upgrades and money for promotions and hires, as well as new capital projects to follow current upgrades.
“It’s a much brighter picture than we’ve had in years,” regional State Parks Director Mark W. Thomas said Thursday of the Western system. “It’s not just hopeful thinking or wishful thinking. I think the worst of the days are behind us, and we can start a rebuilding phase.”
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- State Parks Commissioner Outlines Niagara Falls State Park Improvement Plans From WKBW Channel 7 in Buffalo: New York State Parks,...
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Council plans vote on deal to demolish glass walkway
From the Buffalo News:
Take a walk down Old Falls Street, and you’ll see plenty of state-built infrastructure designed to spur private development. Largely missing are the type of walk-up storefronts suited for pedestrians and tourists.
City officials, after stalled efforts this summer, hope the demolition of a downtown eyesore will help fix that.
The City Council on Tuesday will vote on an agreement for $25,500 worth of engineering demolition work to be completed by LiRo Engineers of Buffalo. The work would be the first step in the demolition of a vacant glass walkway adjacent to the former TeleTech call center building on Third Street.
The obsolete walkway, which runs west of TGI Friday’s along Old Falls Street, has long been viewed by city officials as an obstacle to development along the cobblestone walkway.
“By eliminating that glass hallway, it opens up a lot of opportunities,” said Council Chairman Sam Fruscione.
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We must avert another environmental disaster in Falls
From the Buffalo News:
Niagara Falls isn’t just a place where newlyweds go to snap pictures.
It’s an international treasure that feeds into Lake Ontario and provides drinking water to Toronto and beyond. And now, its future is in the hands of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, both of which are pushing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state, as well as the Niagara Falls Water Board, which will soon decide whether or not to accept toxic fracking waste trucked in from around the state. Get ready Niagara — you’re about to get fracked.
Many Americans are familiar with the disaster at Love Canal and the ensuing demand for stronger environmental regulation after a corporation buried massive amounts of toxic chemicals around Niagara Falls — chemicals that saddled thousands of residents with chronic health problems ranging from birth defects to cancer. Now the oil and gas industry wants to send its toxic waste to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which discharges into the Niagara River, into Niagara Falls and eventually into Lake Ontario.
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Investigating who owned the falls
From the Buffalo News:
Once, when Jane A. Porter was visiting Europe in the late 19th century, someone asked her if she had ever seen Niagara Falls.
“Seen them?” she allegedly replied. “Why, I own them.”
She wasn’t kidding.
As an heir to the property bought by her grandfather, Augustus Porter, Jane Porter did indeed own the mighty cataracts—at least until 1885, when the family’s waterfront property was bought by New York State to form the nation’s first state park.
The Porter family’s other land holdings, worth millions of dollars even in 19th century money, were the focus of a series of lengthy court fights in the 1880s and ’90s.
At the end of it all, Jane Porter was declared mentally ill — a “lunatic,” in the terminology of the time — even though it’s far from clear that she was really insane by today’s standards, or indeed by any standards.
She seems to have been done out of her property by a greedy sister and a lawyer who supposedly was on her side but had a blatant conflict of interest.
The story was a sensation at the time, gaining coverage even in the New York Times.
But for a century, it was forgotten until it was unearthed in the basement of the Niagara County Courthouse.
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Festival of Lights sets opening ceremonies
We had originally planned on going again this year (we went last year), but after reading about it, decided it would be the same as last year so we didn’t bother going.
From the Buffalo News:
Mickey and Minnie Mouse mascots will flip the switch Saturday evening to mark the official start of the 29th annual CAA Winter Festival of Lights at the Ontario Power Generation Opening Ceremonies at 5:45 in Queen Victoria Park.
In addition to the debut of the lights, a one-hour stage show will feature performances by up-and-coming Canadian singers Brooklyn Roebuck and Stephanie McIlroy, the cast of the “Oh Canada Eh?” dinner show, the Wendy Leard School of Dance, the Festival Choir and champion magician Greg Frewin. The first holiday fireworks show will follow. A second show, complete with fireworks, will start at 7. Both shows are free.
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Wallenda makes high-wire walk case before Canada’s Niagara Parks panel
From the Buffalo News:
After a lifetime of staring down death atop a high-wire, Nik Wallenda on Wednesday faced a different challenge: persuading Canadian officials to let him walk a wire across Niagara Falls.
Unlike the high-wire acts that made his family famous, Wallenda won’t know for weeks whether this attempt was a success.
Wallenda on Wednesday presented his wire-walking plan to Canada’s Niagara Parks Commission, which controls the area around the famous cataracts.
“This isn’t a stunt to me,” Wallenda told the commission. “I’ve been doing this my whole life. This is life to me.”
The event would draw between 60,000 and 125,000 spectators, depending on the weather, and infuse the economy with up to $20 million, said consultant Michael Harker.
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