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I've been thinking. What if everybody who knows somebody who left Niagara Falls over the past 30 years or so, would invite that person or family to come home for a big old-fashioned 2004 Fourth of July Homecoming? Seriously!
I get e-mail from people who grew up here, or just worked here over the years, who remember the good times. Yes, there actually were some good times here. In fact, this used to be a really great place to visit and live. And guess what? It still is and we can prove it!
Just think. We could put together the biggest, baddest fun weekend on the planet, complete with a fireworks display so big and bright it could be seen from the Space Station and broadcast all over the world on CNN.
Hey, why not? There's plenty of time to put it all together. If everybody pitches in, we could make it work and have a ball. Most of all, we'd be showing ourselves what we can do for ourselves. I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of waiting around for some knight in shining armor to come and rescue Niagara Falls. If it's going to be done, we will have to do it ourselves.
Over the past 30 years, we've lost tens of thousands of people. Most would probably have loved to stay, but where would they have worked? How in the world could they have supported their families in our transitional economy that went from industrial/tourism boom to total bust?
The Fourth of July happens to fall on a Sunday in 2004, so we could take advantage of a whole weekend of parades, mega-picnics, music and dancing in all of the parks, arts and crafts displays, talent shows, barbecue and chili cook-offs, bowling for dollars, everything.
If I had my way, we'd use that event to kick off a 10-year redevelopment plan that would include the reconstruction of Old Falls Street. That's right. Why not rebuild it the way it was, only better? Just think. We could put it all back: The Strand and the Cataract movie theaters, the Club, the five-and-dimes, the cigar stores, newsstands, shoeshine stands, souvenir shops. Come on. Why not? It worked before and I really believe it would work again, even better!
Why not make it possible for plain folks, just like us, to be in business? You don't have to be a multi-millionaire developer from some other place to come here and make sense out of the obvious.
And you definitely do not need a Harvard MBA to know how to make the best hot dogs, pizza or lemonade. We probably have some of the best cooks and chefs and all-around solid business people anywhere in the world right here in Niagara Falls. But where are they? What are they doing?
Just like everybody else, they are sitting around watching this city go flat broke while we wait for some genie to pop out of a bottle and grant us three wishes. Forget about it! That ain't gonna happen!
Cities all across the country are doing it -- rebuilding their downtowns, reversing the suburban sprawl in favor of smaller, mom-and-pop type, quaint little shops, restaurants and theaters. People are getting fed up with the cookie-cutter malls that look exactly the same no matter where you go.
I was out West recently, in a place I've never been before in my life, but I could have sworn I had. I'll be darned if it did not look exactly like a dozen other places I've been and thought the same thing, "I've been here before." I knew every nook and cranny, just where the Radio Shack and Burger King would be and, sure enough, there they were, right down the street from Target. I thought I might have been experiencing flashbacks, probably caused by the ingestion of too many foreign substances back in my college days at Niagara University. I was always afraid that those French fries with vinegar were way too good to be real and that one day they would catsup with me (sorry)!
Some folks may think it's foolish to go backwards, against the grain, but I have come to the conclusion that sometimes it is absolutely the right thing to do.
Step back to go forward. There is nothing wrong with honoring what was good about the past. I know I'm about to sound like some old fogey who can't stop talking about the way things used to be, but bear with me a moment longer. Here goes.
When I was a kid, Niagara Falls was a hustling, bustling, fun place to be. What made it that way? Well, for one thing, a lot of small businesses, run by a lot of just plain folks who wanted to make an honest living off their Wonder of the World, Niagara Falls, sitting right there in their own backyard.
Another thing that made it work was the relative ease with which people could travel here. The trains used to stop here. This was a destination. Other plain folks could afford to come and visit. The trains made it possible. Let's put our train station back up.
Now THAT is something our legislative delegation could team up on and actually pull off. No need to quibble over who will get the credit for this one. Just work together and get it done. I'm sure the governor and every other elected official can see the wisdom in working together for this.
Why not get the State University involved in Niagara Falls? University of Buffalo President Bill Griener can make miracles happen. This is one concept that he and the whole Regionalism crowd and all academia nuts like me should be able to get behind. Think about it -- lectures on the lawn, summer stock theater, Beverly Sills, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet, live Broadway shows. We are patrons of the arts as well as patriots, are we not?
Nobody loses if everybody chooses. Of course, doing nothing is a choice too. But I think everyone would win if we would just take the time to think things all the way through, create a vision and a master plan to make it happen, and then actually do something to put our fair city back on the map as a destination and a sanctuary for the arts with one of the world's most beautiful backdrops.
But I digress. Let's get back to the party. What do you think? One way to become a great leader is to step in front of a big parade. I say, let's strike up the band. Let's get ready for the Fourth of July, 2004.
Oh yeah, it's an election year too!
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 16 2002 |