Niagara Falls
THE
NIAGARA FALLS REPORTER
LOCAL NEWS  •  LOCAL VOICES  •  LOCAL MATTERS

Political observations and inconvenient insights with Shecky Sherman

N
Niagara Falls Reporter Staff  ·  February 3, 2016
SharefXin

Good grief, just when you thought you’d seen everything the abusive New York State could do to Niagara Falls, the state comes along and does what? They say they’re planning to SHUT OFF the damn water flowing over the American falls!

And right on cue – as the city fathers play the role of abused spouse to the state’s role of brutish abuser – the city’s political leaders and tourism professionals say “Good, go right ahead, shut our water off, we can’t wait for you to dry up the most famous waterfall in the world!”

Are you kidding me? Hey New York State, while you’re at it why don’t you demolish my home, shoot my dog and change all the presets on my radio. I’d ask you to raise my taxes too but it’s impossible to jack ’em any higher.

The state cutting the water off and telling the city it’s good for them is like an abusive husband giving their wife a big black eye and telling them it color coordinates with their new red dress.

The waterfall with no water will be a TOURISM BONANZA. Uh huh. A waterless waterfall is good for business. The waterless falls could start a modern tourism and travel trend. Next thing we’ll see is New York City without Broadway, Paris without the lights and Disney world without the rides and that silly Mouse.

Should we be surprised that the state that gave us the Parkway and high electric costs and the state that forced Indian gaming on us and the state that occupies our Reservation Park the way Russia occupied East Germany is once again flipping us the middle digit? No surprise. It’s par for the course.

And, par for the course is the way the area’s fawning political “leaders” are accepting the dewatering plan. In fact they’re greeting the grim news with all the twisted glee of a fat bottomed salesman suffering the whip of his favorite dominatrix at the company convention.

In the final analysis the dewatering scam makes a sort of sick sense. After all, this Dyster administration has turned poverty into economic development by merely saying it’s so. The administration has spent $100 million in casino funds and – with a straight face – cries poverty as it plans to raise taxes. It’s turned the endless “revitalization” loop of Third Street into a shameless government subsidized enterprise where the taxpayers foot the bill for favored businesses. And so it only makes sense that in DT (Dyster Time) the dewatering of the world’s most famous waterfall should be seen as good and desirable and as a veritable tourism “BONANZA.”

SharefXin

Comments (0)

Leave a comment

More From Niagara Falls Reporter

Craig Bucki Stands Out in Race for Supreme Court, Has All the Tools to Be Strong Judge
Featured

Craig Bucki Stands Out in Race for Supreme Court, Has All the Tools to Be Strong Judge

By tony Farina · September 16, 2026

By Tony Farina I’ve covered many court proceedings and trials in my more than 35 years as a newspaper and television reporter and I want to make the point at the beginning of this story that whether elected or appointed, some judges are fair and honest and many others fall short of the mark. In other words, the word jurist does not convey skill and knowledge of the law; it is just a role that some serve with distinction, and others do not. By definition, a jurist is a person who has expert or thorough knowledge of the law but

Is Niagara Falls Crisis Self-Inflicted? Lots of Questions, Few Answers
Featured

Is Niagara Falls Crisis Self-Inflicted? Lots of Questions, Few Answers

By tony Farina · September 15, 2026

By Tony Farina There are certainly many questions swirling around the mayor’s declaration of a state of emergency in Niagara Falls over trash, blight, and deteriorating streets that was declared back on July 20 and has been extended several times since because, according to Mayor Robert Restaino, the City Council refused to approve contractor agreements. But some observers point to depleted staff at City Hall, like in Public Works and Code Enforcement and other departments, as really self-inflicted wounds that are the underlying reasons work is not getting done in the city. Or is there even more to the story,

NIAGARA FALLS BUILT THE MODERN WORLD ON ITS POWER. IT CAN DO IT AGAIN.
Featured

NIAGARA FALLS BUILT THE MODERN WORLD ON ITS POWER. IT CAN DO IT AGAIN.

By Niagara Reporter- · September 11, 2026

The  Data Center That Answers Hochul’s Objections There was a time when Niagara Falls did not ask Albany whether it was permitted to prosper. The river was here. That was enough. The town had something Albany couldn’t give it. It used what was here. Water. Power. Work. Jobs. Industry. A future. In 1895, the Adams plant took the river and put it into wire. The current went to Buffalo. It changed the industrial world. Tesla supplied the designs. Westinghouse built the machines. Niagara supplied the falling water. Then industries came. Electrochemical. Electrometallurgical. They came because Niagara offered abundant, inexpensive electricity.

Niagara Falls Has Millions of Tourists But Needs to Find a Way to Capture That Wealth
Featured

Niagara Falls Has Millions of Tourists But Needs to Find a Way to Capture That Wealth

By tony Farina · September 8, 2026

By Tony Farina The City of Niagara Falls, N.Y., boasts one of the world’s greatest natural wonders that people from around the world come to see, but despite incredible tourism numbers of more than nine million visitors a year, the city of now less than 50,000 people is still pretty darn poor. Niagara Falls does not have a tourism problem; it has a tourism-capture problem, and the distinction should be a starting point for a serious new discussion about the city’s future. And ladies and gentlemen, that discussion needs to start now. The question is no longer whether Niagara Falls