Throughout last year's mayoral campaign and in the early months of his administration, some negative nabobs have dwelled on the somewhat, well, let's say, "contentious" aspects of Mayor Vince Anello's, well, let's say, "personality."
While those critics worry that Anello's charm-free approach may turn off prospective developers, entrepreneurs already doing business in Niagara Falls, city workers who once supported him and anyone else whose last name isn't Anello, we believe that what we prefer to think of as Vince's feistiness can serve a greater purpose, if directed appropriately.
Like in the direction of Carl Paladino.
The Buffalo political contributor calls himself a developer, yet has proven remarkably more effective at currying favor with elected officials than he is at actually developing anything other than parking lots and parking ramps. He made news last week by complaining that Anello's City Hall is adding conditions to the deal by which he acquired the United Office Building two years ago for, you guessed it, $1.
Heaven forfend. After all, poor Carl isn't accustomed to adhering to the original conditions by which he makes such acquisitions, much less new ones. He routinely scoffs at the requirements that come along with owning historic buildings, even though such stringent guidelines are the reason some historic buildings can be had so cheaply in the first place.
His beef with the city, rests not with wanting to ignore preservation rules, but with another issue close to what there might be of his heart -- parking.
Paladino claims that, as part of the deal with USA Niagara that scored him the 20-story, art deco structure in the first place, he was promised a secured parking lot would be built on city land nearby, with its 70 spaces serving tenants of the luxury apartments he says would fill the building.
Anello, meanwhile, wants to build a parking ramp on that land, which would include the spaces devoted to the United Office Building.
Sounds to us like another one of the technicalities Paladino uses to let buildings he's promised to restore simply rot away, like the Webb Building on Pearl Street in the midst of Buffalo's Joseph Ellicott Historic Preservation District.
Paladino has done the right thing a couple of times, when preservationists kicked hard enough to give him no other choice.
This also sounds like one time Anello's love of a good fight could be put to good use.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | May 18 2004 |