Natural wonder or carnival sideshow?
From the Buffalo News:
Nik Wallenda’s tightrope walk over Niagara Falls this summer has been pitched as a once-in-a-generation event, a tribute to stunting history that legally can take place only every two decades.
Now three more daredevils want to join the party — promising they will seek to conquer the falls in a barrel. All have achieved the feat in the past.
This attention to stunting revives a centuries-old debate: Should the waterfalls exist as a natural wonder or as the centerpiece of a man-made circus?
“A little carnival is good,” said Mark DiFrancesco, owner of the Niagara Daredevil Museum on the American side of the falls. “A little bright lights and attention for the area is good. It’ll bring people into the area, and hopefully they’ll come back.”
But others think that government officials, by approving Wallenda’s stunt, have opened the door to these other attempts by renewing interest in stunting.
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Old power plant site eyed for Maid of Mist storage
From the Buffalo News:
Maid of the Mist officials intend to keep their American tour boat operation afloat by building a storage facility on the site of the former Schoellkopf Power Plant near the falls.
But state officials, pointing to red tape, environmental hurdles and timing, have not warmed to the idea.
The plan, company officials said Thursday, is to build steel carriages to store boats during the icy winter months. For more than a century, the company has depended on Canadian storage land it will lose in 2014, and officials hope the plan will help the company survive without Canadian tours.
“We’re going to not stop, we’re going to keep going until we resolve this issue,” Christopher M. Glynn, president of Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co., said at a Thursday news conference. “It is our intent to operate for a long period of time.”
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Journey Behind the Falls to be limited for 2 weeks
From the Buffalo News:
The Journey Behind the Falls, a tourist attraction that provides views from behind and beside the base of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, will be closed to visitors or will have limited access during the next two weeks as the Niagara Parks Commission conducts its annual spring maintenance along the rock wall of the Niagara River gorge.
Note: This article is from April 14. The attraction is closed entirely this week.
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Wallenda negotiating media coverage for wire walk
From the Buffalo News:
The date for Nik Wallenda’s tightrope walk across Niagara Falls will be decided in the next two weeks after negotiations with major television networks, Wallenda’s manager said Friday.
Wallenda’s management team is in “very deep discussions” with the networks, which have expressed interest in filming the 1,800-foot walk across the Niagara Gorge and preceding training sessions.
“We’re hoping for a two-hour prime-time special that will essentially star two major outlets: Nik and Niagara Falls,” manager Winston Simone said at a marketing meeting held in Niagara County’s Center for Economic Development.
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Wallenda will train in Niagara County for tightrope walk
From the Buffalo News:
Nik Wallenda will train in Niagara County for his tightrope walk across Niagara Falls later this summer.
Wallenda, in Albany Thursday to meet with state legislators, told The Buffalo News that he is dropping plans to train for the event on an airport runway in Pittsburgh and instead scouting locations in Niagara County.
“We’ll train with wind and rain and heavy mist and all that stuff so I’m prepared for the worst case when I get over the falls,” he said.
The ideal spot, he said, is a field large enough to string a cable between two cranes, the length of the wire that will take him from Goat Island on the American side to Canada.
He is looking at two sites in Niagara Falls and could announce his decision today during a visit there, a source said.
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Wallenda on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”
From the Buffalo News:
When Nik Wallenda walks an 1,800-foot cable above Niagara Falls this summer, his biggest challenge won’t be the mist or wind in his face – it’ll be the first step of his historic feat.
“The first step’s definitely the hardest one,” Wallenda said Tuesday on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. “After the first step’s over you’re there, you’re committed. After the first step, you’re not gonna turn around and come back. Youre just gonna go.”
Wallenda this week got a taste of the national fame he’s expected to bring to the falls when he walks the wire sometime between June and September.
The stuntman and father told legendary Sports Illustrated reporter Frank Deford, now working with HBO, that his parents used to shake his practice cable to prepare him for the surprises he might face on the wire.
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Gumbel will (did) interview Wallenda on HBO
From the Buffalo News:
Nik Wallenda, who is planning to walk a tightrope across Niagara Falls this summer, will be featured on “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” on HBO at 10 p.m. today, State Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, and Assemblyman John Ceretto, R-Lewiston, said Monday.
Wallenda will be interviewed about his upcoming walk and will talk about the history of his acrobat family, the Flying Wallendas, and the previous walks he has made.
I don’t get HBO, so I looked online to see if I could watch the broadcast (it was shown last night). The HBO Real Sports web site has a brief clip, but that’s all I can find. Here are a couple of screenshots. I think the second one is particularly interesting. He was chatting with the interviewer as he was standing on a wire. He stood there and looked like he was as comfortable on a wire as I am on the ground.
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Untangling Maid of the Mist lease
From the Buffalo News:
The low point of the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co.’s century-old existence undoubtedly took place last month, when Canadian officials selected a California company to replace it on the Canadian shore.
But for the local company that grew itself into an iconic international tourism brand, the pain may not be over.
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More on the Maid of the Mist running this year
On Wednesday I posted an article about how the Maid of the Mist is going to be running this year (no surprise there). Here are a couple more articles:
- Buffalo News – Maid tours of falls to continue this summer
- PR Web Press release – Maid of the Mist Will Operate Boat Tours in 2012 (I can’t believe there was a press release about a company doing business as usual!)
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Parks official resigns post in Canada
From the Buffalo News:
Fay Booker, general manager of the Niagara Parks Commission, has resigned from the Canadian park agency.
The reasons for Booker’s resignation are unclear, though a source familiar with the situation said tensions between the agency and the Niagara Falls, Ont., city government likely played a role.
Before her hiring as general manager last summer, Booker served as chairwoman for the commission, which has garnered increased attention in recent months because of its decision to allow stuntman Nik Wallenda to walk on a tightrope above the falls and awarding a 30-year contract allowing Hornblower Cruises to run boat tours around the falls.
“We will build on the foundation Ms. Booker helped to establish and continue moving in a new strategic direction to ensure a strong, sustainable future for the Niagara Parks Commission,” interim Parks Commission Chairwoman Janice Thomson said in a statement.
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