May 26, 2023 by Niagara Reporter-

Choolokian: Mayor Restaino Has Failed to Lead Our City

By Glenn A. Choolokian

The continued destruction of our once historic city has been caused by the failure of leadership from our current Mayor Robert Restaino. He abandoned this city to crime; no basic city services and he has sacrificed this community for No opportunities or success to happen. He went AWOL, He has continued the procedure of a lack of transparency at City Hall. Recently the word “transparency” (or the lack of) has been heard coming out of City Hall and around the entire city. It seems to be a key buzz-word from some of our current city council members, citizens and business owners. Transparency means openness, accountability, and honesty; it defines government. Transparency is government’s obligation to share information with citizens. It is at the heart of how citizens hold their elected officials accountable. Transparency should be for every elected official, and not just for some. At the end of the day, it’s all the taxpayers’ money, and the people deserve to know how it was spent. It seems our current Mayor likes to silence the citizens of Niagara Falls by calling for so many Special meetings, by calling for these meetings the mayor has taking away the ability and right for the people of Niagara Falls to voice their opinions on the agenda of the day.

Mayor Restaino has shown he has lost his ability to lead by his willful abandonment of our community during its greatest time of need. He has sacrificed this community on the altar of political pressure and while he seeks to stamp his legacy on the tax payer funded $150 million + Centennial Park project, expecting local citizens to foot the bill even though his administration cannot even provide basic services or safety for our families. Mayor Restaino has left our citizens to fend for themselves.

The city’s next leader needs to address so many long-standing issues that has plagued our city. As your next mayor, some of my top priorities for change will be to address the high crime situation and the lack of basic services in Niagara Falls.

We must reduce crime on our streets and in our neighborhoods for Niagara Falls to become successful. My plan will bring policing to the next level in Niagara Falls, both in terms of strengthening our safety and creating a true partnership between police and our community. In a measure to decrease crime I will reintroduce the walking beat cops back into our city neighborhoods. I will also expand the bike patrol unit. Our police force will be proactive rather than reactive. We can no longer wait for crime to come to us but need to look at history, trends and project from there. We must target high crime areas and place extra patrols in these areas. I will allow officers to carry out their responsibilities and do their job. We will conduct planned saturation enforcements in certain areas randomly or by targeting crime areas, as well as certain types of crimes. Focus will be on violent and victim crimes. I will encourage officers to interact within the community. I will create a Specialized Elite Police Unit that will be trained to hit the streets like never before. This group’s job will be to get the bad guys off the streets. I will also introduce new types of technology that will play a very important role in the new age of fighting crime.

I believe that government should be about helping people. It should be about basic city services A core part of this focus is an attention to basic quality of life issues. This includes responding to citizen requests for basic city services such as road repair and potholes, picking up garbage, trimming trees, removing debris from our alleys, snow plowing, cutting high grass that has been neglected, and ensuring that city neighborhoods are clean, safe, and well-lit. My focuses will be on code enforcement, inspections, garbage, forestry and demolition. As a homeowner, when out of town landlords and fellow residents neglect their properties, you get harmed the most. A Choolokian Administration would ensure that we are enforcing the rules on the books and if those rules are not followed there will be consequences. If the current rules are not strong enough, we will work with the city council to create more enforceable ordinances. We will Reevaluate the garbage contract and if possible, we will get rid of the garbage tax. Whoever has the garbage contract we will work with them to improve the services delivered to our city at a cheaper rate. We will also place Dumpsters in the DPW yard for citizens to conveniently drop off all extra items large or small in between regular pickups. Dumpsters will be available for house rehabilitation for city residents. We will reorganize our inhouse citywide junk pick up to aggressively clean alleys and streets of all the debris that is polluting our city, examples: TV’s, electronics junk etc. We will hold offenders accountable. We will implement tree cutting on afternoon shifts, we will make sure are residents get the services that they deserve. We will be changing the way we do business; we are here to help YOU the residents. “Together we will build a better Niagara Falls”