Skrlin Delivers on the Hamister Hotel

To those who say artist Gerald Skrlin's biting cartoons too often feature Mayor Dyster as the victim of the cartoon skewering, we present "The Joker Goes Green" as a way of spreading the skewering and pointing out the multiple villains in the political circus called Niagara Falls.

Has there ever been a more obvious boondoggle involving the fleecing of the taxpayer and rewarding of a businessman than the "Hamister Project"? This piece of work portrays developer Mark Hamister as The Joker who has craftily lashed the taxpayer to his Hamister wheel (oh, the richness of the word play!) and so the hapless taxpayer must feverishly churn the wheel to keep the Joker's scam alive as the hotel project shrinks in size, grows in cost, and sucks off the teat of state, county and city government.

Hamister is presented as "The Joker" but he is in reality "The Bundler" who, with his Buffalo Niagara Partnership membership, raised over $700,000 for Cuomo's candidacy and has been aided and abetted by Paul Dyster who could easily be cast as "The Bungler" who has damaged Niagara Falls beyond repair. Joker, Bundler and Bungler...until a super hero appears, Niagara Falls is assuredly doomed.

Arrington Cole
Art Critic