Opinion
EDITORIAL: Falls needs help, too
Good day, Sen. Schumer.
Did you happen by Niagara Falls while visiting some of Buffalo’s most forlorn neighborhoods last week?
We think Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan would have been suitably impressed enough to fully endorse your Community Regeneration, Sustainability and Innovation Act.
The bill is a $300 million program that would help cities with vacant housing that predates the nation’s foreclosure crisis.
Surely a drive downtown — no don’t stop at the casino or the state park — would be reason enough to get the Falls on board with this legislation.
Boarded up homes can be seen on most side streets — not to mention Main Street, which some long-time city residents have referred to as looking like “Berlin after the war.”
Perhaps your trip bypassed our fair city because U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins is a co-sponsor of the legislation. He’s from Buffalo.
But it seems like the bill was written just for us ... or this is blight everywhere in New York?
The legislation proposed by Schumer and Higgins would establish a three-year, $300 million demonstration program involving 15 large cities and 15 small cities with large-scale property vacancy. Cities would have the flexibility to use funding for things such as finding new uses for architecturally or historically significant buildings and redeveloping abandoned properties or preserving them as green space. A new council including members from various federal agencies would offer technical assistance and support.
Tearing down the old in the Falls is inevitable. It has to happen before it falls down.
Yet the city can experience a renaissance ... one paved street at time, one dilapidated building at a time.
We like your idea Sen. Schumer and we urge you to stop by for a visit.
- Opinion
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HAMILTON: Ken and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
This column will have a very narrow sector of interest, I know. But here goes.
To start, I have to quote the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, Michael Battle, when he told me that, “Upon meeting most of the politicians in Western New York, I have come to but one conclusion; and that is, if they were not in politics, then they would be in some other criminal activity.” -
GLYNN: Once booming Ireland finds itself in a stew
Someone was bound to toss a wet blanket on the St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
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EDITORIAL: Timing for park cuts is terrible
The nation’s oldest state park here will be impacted as part of Gov. Paterson’s budget-slashing strategy to deal with the staggering fiscal crisis in the Empire State.
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BRADBERRY: We Were Cowboys, Indians and Leprechauns
I am ever fascinated by the study of history, cultural heritage and literature. Once known, it is much easier to understand the present and to some degree, what to expect in the future.
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EDITORIAL: Wanted: BOE seekers
Each year, we’re amazed to see a multitude of hot issues coming out of local school districts but hardly any new faces competing for open board seats.
Maybe the apathy is created by a feeling that one person can’t make a difference -
CONFER: The Census and your privacy
In his recent column, my friend Scott Leffler waxed poetic about how illogical — if not illegal — the U.S. Census has become as it asks questions that were unintended by our Founding Fathers.
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GUEST VIEW: School officials break down graduation rates
The article that ran Feb. 22 regarding the graduation rate at Niagara Falls High School, especially with respect to minority students, points out a legitimate concern regarding the number of young people who do not finish high school, however, some important facts were missing.
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DUVALL: News to relaunch its Web site this week
Times are changing, and so are we.
With that in mind, I’m pleased to announce that tonawanda-news.com, this paper’s Web site, will undergo a major overhaul. On Tuesday, our entirely new site will “go live” (just a fancy way of saying publish).
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HAMILTON: The courtesy card
Embracing the values of our grandparents would serve us well. The warm, February sunshine and the melting snow buoyed my spirits unlike it had done on any other day of the waning winter, and I stopped by a greetings card store to share that moment with a sick friend by getting her a get-well card.
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CHEERS & JEERS: March 12's best — and worst — of the week
For more than a century, Holy Trinity has been a landmark to Falls residents. Now, it’s official.
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