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Former Mayor James Galie introduced Ed Cogan to the people of Niagara Falls as the city's savior.
Galie's successor, Irene Elia, treats the Toronto deal-maker and his partners in Niagara Falls Redevelopment as the villains in the story of the area's ever-plummeting economic fortunes.
With a Seneca Nation referendum on a casino deal with New York State scheduled for May 14, it's more important that City Hall cut with the characterizations, and make with the negotiations.
Politics being what they are, be it in Niagara Falls, Albany or on the reservation, it's too early to analyze or predict the outcome of the referendum.
But Saturday's announcement increased the pressure on all parties involved with downtown's future.
NFR, thanks to a 1997 deal made with Galie's administration, controls much of the area that would theoretically host development spurred by a casino.
Judging by Elia's actions since taking office, she seems determined to ensure that the relationship between the city and NFR yields not groundbreakings and construction jobs, but litigation and dormancy. Cogan did the interview circuit last week, reiterating the company's commitment to making their revised plan work. And why wouldn't NFR want to succeed? There's no motive for a developer not receiving some form of government subsidy to sit on property indefinitely, rather than start making money on it.
To date, City Hall hasn't been much help.
Elia talks about Cogan and NFR the way a cranky aunt describes a particularly troublesome relation. She all but holds her nose as she discusses "out-of-town developers," even though several NFR principals are natives of Niagara Falls. And this even though the company has spent more time and money in the city over the past five years than the once-beloved David Cordish has in the two decades since the acclaimed Baltimore developer's only "contribution" -- the Rainbow Centre -- opened.
It's more than just a matter of tone. When the city's legal team told her the contract with NFR wasn't breakable, she effectively froze it on her own by snubbing multi-million dollar peace offerings, even as the city teetered on insolvency, and refusing to even discuss extending the eight-year pact.
Whatever you think of NFR, it can't be easy to woo investors when the local CEO is trying to run you out of town.
Maybe it's because the grand plans unveiled when the eight-year development deal was signed didn't materialize in the two years before she took office. That's particularly interesting, considering Herroner still regularly vows that construction on the troubled AquaFalls project will start "soon."
And it took officials of Niagara USA, Pataki's proposed planning solution for the downtown area immediately adjacent to the Reservation State Park, 13 months to realize that they'd need a new convention center should the old one become a temporary Seneca Nation casino. But more on that later.
Maybe it's because Galie first brought NFR to town, and in Elia's bizarre political world, nothing anyone did before her coronation was any damn good, nor does she show any inclination or ability to change her mind, even if it's the right thing to do.
Or maybe it's because, as an increasing number of her one-time supporters fear, she doesn't really have any idea what she's doing.
Herroner's attempts to play developer have so far yielded what should be a peripheral attraction in the hot-air balloon that hovers over the brink of the falls for less than half the year and a proposed miniature golf course that looks doomed before the first putter hits a ball.
Assuming that the course is built, it and the balloon will net the city a pittance in comparison to the land's potential value with virtually any other usage -- even parking.
Apparently, she and what pass for her advisors believe those minuscule accomplishments qualify them to treat developers who have successfully carried out huge projects in much larger cities as swindlers, conveniently ignoring the fact that Galie and several other longtime Falls business-people brought Cogan and NFR here in the first place.
But if Herroner has proven good at anything, it's pretending that things that took place before her administration didn't happen and that contracts she doesn't like don't exist.
Her attempts to rewrite history concerning the mythical cap on the city's self-funded employee insurance system and Thomas Hanna's contract to provide vending services on the West Mall would be oddly amusing if they weren't so potentially expensive.
And with electoral pressure on both sides inching a casino deal closer to conclusion (in a best-case scenario, a Niagara Falls casino could be operating by fall), decisions regarding the downtown's future will soon need to be made. That means -- whether Elia or anyone else, including USA Niagara, likes it or not -- dealing with NFR.
She gets another chance to do just that this week. A meeting is scheduled for Thursday between the city and NFR. That meeting was important before Saturday's announcement by the Seneca Nation. Now it's vital. Without some manner of cooperation, the ugly specter of a convention center casino surrounded by empty land and those Splash Park waterslides looms.
And that doesn't do anybody any good.
Herroner repeatedly says the best interests of the city and its future are her only concern.
She can start to prove it by shelving her apparent animosity and listening, really listening, on Thursday.
If she doesn't, you can bet that a judge and jury eventually will.
Now that your taxes are finished and mailed (right?) don't forget to send in your entry in for Citycide's "My Favorite Mayor" survey.
In case you missed last week's edition, respondents are asked to rank the last three mayors of Niagara Falls -- Elia, Jim Galie and Jake Palillo -- from best to worst, or for the more cynical types, least lousy to most lousy. Take a few extra minutes to explain your choices, and try your best to say something nice about each one (sarcasm is welcome).
Send your ballots to "My Favorite Mayor," Niagara Falls Reporter, 345 Third St., Niagara Falls, N.Y. 14303, or via e-mail to dstaba13@aol.com.
The early entries made some interesting points, as well as getting in the spirit of things.
Good work, and keep 'em coming.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 16 2002 |