Letters to the Editor

Great 'Maid of the Mist' coverage. Certainly an on-going story drawing big players hoping, wishing, demanding $$$$$$ animosity for their roles.

Love reading it and keep it up.

Peter Jefferson

Lewiston

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In response to the story on Mayor Dyster (July 22) and how he willingly houses known child molesters in Niagara Falls ("They have to live someplace'), I wish to pass the following to him via your paper...

Mr. Dyster: in case you're not aware, this is the 21st Century; surely, we can do better. As one of your fellow Dems (a notorious character often referred to as "Slick Willie") would say, "It's for the children."

Just sign me as...

L2

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I want to thank you for having a post office mailing address. Some of us semi-aged people are not savvy with email technology.

Thanks also for the Niagara Falls Reporter article on Sen. Charles Schumer who wants to dismantle the US Constitution. Lots of folks I know here in Niagara do not know this treacherous behavior of the senator.

Enclosed is five dollars cash for your newspaper

Ms. Vincentia Fubelli

Niagara Falls

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I have two questions. I can't sign this because the last time I sent a letter to Mayor Dyster, a building inspector walked around my house a couple days later. He showed up on a trail camera in my yard.

Question one: Why is the city paving an unused parking lot on Cleveland between Main and Whirlpool Sts? There are more immediate needs for paving 100 yards away. On Whirlpool there are potholes 10 foot deep.

Question Two: Can you get the power authority to reverse the orientation of the storm gates on Rt 104 across the face of the dam, near the Power Vista. The slots in those grates will trap a bicycle wheel and cause a bad accident. I've spoken the Power Authority employees twice this year but nothing has been done.

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I just read your article "Where's the Asphalt?" in the Niagara Falls Reporter. Great article. Niagara Falls isn't that far away from Chestnut Ridge Park so I thought perhaps you might be interested in an article in the Buffalo News entitled "Renaissance at Chestnut Ridge."

I think it's a much larger abuse of money than the asphalt deal at Joe Davis Park. As I see in the article, they plan to fix 100 steps at the cost of two million dollars. That comes to $20,000 per step. Perhaps these steps are going to be diamond edged and lessen the erosion or something. You could put quite an elevator in for $2 million. Perhaps that money could be better spent elsewhere. See what you think.

Sincerely 85-year-old Gal

PS You could come up with another great article

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Outstanding coverage on State Sen. George Maziarz. It was tasteful and tactful

Thank you

Dick Moran

Lewiston

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I think I have been quiet long enough about some recent activity in the town of Lewiston.

I love Lewiston. I have lived here for the past 30 years in a duplex in the more rural section of the town.

I pay my taxes via my rent and I feel that gives me the right to speak in respect to town government. I truly believe that most people who run for political office do it with the best of intentions at first. What happens to some elected officials once they gain office is something else. We've all seen it. I've gotten pretty good at reading between the lines from our slightly political news sources.

Losing political races for Niagara county Sheriff and for Lewiston Supervisor would give anyone pause especially when Ernie Palmer was next on the chopping block, excuse me, next up for reelection. Don't get me wrong. I think Palmer did some good things for Lewiston but I think his association with former Supervisor Steven Reiter has tainted his reputation and thinned out his chances of being reelected.

Palmer got that point and stepped down from the board, it was a logical move. (Ditto Mike Marra)/

Ron Winkley is also caught up in the good old boy Reiter haze but I don't think his ego allows him to see it. Mr. Winkley has the same opportunity to save face before his next election as Marra and Palmer. If he were smart he would follow suit and step down from the board as gracefully as Palmer did . A little advice from singer Kenny Rogers," Know when to hold -em . Know when to fold -em. Know when to walk away and know when to run,:

This is good advice Mr. Winkley and it's free.

I hope the remaining board members take a fresh lead from the new Lewiston Supervisor Dennnis Brochey. He appears to have gained his position with the best of intentions and I don't see his purpose change.

That's my tax dollars worth

Geo'rg Stivens

Lewiston

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I am a long-time reader of the Niagara Falls Reporter, and also a long-time resident of Niagara Falls. I was born and raised here, and grew up mere blocks away from the Falls itself. I moved out of the city for a few years, and then had to come back. Since being back, I have watched the city of my youth decay into run-down buildings, drug houses, and boarded up buildings. Change needs to happen, but it is clear that those currently in office are loth to make those changes.

