Whether you agree with her or not, you’ve got to give Niagara Falls City Councilwoman Kristen Grandinetti credit. She speaks her mind, lets the chips fall where they may and apparently doesn’t worry about what anyone thinks. Last week, on her Facebook page, the kindergarten teacher posted a picture ofRead More

Last week the city reported that their share of casino revenue had dropped once again. While the city’s handle of the annual slot drop peaked around $22 million in recent years the new annual casino revenue reality is now about $5 million less…and dropping still. The city’s announcement of theRead More

Niagara Falls – The Underground Railroad Commission has been receiving $350,000 per year in dedicated casino revenue since 2009. At $350,000 per year for seven years that’s a total of $2,450,000. The money is set aside annually out of the casino revenue account to support and promote the Underground RailroadRead More

While great attention has been paid to the condition of the city’s casino revenue account, virtually nothing has been asked, much less revealed, as to how the city is using the interest earned by the many millions of casino revenue dollars that have been received and banked over the years.Read More

    Niagara Falls – With the city’s new train station and Underground Railroad Heritage Museum ready to open by the end of May, a couple of questions linger. How do you open a history museum when not a single artifact has been acquired or display fabricated? Despite the factRead More

      It was the summer of 2013, almost three years ago, and the city of Niagara Falls was in the midst of a crisis. According to the Buffalo television stations and local newspapers quoting Mayor Paul Dyster, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Sen Kirsten Gillibrand, one man wasRead More

Whether exposing the crooked Glynn Maid of the Mist monopoly, criticizing the Niagara Falls State Park “Landscape Improvements” plan which ruined Three Sisters Islands, sounding the alarm on the Parks Police barracks which was slated for the edge of the scenic Niagara Gorge, rallying the public against the demolition of the 1864Read More

The Reporter was pleased to see freshman council member Ezra Scott decline to support Mayor Dyster’s attempt to walk on a surprise resolution at the recent council meeting. The resolution aimed to tap the city till for up to $75,000 to support the hosting of a meeting of the GreatRead More

  There’s a mystery brewing on historic Chilton Avenue and several community activists have expressed interest in getting to the bottom of the puzzle’s particulars at the January 13 Planning Board meeting. The city, under the guidance of Seth Piccirillo, director of Mayor Paul Dyster’s Community Development Department, sold 631Read More

Vince Anello is a former Niagara Falls mayor and a current radio talk show host. He is also, by the nature of his time as mayor and councilman, a consummate student of municipal government. And for that reason he has  become persona non grata with the Dyster administration. On hisRead More

    The Midtown Inn. For many residents on the city’s Southeast side, the ramshackle rooming house held a terror that would rival that of the Bates Motel, featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1963 tale of terror, “Phycho.” The inn was a target of controversy in 2009 when the New YorkRead More

  One hundred thousand dollars. It’s a lot of money anywhere, but in a place like Niagara Falls, where money’s tight and jobs are scarce, it can be considered a fortune. In a city where the per capita income for all residents is just $20,327 and the average household scrapesRead More

    Bad luck comes in threes, they say, and for residents of Niagara Falls this cliché has been visited with a vengeance. The perennially cash strapped city has both the highest crime rate and the highest taxes per capita of any municipality in New York State, and is runRead More

Train station The Niagara Falls Reporter has been pointing out for the past four years that the train station has yet to find an operating budget. The Reporter also wrote not too long ago that the residents should look for US Sen. Charles Schumer to come to the rescue withRead More

By Ken Tompkins During my campaign, I focused on ways in which to reduce the city’s financial footprint and save tax payers’ money. One way was to reduce or eliminate the health care benefits and insurance opt-out payments for part-time elected officials and part-time political appointees (like the civil serviceRead More

These days every other website is doing rankings. And website ranking opinions are like certain anatomical parts – everybody has one or two of them. So this website called Road Snacks decides to rank cities in New York State and using their yardstick – Niagara Falls is the third worstRead More

Goodness gracious what was councilwoman Kristen Grandinetti thinking as she put pen to paper, or cursor to screen, to write her Gazette January http://southbuffalonews.comhttp://southbuffalonews.com, guest view titled, “The resumes are in”? The column heartily defended Mayor Dyster’s pre-Christmas call for a review of department head resumes. Dyster’s demand for hisRead More

  Aside from the fact that they all happen to be Democrats, President Barack Obama, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Paul Dyster all have another trait in common – The belief that they can punish members of the press and the news organizations they work for by freezing them out,Read More

A grateful Mayor Paul Dyster promoted two men who help his reelection efforts.     By Anna Howard   There he goes again. Last week Mayor Dyster started another round of promotions for select people in city government. This time it was the fire department. While we have no doubtRead More

Rendering of Sculpture for Niagara Falls’ Centennial Circle is unveiled   Niagara Falls Mayor Paul A. Dyster has been working on getting a sculpture placed in what is called Centennial Circle since 2009, planning to spend some $435,000 – plus annual maintenance – to do so. This summer, it looksRead More