By Tony Farina
As one veteran developer said to me, “economic development doesn’t fail in the boardroom—it fails in the permit office.”
And that’s the case right now in struggling Niagara Falls, New York, where development is stalled because permits and inspections cannot be executed at exactly the time the city claims it is ready for growth.
Worse yet, $10 million in Main Street state funding could be at risk if permits and inspections cannot be executed and that means a slow down to other projects as well.
So what gives?
Let’s give it a shot here. An architect submits plans, a contractor lines up crews, a developer secures financing, and then nothing happens. Not because the project is flawed, not because zoning is unclear, but because there is no one available to inspect the work. It is an operational failure to be sure.
Across the city, permits sit, projects stall, and inspections cannot be scheduled. With only an acting code enforcement presence and limited staffing, even routine approvals are turning into drawn out delays. You can’t build what you can’t get inspected. That reality is now shaping whether projects move forward at all. When inspections are delayed, timelines collapse, costs rise, and confidence disappears. Smaller developers walk first. Then larger projects follow.
And as we note here, the consequences are about to become public. Through projects like the Downtown Redevelopment Initiative and NY Forward, millions of dollars—including roughly $10 million targeted toward Main Street—are expected to flow into Niagara Falls.
But that money cannot move if the permits cannot move. If inspections cannot be performed, projects cannot begin. The very funding meant to revive Main Street will stall before it ever leaves the starting line.
This is how cities miss their moment—not because the funding wasn’t there, but because execution wasn’t there when it mattered most.
There is another reality City Hall must confront: the labor market. If Niagara Falls wants inspectors, code enforcement officers, and municipal workers, it must compete for them.
So what are we saying? We are saying the city must compete with private-sector wages—even at the entry level. When jobs at McDonald’s and similar employers offer comparable hourly pay without the same responsibility or liability, the city loses the recruiting battle even before it begins.
Let’s put it this way. If you can make similar money with less pressure, why take a city job? This is not a work failure. It is a compensation reality. If the city does not adjust—and we hope someone is reading this—it will continue to operate understaffed—and most importantly, underperforming.
At the same time, the visible condition of Niagara Falls cannot be ignored. Cleanliness and maintenance are not cosmetic. They are signals of whether a city is functioning.
When permits stall, cleanup stalls. When cleanups stall, blight spreads. And when blight spreads, confidence erodes—for residents, investors, and visitors alike. Let’s put it this way. The system designed to clean up the city is preventing the cleanup from happening.
This is not a lack of funding. These are known, visible vacancies that the city has in its budget but is not spending in mission critical roles—positions that directly determine whether construction can move forward and whether the city can maintain itself. And most importantly, the positions can be filled if the city chooses to compete for the people needed to do the work, even if it means eliminating a position or two to increase the base pay to be competitive.
We are talking about competitive wages. That means recognizing that permitting and inspections are not back-off tasks—they are economic infrastructure.
Niagara Falls cannot present itself as open for business while the very positions needed remain unfilled.
The solution is straightforward, Mr. Mayor and council members. You must fill the positions, raise pay where necessary, establish predictable timelines, and restore confidence in the process. This is not an abstract failure. It is a leadership position, and leadership is needed. Every day these roles remain unfilled is a choice to delay projects, tolerate blight, and push investment elsewhere. And that means jobs lost.
If the city is truly committed about serious growth, this is the test. It is now time for execution, not press releases.
Mr. Mayor, the question is no longer what you want to build—it’s whether your administration is capable of building anything at all.
We believe the mayor wants to move forward, but the time for action to make the field competitive is certainly and truly at hand.
We hope city leadership takes action.