When a citizen cannot make changes from without, a citizen must make changes from within. That is why I am announcing my candidacy to run for Mayor of Niagara Falls in the next election. I'm running as a write-in candidate simply because I want the people of Niagara Falls to vote for me based on what I stand for, not what party I belong to.

As a mayor, I pledge to do what the city needs. I pledge to run the city using common sense rather than political pandering. I vow that ideas I submit will be for the good of the people, not the betterment of myself.

I want to make the city a better place. That is my only goal, and my sole reason for choosing to run for mayor. If elected, I will stand up for what is right. I will listen to the people who elect, no, HIRE me. You, the people, are my boss. And, just like at any job, I will be answerable to you. And I will make sure you are all able to, at any time, voice your opinions and ideas. And, finally, I vow that mine will be the FIRST administration to be fully, 100% transparent as far as I go.

I will be writing more about my campaign as the weeks go on. I close this letter with a quote from Einstein: "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." For years, the people of Niagara Falls have been subject to the same problem. Now is the time for change. So, at the next election, vote not for the politician, don't fill in the bubble, write in for a standard, normal, everyday citizen who wants to make a change.

Robert Russell

Niagara Falls

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You keep writing about how the reversal of tote sizes is to force recycling. I think it's more straightforward than that - they assigned the larger tote to recycling because it's only being collected every two weeks rather than weekly. They cut out 25% of the collection service (garbage and recycling, weekly), and were afraid people would fill a smaller recycling tote before it was collected and the service reduction would become the headline. Reversing the tote sizes wasn't a strategy to force compliance, it was a cover-their-ass solution to a potential (albeit still mostly non-existent) problem.

Glitch

Reporter off the wall on Ghaza

I have enjoyed reading the Niagara Falls Reporter since Mike Hudson ran the paper years ago. I could identify with his mantra, "To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Times change, however, and now the Reporter has a new publisher and a new mantra: "The truth is always fair." If this is the case, how is it that a thoroughly one-sided article in last week's edition on the Israeli government's most recent massacre in Gaza could be not only completely devoid of the truth but also filled with enough lies to choke a horse?

The article, which is nothing more than Israeli government propaganda, calls Hamas a "terrorist organization" but forgets to mention that the Palestinian people have no army whatsoever. Their only defense against Israel's state-of-the-art weaponry, most of which is funded by millions of dollars from the United States, are crude and archaic rockets that seldom kill or injure anyone.

The present conflict is portrayed in the media as a "war" but this is also a lie. The Palestinian people imprisoned in the Gaza strip are helpless sitting ducks at the mercy of Israeli fighter jets and tanks. A simple look at the grossly disproportionate death toll tells the real story. Israel responds to the kidnapping and murder of three teenagers by blaming Hamas and using the incident as a pretext to slaughter nearly a thousand Palestinian civilians, including women and children.

Last month, a group that included seven Nobel Peace Prize winners, accused Israel of "war crimes and possible crimes against humanity." The Israeli government's sadistic cowardice, however, is described as "self defense" by Western media outlets such as yours as the bodies of innocent Palestinians continue to pile up.

I can't believe Mike Hudson would have ever lowered himself to allow such a revolting twisting of the truth as the article that appeared in your paper last week. He was always on the side of the underdog and never has there been a bigger bully than the Israeli government that periodically slaughters the Palestinian people without conscience. The fact that it was printed leaves this reader doubting everything I've ever read in the Niagara Falls Reporter since Hudson's unfortunate departure and will forever be a permanent stain on a newspaper that claims to report the "truth."

Omar Karim

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Hey, I bought a home on 93rd St and Read Rd about two years ago and I can't believe the amount of garbage that has been dumped behind my home: couches, beds, fencing, TVs, paint and the list goes on. So I've been calling city hall, the mayor's office, and the DPW with no luck. No one will help me. I even saw the mayor at his tote program meeting in LaSalle where he took my name, number and so on. But again no luck. Now more trash. So I've emailed the city about five times now, with no response, even though I pay some of the highest taxes in Niagara Falls. I've even tried an assembly man but still a failure. So now I come to you guys to hopefully shame the city for letting a nice forested area (the old Love Canal site) be turned into a landfill. I'm tired of it. No one will help. I, along with other residents, don't want this in our neighborhood especially in my backyard and now with this brilliant tote program it's gonna be even worse.

Tim Burley

Niagara Falls

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