HAMILTON: Are crows smarter than seagulls

By Ken Hamilton

I think that I learned a lesson crossing the Highland Avenue Bridge the other day, and it made me wonder if crows are really smarter than seagulls. I think that they may be.

As I approached the Highland Bridge, I saw a crow pecking at the crushed remains of a discarded fast food bag that had littered the street. The crow saw me, too, and instead of flying above me so that I would not hit it, it methodically walked to the sidewalk, hopped on to it, turned and looked at me as I passed. Somehow, the crow knew that I would not hit it if it was safely upon the sidewalk. I was impressed as I crossed over the crest of the bridge and saw yet another fast food bag that had been crushed by traffic. Lying next to it was a seagull and it, too, was crushed.

In all fairness, the seagull was in the lane where it could not quickly see cars coming over bridge, thereby hindering its escape. Even still, I have never seen a crushed crow.

While I am beginning to think that crows are likely smarter than seagulls, I can also sometimes think that they are also smarter than some of our kids.

Too often I see bands of youth — both black and white — walking on the street instead of on the sidewalk — daring drivers to blow their horns at them, much less demanding that they move. Too often, in the dusk of the day, I see young mothers pushing baby strollers down the streets, teaching their children to become seagulls instead of crows.

Yes sometimes I think that crows are smarter than both seagulls and some of our kids.

Here are a few more housekeeping issues:

• Clutch your heart, Fred Sanford. I am about to say something nice about HOPE VI. With some $32.5-million of your tax money being wasted, at least seven people from the community are now employed on the project where these likely single-generation, wood and vinyl houses are taking up contaminated park space.

• We are all, somehow, tied to each other. It has been eight years since terrorist drove two airliners into the World Trade Center buildings, and I am not writing about that on its anniversary. I received an e-mail from the Navy’s public relations people that are handling the commissioning of the USS New York (LPD-21), the naval ship whose 7.5-ton bow is cast from metal salvaged from the WTC, asking me if I would be attending its commissioning. A column that I did a few weeks ago about the commissioning of that ship, and of the USS Farragut (DDG-99), USS Gravely (DDG-107) and USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109) prompted them to do so. I am not sure if I am going to NYC for that event, but because of a gentle reminder to City Council by Fire Chief Bill MacKay, I will be at one of the city’s five fire halls this morning, sometime before 10 a.m. sharing moments of remembrance with our brave fire fighters. It would be nice if you would also share with us.

• Now, back to HOPE VI. The Gazette’s Rick Pfeiffer reported in Wednesday’s paper the following about HOPE VI houses: Housing Authority Executive Director Stephanie Cowart confirmed that two partially built homes were being knocked down.

“Some of the homes could be remediated. Others could not,” Cowart said. “There were two homes where it would have been more expensive to remediate than to tear them down, so we decided to tear them down.”

Here’s the update.

Now Cowart is one of the brightest people that I know. I hate to assume the worst — so ‘you’ make the call. There are times that truth and accuracy are different. It was accurate on Tuesday that two partially-built homes were being demolished. Tuesday’s truth was also that five were scheduled for demolition. Did Cowart intend to mislead Pfeiffer?

At the reading of this column, all five houses should now be down, as should this entire misguided project.

• Here’s one more, quick thing; and it’s only because people asked me. I am a registered Democrat and I will be casting one of my votes for city council for Elliot White. I’ll not disclose the other vote, but I think I’ll take a cue from Councilman Anderson, who is endorsing Sam Fruscione and Glenn Choolokian. I am not saying that I will vote for either; but with Fruscione’s statement in Wednesday’s paper, concerning a lack of minority hiring in the city, that, “I can be a direct link to the African American community,” it is probably an improvement over the service that long-term Councilman Charles Walker has provided to the same community. With this election, Walker is looking at whether or not the citizens will grant him lifetime health benefits for spending millions of their dollars to dig holes in the dump for houses for his friends at the housing authority, whose executive director is also on the board of directors at his place of employment, Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center. That’s the same hospital that he forgave their water bills. Though that’ll cost ya, it is still less than lifetime benefits. There is also the issue with the Niagara Falls Six, the closing of the Community Center and the failure of HUD’s Faith-Based Collaborative.

Ken Hamilton is a Niagara Falls resident. Contact him at kenhamilton930@aol.com.