Niagara Falls

Midtown Inn, mecca for prostitutes,  sex offenders, torched by arsonist

Midtown Inn, mecca for prostitutes, sex offenders, torched by arsonist

Niagara Falls January 7, 2016 at 12:57 am

    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

City Taxpayers Footing Bill for Scores of $100,000 Salaries Here

City Taxpayers Footing Bill for Scores of $100,000 Salaries Here

News, Niagara Falls December 31, 2015 at 11:50 am

  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

Tompkins explains position on ending council health insurance and his decision to accept health insurance

Tompkins explains position on ending council health insurance and his decision to accept health insurance

Niagara Falls January 1, 1970 at 12:00 am

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

Websites ranks Niagara Falls third worst– but that’s their opinion

Websites ranks Niagara Falls third worst– but that’s their opinion

Niagara Falls January 1, 1970 at 12:00 am

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

Grandinetti defends her mayor by targeting “disloyal, disruptive, unproductive” employees for removal

Grandinetti defends her mayor by targeting “disloyal, disruptive, unproductive” employees for removal

Niagara Falls January 1, 1970 at 12:00 am

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

Obama, Cuomo, Dyster join forces  to make transparency more blurry   

Obama, Cuomo, Dyster join forces to make transparency more blurry  

Niagara Falls January 1, 1970 at 12:00 am

  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

In Niagara Falls, home of big government  the rich get richer while the poor get poorer

In Niagara Falls, home of big government the rich get richer while the poor get poorer

Niagara Falls January 1, 1970 at 12:00 am

    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 and Wallenda – same old, same old

Train Station and Wallenda – same old, same old

Niagara Falls January 1, 1970 at 12:00 am

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

Maria Brown is the city's longtime controller. She is responsible for overseeing the city's finances and serves at the will of the mayor and the council. 
If the position were elected, as it is in many cities, the office would be independent of the political whims of spendthrift officials. An elected controller cannot propose to spend money but can oppose the spending on the grounds that it is irresponsible.
An appointed controller has to be concerned about calling out her bosses - the mayor and council - on being wasteful.
In the highest taxed city in the highest taxed state, it makes sense to have an independent, elected controller who can fearlessly put the brakes on the spending that has hit this city like a plague.

Reporter’s Call For An Elected City Controller Meets With Rousing Support

  The Reporter has written any number of articles in the past calling for changes in city government, but never – never – have we received such an immediate and supportive response as our column last week where we called for the city controller position to be made an electedRead More

Taxpayers get cold shoulder on ice pavilion transparency   

Taxpayers get cold shoulder on ice pavilion transparency  

The city recently announced that it’s accepting RFP’s (requests for proposals) to operate Sal Maglie Stadium. In a Gazette article of December 27, Mayor Dyster said, “We don’t regard the direct operation of Sal Maglie as a cash cow…It doesn’t have the income possibilities as something like the Hyde ParkRead More

Smith charges politics in  Planning Board ouster   

Smith charges politics in Planning Board ouster  

  It’s politics as usual at the City Hall of Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster. That’s the charge of Rick Smith, who has served on the city Planning Board for the past nine years, six as its chairman. Smith ran for city Council in November on a platform critical ofRead More

The taxpayer subsidized housing in Beloved Community cost about $300,000 per unit to develop. This shows that the poverty industry can be very lucrative for builders and developers.

Housing Authority a Key Player in Commodification of Human Services

Perhaps no agency has benefitted more from the commodification of poverty in Niagara Falls in recent years than the city’s Housing Authority. Created in http://southbuffalonews.com942 to provide housing for soldiers, sailors, Marines and others involved in the war effort, the agency has evolved through the years to provide not onlyRead More

Touma gets the chair, Grandinetti gets the bum’s rush…again

Touma gets the chair, Grandinetti gets the bum’s rush…again

(The Reporter’s resident feminist, Anna Howard, says the ‘woman was denied’) The city council held their 20http://southbuffalonews.com6 reorganization meeting today, January http://southbuffalonews.com, 20http://southbuffalonews.com6. And, as we feared, the male dominated council decided to let current chairman, Andrew Touma, remain in the big seat for 20http://southbuffalonews.com6.  As the saying goes, we’reRead More

GLenn Choolokian may have been the game changer, but he had the right to play the game.

Choolokian Had the Right to Try to Win

Niagara Falls – There is a canard around this city that Glenn Choolokian is to blame for Mayor Paul Dyster’s reelection. Choolokian’s http://southbuffalonews.com300 plus “write in” votes were more than the difference between Dyster and his main challenger, John Accardo, who were separated by about 700 votes. People say that, had itRead More

Hufnagel designs Dyster popularity graph; shows lack of support among constituents

Hufnagel designs Dyster popularity graph; shows lack of support among constituents

After a landslide victory over Candra Thomason in 2007, Mayor Dyster’s performance in general elections has gone south. This is probably due to the persistent poverty and crime, vacant storefronts on the city’s thoroughfares, slavish devotion to big money Albany and Buffalo interests and his tendency to characterize political opponentsRead More

He (She) who gets the council chair holds the power and the glory, and here’s why

He (She) who gets the council chair holds the power and the glory, and here’s why

By Anna Howard Niagara Falls – Since the Niagara Falls Reporter has gone on record in support of Kristen Grandinetti being elected council chairwoman we’ve been asked any number of times, “exactly what does a chairperson do that makes the position such a big deal?” Few people are aware ofRead More

Man arrested for arson for fire at boarding house in Niagara Falls

Man arrested for arson for fire at boarding house in Niagara Falls

Just after 8 pm tonight, Niagara Falls Police Detectives arrested a local man and charged him with  starting the fire at the  boarding house located at http://southbuffalonews.com967 Niagara St in Niagara Falls, that occurred on January http://southbuffalonews.comst at 7:http://southbuffalonews.com5 pm Police arrested Jerome Wingfield, a  32 year old male, whoRead More

Mayor Paul Dyster sent a letter to department heads and nonunion city employees seeking their resumes. This has led to speculation that the mayor may be choosing to replace some employees not protected by civil service.

Dyster continues to raise the fiscal roof as the foundation collapses

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

Niagara Falls Selects Artist for $435,000 Public Outlay for ‘Sculpture Art’ at Traffic Circle

Niagara Falls Selects Artist for $435,000 Public Outlay for ‘Sculpture Art’ at Traffic Circle

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

Nick Melson is said to have an increasingly powerful role in the Dyster administration.

What’s Really Going on With the Rumored City Hall Personnel Changes?

In our last edition, the Reporter explained how the mayor ordered his top personnel to submit updated resumes if they hoped to keep their jobs. Sources told us the mayor was going to rely heavily on the council to review the resumes. The council was to help him decide whoRead More

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