By Tony Farina I’ve written extensively the past several weeks about the failure of Niagara Falls USA to fully commit to a better path for the future by turning around its fortunes, escaping a mostly tourism-based economy by building the kind of attractions, density, or experience that keeps visitors staying overnight and spending real money. Most people come, look at the Fal...

Sometimes, no matter how well-intentioned, new projects don’t make good policy and must be tweaked or changed to fit the desired objective. And if you have two projects with the same objective, there should be a blending of efforts to make them more in harmony and perhaps, ultimately, a successful policy. That seems to be the case at hand in Niagara Falls, where it seems ther...

In today’s world, the enormous renewable hydroelectric power along the Niagara River is still here, the same power that helped the city on the American side of the Falls attract industries from around the world that kept workers getting a paycheck from plants powered by that energy. But while that power is still here, the industrial base has declined dramatically and tourism ...

By Frank Parlato Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz wants to replace or drastically reduce the Assigned Counsel Program with either a government-run public defender’s office or an expansion of the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo. He thinks it will save money. Or if he doesn’t really think it, he says it anyway. Perhaps he really doesn’t know, because after all, he has published...

By Tony Farina The Niagara Aerospace Museum planned for downtown Niagara Falls might be the best bet for state investment over Mayor Robert Restaino’s Centennial Park arena project to attract more visitors to the city, but both projects are definitely worthwhile, and both would be of great economic benefit. Both would attract tourists and give people more reasons to spend mor...